According to Coyote explores the richness and vitality of Indigenous storytelling

By Reader Staff

The Idaho Mythweaver is celebrating 35 years of partnering with regional Indigenous tribes to create cross-cultural connections through storytelling with a special live performance of According to Coyote — a one-person show focused on the legendary hero of Indigenous American mythology.

Starring Nez Perce actor Kellen Trenal, According to Coyote will be performed at the Panida Theater on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m., inviting audiences to experience the vibrant, entertaining anthology of traditional stories that showcase the richness and vitality of Indigenous culture through music, dance and theater.

According to Coyote, written by John Kauffman and directed by the playwright’s niece Josephine Keefe, will be presented by the Spokane Ensemble Theatre in partnership with Red Eagle Soaring. 

Kauffman and his wife, Carlotta, toured the show throughout the Pacific Northwest and all the way to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Under Keefe’s direction, the mono-dramatic performance takes on an element of family legacy, even as it explores the deep history of the Nez Perce creation myth and other ancient stories.

Nez Perce actor Kellen Trenal. Courtesy photo.

“After the emotional and creatively depleting years of the pandemic, Josephine found herself questioning what kind of stories she wanted to tell in a post-pandemic world,” organizers stated in a news release. “Those questions led to a decision that now is the time to return to how ancestors shared stories and how she first learned about the stories from the Nez Perce Tribe.”  

The immersive hour of storytelling aims to teach lessons as it entertains.

“The connection to community, family and the realization that all of us are still learning from our mistakes, just like Coyote does, is at the core of this story,” organizers stated.

The Spokane Ensemble Theatre began in 2001, focused on generating inspiring art that amplifies diverse voices and narratives in Spokane and around the country. 

The Idaho Mythweaver started in 1989 and has since created  public radio documentaries, feature stories for radio and print, as well as sponsored performing arts events, lectures, cultural tours, intertribal gatherings, film screenings and cultural immersion classes for elementary schools in North Idaho. 

With a wide range of original, historic recordings created with regional Indigenous elders, the nonprofit Mythweaver has digitized and shared its “Native Voices Archive” with tribes, libraries and museum archives. Those works have formed the basis for “Voices of the Wild Earth,” which produces podcasts based on the “lessons and wisdom of Indigenous peoples about how to live on the land and create a new relationship with nature.”  

Nine such podcasts have been produced to date and are featured on mythweaver.org, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The podcasts are also being reformatted and have been broadcast by KPBX Spokane Public Radio each month since August. 

The most recent program, “Kootenai Keepers of the Earth,” is a redux of the Mythweaver’s original KPBX radio documentary about the Kootenai (Ktunaxa) Tribe of Idaho produced in 1991.

Supported by the Idaho Humanities Council and Bonner County Endowment Fund for Human Rights in the Idaho Community Foundation, the series “explores the connections between traditional stories and oral histories, and modern day tribal ecological practices to form a pathway for the future,” according to the Mythweaver.

The Mythweaver’s 35th anniversary celebration performance of According to Coyote is co-sponsored by Ting internet and includes a raffle of an original painting of sockeye salmon by Troy, Mont.-based artist Terrel Jones titled “Spawning Channel,” and a silent auction of a dozen specially selected items.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and under, available at the Panida (300 N. First Ave.), panida.org at cash-only at Evans Brothers Coffee (524 Church St., in Sandpoint).