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Coyote Story Sleepover assembled winter campers

ARLEE — It is often said that spring comes when the first thunder has awakened all the animals from their winter sleep. And still for others, spring comes after the groundhog has seen his shadow. Springtime means different things for people.

For the Salish people, that means it's time to put away the Coyote stories until next winter when the first snow falls and sticks to the ground.

Mid-February, kids of all ages – and grown-ups who are young at heart, gathered for sleepover at the Arlee Community Center to hear and recount Coyote stories. Boy did they tell stories – some of them still haven’t stopped telling stories …

Coyote stories are traditionally told throughout the winter months. For hundreds of years, the people have respected this oral tradition, passing on tribal wisdom through storytelling. Sadly though, this tradition has not been perpetuated, as there are fewer and fewer storytellers who know the stories and are able to share them at the appropriate time of the season.

Coyote stories weren’t just stories, they were lessons, too; lessons on history, life and deities. On the first night, Pat Pierre, Johnny Arlee and Louie Adams talked about the purpose of winter camp and offered a few stories. One of the Coyote stories shared with the group by Louie Adams was how the Salish received flint.

The next morning, sleepover participants were awakened with the Morning Song and breakfast. For Joey, that was the highlight of his camping experience his mother Penny Kipp relays. Joey lay awake on his cot until he was sung the Morning Song.

After breakfast, the group split into three groups that included painting masks for a Coyote skit, writing their own Coyote stories for a puppet show and illustrating drawings for narrating a traditional Coyote story.

The groups then performed for a small audience. “This is the greatest show on earth. You will never will see a show like this. This is live,” Johnny announces to the audience.

The first group Arlee introduced was Shelly’s artists and narrators. For their performance, they retold the Coyote story about how the Salish received flint. The performance was complete with a backdrop of illustrations.

The second group to perform was Willie, Julie and Dude’s puppeteers. Their performances were a series of short skits about Coyote and the other animals. The group wrote and produced their material.

The last group, Penny’s masked-performers, wearing their embellished masks, performed a skit about how Coyote won himself a wife from “Chief Charlie”.

Most of the youth performers have been part of the American Indian Youth Leadership group who have been with Arlee at other cultural encampments, including a hunting camp held late last summer.

Among the many adults who helped out at the Coyote Story Sleepover were Jim Adams, Julie Cajune, Shelly Fyant, Penny Kipp, Willie Wright, Dude Smith, Alec Quequesah, “Big Tom” Thomas, Linda and Joe Weaselhead, Aileen Plant, Charlie and Sonia Quequesah, Troy Arlee, Jay Griffiths, Cody Neal, and Char Neal.

The American Indian Institute, the Tribes, Nkwusm Salish Language Immersion School, Salish Kootenai College, Kicking Horse Job Corps and the University of Montana supported the special winter camp project.