While the trickster crosses various cultural traditions, there are significant differences between tricksters from different parts of the world: Many native traditions held
clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the
sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because
laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred
ceremonies for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth. Native American tricksters should not be confused with the European fictional
picaro. One of the most important distinctions is that "we can see in the Native American trickster an openness to life's multiplicity and paradoxes largely missing in the modern Euro-American moral tradition". In some stories, the Native American trickster is foolish; other times wise. He can be a hero in one tale and a villain in the next. In many Native American and First Nations mythologies, the
Coyote spirit (
Southwestern United States) or
Raven spirit (
Pacific Northwest) stole fire from the gods (
stars,
moon, and/or
sun). Both are usually seen as jokesters and pranksters. In Native American creation stories, when Coyote teaches humans how to catch salmon, he makes the first fish weir out of logs and branches. He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear. According to A. Hultkranz, the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from at special ceremonies. In
Chelan myths, Coyote belongs to the animal people but he is at the same time "a power just like the Creator, the head of all the creatures." while still being a subject of the Creator who can punish him or remove his powers. In the Pacific Northwest tradition, Coyote is mostly mentioned as a messenger, or minor power. As the culture hero, Coyote appears in various mythic traditions, but generally with the same magical powers of transformation, resurrection, and "medicine". He is engaged in changing the ways of rivers, creating new landscapes and getting sacred things for people. Of mention is the tradition of Coyote fighting against monsters. According to Wasco tradition, Coyote was the hero to fight and kill
Thunderbird, the killer of people, but he could do that not because of his personal power, but due to the help of the Spirit Chief. In some stories,
Multnomah Falls came to be by Coyote's efforts; in others, it is done by Raven. More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but always different. In some stories, he is a noble trickster: "Coyote takes water from the Frog people... because it is not right that one people have all the water." In others, he is malicious: "Coyote determined to bring harm to Duck. He took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly." Coyote serves as a personification of humanity's traits, both good and bad. This is accomplished by making the character admirable and laughable, he is a character who is never quite satisfied with the way things are. The stories show how Coyote's actions may be alluring, but they also show the consequences of his poor decisions, and how people should think about the fate of Coyote before replicating his actions. ==Oral stories==