The Coyote and The Monster

The story I read was The Coyote and The Monster, which told the story of a Coyote who was left alone after a terrible monster ate all of his friends. Tired of hiding from the monster, the Coyote challenged the monster and won over the monter, and they became friends. The Coyote then convinced the monster to let him into his stomach so he could visit his devoured friends. The monster agreed and the Coyote killed the monster by cutting out his heart and setting fire to his insides. The Coyote then freed his friends and created four different tribes from his insides. This story was probably used to explain how some of the tribes came to be, and why they are geographically located where they are. The story also said that the Coyote created a new animal with the tribes, which could also explain why the tribes could be represented by their particular animal. I chose this story as it seemed interesting to me, and it seemed to have some legitimate Navajo origins to it. http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html