The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative

Chapter 5 opens with the same story about the earth being constructed on the backs of turtles and the same assertion that stories are “all we are.” King then recounts the Native story of the Coyote and the Ducks. The story takes place when animals still talked to humans and when Ducks “had lovely long feathers that shimmered and flashed like the Northern Lights” (122). Coyote keeps asking the Ducks for additional feathers so he can make himself look prettier. The Ducks stop giving him feathers until he lies, saying that Human Beings will try to steal their feathers unless they let Coyote disguise himself as a duck and protect them. When the Ducks refuse to give him new feathers, Coyote says he and the Ducks must fight the Human Beings. The Ducks ask what is it about them that Human Beings don’t like. The Coyote says, “Oh, they like you well enough [...] They just like your feathers better” (127).

King uses the story of the Coyote and the Ducks as a metaphor for Native American legislation passed by the US and Canadian governments. While the Ducks end up losing their long beautiful feathers, the short feathers we know ducks have today grow in their place.