Paiute Origin Story
The Paiute origin story features Coyote, a common trickster character in Native American legends. Coyote takes many roles in these stories, but is typically an impulsive and boastful character that often causes things to go awry. His role in the Paiute origin story is no different.
According to Paiute legend, in the beginning the world was covered with water. The land and people came into being when primordial beings fashioned them from mud collected beneath this water. Coyote was instructed to carry the mud people in an enclosed basket across the land until he found the perfect place to release them, but his curiosity led him to open the basket prematurely and the people escaped. These mud beings spread out across the landscape to become the different Indian tribes known today. Only the people who were to become the Southern Paiute remained in the basket and were taken to the ideal landscape for humans, the Southern Paiute homeland.
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