Original subtitles

hi i'm mike regnetta this is crash

course mythology and today we're

finishing up our series on trickster

stories by looking at two of the most

famous and popular tricksters of them

all coyote and raven there are many

individual native american mythological

traditions from different tribes and in

different regions and stories about

coyotes and ravens as grand tricksters

pop up entails across the whole

continent in many locations these

animals would have been known for making

off with livestock or picking at the

bodies of dead animals while scavenging

isn't exactly clever in the way

tricksters often are it is sort of

devious which explains the wealth of

trickster myths about these two figures

we're going to focus on a few of the

best of them and along the way we'll see

that sometimes playing a few tricks can

really put a twinkle in your eye or make

it pink

[Music]

before i get into the specific myths i

should explain something about the

content and context of some of these

coyote and raven stories we've already

mentioned that in many native american

myths the line between the human world

and the animal world is blurry humans

live alongside mythological animals that

help create the world and establish

important rituals this handling of

mythological animals is distinct from

say the pantheon of gods and monsters

that we see in norse greek or egyptian

traditions those traditions have myths

about animals it's true but they aren't

the stars of the show in the way that

they are in native american myths i also

just want to say up front that the myths

we're going to discuss aren't exactly

um

g-rated some scholars have pointed out

that many native american myths feature

particularly frank discussions of sexy

time and the organs that are used to

accomplish it toad buddy there's no need

to blush and also they talk a lot about

the elimination of

bodily wastes so long story short we're

going to talk about poop one day coyote

is out walking and he sees some tasty

looking bright red rose hips he's about

to gobble them up when those rose hips

which can tuck bt dubs warn coyote that

if gobbled they're going to give him

horrible flatulence but coyote doesn't

listen so

chomp and wouldn't you know it soon

coyote is stumbling around doubled over

in pain from a rather intense and

alarming buildup of gas at about this

time coyote happens across two crows

picking over a dead buffalo devising a

plan coyote asks if they want to play a

game which i mean of course they do who

doesn't love a game coyote proposes a

contest to see

who can defecate from one side of the

buffalo to the other whoever is able to

launch their poop over the buffalo gets

to keep it and eat it the buffalo i mean

not the poop not sure who gets that

anyway the crows think that this is

disgusting and hey

samesies but coyote is very persuasive

and the contest begins one of the crows

goes first he turns around and he poops

as hard as he can

but only manages to poop shoot halfway

coyote now fit to burst with rose hip's

gas turns around relaxes

and let's just say he wins the contest

easily the crows cannot believe their

eyes and they beg coyote to let them

have some of the buffalo meat in an

uncharacteristic bit of trickster

compassion coyote is no anansi he agrees

to give them the fat around the eye

sockets and the joints

and the ribs

stan maybe cancel my lunch order okay

according to leonard and mcclure the

moral of the story is some are not

honest in playing games and trick others

one must watch out for these people for

they start trouble i might say the moral

is also don't eat rose hips don't poop

competitively but maybe even with

gastrointestinal crisis there can be

found

great opportunity at least if you have

your tricky cap on ah toe is that your

tricky cap looks good this story also

shows an important similarity coyote

shares with the tricksters of other

mythological traditions he is unable to

resist giving in to his outsized

hedonistic desires remember hungry

hermes and greedy anansi the entire poop

shot put is a result of coyote munching

down on tasty looking rose hips even

though he knows it's a bad idea not all

of coyotes desires are quite so

digestion-oriented of course there are a

number of stories that involve his

sexual appetites and in many native

american stories the trickster's desire

for sex is interpreted as a mirror for

the rest of humanity a recognition that

most of us have similar drives as our

old friends leonard and mcclure put it

the native americans trickster reminds

us like no other that humans for all

their pretensions to intellectual and

spiritual culture and for all their

moments of bravery altruism and

generosity are nevertheless animals

ruled by appetites and impulses that

make them equally capable of cowardice

selfishness and cruelty we're not going

to focus on those sexy stories though

this is a family-friendly youtube series

well except for all the death

and the incest and the castration okay

you know what let's just move on coyote

like other tricksters is creative and on

occasion even helpful in one story from

the wasco people of the pacific

northwest coyote even helps place stars

in the sky let's go to the thought

bubble one day coyote sees several of

his wolf buddies looking up at the sky

so he asks what they're looking at

nothing they tell him the next night he

sees them looking up at the sky again

and asks again finally the youngest wolf

says ah let's tell him he won't do

anything which i mean have they not met

coyote the wolves tell him they're

watching two mysterious animals up in

the sky ever curious coyote suggests

let's go hang out with them coyote

starts shooting arrows into the sky and

his aim is so good that each arrow hits

the last one creating a ladder of arrows

from earth to sky coyote and the wolves

climb up the arrow ladder which takes

many days and nights but when they

finally reach their destination they

find that the two animals are grizzly

bears coyote warns the wolves to not go

near the bears but the two youngest

wolves walk over and sit down then the

two next youngest wolves do the same

finally seeing that it's safe the oldest

wolf goes over and takes a seat i guess

sky bears are pretty chill admiring the

wolves and the bears coyote says i think

i'll leave it that way for everyone to

see then when people look at them in the

sky they will say there's a story about

that picture and they will tell a story

about me so coyote leaves taking the

arrows with him as he returns to earth

and from there he admires his handiwork

which you can still see today four

wolves make up the handle of the big

dipper the youngest two wolves and the

bears make up its bowl so i guess coyote

was right here we are

telling his story thanks stop bubble

this story is a great example of the

trickster as creator the wolves were

probably pretty unhappy about being

stranded in the sky with bears but

people

sure do love constellations in this

story there's also something we haven't

really discussed about tricksters or

myths generally the desire to be

remembered coyote leaves no doubt when

he finishes stranding those wolves he

calls to meadowlark and says my brother

when i am gone tell everyone that when

they look up into the sky and see the

stars arranged this way that i was the

one who did that that

is my work here at crash course we

define myths as stories that persist

through time in our forthcoming episodes

about heroes we'll see that the desire

for fame to be remembered through

timeless tales often motivates heroic

deeds we could tell stories about coyote

all day but there's another famous

trickster in native american myths raven

no

not that raven not that one either come

on you got yeah that one bingo you got

it raven stories are common with the

native american peoples of the pacific

northwest including canada and alaska

this one was recorded in english at

sitka a small city in alaska it starts

like so have you ever wondered why

ravens

are black

a very long time ago raven the trickster

was actually stark white and one day

he's journeying to visit his

brother-in-law petrol the seabird who

has an everlasting spring of water at

the time there wasn't any water to drink

because petrol kept his spring for

himself and he wouldn't share it so

raven comes to petrel and he tells him

about all of the marvelous things that

he's seen throughout the world trying to

get petrol to leave his home so that

raven can steal some of his water but

petrol doesn't trust raven which is

maybe a good call and he won't budge

when the night falls raven and petrol go

to bed once raven is sure petrol is

asleep he creeps outside and finds some

dog poo yeah that's gonna be that kind

of story he sneaks back in and he

spreads the poo all over petrol's

clothing and the next morning raven

wakes petrol up by crying wake up wake

up brother-in-law look what you've done

to your clothes and just real quick

aside here i want to point out that

we're super unsure about what bird

clothes are

pants a dickie maybe

wait are these birds with arms anyway

petrol goes outside to clean himself up

and raven goes over to the spring

uncovers it and begins to drink just as

raven has slurped up almost all of the

water petrol returns realizes he's been

tricked and angrily chases raven away

raven flies through the smoke hole in

petrel's house with the water in his

mouth and petrol calls out to his

spirits to catch him as raven is caught

by the spirits petrol throws pitch wood

onto his fire to make the smoke turn

black while raven struggles to get away

the black smoke soaks into his feathers

and i bet you can see where this is

headed now turned black raven struggles

free without spilling a single drop of

water but as he's flying he tries to

brush off some of the char and spills

some water over nass making up the nass

river he keeps flying and keeps

fidgeting and keeps spilling water over

stikin taku chilcat and all the other

rivers even the small drops become

creeks so after just one poo stained

trick the world now has water and raven

has the pitch black feathers that we

know today as you can see raven and

coyote definitely spend their time

getting up to no good sometimes their

tricks are premeditated but other times

it's a matter of circumstance often poop

related circumstance and this reminds us

that just because you're powerful

supernatural even that doesn't mean that

you can escape being an animal with all

of the confusion and danger and bodily

functions that that entails this sort of

thing reiterates the specific

relationship in native american culture

between humans and the natural

environment as theory and davini put it

according to native american mythology

all of nature participates in creation

as keepers of the earth resulting in a

symbiotic relationship between humans

and their environment so even though

raven and coyote pull tricks that might

seem outrageous and a little gross it's

hard to consider them evil or

detrimental to society especially when

their tricks end up creating things that

the rest of us

get to enjoy

thanks for watching we'll see you next

week

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insert poop joke here we felt like we

had to make a poop joke so i hope this

suffices