"Don’t you think that I have the most
beautiful long and fluffy tail in all of the forest?" asked Bear, as Coyote
stood on the path watching Bear saunter back and forth in front of him
swishing his beautiful brown fluffy mass first this way and then the other.
"I am sure that all of the animals are jealous because they can’t begin to
look like me." Bear continued. Coyote had enough of Bear’s bragging and
boasting and began to walk away into the thick bushes with the sound of
Bear’s voice still speaking to himself about his long, beautiful tail. The
animals could not understand why Bear always had to boast about himself to
every one that he met, it was plain to see that every animal of the forest
had something that made them good-looking, and it was only after they had
listened repeatedly to Bear for a very long time, that all of the animals
gathered together and decided to approach Coyote with their complaint.
Coyote was a good leader of the animal people, he was also a good teacher,
and at times to teach an important lesson he became the trickster. The
animal people knew if anyone could stop Bear’s bragging, they trusted it
would be Coyote. Coyote too had experienced some of bear's boasting, so he
was sympathetic to the people's outcry, listening carefully to the animal's
plight. After he had heard each one of them speak, he began to form a plan.
Coyote knew exactly the game plan he would put into place to teach Bear a
lesson, in fact it was the only one that would work.
Coyote's plan worked so well that the lesson learned is still with the bear
and all of his relatives today.
COMMENTARY:
In order to guide children into the proper rules and regulations of
acceptable social and survival behavior, a story was introduced to guide
their young minds into an interesting and memorable way in which to learn
their lesson. Questions were never answered by the storytellers, instead the
story was meant to be pondered with proper respect in order to teach the
listener how to solve situations on their own. People were encouraged to:
listen, reflect, and act according to guide lines set by that which they
heard in the story to strengthen their mind and the bond of learning. People
were also taught that the decisions they made also affected others and had
far reaching consequences.
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