Reading Notes: Southwestern and California Legends Part B

I am continuing in my reading of the Southwestern and California Legends for this week's Native American readings.

Coyote and the Hare

The story about the measuring worm Legend of Tu-Tok-A-Nu'-La (El Capitan) was a really interesting story. It had one of my favorite qualities about these folklores in that it had a lesson to learn in the end. The small creature ended up being the one who was able to do the difficult task and save the two young boys on the top of the mountain. Those plot twists at the end of the story is one of my favorite things. I may try to integrate the concept of the unlikely hero into my next story that I write (although I feel like this some what applies to the story of the fish, the hunter and the fisherman that I continued writing this week).

I already read the two stories about the Coyote being fooled by both the Hare and the deer. The Coyote seems to be a common factor in a vast majority of Native American stories, however, these stories are different than the first few that I read. Instead of the Coyote being portrayed as clever or even the creator of the earth, in these two stories he is portrayed as foolish and overly self-confident. In the story about the Coyote trying to kill the Hare ( Coyote and the Hare ) I thought the story was going to follow more along the lines of the big bad wolf trying to blow the house down on the three little pigs; I prefer the way the stories plot line actually went. This makes me think of the way that the Coyote is portrayed in the cartoon of Roadrunner and Willy Coyote. I like the idea of reversing the roles of the hunter and its prey to the prey winning out over the hunter. It is similar to the other story about the measuring worm where the unlikely character ends up doing something incredible or saving the day. After all, everyone loves and underdog. 

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).