In the history of American Indian tribes, the myth of Old Man Coyote is one of the most prevalent and most beloved. He is the trickster who takes many forms. He teaches lessons to the tribe by way of his words and deeds but he is not to be trusted because things are never as they seem. Here is a story of the Coyote:
A long, long time ago, people did not yet inhabit the earth. A monster walked upon the land, eating all the animals--except Coyote. Coyote was angry that his friends were gone. He climbed the tallest mountain and attached himself to the top. Coyote called upon the monster, challenging it to try to eat him. The monster sucked in the air, hoping to pull in Coyote with its powerful breath, but the ropes were too strong. The monster tried many other ways to blow Coyote off the mountain, but it was no use.
Realizing that Coyote was sly and clever, the monster thought of a new plan. It would befriend Coyote and invite him to stay in its home. Before the visit began, Coyote said that he wanted to visit his friends and asked if he could enter the monster's stomach to see them. The monster allowed this, and Coyote cut out its heart and set fire to its insides. His friends were freed.
Then Coyote decided to make a new animal. He flung pieces of the monster in the four directions; wherever the pieces landed, a new tribe of Indians emerged. He ran out of body parts before he could create a new human animal on the site where the monster had lain. He used the monster's blood, which was still on his hands, to create the Nez Percé, who would be strong and good.
Some times you go into the belly of the beast like Coyote.
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One my dad's all time favorite places to scuba dive was Devil's Lake, about 40 mi north of Madison. Geologically interesting in its own right, Devil's Lake was scared to the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Indian tribe. Here is an exerpt of a story I found here.
It is said to have gotten this name from the powerful Waterspirit (Wakjexi) that lives within its confines. Once a faster cried out to this Waterspirit for a blessing. The deity of the lake took pity on him and gave him the boon of a long life. This was no ordinary Waterspirit, nor is Devil's Lake an ordinary lake. The Waterspirit was almost certainly the famous Traveler, so called because he traveled all over this earth. A sacred story about him says, "[Traveler] was placed in charge of the earth. He was not put in charge of it by Earthmaker but by the people on earth. ... he is the chief of all of us on earth, for this is the position that was bestowed upon him. And he lives at a place called "Holy Lake" (Te Wákąčañk). It was from this place called "Holy Lake" that he, our chief, started when he ascended to fight the Thunderbird. This lake was a window for the earth. It had no bottom." Because Devil's Lake has no bottom, it is a conduit by which Traveler, whose lodge is in the very center of the earth, can most easily ascend to the surface. His victory, at Lake Winnebago, was over a Thunderbird who aspired to rub out the whole Wakjexi race. Devil's Lake itself had been witness to such wars in its history. The myriad of boulders strewn everywhere over its landscape are said to have been the debris of a battle between the Waterspirits and their mortal enemies the Thunderbirds.
When I was a kid, The Capitol Times, a local newspaper, did a story on my dad and local diving. He quoted a story similar (but one far less detailed) than the one I quoted above. He went on to matter-of-factly state that the lake wasn't bottomless but was in about 45 feet deep.
The legend wasn't fact and so they printed it.
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