Coyote, an interesting character, is found in Native cultures throughout North America.
In some stories, Coyote is the Creator or has the power of creation.

In others he’s a culture hero, battling supernatural enemies. At times he’s a messenger,
bringing culturally significant information to the people.

Sometimes he’s a trickster, outsmarting people and animal-people.
And still in others he’s a buffoon; he's sex-crazed; he’s forever dying at the hands of a more clever being.

These stories are meant to entertain, instruct, or do both.
In contemporary Coyote stories, the concept is the same,
although in most contemporary Coyote stories he’s a buffoon of sorts.

Jicarilla Apache Coyote Stories

The coyote cycle is a series of tales or episodes involving the travels and adventures of the trickster, Coyote.
For any one story-teller, these tales or episodes had a fixed order in respect to one another,
though another story-teller's account might run somewhat differently.
The manner of organizing these episodes seemed to depend more or less on family lines,
since the young of a given family group drew their inspiration from some venerable
relative and carried on his version of the proper way to relate the antics of Coyote.