Coyote the Creator and the Curriculum

We all know that Coyote is our ancestor and creator god, who formed the earth, and made people from things like feathers and twigs. And that, sometimes, Coyote was a trickster. All you have to do is to look around, and you will see that somebody had a sense of humor.

Oh, we have to admit that not everyone sees it that way. There are people who trace their creation stories to places other than the great Southwest, who have other creation stories. Quite a few, actually: Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Fundamentalist Legislators in at least seven states.

None of them mentions Coyote. In fact, many of them take Coyote's name in vain. Foul stuff, that! Cursing Coyote and scientists in the same breath!

You really cannot blame the people in Texas and Oklahoma and Tennessee and Florida and New Mexico and the other places that want to set the record straight about how the earth came to be, and the origins of human life, and all that, for ignoring Coyote. They think that primitive people out West did the best they could, but that a myth is a myth. They say we don't live there, anymore!

They believe--those who trace their Norwegian and Italian ancestries back to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob--that they live in a three-storied universe, with earth as the middle layer, and heaven above, and hell below. They believe, and say it is a fact, that God and angels live overhead, and Satan and demons live down below, and that they, in the middle, are tempted by both to do good and evil, and that when they die they will change from living in the middle layer to either heaven above or hell below, and all that.

That is why it is so frustrating to hear scientists talk about a Big Bang, or all that prattle about evolution. The least we should expect is for public school teachers to teach our kids about Coyote, and how we were made from sticks and feathers, if not instead of "scientific fact", then at least alongside it. You know, as an alternative sort of science, sort of.

As for that three-storied universe stuff, with the Garden of Eden and angels and imps and Noah's ark and all those stories, well . . . there is nothing wrong with mythology, so long as you don't take it literally. And who would?

Comments

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