The Role Native American Folklore Trickster Stories Play

In Native American oral tradition, the vulgar but sacred trickster plays a key character in stories that has impacted several indigenous cultures. The trickster is a complex and a significant figurehead. The trickster’s influence on tradition and culture is significant in understanding indigenous communities.

Trickster alternately scandalized, disgusts, amuses, disrupts, chastises, and humiliates the animal-like proto-people of prehistory, yet he is a creative force transforming their world, sometimes in bizarre and outrageous ways, with his instinctive energies and cunning. Eternally scavenging for food, he represents the most basic instincts, but in other narratives, he is also the father of the Indian people and a potent conductor or spiritual forces in the form of sacred dreams.

His dual character is the source of good and evil, in many cultures the trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously, but usually unintentional with ultimately positive affects. Often the rule breaking takes the form of tricks or thievery. He can be cunning or foolish or both. The trickster is found in several cultures where he provides many functions within these cultures. These trickster stories in general have many important and similar characteristics that are implemented in this form of oral tradition.

Determining the origin in time which trickster stories were created is a very tough task. Shaman/Trickster is said to have appeared on cave paintings of Early European tribes about eighteen thousand years ago (Hulzkrantz, 1997). Others say that the stories go back even further. It is tough to determine when these stories originated because they were only passed down orally from one person to the next. Hultzkrantz points out that Sam Gill and Irene F. Sullivan said that the name Trickster itself was a creation of scholars in America to characterize a certain type of aboriginal mythical and folkloristic being (Hultzkrantz, 1997). He also says that Indians have no particular term for this figure. In America there were some general notices of the Trickster around the beginning of the nineteenth century (Hultzkrantz, 1997).

The Trickster is well known all around the world, but is best known from North America and Africa (Hultkrantz). Trickster stories can also be found in Europe, Australia, and Japan. Trickster myths are found in nine of the eleven Native American Regions” (Haynes 3). Different trickster stories originate in different countries. In North America Coyote, Hare, and Raven are the popular trickster while in West African trickster stories star Tortoise, Anansi the Spider, Zomo the Hare are common tricksters and in Japan, Tengu and Kitsune are the major tricksters. In Europe, Central and South America, Fox and Wolf are the main tricksters (Fredrick-Malanson, 2008). Some of the North American tribes that have trickster stories are: Winnebago, Menomini, Crow, Navajo, Okanogan, Wishram, and the Karok (Nichols, 2002).

The trickster tales are specific to indigenous communities but they can be applied anywhere in the world. Many other communities have things that are similar in nature to the true trickster. For example the Brehr Rabbit that everyone is so familiar with is actually a combination of an African trickster along with a more European trickster. It is interesting to note this because even though many of these tricksters don’t have clear origins as to where they come from specifically, that all seem to have similar characteristics.

Trickster tales, regardless of where they originated, share similar characteristics that make up the overall identity of these important stories. They all include a trickster character that is ignorant to any kind of restriction. The stories usually include just one trickster character that becomes the focus of the story. In these stories, the trickster ignores all boundaries and uses trickery to achieve a goal. Usually, the goal of the trickster is something that is regarded as wrong, and outside the realms of morality. The results of these stories usually end in the trickster suffering the consequences of his actions. The trickster is usually punished in a comedic way for his boundless behavior.

The trickster tales have gained notoriety through the unavoidable presence of humor embedded in its plot. Much of the humor stems from the fact that the trickster is doing something blatantly wrong, or participating in obviously stupid and foolish acts. Laughter is very encouraged by these stories because these tribes place a high value on humor and the act of laughing. Trickster tales are also sometimes shockingly absurd. They present society’s taboos such as aggressive sexuality, feces, flatulence, vomit, etc in very explicit ways. It is interesting that these absurdities make their way into these stories because they are unwanted occurrences in society. However, the presence of these absurdities drives audiences into an opportunity to vicariously live through the trickster. It allows the audience to explore the world of chaos. Psychologist Carl Jung viewed Trickster as, “an expression of the shadow side of a culture, the embodiment of all that is repressed and disowned – the greedy, needy rascal that lives somewhere inside every one of us” (Jung). Thus, the trickster stories allow everyone’s “inner trickster” to come out and play during the duration of the story.

The trickster tales were extremely popular. They were told more often than creation stories. Some of these stories even functioned as creation stories. The humor aspect of these stories was one of the definable reasons that led to the stories’ popularity. Also, the fact that these stories were relatable to both children and adults made these trickster tales more popular. Both children and adults could enjoy and be entertained by these tales. The trickster has a very interesting and unique function in Native American societies. The trickster characters across Native American communities have a universal purpose. This purpose is to make the listeners laugh with his silly antics and outrageous pranks. The trickster seems to have a slapstick type comedy being, “an utter fool, a breaker of the most holy of taboos, a destroyer of the most sacred objects” (Radin). The first affect of this laughter is to relax the community and set a positive mood. However, this is not the only affect the tricksters cause to the listeners of their stories. There are messages embedded in these stories. Some of the messages are lessons and morals that are preferred in an individual. Others are topics that without trickster tales would be inappropriate to bring up.

Laughter is extremely important in some indigenous societies. For example, in some Native American traditions people are not allowed to pray unless they have laughed. This shows how essential laughing is in these communities. This also shows some insight into the character of some of these tribes. Laughter is an action of happiness, and since laughing is such a necessary action in their lives it can be deduced that these are a very positive people. Someone who is forced to laugh on a regular basis probably has a fairly good outlook on life in order to achieve constant laughter. This also probably forces them to find the bright side of events and to try to keep a positive attitude. In addition, laughter gained from trickster stories helps relax people. In time of great stress and worry people need something to divert their minds from their problems. It is the trickster tales that can help them calm down, focus on something fun, and not worry for a little bit. For example the Lakota Sioux version of the trickster is named Heyoka. The Lakota people were going through a terrible time when they were shipped off to reservations, ridden with diseases, and very short on food. However, during all of this, “watching the pranks and capers of Heyoka were a blessing” explained John Fire Lame Deer (Lame Deer). Everyone in the Lakota had so much to worry about. Their families were dying, they were losing all their land, and they did not even have much to eat. Heyoka stories were able to distract their minds from reality for a while. Laughter is a very powerful tool that seems to have been harnessed by Native American trickster stories to improve morale in communities.

All trickster stories convey some type of message, whether they are about morals or normally awkward subjects. For example, the Heyoka tends to do everything backwards. If it is hot he will wear a coat and gloves and complain about the cold and if there is a drought he will complain about the floods and excessive amounts of water. Black Elk participated in a ceremony as a Heyoka with his friend. They did this with their, “heads shaved, and the hair on the left side hanging long,” in order to show opposites (Neigardt). There is comedy in the Heyoka stories, but also there is a message about morals. This Heyoka story is saying that one should not complain about their current situation because even if it were the opposite way it would be just as bad or possibly even worse.

Another example is a story where there is a woman who is undecided on who she should marry, so she has a competition where whoever has the smallest penis is allowed to marry her. The trickster, who in this story is named coyote, trades his penis with mouse’s penis. When everyone drops their pants he demolishes the competition and wins the bride. Unfortunately for coyote his new bride sees mouse struggling to walk with such a large coyote penis and she refuses to marry him. This story shows two different types of messages. First, it shows a moral type message deterring people from lying and cheating. This was portrayed when the coyote was not able to marry the woman because he cheated and lied to her. Also, this story contains a very sexual premise when talking about penises and their sizes. This topic, which would usually be fairly awkward to talk about, is discussed freely in the story. This probably helps “break the ice” within the community about this topic allowing them to talk about it more freely. Although it may seem that the trickster stories are told solely for their comedic purposes, it is evident that their underlying messages are just important.

The way that the trickster functions as an oral tradition is important as well. Some people may criticize trickster for the absurdity and sometimes vulgar messages that are given from it. The reason that this has never been that big of a problem for these indigenous communities is that the stories are all related orally. Therefore the stories may be absurd, but because they are coming straight from the mouth of someone that they know and trust, they can provide the correct guidance as to what is real, what is not, and what the lesson is that they need to take away from the story. The other reason that the oral tradition is so important it can be adapted based on the intended audience. This way the story never becomes boring and outdated and the storyteller can cater to a wide variety of interests and spiritual needs as well.

Works Cited

Frederick-Malanson Linda, Three African Trickster Myths/Tales n Primary Style. Yale- New Haven Teachers Institute, 2008). http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/2/98.02.04.x.html

Hultkrantz, Ake. Theories on the North American Trickster. http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/trickster.html

Hynes, William J., and William G. Doty. Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms. Tuscaloosa: Alabama UP, 1993. Located at: http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~me2/engl560/karin.html

Jung, C. G. (1970). Four Archetypes; Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Lame Deer, John (Fire) and Richard Erdoes. Lame Deer Seeker of Visions. Simon and Schuster, New York, New York, 1972.

Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2004.

Nichols, K. L. Native American Trickster Tales. http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html

Radin, Paul. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969; New York: Schocken, 1987.