Yellow Eyes
With Beauty before me
I walk;
With Beauty behind me
I walk;
With Beauty beneath me
I walk;
With Beauty above me
I walk;
With Beauty all around me
I walk. --Beauty Way Chant
"The legends of Coyote the Trickster are many and widespread, and found wherever that animal makes it's home, from the southwestern desert to above the arctic circle. Almost always are his many traits commented upon- his intelligence, his stealth, and his eating habits- which usually leave something to be desired. Often he is considered a benefit to mankind, more then a hindrance. Sometimes he takes the form of a man, and lives among the tribe before departing once more. Like a more primitive Prometheus, he is often credited with bringing fire." --Page 257, Myths and Legends of the Plains
"They say the story goes like this. Long ago a man robbed a bank, and leaving his partners to the police, fled into the vast wilderness of the Navajo Nation. It's the biggest Indian Reservation in the states. He shot a hiker that was camping too close to where he hid. The man would have died, except a coyote dragged him to the road, and jumped on the hood of a local rancher's pickup. Tradition says a coyote is the messenger of the Holy People- so the rancher stopped the car and looked to see what the coyote wanted him to find, and that is how he found the hiker.
This got the tribal police to search the area, and they found tracks from the hiker's camp going up into the canyons. There is no water up there, and the robber didn't know the area, which is why he probably came down. They followed them, there was a gunfight, as the robber ambushed the policeman, and out of the rocks the coyote appeared, and leapt onto the robber.
With a scream he tumbled over the edge of the cliff. When the police got to the bottom of the canyon and found him, they found the robber, dead. Beside him was the body of the coyote. He watched and the coyote became a human boy. Stark naked. The stories say Coyote cannot die, he is too powerful and comes back. So the police officer took the boy home and told everyone he was his nephew.
The police officer had a family, grew old and like all men, eventually died. The boy he found, never did. They say his name is Billy Nez, and that's who you got over there." --As told by Jim Begay, Streams Come Together
They say if a Coyote crosses your path, you should turn back. Something bad will happen to you if you continue traveling. You will have an accident, or be killed. --Navajo Taboo
"Coyote is always waiting, and Coyote, he is always hungry." --Navajo Saying
Be still, and the Earth will speak to you. --Traditional Proverb
