WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.840 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:03.860 align:middle line:90%
Well, let's see.

00:00:03.860 --> 00:00:08.180 align:middle line:90%


00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:15.110 align:middle line:84%
I think I'll do a story,
move into this book of poems

00:00:15.110 --> 00:00:18.110 align:middle line:90%
and do one other story.

00:00:18.110 --> 00:00:20.150 align:middle line:84%
This is my favorite,
my favorite.

00:00:20.150 --> 00:00:21.620 align:middle line:84%
I'm just doing my
favorite things.

00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:24.980 align:middle line:84%
I'll get to the poetry
eventually, though--

00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:28.100 align:middle line:84%
well, what is more
conventionally poetry.

00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:31.130 align:middle line:84%
This one's called "Toe'osh,
a Laguna Coyote Story."

00:00:31.130 --> 00:00:32.225 align:middle line:90%
This is for Simon Ortiz.

00:00:32.225 --> 00:00:35.660 align:middle line:90%


00:00:35.660 --> 00:00:40.730 align:middle line:84%
"In the wintertime, at night,
we tell coyote stories,

00:00:40.730 --> 00:00:43.490 align:middle line:90%
and drink Spañada by the stove.

00:00:43.490 --> 00:00:46.820 align:middle line:84%
How coyote got his
ratty old fur coat,

00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:49.670 align:middle line:84%
bits of old fur the
sparrows stuck on him

00:00:49.670 --> 00:00:51.710 align:middle line:90%
with dabs of pitch.

00:00:51.710 --> 00:00:56.840 align:middle line:84%
That was after he lost his proud
original one in a poker game.

00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.350 align:middle line:84%
Anyhow, things like that
are always happening to him.

00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:03.020 align:middle line:90%
That's what she said, anyway.

00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:05.840 align:middle line:84%
And it happened to him
at Laguna, and Chinle,

00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:07.940 align:middle line:84%
and Lukachukai
too, because coyote

00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:11.390 align:middle line:90%
got too smart for his own good.

00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:14.750 align:middle line:84%
But the Navajos say
he won a contest once.

00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:17.990 align:middle line:84%
It was to see who could sleep
out in a snowstorm the longest.

00:01:17.990 --> 00:01:21.770 align:middle line:84%
And coyote waited until
chipmunk and badger and skunk

00:01:21.770 --> 00:01:24.290 align:middle line:84%
were all curled
up under the snow.

00:01:24.290 --> 00:01:29.210 align:middle line:84%
And then he uncovered himself
and slept all night inside.

00:01:29.210 --> 00:01:32.390 align:middle line:84%
And before morning, he
got up and went out again,

00:01:32.390 --> 00:01:35.300 align:middle line:84%
and waited until the others
got up before he came in

00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:36.170 align:middle line:90%
to take the prize.

00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:41.300 align:middle line:90%


00:01:41.300 --> 00:01:45.260 align:middle line:84%
Some white men came to Acoma
and Laguna a hundred years ago.

00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:48.950 align:middle line:84%
And they fought over Acoma
land and Laguna women.

00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:52.100 align:middle line:84%
And even now, some
of their descendants

00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:55.448 align:middle line:84%
or howling in the hills
southeast of Laguna.

00:01:55.448 --> 00:01:58.520 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:00.980 align:middle line:84%
Charlie Coyote wanted
to be governor.

00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:03.560 align:middle line:84%
And he said, when he
got elected he would

00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.080 align:middle line:84%
run the other men
off the reservation

00:02:06.080 --> 00:02:07.955 align:middle line:84%
and keep all the
women for himself.

00:02:07.955 --> 00:02:11.000 align:middle line:90%


00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.210 align:middle line:84%
One year, the politicians
got fancy at Laguna.

00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:17.060 align:middle line:84%
They went door to door
with hams and turkeys.

00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:21.800 align:middle line:84%
And they gave them to anyone who
would promise to vote for them.

00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:26.250 align:middle line:84%
On election day, all the people
stayed home and ate turkey

00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:26.750 align:middle line:90%
and laughed.

00:02:26.750 --> 00:02:29.852 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:29.852 --> 00:02:31.270 align:middle line:90%


00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:34.190 align:middle line:84%
The Trans-Western
Pipeline vice president

00:02:34.190 --> 00:02:36.920 align:middle line:90%
came to discuss right of way.

00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:40.550 align:middle line:84%
The Lagunas let him wait
all day long because he

00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:43.010 align:middle line:90%
is a busy and important man.

00:02:43.010 --> 00:02:45.650 align:middle line:84%
And, late in the
afternoon, they told him

00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:46.865 align:middle line:90%
to come back again tomorrow.

00:02:46.865 --> 00:02:50.390 align:middle line:90%


00:02:50.390 --> 00:02:53.840 align:middle line:84%
They were after the picnic
food that the special dancers

00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:55.760 align:middle line:90%
left below the cliff.

00:02:55.760 --> 00:02:59.840 align:middle line:84%
And Toe'osh and his cousins
hung themselves over the cliff,

00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.550 align:middle line:84%
holding each other's
tail in their mouth,

00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:06.740 align:middle line:84%
making a coyote chain, until
someone in the middle farted.

00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:10.370 align:middle line:84%
And the guy behind him opened
his mouth to say, what stinks?

00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.190 align:middle line:84%
And they all went
tumbling down like that.

00:03:13.190 --> 00:03:15.770 align:middle line:90%


00:03:15.770 --> 00:03:18.800 align:middle line:84%
Howling and roaring, Toe'osh
scattered white people

00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:21.200 align:middle line:90%
out of bars all over Wisconsin.

00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:25.280 align:middle line:84%
He bumped into them at the
door until they said excuse me.

00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:31.978 align:middle line:84%
And the way Simon meant it was
for 300, or maybe 400 years."

00:03:31.978 --> 00:03:32.912 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:03:32.912 --> 00:03:36.600 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:36.600 --> 00:03:40.000 align:middle line:90%