Vernon Finley. Photo by Larry Johnson.
Vernon Finley
Vernon Finley:
From a western perspective you hear all of these stories, and you say, “Oh, Coyote’s the one character who’s in all of them, so ah, so he must be the hero,” or, “So he must be the one in the,” you know, “the main character.” So we’ll call them Coyote stories.” But the reason why Coyote is in the stories in Kootenai culture is because he’s the example of how not to be. He does a lot of things wrong, culturally, in the story. The biggest mistake that Coyote always makes is trying to have medicine. He always tries to imitate somebody else’s medicine, and then as a result, screws it up.
Arlie Neskahi:
Medicine can be powerful. But just because you know the recipe doesn’t mean you can make it work, as Coyote learns in this story. In today’s turtle island storytellers, Kootenai cultural preservationist vernon finley explains.
Vernon Finley:
Coyote was living there. And he was married to dog. And at night he slept. And in the morning he got up and said, “Where are my clothes?” And they were given to him. And he got dressed. And he said, “Today I will go visiting.” And he came to k’upkosh’ s camp. K’upkosh is a Kingfisher, and he came in and sat down. And Kingfisher told his two children, “Go out and get some champ.”
And they came back in and they each had a champ in their mouth. A champ is a, a “v” or more like a “y” shaped willow stick. And this particular champ that he’s talking about. The reason I use c hamp, you’ll see. Then he took the two of them and tied them together on top of his head, and he started dancing. And he let out a war whoop, let out a whoop. And went up through the smoke hole of the tipi. And he landed on top and then he jumped down outside.
And his two children were thinking, “I wonder if I should look out there and see what he’s doing?” And their mother told them, “Don’t look out, because if you do, he won’t be able to find his way back.” And so Kingfisher went into the stream nearby and dove down to the bottom, and he caught two champ.
This cham p are fresh water eels. And then he came back in and he had the two champ in his mouth. And he took a basket with water in it and took the rocks from the fire and put them in there and boiled the water, and put the cham p in there and cooked them.
And when they were done he took it and put it in front of Skincoots, who is Coyote, and told him, “Eat!” And so Coyote ate. And when he was finished, he started back for home. And it was dark by the time he got there. And he slept.
And the next morning he got up and he said, “Today I will go visiting.” And he started out and he came to Nitznopku’s camp. Nitznopku is a Moose. And he came in and sat down.
And Nitznopku told his two children, “Go out and get some tree roots.” And so his two children went out and they came back in, and they each had some tree roots in their mouth. And he took them and he threw them in the fire, and started turning them over, turning them over in the fire. And they turned into intestines. And he was cooking them in the fire, turning them over in the coals.
Vernon Finley Photo by Tom Bauer, Courtesy of Missoulian.
And he turned to his wife and said, “Look this way.” And she looked over at him, and he took a knife and cut off her nose, and threw it in the fire. And he reached down and took some ashes and threw it on his wife’s face. Shakpese. It was all fixed again. And he turned, and he was turning the other nose over in the fire and cooking it.
And then he stood up and slapped himself on the butt. Out came some camas. And he took the camas and he had this basket with the water in it, put the rocks in there and boiled the water, and put the camas in there, in boiling water and boiled it until it was cooked. When it was done, he took all the food —the roasted intestines, the roasted Moose nose, and the camas – put it in front of Skincoots. Told him, “Eat!” And Coyote ate, had a gourmet feast.
When he was done eating and he looked, and he was very contentedly tells Moose. “Tomorrow, you must come to my camp.” So Moose says, “Okay.” And so Coyote gets up and walks out, starts back for home. And it was dark when he got home.
The next morning Moose arrived at Coyote’s camp. And he came in and he sat down. Coyote turns, tells his wife, “Look this way.” And dog looks over at him, wondering what’s going on. He takes a knife and quickly cuts off her nose. And she runs out yelping, howling, runs out the door.
In a little while, she comes back. Her nose is all cut off. Then Coyote takes some ashes from the fire, throws it on her face. So now she’s got a cut off nose with a dirty face. So Moose has seen enough. So Moose gets up and tells Coyote’s children, “Go out and get some tree roots!”
He takes some ashes and throws it on dog’s face. Shakpese. Her nose is fixed back again.
Coyote’s children come back in and they each have some tree roots. So he takes the tree roots and puts them in the fire, was turning them over. They turn into intestines. He turns them over until they’re done. He takes them out. Puts them in front of Coyote and tells him, “Eat!”
And then Moose starts back for home.