Week 12 Story: Coyote Attempts to Kill Prairie Dogs

The coyote was a very tricky animal, he was always coming up with plans to trick other animals for his benefit. One day, he went to a prairie dog town and told all of the prairie dogs to shut their doors and come to the dance. The prairie dogs did as they were told because they trusted the coyote and were very excited to attend the dance. As the prairie dogs were dancing in the circle, the coyote began to throw stones at them and hit them. The coyote told the prairie dogs that the dancing is what was making them fall down and get hurt when really it was the coyote throwing the stones at the prairie dogs. One of the smaller prairie dogs noticed that the coyote had a stone in his hand and told all of the other prairie dogs to return back to their rooms and hide. Many of the prairie dogs rooms were locked because they had shut their doors in order to go to the dance. However, this one little prairie dog named Theo had left his door open and invited all of the prairie dogs into his room. In this room the prairie dogs talked about how evil the coyote was and how the coyote was trying to kill them. They took it upon themselves to come up with a plan to get revenge on the coyote. The prairie dogs went and tied up the coyote and roasted him in the fire for dinner. Before this day, the prairie dogs were starving and struggled to find food every day. They decided that the coyote would be the perfect thing to eat for the rest of the year and they would not have to starve. The word spread that the prairie dogs had killed the coyote and eaten him. The other animals in the area did not mess with the prairie dogs any more because they knew what they were capable of doing. 

Prairie Dog

Coyote Kills the Prairie Dogs

Story source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911).

Author's Note

In the original story, all of the prairie dogs shut their doors and the coyote killed as many prairie dogs as he could. He brought all of the dead prairie dogs together and built a large fire and started to cook them. While he was cooking them, he decided to take a nap. A wildcat that passed by while the coyote was cooking took all of the prairie dogs off of the fire and then removed their tails and only placed the little one back on the fire. When the coyote woke up he picked the small prairie dog out of the fire and claimed that he did not need to eat that one because it was so small so he threw it away. He then reached to grab another one but there were no more in there. My twist on the story shows the smaller animals, the prairie dogs, working together to take down the coyote who was trying to kill all of them.