Reading Part B "Apache Tales"

A coyote (Source)

In the first story about the legendary “trickster coyote” we see him conspiring to steal a poor man's wife. While the man is away, the coyote does this and escapes with the rest of the camp down into a valley. Eventually the man returns however, and starts inquiring about his missing wife. After some searching, he finds his wife in the tipi of Coyote. He rescues his wife and hatches a plan to punish Coyote for his evil trick. He hears up some rocks in a fire and wraps them in fat, then gives them to Coyote. Coyote eagerly wolfs them down, but after a bit falls over dead. This is the first story of Coyote. I had assumed that Coyote was a protagonist kind of trickster, like the raven of last week, but I was wrong. There are still several stories with Coyote left in them however, so I am interested to see if they are continuous or if they are not connected.

Turns out most of the stories are not connected, or at least the reports of Coyote’s death were greatly exaggerated. In the next set of stories, Coyote tricks Owl into giving him the black arrows that can kill any man. He steals the arrows, breaks Owl’s leg and leaves him to die. Now only Coyote had arrows and everyone was afraid. Some antelope conspire to get the arrows from him and come up with a brilliant plan. They get Coyote to agree to out his quiver on one small antelope and the arrows on another. They then say that they will race to get the arrows back. The clever antelope take off in different directions and Coyote is unable to take back his arrows.

I am still struggling to understand exactly if Coyote is a good or bad character. Perhaps is it part of my sociocentric outlook that I assume be needs to fit either category. I say this because in the next story, Coyote is tricked into burning his children alive. Poor little guy. He just want to find out how to make them spotted like the baby deer.

The next was was even worse as Coyote's children were systematically destroyed by a psychopathic porcupine. I was honestly a little traumatized by this one. Also there was talking poop.

Ooh now the fun continues in the next story as Coyote commits genocide on a pack of prairie dogs and then is unable to even eat them all after he is tricked by a wildcat. At least the only animals to die were just hundreds of fun-loving, innocent, prairie dogs.
Story Source: Jicarilla Apache Texts, compiled by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911)