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Listen as Lawrence Aripa tells the story of Coyote and the Falls. You will come to learn why there are falls along the Spokane River and why there are no salmon in Lake Coeur d'Alene. This is also the last time Coyote was seen. (originally developed as part of "Coyote Legends" video by the Foundation for Water and Energy Education in 1998.)
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 | | Mary Antelope Michel, ca. 1910 |
The participatory involvement of the listeners in the story is especially facilitated in the creative poignancy attributed to native words and language itself. Words not only describe or refer to the images of the world but have a power to bring forth that which they name. This understanding is reflected in an Indian name. The descriptive "Indian name," ritually bestowed, has a volition to help the person become that which is indicated in his or her name. Within the narratives themselves there is a clear understanding of this capacity. Upon saying he wanted to look a particular way, Coyote was transformed into that image. When he sang the words of a particular song referring to travel across the river, the song was able to transport him to a distant location and that "green field." At the close of the storytelling season and having thus spoken of all the Animal Peoples, an elder might say that it is time for the animals to go to the forests, the birds to the sky, and the fish to the rivers. What had been witnessed in the storytelling is now free to return to the mythically endowed landscape. When the word fibers of a story are woven into a fine tapestry, the meaning and vitality of that oral tradition are re-infused back into the landscape’s carpet.
© Coeur d'Alene Tribe 2002
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