Gullible Coyote/Una'Ihu: A Bilingual Collection of Hopi Coyote Stories

Trickster and prankster, glutton and lecher, always the gullible dupe... Coyote is one of the most prominent characters in American Indian oral literature, including that of the Hopi. While the animal itself is considered a pest and associated with witchcraft, as a character in Hopi mythology he is decidedly popular, for he is much like the Hopi clown who holds a mirror up to the foibles of humans. Ekkehart Malotki here presents twelve previously unpublished tales that depict Coyote interacting with various creatures and deities. Unabridged and unexpurgated, they preserve the Hopi tradition of entertaining through storytelling and are presented as Hopi source texts side-by-side with English translations. This bilingual format makes the book an essential source for scholars, but the tales themselves are so thoroughly enjoyable that Gullible Coyote will delight general readers as well. Original illustrations by Anne-Marie Malotki complement the text, and an introduction (featuring bilingual extracts) sets the tales in the context of Hopi attitudes toward the coyote and discusses the place of the Coyote clan in Hopi socciety. Ekkehart Malotki is a philologist and linguist whose research is devoted to analyzing the Hopi language and salvaging Hopi oral traditions.