FranchotBallinger observes that stories about
Coyote (and Trickster figures as a whole) almost invariably cast the
protagonist as male. As a sexual creature, an object of satire, and a
transgressor of social structures, Coyote occupied a traditionally male space.
Even today, our social imagination typically casts men as the rovers, the wise
fools, and shamans.
Coyote-Woman steps
into this vacuum carrying a slightly different kind of medicine in the pockets
of her crochet coat. Like Old Man Coyote, she is an Outsider. She saunters back
and forth between wilderness and civilization learning the lessons that both
worlds have to offer. She plays the fool, capering, clowning, and joking with
the best. She is often called a fool because she rages against boundaries and
breaks the rules that "only a fool would break". However, in reality,
her foolishness is clever, wild, and irreverent. As Ina Woolcott explains, "Coyote's
medicine includes understanding that all things are sacred and that yet nothing
is sacred."
This is Coyote-Woman's
brilliant power. She sees the world as sacred, but not untouchable. She builds
no churches and believes that old, mysterious, and holy objects belong to the
world, not on high shelves and museum cases. She honors tradition and history
as a living thread that is continually rewoven into new forms.
In fact, she is a new
form herself. Coyote-Woman reclaims that traditionally male mythological space
as she teaches women to reinvent themselves, test their limitations, discern
worthwhile risks from danger, and sing ideas into being.
If First Mother gave
women corn and men tobacco, it was Coyote Woman who evened out the deal later.
