About the Author
Cheewa James is a writer and TV producer of Modoc heritage, and is the great-granddaughter of the Modoc warrior Shacknasty Jim. She was born on the Klamath Reservation in Oregon, and grew up in Taos, New Mexico. She studied at Colorado College, the University of Oregon and the University of Missouri, earning a B.A. in Communications from Northwest Missouri State University as well as a secondary teaching certificate. Her career has included working as a ranger-interpreter for the National Park Service, and as a reporter, anchorwoman, author, publisher and lecturer. She currently lives in Sacramento, California.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
When Coyote Fell in the Fire Told to Willie Pink, who told it to Cheewa, who tells it to you
There's a story about a group of older women who went into the roundhouse to gamble one evening. They divided into two teams and went about their business. It seems that this same evening, a young white man looked like what some people call a hippie was wandering by, heard all the noise and decided to see what all those Indians in there were doing. It would have been more polite if he'd knocked on the door. It sure would have been better for him if he'd taken that route.
What he did do was climb up on the roof. He saw an opening in the center with smoke comin' out and crawled over to it. He peeked through the hole and saw an open fire cracklin' away below him. Then, just like the trickster coyote might have done, he fell through the hole straight into the fire. He must have been one surprised, scared hippie. But he was no more surprised and scared than the women down below.
He jumped left and right, tryin' to get out of the fire, but the women were convinced he was an evil spirit, and every time he'd about make it out of those hot flames lickin' at his heels, these women, screamin' and yellin' at the top of their lungs, would push him back with their canes and clapper sticks. Now, I'm pretty sure there's a good ending to this, because there was never any tell of a man roasted to death in a round house. That hippie must have finally bounced right out of there.
Like any good coyote story, it has a moral. Mind your manners and always use the door.
¬1995. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Catch the Whisper of the Wind by Cheewa James. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.
