BRULE SIOUX

Old Man Coyote and the White Trader

     There was once a white man who traded with the Indians and always got the better of them. He was cunning and cheated them in every trade. A man came to the white man one day and told him that there was someone who he could not cheat. The white man responded that he had been running his trading post for many years and no one could ever get the better of him.

     So the man called to Old Man Coyote, pointing him out to the white man as "the tricky looking fellow over there." The white man trader approached Old Man Coyote and said, "I am told you can outsmart me, let's see you do it." Old Man Coyote told the white man he would like to show him, but he couldn't without his cheating medicine. The white man was of course so arrogant that he had no fear and told Old Man Coyote to go get his cheating medicine. Old Man Coyote responded, "I live many miles away and I'm on foot, but if you will loan me your fastest horse I would be able to get it." The trader wanting to have the opportunity to best this man said, "Sure, you can borrow my horse, now go quickly and get your cheating medicine so I can prove to you that I cannot be cheated." Then Old Man Coyote said to the man, "Friend, you are most fair, but I am a poor rider. Your horse is afraid of me and I am afraid of him. Let me wear your clothes so your horse will think I am you and not throw me." The trader gave Old Man Coyote his clothes and said, "Now, go get your cheating medicine. I am sure I can beat it!"

     So Old Man Coyote rode away on the white man's fast horse, wearing his fine clothes, leaving the trader standing there bare-assed and buck naked.