Re-Placing Coyote

Our human relationship with coyote is old, sometimes magical but lately polarized and complex. Archeological evidence shows coyote (Canis latrans) displayed ubiquitous distribution across the continent for over 1 million years (Wang, Tedford and Antón, 2010). Through this, coyote has witnessed the rise and fall of iconic species, such as the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), dire wolf (C. dirus), among others that migrated to this continent during the Pleistocene ice age (Wang, Tedford and Antón, 2010). Given human tenure on the North American continent is commonly believed to be less than 15,000 years, it is not surprising that coyote holds a pivotal and revered, magical role in many aboriginal stories: Coyote is creator, trickster, and shape-shifter (Alexander and Quinn, 2012).