by Alan Nafzger & Lilly Tabbytite (Comanche)
Coyote's wife once had a lover named Wolverine, but Coyote was unaware of it. One day, he and his wife were out hunting when they came across Wolverine's lodge. They entered the house. Wolverine was concerned, but Coyote had no idea who the man was.
"What are you hunting?" Wolverine asked, taking a look at Coyote's weapons.
"Oh, anything I see." "I hunt whatever I can get my hands on."
"What are you hunting now?" Wolverine inquired. He was curious if Coyote was aware of his affair with his wife. He kept asking Coyote the question until he said, "I am hunting Wolverine," to silence him.
Wolverine was scared and went outside his lodge. Coyote and his wife also appeared. They went down to where Wolverine was standing in the water.
"I believe my canoe is longer than yours," Wolverine said. "Bring your canoe over here and we'll measure and see."
Coyote took his canoe and pushed it over to Wolverine. They were assembling their canoes to see which one was the longest when Wolverine suddenly grabbed Coyote's wife, jumped into his canoe, and paddled away. Coyote pursued them and was about to catch up when Wolverine summoned a fog, causing Coyote to become disoriented. He paddled around and around, but he couldn't find his wife, so he gave up and paddled home.
He was depressed. Coyote sat under his blanket for a long time, contemplating how to reclaim his wife. He eventually went down to his canoe and asked his paddle where his wife was. The canoe paddle responded, but in a mumbled voice that Coyote couldn't understand. He grabbed the paddle and threatened to break it in half if it didn't speak in a language he understood. The canoe paddle continued to mumble. Coyote threw it over his knee and bent it until it nearly broke. But the canoe paddle kept mumbling in the same way, so Coyote threw it into the canoe's bottom.
He went back and lay down under his blanket to think about it all again, and when he was finished, he returned to his canoe and asked the paddle where his wife was. He finally grasped the paddle. The paddle informed him that his wife was in Clouds Laying Down, a village on a large lake to the north.
The Coyote spent an entire day defecating along the beach. He made warriors and canoes out of all this excrement. His friends Marten and Fisher joined him, and they all set out one morning.
When they arrived at Clouds Laying Down, they noticed a long house in the fog and went inside. Everyone in the village was present. They peered through the logs at the other warriors, who were sitting in their canoes in the fog on the lake.
Marten and Fisher began walking around on the lodge's ceiling and across the walls while they were sitting there. The people were perplexed and asked Coyote how it was done. Coyote claimed he bestowed this power on Marten and Fisher by removing their intestines and defecating in the cavity. As a result, they were light enough to travel anywhere. Some of the people expressed an interest in this power, but Coyote refused to grant it to only a few. He'd have to give it to everyone or nobody. All of the men decided they wanted this power, the ability to walk anywhere. Coyote instructed them to form a line on the beach. He walked along and disemboweled each one as they lined up. They were all dead when he was done. Wolverine was one of them. Coyote returned to his home, taking his wife with him.