Alicia Sully

Jen Keelan
Meagan Carson
Hannah Chevrette-McIvor
A Coyote Columbus Story Evaluation

Executive Summary & Critical Analysis

On the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World,

Thomas King reimagines first contact through the perspective of the trickster Coyote. It was

Coyote who fixed up the world, and it is Coyote who conjures Columbus and his men. The story

utilizes Aboriginal storytelling traditions, embracing the cadence of the spoken word as opposed

to adhering to the conventions of English grammar. The text reads more like an oral story,

written down simply for the sake of ease. King also employs a non-linear timeline to “A Coyote

Columbus Story,” consistent with Aboriginal epistemology that is guided by circularity instead of

linearity. The story interlaces the past and the present, it crosses cultural boundaries, and does

away with the Eurocentric history in a playful, mischievous fashion. Ultimately, the story is one

of disruption, defying cultural norms, linear timelines, historical inaccuracies and perspectives.

The story follows the trickster, Coyote, as she looks for companions to join her in playing

baseball. First, she seeks out different animals to play baseball with her but the animals are not

interested. Then she finds humans and they indulge Coyote and join her in playing baseball;

however, Coyote keeps changing the rules and the humans become frustrated and stop playing

baseball with Coyote. In her desire to have new companions with whom to play baseball,

Coyote accidentally conjures up Christopher Columbus, his boats, and fellow Europeans who

are searching for India. Unlike Eurocentric texts that paint Columbus as a hero and explorer, in

“A Coyote Columbus Story,” Columbus is lost and confused, which presents readers with a new

perspective on these events. When Columbus and his crew arrive on the shores, Coyote tries to

get them to play baseball with her, but he and the other Europeans are too busy looking for
sources of economic wealth in order to become famous. When the Europeans realise that the

animals are not worth enough, they focus on the humans, capture them, and take them back to

Spain to be sold. Coyote misses her human friends and seeks out a new companion when

Jacques Cartier arrives to start the cycle once again.

The story is written by Thomas King, a respected Cherokee writer, who has dedicated

his work to representing Aboriginal life while disrupting Eurocentric worldviews. The book’s art is

by Kent Monkman, a Cree artist whose work is similarly disruptive and playful. King and

Monkman bring their perspectives and experiences as First Nations people to “A Coyote

Columbus Story” and it is these perspectives that can help students gain a deeper

understanding of Canada’s history. The story toes the line been respect and disrespect,

reverence and irreverence. It is on this line, in these margins, that meaning can be made out of

our colonial story.

Practical Classroom Application

“A Coyote Columbus Story” is a complex and advanced examination of stories of

contact. Though it is ostensibly a children’s story, the themes and its ambiguity are more suited

to older students. We believe that this text can be used as a good introduction to the trickster

figure and if students will be reading King’s ​Green Grass, Running Water​, this can help situate

them. Coyote in this story serves as both creator and destroyer. She is a fun-loving girl who just

wants to play baseball but ends up in a mess because she wants to make all the rules. “A

Coyote Columbus Story” lends itself to integrating other texts and to incorporating an

intertextual, interdisciplinary approach in the classroom.

This text is an excellent challenge to students to engage in symbolism; while framed

within the context of a children’s text, “A Coyote Columbus Story” immerses readers in a world

rich with symbolism, metaphor, and satire that requires an astute critical perspective. This text
also serves as an excellent provocation to engage critical thinking, particularly in respect to the

potential automatic acceptance of a written authority. In an increasingly digital age in which

opinions can easily be publicized without regard for verification or fact, teachers need to be

preparing students to critically assess resources for their validation while also considering the

motivations and perspectives behind materials. This text would be a great entry point to engage

students into social justice issues around Aboriginal rights, historical injustices, and future

legislation.

The text also disrupts notions of authenticity that can plague marginalized and racialized

students. “A Coyote Columbus Story”, in its playful portrayal of Aboriginal culture, dispenses

with ideas of belonging and not belonging. The images portray a community of people doing

activities that please them, wearing traditional and modern clothes, watching television in the

woods, playing baseball, parachuting, and living in tipis. Native culture was and is a vibrant and

changing thing that did not peak in the past nor is it fixed in the past (King, 2003). This story

brings in those teachings while chafing against fundamental beliefs about identity. As stated in

St. Denis (2007), “... ethnic or cultural fundamentalism “constructs historically and nationally

located identity as legitimate only when a precise set of cultural, ideological and most

worryingly, genetic markers of ‘blood quantum’ are met” (p. 1075). This text can be a powerful

classroom tool for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students alike in its disruption of power

dynamics.
 References

King, T. & Monkman, W.K. (1992). A Coyote Columbus story. Toronto, ON: House of Anansi

Press, Inc.

King, T. (2003). ​The Truth about stories: A Native narrative​. Toronto, ON: House of Anansi

Press, Inc.

St. Denis, V. (2007). Aboriginal Education and anti-racist education: Building alliances across

cultural and racial identity. In ​Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation,

30(4), p. 1068-1092. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/stable/pdf/20466679.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A9b8

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