Tricksters: Iktomi and Coyote

I'll finish up this week's posts with two more Paul Goble books — and for people with concerns about Goble, understandably, please be sure to see the resources and references in yesterday's post; questions about cultural (mis)appropriation are going to be an ongoing theme in this trickster series, just as it has been in the African and Diaspora projects that preceded it. 

So, here are today's final two Iktomi books: Iktomi and the Coyote, and Iktomi Loses His Eyes.

In the story about Iktomi losing his eyes, it's a case of "fatal imitation" where Iktomi thinks he can do anything that anyone else can, including a mysterious man who is able to make his eyes leave his eye and then return. So, not only does Iktomi lose his eyes in a tree, Squirrel finds them and takes them! Iktomi tries various solutions to his problem, but none of them work, and the story then ends without an ending, with Goble inviting the reader to imagine what might happen when Iktomi goes back to Squirrel for help:

In the story about Iktomi and Coyote, Goble tells us about when he first heard the story back in the 1950s, when he first traveled to South Dakota (he eventually moved to South Dakota in the 1970s); click on the image for a larger view:

As you might guess from the title, this is a story about the trickster tricked: it starts with Iktomi tricking the foolish prairie dogs, and then Coyote fooling Iktomi. You can probably guess who gets to eat all the prairie dogs in the end!

For the details of all the trickery, just jump in and read the book; all seven of Goble's Iktomi books are just a click away at the Archive! And here are the links to today's two books:

Iktomi and the Coyote:
A Plains Indian Story
by Paul Goble

Iktomi Loses His Eyes:

A Plains Indian Story
by Paul Goble