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Hello welcome to Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains I am Larry Hedrick were we bring the past into the present.
for our future viewers
today we have another great story by Hank Sheffer
well I got to tell you it was during my time
when I was in uncle sam's canoe club
over in Asia with that silly thing going on over there.
back in the 60's
that I came over here to Apache Junction
to visit for a little while
and a whole lot like so many other people
I was interested in the lore and the legends
not so much the gold I have never one of those who make big rocks into little ones
but I love the lore
the legend and the history of the area
some of those of those reasons had to do with
the Indian lore that was here and just by the nature of Indians being around,
we know they were in the 1870's and 80's, even into the 90's.
they were here
And just by the nature of them being here,
there were stories that circulate
About Tricksters and Skinwalkers.
Now Skinwalkers
are definitely beings that can
shape shift. They can change themselves
into all sorts of things, or just disappear. They can do crazy stuff.
I'm not so much interested in them as I
am the tricksters. Because the tricksters
were ... they were using coyotes
or they were wolves
and they were used as a vehicle to tell stories by the medicine man.
And a lot of times these stories
were to teach a lesson.
They would teach something about the genealogy
of the tribe or the family or whatever.
Any number of things.
They could teach history with it.
But they were just wonderful stories that the medicine man would tell.
One of those stories
that I always really liked a lot
because the trickster or coyote
Sometimes things just didn't work out for him.
the way they figured they should.
One of the stories went this way.
Coyote
was out and he was trying to find things
to eat because he was really hungry.
And he noticed that buffalo
was tall and majestic and
royal and regal, and he could walk
any place he wanted to go.
And he could eat the grass from any place he wanted to go.
He asked buffalo, he said,
"Could you change me into a buffalo
so that I could be like you?"
Well buffalo thought a minute and he thought, well
I can do that. And he told Coyote, he said,
"I want you to go over and stand in that wallow
and just look at me."
And Coyote did.
And as he was standing there staring at Buffalo,
Buffalo charged him and hit him and
just knocked him butt over tin cups.
And when he stood back up, he was a buffalo.
Well Coyote,
Coyote is kind of a greedy little brother is what he is
and he saw this and thought this might be good to pass along.
Just to some of his friends.
Buffalo told him not to do that.
But Coyote did it anyway.
And he told one of his friends, another coyote
to get into the wallow and to look at him.
And as he did, he charged him and he hit him
and he went butt over tin cups.
And when he stood up, he was still a coyote.
And the buffalo who had hit him, who had been a coyote,
was now a coyote again!
Now Coyote is not happy.
And he went back to Buffalo.
And he pleaded and he said, "I am so sorry."
He said, "Can you turn me back into a buffalo again?"
And Buffalo looked at him
kinda of, OK
However Buffalo would do that, I don't know.
He said, "Go over and stand in the wallow."
And Coyote went over to the wallow and he stood there in the wallow.
And now Buffalo charged him
and he smashed him butt over tin cups
and killed him deader than a rock.
laughs
Coyote didn't get up.
And so from that point on
Coyote
has always been willing to be Coyote.
And Buffalo
has never liked Coyote.
That's the way the story went.
For me, it just tells me that there are a lot more
stories out there that I want to find
that I can share with you.
And until I find them, they are just going to remain...
Another Mystery of the Superstition Mountains!
Thank you for watching this episode of Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains.
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