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This is our index of Apache folktales and traditional stories that can be read online. We have organized our Native American folktales section by tribe to make them easier to locate; however, variants on the same legend are often told by American Indians from different tribes, especially if those tribes are kinfolk or neighbors to each other. In particular, though these legends come from the Apache tribe, the traditional stories of related tribes like the Navajo and Pueblo tribes are very similar to Apache folklore.
Coyote (or Fox):
Coyote is the most common trickster figure among the Apache tribes (though in some
communities, the same stories attributed to Coyote instead feature Fox as the hero.)
Like the trickster figures of other Southwestern tribes, Coyote/Fox is occasionally helpful to humans,
but at other times his impetuous and foolish behavior causes trouble for everyone around him.
Frequently he is killed through his own recklessness, but always comes back to life afterwards.
Like other legendary Apache beings, Coyote is sometimes described as having human form,
and other times animal form.
Big Owl (or Owl-Man):
A malicious and dangerous giant often used as a "bogeyman" in children's stories.
Like other legendary Apache beings, Big Owl is sometimes described as having human
form (in this case a man-eating ogre) and other times animal form (in this case a
horned owl large enough to carry off a child.)
Jicarilla Apache Legends:
Myths and tales of the Jicarilla Apache:
Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Legends:
Apache Fox Stories:
Apache Creation Story
The Chiricahua Creation
Jicarilla Emergence:
The Origin of Fire:
How The Buffalo Were Released On Earth:
Releasing the Buffalo
Raven and Buffalo:
Apache Flood Myth:
Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch:
Coyote Gets Rich off the White Men
Coyote and the Money Tree:
The Origin of Curing Ceremonies:
Death of the Great Elk
Why The Bat Has Short Legs
Killing of the Monsters:
Coyote Proves Himself A Cannibal:
Why The Bat Hangs Upside Down:
Coyote And Bobcat Scratch Each Other:
The Abandoned Children:
The Mescaleros' Prophecy:
Apache Mythology
Jicarilla Mythology:
Songs of the Wind Dancer
Apache Legends and Lore of Southern New Mexico:
Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians
Tales of the White Mountain Apache
Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians:
And It Is Still That Way:
Hold Up The Sky:
American Indian Trickster Tales:
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Back to Native American spirit animals
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