The Lost Tale of the Coyote

FOREWORD

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. ~ Benjamin Franklin"

My name is Sharon Mckenzie and I am the Grade 6 Teacher at Ruth Hooker School in Selkirk, MB. Canada. Ruth Hooker School is K -6 school with approximately 140 students. I have been teaching at the school for twenty-one years. My class is composed of 19 students most of which are of First Nations or Metis descent. My students love to share stories orally and work in cooperative groups.

I attended a mRLC workshop – Indigenous Learning Through Classroom Curriculum and Pedagogy with Jacqueline Bercier our Divisional Lead Teacher – Cultural Perspectives – Languages this year. In this workshop, we were required to plan a unit incorporating Indigenous content into our curriculum. I thought of the Grade 6 Space Unit immediately. We started to plan.

Jackie was invited to the classroom and told Anishinaabeg Sky Stories and Creation Stories such as Turtle Island in relation to the Space Unit. We read the story 13 Moons on Turtle’s Back and had in-depth discussions about the seasons and the moon. The students did group work reading about Nanabush and other creation stories and discussing the lessons in the stories. After all this pre-teaching was completed, my initial thought was to have the students each create their own stories, but soon came to realize this was going to be a difficult task for many of them. Instead we decided doing a collaboration story would be the better way to go.

Jackie then came in to begin the process of writing a creation story. We followed the writing process from start to finish. Jackie had an outline for them to follow and record on as we went along. Student ideas began to flow. We encouraged and accepted all input. Once the first draft was done, we began editing. The student input was amazing. This was the way to engage them. Once the editing was done and the final draft was completed, we broke the students up in pairs and gave them a section of the story to illustrate. Jackie came in to do some drawing lessons with the students so their drawings would resemble that of Indigenous art styles. Then it was their turn to show us their creativity. With a partner they were to design a picture to go with their section of the story. This part was so impressive. I did not realize how artistic my students really were.

In this creation story entitled, “The Lost Tale of the Coyote” the Grade 6 class will tell the tale of how the coyote got its tail. Our style is similar to that of the Nanabush stories. Nanabush is a trickster of the Ojibwa people who teaches much about birds, animals, trees and the world — including its creation. “The stories are said to be food for the spirit — seeds planted in each person that one day come to life, preserving the Anishinaabeg culture.” We are hopeful that our story is one that will help to remind others of Indigenous culture and the art of storytelling.
We hope you have as much fun reading our story as we did writing it.

Dibaajimowin - a narrative; a story

Aadizookaan - a sacred story (a legend, a myth); a story of worldview; a spirit

In Anishinaabeg society, stories were told to tell news or information, to teach, to entertain or to explain where we fit in our world. Stories were told at specific times of the year, or during special ceremonies.

This particular story is to entertain, and can be told at anytime.

- page 1 -

Many years ago, when life was simple there was more wildlife and trees than there is today. It was Springtime. The trees were budding, there was still some snow left behind on the ground. You could see little bits of green grass poking up through the melting snow. The birds were chirping high in the trees while the branches were creaking in the wind. The crickets and the frogs could be heard croaking in the background, waking up from a long winter’s nap. The damp air smelled fresh from the new life beginning. It was a good Springtime day.

- page 2 -

On this particular Spring day, Coyote was chasing a rabbit. Coyote was very long and lean. He had mixed grey, white and brown fur. He had beautiful glowing yellow eyes with razor sharp pointed teeth. Coyote was also an incredibly fast runner. He was chasing down Rabbit because it had something special that he wanted … A COYOTE TAIL! His tail was cute and fluffy like a rabbit’s; it didn’t match his body. Coyote wanted the long, poufy coyote tail that Rabbit had. The problem Coyote had was he needed to catch Rabbit first!

- page 3 -

To make matters worse Coyote and Rabbit woke up a still sleeping bear nearby. Bear was extremely angry for being woken up by all the noise. As she stumbled out of her den, she appeared scruffy, tired and very irritated. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the animals that disturbed her slumber. Bear stretched her limbs, growled mightily and then took off after the noisy culprits.

- page 4 -