Old Man Coyote and Theft of Summer

A long time ago it was always winter, and towards the south always summer and all the beautiful birds lived there. The Maker of all things appeared in the form of a Coyote, all powerful, and at certain times he got into predicaments that a child could have gotten out of, so silly and weak was Old Man Coyote at times. Old Man Coyote approached a youth who was blowing on his hands to warm them, and said, “What is the matter with you?” and pointing to the south, said, “Down that way, all is summer, and young boys like you run after young buffalo calves; and when the birds have their young ones in the spring the boys catch them and have a good time; what are you doing out here, where it is all so cold?”

The Youth thought of what Old Man Coyote had told him and it made him feel badly, so that he wanted to see the summer land and run after the buffalo calves and the birds. Old Man Coyote said to him: “I can help you to get there, for I am going after the summer; for summer and winter are owned by a Woman with a strong heart living in a large tipi, and to get the summer I have to have four animals.” So he got the male Deer, male Coyote, male Jack Rabbit, and the male Wolf. Old Man Coyote asked each of these four animals how far could they run, and each told his greatest distance. He said to these four animals:

“I am going to turn myself into an Elk. You, Coyote, are noted for being sly, and are given a medicine paint to rub on the face of the Woman (the keeper of the summer) if she were found in the tipi. I’ll go along the woods, so when the inhabitants of the summer land come to kill me, I’ll draw them out from their tipis. You go down and watch your chance, and when she comes out to see if her children are going to kill me you slip into the tipi, where there are two bags, one containing winter and one containing summer. The summer is in a dark bag, and the winter is in a white bag, but under no circumstances take the white bag.”

So Elk (Old Man Coyote) went down there and exposed himself to the summer people and they came out to kill him. The Woman, owner of summer and winter, came, on hearing the shouts, to see if they would kill the Elk, and sly Coyote slipped into her tipi. She always kept close watch of the two bags, and as she thought that the door of the tipi had been moved, she hurried back to the tipi and on entering met Coyote at the door coming out. As Coyote met her, he rubbed the medicine paint on her face and she lost her voice and so could not call her children to her assistance, though she did everything to attract their attention.

Coyote made off with the bag to the woods where the Elk was, who directed the carrying of the bag containing the summer. Coyote ran until tired out and then turned the bag over to the male Jack Rabbit, who took it a long way, with the inhabitants of the summer Land in close pursuit, and when he was tired, he met the male Deer, to whom he gave the bag with instructions to carry it as fast and as far as possible, as the children were getting nearer. The male Deer carried it until tired, and he gave it to the male Wolf, and when the male Wolf got to his destination where the youth was awaiting them. The pursuers were closer on to the carriers of the bag. The male Wolf, obeying instructions, tore open the bag containing the summer, and an agreement was made between the youth and the children of the summer country that each country should have half summer and half winter. And that is the reason why the birds come up in the summer and go away in the winter.

Old Man Coyote planned to give the youth what he promised him and he made the Prairie Chicken, the body being made from the muscles of the buffalo; the head from the snake’s head; the bill from the wolf’s claw; the tail from the rattle of the rattle-snake; the wings from the claws of the black bear; and the legs from caterpillars. And Old Man Coyote said to the Prairie Chicken, “You are a bird, and you may go and scare people by a whirring noise you make when arising to fly. So the youth had the birds to chase, as did the children of the summer land.