All the animals were here first, you know. I don’t know when or how they got started, but the animals all gathered round with the wolf as the leader. They were talking about the people that were going to be here pretty soon.

“We have to get things ready!” they said. “The people are going to be here soon, the humans. So we should get the universe and the world in shape, and all the stuff that goes with living!”

They got the world in shape. They did everything that you see out there today. Well, not the cows. Imagine buffalo out there. So they had the clothing, the stuff the people could use, the meat, the stuff they could eat, all that stuff.

After the world was in shape, the animals gathered again and they figured out what the people should look like. They had already decided that the people should have two arms and two legs.

They said, “Hey! Now we have decided. They will have two arms and two legs.”

How they decided to have two arms and two legs, that part I didn’t get. I have heard it but I can’t remember how they did that and what went with it. I heard these stories from the old people when I was a kid. It’s lost now. We don’t have any old people to tell it. See, it takes a long time to tell it, maybe three or four years to tell the stories just to come to the time when the real humans got here. They were god type people then. They could be anything they wanted to be.

The birds wanted to be represented. So the bird people said, “All right, we want them to have wings so they can be like us and fly.”

The other animals agreed. “OK. We’ve got to try it and see if it will work for the people to have wings.”

Now the coyote wanted to be the hero. He always wanted to be the boss or something like that. Whatever he does, he always wants to be the one to do this or do that or do anything. So he volunteered to try out the wings to see if they could work for the people.

So they got the wings to put on coyote. Every different tribe has a bird that gave the wings. In this case here we use honkers, Canadian geese. And they put the wings on the coyote and he could fly.

Wouldn’t that be good to fly? Hey, wouldn’t it? To fly through that wind out there today?

The animals told the coyote, “All right. You are going to have to fly three times for the people to have wings. You are going to take off from this pond here. When you go over the mountain you will see a body of water. And you know how Canadian geese are. They start honking when they see a body of water. ‘Hooka, hooka, hooka.’ You have to do the same as the geese. You have to fly with them, honk with them, and land with them on the water. Three times.”

So coyote took off and flew over the mountains with the geese. They saw a body of water. The geese honked. Coyote did the same things the geese did. He flew with them and made the same noise. “Hooka, hooka, hooka.” He circled with them and honked and made the first landing. It was all right.

Then the geese and the coyote took off and flew over the second mountain and saw another body of water. Every time the geese honked, the coyote had to do the same or he couldn’t fly. So they were honking and they circled and landed on the water. It was all right. “Hey! Only one more to go and then the people will have wings!” they said.

So they took off over the third mountain. After a long time they looked down and there was the third body of water. There were some people around the body of water. It was a trick. They looked down and there were some coyote girls, beautiful coyote ladies lying around on the beach.

Coyote got carried away. The geese were honking, “Hooka, hooka, hooka.” But coyote howled, “Owwwoooo.... Look at those pretty girls down there!” He totally forgot to honk and his wings fell off. He lost his wings and fell down, down, down. And he crashed on the beach. So that is how coyote flew and the people didn’t get wings.

Clarence De Garmo lives on the Fort Bidwell Northern Paiute Reservation in Surprise Valley, Calif., a place he calls Yamosza. Sophie Sheppard made these drawings for Clarence to show when he tells school children today the stories he remembers from childhood, family and friends, and the “times before people.”