Name: Winona Plenty Hoops
Tribal Affiliation: Crow
Interview No.: CR010WPH031004
Topic: Crow Culture and Old Man Coyote
Language: Crow
Time Code In: 05:56:59:14
Time Code Out: 06:03:59:07
Tape 1 of 2 - Clone
Q: Winona, a Crow Elder said that Old Man Coyote is like a clown who shows people how not to behave and how not to do things. Do you agree with this? He does crazy things -Do you think this is true?
A: Well, Yes. It is what he is trying to show us, I think, this Old Man Coyote. He is who made us. The stories have been passed down to us from the beginning of time until today. We know that Old Man Coyote’s sidekick was Shiilabe´ [translation unknown but some think it meant “Yellow Nose.”] Together, they experienced things. Shiilabe´ helped him with everything, he was his helper, and although he sometimes was cruel to him, these two made all the different people and went among animals, too, these [stories] came to us and we still know who made us. He also made different peoples and made who the Apsaalooke are to this day. If he had made us white people, it would have been so, but we are not. The way he made the Apsaalooke has come this far and it has remained so. This is what I think, or how I see it. In a good way, he made many different tribes and they probably had their stories, too, but the way Old Man Coyote made us is how we tell it to this day. That’s where I’m at. If he had made us white people, it would have been different but it wasn’t the way it was. I hold on to this up until today. All the things they taught us are still true up to this day. No matter what we do, he made us Apsaalooke and that is where we are still at, I think. That’s what I still think. He made the way we respect one another and all those different things, and he left. What you are doing right now is a good thing [recording and writing]. From this day forward, our children and all of our grandchildren--I myself have four generations now, that’s where I’m at, and no matter what we do, we are Apsaalooke. Today, he gave the Apsaalooke the best land, he said we are his people. The best land, water, all the good things was where he put us. He provided us everything and left us. He said, “One day I’ll return.” He went into the clouds on a high mountain and said to come there. He said, “I’m leaving now but one day, I will return.” The signs will be—deer live in the high mountains—but when they come nearer and nearer, when they come close to your homes, when you can kill them right outside your homes and eat them, that’s when my return is near. The deer live everywhere in the mountains, but when they come to the valleys, it will be near the time of my return. This will be one of the signs. With a number of people, he went into the high mountains and spoke with them. They say he rode a white horse. The cloud came down and covered him and he rode his white horse as he went. When I return, when I return again, he said, it will be time to take us back.