Coyote (Navajo mythology)

Coyote (Navajo: mąʼii) is an irresponsible and trouble-making character and he is one of the most important and revered characters in Navajo mythology. Even though Tó Neinilii is the Navajo god of rain, Coyote also has powers over rain. Coyote's ceremonial name is Áłtsé hashké which means "first scolder". In Navajo tradition, Coyote appears in creation myths, teaching stories, and healing ceremonies.

Coyote is a key figure in Navajo mythology, and of all the figures in Navajo mythology, Coyote (Maii') is the most contradictory. He is a shadowy figure that can be funny or fearsome. Coyote is greedy, vain, foolish, cunning and also occasionally displays a degree of power. "In common with Tricksters generally, he serves to test the bounds of possibilities and order."

Coyote looks like a coyote in animal form and he looks like a man with a mustache in human form.

The origin myths present Coyote as an ancient being existing from the beginning and exhibits the general characteristics of the Culture Hero-Trickster.

The First World is a dark land of mists. First Man and First Woman pass through the Second World which was blue, to the Third where animals, and birds were formed. In the Fourth World, Coyote steals Water Buffalo's children, at the instigation of First Woman. Water Buffalo then causes a great flood which forces First Man and First Woman to move on the Fifth (and present) World.

One day Black God was busy making the constellations by carefully ordering the stars in the sky when Coyote became impatient and tossed the remaining stars from a blanket into the sky, forming the Milky Way. This story explains the reason some stars are dimmer than others, because Black God did not light the ones Coyote blew into the sky on fire. In another version of the story, Black God made the Milky Way on purpose. The Navajo believe it provides a pathway for the spirits traveling between heaven and earth, each little star being one footprint.

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