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One day a
letter arrived in camp. All the shamans gathered
around, and trying to read what it said, but they
didn't know how to read. It passed from shaman to
shaman, and still no one could understand it.
Finally, it got to Coyote, the last shaman
there.
Coyote looked the letter over thinking to himself,
" I am the Great Coyote Shaman", then leaned with
his head resting in his left hand. He held the
letter with his right hand, waved it in the air and
touched it magically to his temple. Then he read it
to the people. Coyote was the only one who could
read.
Chiricahua
Apache - retold by Susi Nagoda Bergquist
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Most Native American groups had ways of recording
their histories, which usually use pictorial
pneumonic devises. These histories were remembered
by special members of the different ethnic groups.
It must have been astounding to view people being
able who could "read" things no matter how little
"power" they possessed. Coyote usually represents
the incorrect or stupid way, or the Whitman.
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One day Coyote was going along when he came across
a group of Cowboys roping cattle. He managed to
talk the Cowboys into catching a bull for him.
Coyote jumped on the back of the bull, and bucked
around on the back of the animal. He was unable get
a grip on the bulls back, and is soon thrown off.
The bull tried to gore Coyote when he landed, but
he just barely escaped.
Chiricahua
Apache - retold by Susi Nagoda Bergquist
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This story shows how some motifs have animal people
as the main characters, but then either because
their is a different story teller or the story has
progress to more "human" intervention. This tale
replaces Bobcat with cowboys, who are apache, thus
absorbing the Cowboy way of life into the Apache
way of life as if it had always been that way.
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