Tricksters: Coyote and Little Turtle

Finishing up this week of tortoise and turtle tricksters, here's a beautiful children's book with a story about Coyote AND Turtle... and it's Turtle who manages to trick the trickster Coyote this time, which is very satisfying of course! The book is Coyote and Little Turtle: A Traditional Hopi Tale, from a story told in Hopi by Herschel Talashoema.

The way the book was produced is as follows: Herschel Talashoema told the story in Hopi, and he was recorded and videotaped. Then, the story was simplified for young readers, and translated into English. The book features that simplified version of the story in both Hopi and English, along with notes on Hopi grammar and a complete Hopi glossary.

The best part of the book is that the illustrations for the story are done by 22 Hopi children at Hotevilla-Bacavi School in Arizona! And the illustrations are delightful. Here is Coyote going hunting:

The folktale type is a famous one which is found in India and in Africa too: after the Coyote has caught the Turtle, the Turtle tricks the Coyote into putting the Turtle exactly where the Turtle wants to go... into the water! Probably the most well known version of this story is Brer Rabbit getting his captor to throw him back into the briar patch. As you can see, Coyote is not happy about being tricked!

Even the grammar notes have illustrations by the children:

There's another book in this same series, also about Coyote, that you can find at the Internet Archive as well: Coyote and the Winnowing Birds, based on a story by Eugene Sekaquaptewa and once again illustration by Hopi children's drawings!

This is also a famous folktale type: the trickster wants to go flying and uses the birds' feathers to do that... but the birds win in the end because they take their feathers back and, CRASH, the trickster falls down to the ground.

So, this is the final post for the week of turtle stories, but it looks like this is also a sign that I should devote next week to Coyote... and I will! For now, enjoy these lovely Hopi children's books, both just a click away at the Internet Archive:

Coyote and Little Turtle

by Herschel Talashoema

Coyote and the Winnowing Birds

by Eugene Sekaquaptewa