Talking with Lawyer Canyon, the tentative title of my book,will be written in what literary critics call "Creative Nonfiction". I plan to push the boundaries of this genre while holding to the two absolute rules of writing serious nonfiction. The rules are defined by ASU's professor Stephen Pyne.
"Rule 1 is simple. It means you don't include details unsupported by the evidence; you don't tinker with the chronology to simplify the narrative; you don't introduce characters or scenes that have no documentary basis; you don't conjure up a person's thoughts when these are unknown; you don't invent dialogue. It means you don't put quotation marks around words that were not actually said, or were not said in that precise way"These rules should be held to absolutely in writing any history book. That said, I wonder if my version of this Nez Perce story is valid, or do I need to quote someone else's written account? Am I crossing the line with this story I have told in every COM100 class for 20 years?
Rule 2 is "You can't leave something out in order to "make a better story" or sharpen the scene or quicken the pace." [Stephen J. Pyne. Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction (Kindle Locations 165-168 & 174-175). Kindle Edition].
Coyote Creates The People
Coyote was tearing down a waterfall so brother salmon could
get upstream, when Fox came running up yelling, “Coyote, did you hear about the
Monster? He’s eating all the people”
(Animal people, not humans yet). “You
gotta do something!”
Coyote said, “Settle down Fox. I’ll take care of it.” Coyote went and got a long rope, and he
wrapped it around his waist. He wrapped
it around and around, (Some people say it was his penis, but I don’t believe
it). Then he chipped out five flint
knives and tucked them into his waist.
He crawled up out of the Clearwater River valley onto the Camas Prairie
and headed over toward the Kamiah valley.
That’s where the Monster was. The
Monster heard Coyote singing, so he stuck his head up out of the valley. He was a big Monster.
Coyote saw the Monster’s head come up, so he started teasing
the Monster singing, “Stupid-stupid Monster; stupid-stupid monster.” He was making that Monster real mad. The Monster started to try sucking, making a
big wind, trying to suck Coyote down his throat. Coyote threw his rope and lassoed the
Bitterroot Mountains. The Monster sucked
Coyote three times to the end of his rope.
Coyote kept teasing Monster each time, but then he said, “I better quit
playing with this Monster and get to work.”
So Coyote took one of the knives and reached back and cut the rope. That’s why I don’t think it was his
penis. No one would cut their penis;
well, except maybe Abraham, but that’s a different story.
Coyote flew down into the Monster. He was looking around and he saw Elk, all
half digested, bones sticking out, “Yuk.”
He went down farther and ran into Rattlesnake. Rattlesnake was all freaked out, so he bit
Coyote right in the foot. Coyote yelled,
“You stupid rattlesnake! Don’t you know I came down here to save the people.” So Coyote stomped Rattlesnake on the
head. That’s why Rattlesnake has a flat
head. He went down farther and ran into
Bear. Bear was all worked up too, so
Coyote punched Bear in the face. That’s
Why Bear has that flat nose. Finally, Coyote
got all the animals settled down.
Listen,” he said.
“I’m going to build a fire here in the bottom of the Monster. It’s going to make him real sick. You animals all run out of the orifices when
the Monster gives his last dying gasp.” Coyote
got out his fire making stuff and got a little fire started. He started cutting yellow fat off the inside
of the Monster; it was a fat monster. He
put the fat on the fire to make a stinking black smoke. The Monster groaned. Then he took a knife and started cutting off
the Monster’s heart, but his knife broke.
It was a hard-hearted Monster. He
took another knife and cut. Soon he was
down to his last knife, the heart was hanging from just a thread. The smoke was billowing. The Monster groaned and groaned, like when
you have heartburn. Coyote cut off the
heart; the Monster gave his dying gasp; all the animals ran out. Except for Muskrat. He got his tail caught in the anus and had to
pull it out. That’s why Muskrat doesn’t
have any hair on his tail.
Fox started yelling, “Coyote is still in the Monster; we got
to do something.” But Coyote is a
trickster. He still had his last
knife. He cut his way out of the Monster
from the inside out. He started cutting
up the Monster and throwing pieces around.
He threw some to the East; they became the Blackhead, and the Shoshone
and those fierce people over there. He
threw some to the South, and where the pieces landed the Paiute and the Modoc
sprang up, fierce and mean. He threw
some West to the Columbia River Valley; they became those short, good fishermen
people. He threw some north; they became
the Coeur du’Alene Indians. They’re good
gamblers. He threw pieces all around,
and when he was done, Fox said, “But Coyote, you didn’t make people here.” Coyote took the Heart
of the Monster and planted it there in the Kamiah valley, and he took the blood and sprinkled
it around, blood and water all around.
Everywhere the blood touched, people sprang up, the Nee-mee-poo, the
real people. They were intelligent and
wise. They became the Nez Perces.
(B. Peterson)[1]
(B. Peterson)[1]
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| Heart of the Monster, Kamiah, Idaho (Author's photo) |
[1] Allen Slickpoo’s version of this story is @: http://idahoptv.org/productions/idahoportrait/about/slickpoo.html
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