Coyote and the Ants
As Coyote was going along, he came to a tipi near the edge of the timber. When he looked inside, he saw a young lady ant sitting there as she worked. She invited him to come inside and told him to sit at the head of the lodge. After entering the tipi, he discovered it was provisioned with dried meat and other foods, and noticed a large bladder hanging by a strap above his head. He asked, “Sister, where is your husband?” “I have no husband,” she answered, “but I have several brothers. They are the ones who furnished me this meat. Because of them, I am not in need of anything. When they hunt, they bring me back all kinds of meat.”
After the coyote finished eating, the young woman told him about her brothers and their accomplishments. She told the coyote that her brothers were getting ready to hunt, now that her store of meat was getting low. She took some coals from the fire and burned some incense. Then she took down the bladder, held it over the coals and smoke and said, “My brothers are going to hunt.” As she said this, she turned the bladder upside down, and eight tall young men with slender waists fell out onto the floor. They looked at First Creator and greeted their uncle, whom they called miaka. Coyote greeted his nephews, calling them matsuka and said, “I heard about you. That is why I am here.”
Towards evening, the eight men came back to the tipi, bringing with them only the tongues and best pieces of meat. Because they were getting cold, they told the lady ant to hurry and help them back into the bladder. First, she raked out coals from the fire and gathered some sweet grass, and then held the bladder open for the young men as they jumped back into the sack. Afterwards, Coyote and his sister went to a buffalo wallow behind the tipi where they ate some of the tongues, and threw other pieces into the hole. Coyote ate only the best parts, and threw away the rest. Then they returned to the lodge where the Coyote sat for a while, looking at bag hanging over his head.
As First Creator sat, he decided to steal the bag and run away with it so he could make the young men work for him. Stealing the sack, however, would be difficult, because even though the woman went to bed, she never slept. Coyote went to bed, and decided to take the bag and run off with it after the ant woman lay down to rest. When the young woman snored, Coyote got up, took the bag down, and ran off with it. He ran all night until tired, and then threw himself down for a little nap. When he woke up, he found himself in the doorway of the lady ant’s tipi. His sister said, “Brother, what are you doing? You have the bag on your belt.” First Creator got up surprised, and wondered how he could run all night, and find himself in the same tipi entrance in the morning. He answered, “Sister, you must not think wrong of me, because I walk in my sleep. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. Take the bag off my belt and put it where it belongs. I hope you do not think I intended to leave with it intentionally.”
He stayed there a few days longer, and said to himself, “The next time I take the bladder, I won’t sleep until I am very far from here.” One night when they went to bed, he stayed awake long after his sister lay down. Finding her sound asleep, he took down the bag and ran away. He ran all night long and crossed many hills, but eventually became so tired he had to sit down to rest, and fell sound asleep. Again, when he woke up, he found himself at the door of his sister’s tipi. She got up to get some wood for the morning fire and saw Coyote sleeping there. When she saw the bag on his waist, she asked him what he was doing. He complained about walking in his sleep again, and asked her to take the bag, burn incense over it, and put it back where it belonged. Because she was concerned that her brothers might be cold, she warmed them over the fire and then put the bag back in its place.
Coyote thought, “The next time I take that bag down, I won’t stop for any reason. If anything happens to me, I will let the young men out and they will have to defend me.” That night when the young ant went to sleep, he took down the bag, put it under his belt and began running. He traveled far from the tipi, until he tired. Since he was in the hills and felt safe, he decided to take a rest. Before long, he was sound asleep. When he woke up, his sister was talking to him. He was at the back of the house, near the hole where he threw away the tongues. He told the sister how he was in the habit of walking in his sleep, and asked here to take his nephews back into the house so they would not get cold.
He followed the sister into the tipi and mourned of the fact that he walked so often in his sleep. Then he asked here not to think poorly of him since he did not know what he was doing when he sleepwalked. However, Coyote was determined to carry away that bag, and decided to neither lay down nor go to sleep the next time he stole the bladder.
That night when they lay down to sleep, he decided to make one last attempt at stealing the bag. When they went to bed, Coyote lay awake until his sister was asleep and then stole the bag. He ran until the sun came up, and continued to run, traveling until noon. By that time he was far from his sister’s lodge. He came to some high hills that looked down onto an earthlodge village. When he got near the village, some of the young men gave a warhoop as they always did when they intended to wrestle. Although Coyote was strong, there were so many opponents that he got the worse of it. Then one of the men said, “Break open his tobacco pouch.” When they did this, the brothers from the bag killed one of the young men.
As evening approached, the little men became cold, and asked Coyote put them back in the bag. He did as asked, and then put the bag in a hole, walking away and leaving it there. From that time on, these eight young men became ants, and lived in the ground instead of a bladder in a tipi. When you see ants now, they resemble strong young men with slender waists.