Editing Coyote (section)

===In folklore and mythology===
{{Main|Coyote (mythology)}}
[[File:Coyoteinacanoe.png|thumb|upright|Coyote paddling in a canoe in [[Edward S. Curtis]]'s ''Indian days of long ago'']]
Coyote features as a [[trickster]] figure and [[skin-walker]] in the folktales of some [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], notably several nations in the [[Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest|Southwestern]] and [[Plains Indians|Plains]] regions, where he alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or that of a man. As with other trickster figures, Coyote acts as a picaresque hero who rebels against social convention through deception and humor.<ref name="watts2006">{{cite book|last= Watts|first=L. S.|year=2006|title=Encyclopedia of American Folklore|publisher=Infobase Publishing|pages=93–94|isbn=978-1-4381-2979-2|oclc=465438817}}</ref> Folklorists such as Harris believe coyotes came to be seen as tricksters due to the animal's intelligence and adaptability.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harris|first=M.|year=1979|title=Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture|location=New York|publisher=AltaMira Press|pages=200–1|isbn=978-0-7591-0135-7|oclc=47100657|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=8Xc9DMbB5KQC|page=200}}}}</ref> After the European colonization of the Americas, [[Anglo-America]]n depictions of Coyote are of a cowardly and untrustworthy animal.<ref name=Gillespie>{{cite book|first1=Angus K.|last1=Gillespie|first2=Jay|last2=Mechling|year=1987|title=American Wildlife in Symbol and Story|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanwildlife0000unse/page/225 225–230]|isbn=978-0-87049-522-9|oclc=14165533|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwildlife0000unse/page/225}}</ref> Unlike the gray wolf, which has undergone a radical improvement of its public image, Anglo-American cultural attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative.<ref name=conundrum>{{cite journal|author=Way, J. G. |year=2012 |url=http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/iwmag/2012/winter/iw2012_coyotewolves.pdf |title=Love wolves and hate coyotes? A conundrum for canid enthusiasts |journal=International Wolf |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=8–11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224225047/http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/iwmag/2012/winter/iw2012_coyotewolves.pdf |archive-date=December 24, 2012 }}</ref>

In the [[Maidu]] creation story, Coyote introduces work, suffering, and death to the world. [[Zuni people|Zuni]] lore has Coyote bringing winter into the world by stealing light from the [[kachina]]s. The [[Chinookan peoples|Chinook]], Maidu, [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]], [[Tohono O'odham]], and [[Ute people|Ute]] portray the coyote as the companion of [[Creator deity|The Creator]]. A Tohono O'odham [[flood myth|flood story]] has Coyote helping [[Montezuma (mythology)|Montezuma]] survive a global deluge that destroys humanity. After The Creator creates humanity, Coyote and Montezuma teach people how to live. The [[Crow Nation|Crow]] creation story portrays Old Man Coyote as The Creator. In [[Diné Bahaneʼ|The Dineh creation story]], Coyote was present in the First World with First Man and First Woman, though a different version has it being created in the Fourth World. The Navajo Coyote brings death into the world, explaining that without death, too many people would exist, thus no room to plant corn.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lynch|first1=P. A.|last2=Roberts|first2=J.|year=2010|title=Native American Mythology A to Z |publisher=Infobase Publishing|page=27|isbn=978-1-4381-3311-9|oclc=720592939}}</ref>

[[File:Teotihuacán - Palacio de Atetelco Wandmalerei 3.jpg|thumb|A mural from Atetelco, [[Teotihuacán]] depicting coyote warriors]]
Prior to the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire]], Coyote played a significant role in Mesoamerican cosmology. The coyote symbolized military might in [[Mesoamerican chronology#Classic Era|Classic era]] [[Teotihuacan]], with warriors dressing up in coyote costumes to call upon its predatory power. The species continued to be linked to Central Mexican warrior cults in the centuries leading up to the post-Classic Aztec rule.<ref name="schwartz1998">Schwartz, M. (1998). ''A History of Dogs in the Early Americas''. Yale University Press. pp. 146–149. {{ISBN|978-0-300-07519-9}}.</ref> 

In [[Aztec mythology]], [[Huehuecoyotl|Huehuecóyotl]] (meaning "old coyote"), the god of dance, music and carnality, is depicted in several codices as a man with a coyote's head.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=M. E.|last2=Taube|first2=K. A.|year=1993|title=The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion|publisher=Thames and Hudson|page=[https://archive.org/details/godssymbolsofa00mill/page/92 92]|isbn=978-0-500-05068-2 |oclc=27667317 |url=https://archive.org/details/godssymbolsofa00mill/page/92}}</ref> He is sometimes depicted as a [[Promiscuity|womanizer]], responsible for bringing war into the world by seducing [[Xochiquetzal]], the goddess of love.<ref>{{cite book|last=Olivier|first=G.|year=2003|title=Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, "Lord of the Smoking Mirror"|publisher=University Press of Colorado|page=[https://archive.org/details/mockeriesmetamor00guil/page/32 32]|isbn=978-0-87081-745-8|oclc=52334747|url=https://archive.org/details/mockeriesmetamor00guil/page/32}}</ref> [[Epigraphy|Epigrapher]] [[David H. Kelley]] argued that the god Quetzalcoatl owed its origins to pre-Aztec [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]] mythological depictions of the coyote, which is portrayed as mankind's "Elder Brother", a creator, seducer, trickster, and culture hero linked to the morning star.<ref name="kelley1995">{{cite journal|author=Kelley, D. H. |year=1955|title= Quetzalcoatl and his Coyote Origins|journal=El México Antiguo|volume=8|pages=397–416}}</ref>