Reading Notes: Native American Unit, Part B

How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors

The Bluebird sings a song for four mornings as he bathes himself in the lake where "no river flowed in or out."  The bluebird is characterized as wise because he knows of this special lake, although he is an ugly color at the beginning.  Singing his magic song each morning, he exits the third day in just his skin before on the fourth morning he exits the lake with brilliant blue feathers.

Then we have Coyote, who is trickster and representing the wrongness of vanity in the story.  He is, as tricksters often are, used to illustrate a lesson.  After he watches the blue bird he asks him how Coyote might also become blue - he was at the time a bright green.

The Bluebird does tell him and Coyote does manage to turn himself blue.  But he is so vain and proud to show it off that he does not pay attention to where he is going.  Unfortunately, he trips and rolls down a hill and is covered in dusty dirt.  That is why coyotes are said to be the color of dirt: a price of narcisism.... speaking of which, I really got that Narcisist vibe from this story, as it is trying to teach the lesson of humility as opposed to being too proud.

It would be interesting to do a poem illustrating the rise of this selfishness and how coyote feels pitiful and downcast when he realizes his new fabulous blue is now the color of dirt.  It would also be interesting to have coyote realize the potential of this new, earthen color as he finds himself able to blend in - finding that (sacrificed) lost beauty can be compensated for new skills and strength.

image from Britannica

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