Data Sheet on STH: Blood and Metal: Coyote

Sonic the Hedgehog by Sega of America

Blood and Metal by David Gonterman

Coyote by Edward Becerra

Formal Name: Old Man Coyote [Abbreviated as OM Coyote]

Occupation: 'Wild Pack' Spirit Guide

Classic Native American Story starring OM Coyote

Originally OM Coyote's a spirit guide for select members of the 'Wild Pack,' which are endowed with a weird luck streak. He is currently wooing Davey Crockett in as 'one of his kids,' since Davey's cunning and occasional trickiness rivals Coyote's own. (You see, my boy, we're two of a kind.) Davey also has the tell-tale luck streak, which was misinterpreted by Davey as generational Bad Karma caused by being the son of Robotnik.

OM Coyote can shape shift into a raven, and some say he can even change sex, but that is undocumented since one of Coyote's hobbies include being a Don Jaun. He also has an attitude comparable to Star Trek's 'Q'. However he's a good-natured little trickster, for a Native Mobian Spirit that is, and he's protective toward his 'kids.'

Description of OM Coyote by Edward Becerra:

Now for the Coyote part. Can't get the tribes to talk about it much. They just clam up. And when they find out who I am, they give me odd looks. But an friendly anthropologist gave me this much.

Coyote, trickster god of the Plains Indians, tends to enjoy seducing good looking Indian girls. If there is a child, it's known as a bastard of Coyote's. (although, to an Indian, bastard isn't really

the insult it is to us. just means the husband wasn't the father. to an Indian, so what? Big deal.)

Coyote tends to look after these kids, or so I'm told. And they tend to breed true. At least one person in every generation will have enough of Coyote in them to attract his attention. Kids like this tend to have strange luck. Think Gilligan, from "Gilligan's Island." Although the luck isn't good OR bad. Just weird. If you can survive the mental whiplash you can get from this type of luck, Coyote will take a shine to you. From then on, he's your personal spirit guide, and will help you when he can. That is, if you can stand living life as a toon might live it.

Spider Robinson wrote about this sort of luck in his last book. The character was called the Duck. His cycle was hit by a car, rear-ended. And the following things happened....

Bike was TOTALLY unsalvageable. Couldn't even use a nut or bolt. Car that hit him now ran better than ever. Even popped a dent out of it's fender, and chrome from the bike replaced itself onto the car's now undented spot.

Duck was thrown into the air. Bar door JUST HAPPENS to collapse before he hits it, allowing him to land, butt-first, in a nice soft armchair near the bar.

Impact of the wrecked bike hits the door, knocking it BACK onto it's hinges. Vibrations from this cause a beer mug to fall from the rack, right under a tap, which, jolted, fills the mug with beer & shuts itself off.

People rushing into the bar to see if he's all right cause the mug to shimmy down the bar until it slides right off the countertop, into the Duck's waiting hand.

Did I mention the accident ripped off his jeans, but didn't touch his shorts? Aside from the embarrassment, he remained totally unharmed.

Get the picture? That's the sort of luck I get. I can win a huge lottery prize, then incur a huge bill. If the prize was worth $1000, then sure as the sun rises, the bill will be $1000. They cancel each other out. Not good, not bad, just _strange_! According to the anthropologist, to the Plains tribes, that's a sure sign that Coyote has taken a liking to me.

The kinds of folks Coyote takes in... Well... Buster Bunny would be one. Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, Maverick from the western, Babs Bunny (no relation!), rascals who are good at heart. (The Little Rascals, there's another.) Alacrity Fitzhugh, from Brian Daley's books.

People who are Strange Attractors. I guess that makes me one, if Great-Grandmother Ross's tribe is right about me. Me, I don't know. But you can have fun with it, if you want.

What does a child of Coyote get out of the relationship? Well, Coyote is a shape shifter, who can be a coyote, a raven, or a human. Coyote can be either sex, if he/she wants to. Those who Coyote protects can call upon those powers, too. But they HAVE to CALL. It's a little like praying. You have to ask first, & if he's in a bad mood, you're out of luck. If he's happy, anything can go!

Classic Story on the Earth OM Coyote:

Coyote Makes The World

A long time ago there was water everywhere. Old Man Coyote looked around and said "Hey, we need some land." It was his gift from the Great Spirit that he could command all of the animals, who were called the Without Fires Clan, so he called four ducks to help him

find land. He ordered each of the ducks to dive under the water and find some mud. The first three returned with nothing, but the fourth duck, because four is the sacred number and that is the way things go in these stories, returned with some mud from the bottom.

"Swell," said Old Man Coyote. "Now I will make some land." He made the mountains and the rivers, the prairies and the deserts, the plants and the animals. Then he said, "Guess I'll make some people now, so there will be someone to tell stories about me."

From the mud he made some tall and beautiful people. Old Man Coyote like then very much. "I will call them 'Absarokee', which means 'Children of the Large-Beaked Bird.' Someday some dumb white guys will come here and get the translation all wrong and call them 'Crow'."

"What are they going to eat?" one of the ducks asked.

"They have no feathers or fur. What will they cover themselves with?" asked a second dusk.

"Yes," said a third duck. "They're pretty, but they won't be able to stay out in the weather."

Old Man Coyote thought for a while about how much he disliked ducks, then he took some more mud and made a strange-looking animal with a thick coat and horns. "Here," he said. "They can get everything they need from this animal. I'll call it a buffalo."

The fourth duck had been standing around watching all this and smoking a cigarette. "It's a big animal. Your people won't be able to catch it," he said, blowing a long stream of blue smoke in Old Man Coyote's face.

"Okay, so here's another animal that they can ride so they can catch the buffalo."

"And how will they catch that one?" asked the fourth duck.

"Look, duck, do I have to work out everything? I made the world and these people and I've given them everything they need, so just back off."

"But if they have everything they need, what will they do? Just sit around telling stories about you?"

"That would be good."

"Boring." said the duck

"Okay, I'll make them a bunch of enemies. They'll be hopelessly outnumbered and have to fight all the time and do all kinds of war rituals. How's that?"

"They'll get wiped out."

No, I'll stay with them. The Children of the Large-Beaked Bird will be my favorites, although some of their enemies can tell stories about me too."

"But what if the buffalo animals all get killed?"

"Won't happen. There's too many of them."

"But what if they do?"

"Then I guess the people are fucked. I'm tired and dirty and cold. I'm gonna go invent the sweat bath and warm up."

So Old Man Coyote built a sweat lodge out of willow branches and buffalo skins. He heated the rocks in a fire and put them in a pit in the middle of the sweat lodge, then he and the ducks crawled inside and closed the door, making it completely dark inside.

"Hey, put out that cigarette!" Old Man Coyote said to the fourth duck.

The duck threw the cigarette on the hot rocks and smoke filled the sweat lodge. "That smells pretty good," Old Man Coyote said. "Let's throw some other stuff on the fire and see how it goes." He threw on some cedar needles and they smelled pretty good too, then he threw on some sweet grass and some sage. "This stuff will be part of the sweat ceremony, too. And some water -- we need some water so it will really get hot and miserable in here."

"And we can get truly purified and clean?" asked the third duck.

"Right," said Old Man Coyote. "First I'll pour four dippers of water on the rocks for the four directions."

"And the four ducks."

"Right," said Old Man Coyote. "Now I'll pour on seven dippers for the seven stars of the Big Dipper. Then ten more because ten is a nice even number."

He handed each of the ducks a willow switch to beat their backs with. "Here, wail on yourself with these."

"What for?" asked the second duck.

"Tenderize. . . er. . . I mean. . . it brings up the sweat and purifies you."

Then, when the ducks were beating their backs with the willow branches, Old Man Coyote said, "Okay, now I'm going to pour a whole bunch of dippers on the rocks. I'm not even going to count, but we are going to be really hot and really clean and pure." Then he poured and poured until it was so hot in the lodge that he could not stand it and he slipped out the door, leaving the ducks inside.

Later, after he had plunged into the river to cool off, he ate a big meal and laid down to rest. "That was plumb swell," he said to himself. "I think I'll give the sweat to my new people. It can be their church and sacrament and they can think of me whenever they go in. It is my gift to them. I guess no one needs to know about the ducks." Then Old Man Coyote picked up a willow twig and picked a bit of duck meat from between his teeth. "The sage gives them a nice flavor, though."

He always was a strange spirit---Kickaha