Two antelope were gambling with a white tailed deer and a frog. The antelope and deer ran a race in the woods. White tail deer jumped over the tree and beat, for antelope had to run where there are no trees. He won from antelope the dew claws and the fat on the hips.

Then the antelope suggested that they run a race with frog out on the plains. Many frogs put themselves in a line, reaching from the starting place to the goal. When they started to run each frog jumped this way just as one shakes a string. The antelope was beaten because he thought frog could not possibly win. That was the way it was done.

Footnotes:

The story is told of Coyote and Turtles among other tribes. Dorsey, (d), p. 105; (e), p, 143.

Jicarilla Apache Texts, by Pliny Earle Goddard; New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VIII; (1911) and is now in the public domain.

A long time ago, besides the Badger and family, who lived at Zuxt, Coyote was the only inhabitant of the Nicola country. He lived in an under ground house at Tezze’la; and the place is known as the Coyote’s under ground house at the present day. He had two wives. – the Alder woman and the Cottonwood woman, – who were created by the Qwo’qtqwal. From them he had four sons and four daughters. Afterwards the antelope came to the Nicola country and lived with Coyote. He, also, had four sons and four daughters. Before that, he had lived in the south. Now, at this time there lived a number of people at Lytton, who possessed a copper ball of which they were very proud. They boasted much of this wonderful ball, which they often used in ball games, and it became noted far and wide. Coyote and Antelope made up their minds to get possession of the famous ball, and despatched their eight sons to take it from the Lytton people.

From here on this story is the same as “Coyote Legend.” No.5, p. 32, in the “Traditions of the Thompson River Indians,” from line to the end, with the following single addition:- among those who pursued the antelopes and Coyotes were the Hummingbirds, who were swifter of foot than any others of the Lytton people. They could have easily overtaken the antelopes, and their friends depended on their getting the ball; but they fooled away their time by playing and running around among the flowers, instead of seriously chasing the antelopes. When they returned to Lytton without the ball, the people were angry, and transformed them to the hummingbirds we see at the present day.

After a long residence with Coyote, Antelope at last moved over to Montana, where he took up his abode, and his descendants became numerous in that country. Therefore antelopes are plentiful there at the present day, but are not found in the Thompson country. The children of Antelope and Coyote intermarried, and their descendants had different colors of skin and hair. Those who had whitish and yellowish skins are said to take after the Cottonwood mother, and those who had reddish and brownish skins, after the Alder mother. Therefore we find these colors of skin among Indians at the present day. As Coyote and his two wives each had different colored hair, therefore people now have light and dark colored hair of different shades. It is said some of the Indian inhabitants of Nicola are descendants of Coyote.

Taken from: Myths and Tales from Nicola Valley and Fraser River collected by James Alexander Teit, 1911

[1]
A Cochiti man went antelope hunting on the antelope plains. He took an antelope skin that almost covered him. When he came to the plains he put it on so that he looked just like an antelope. He saw them in a high place. He took a different direction and hid to see what direction they would take. When he saw that they were moving away he went closer. He stalked them. He kept his bow and arrow hidden under his antelope suit. They thought he was an antelope. When he got to the center of the herd he hurled his spear and the animal that was wounded ran off. He followed till the antelope fell exhausted. When he had plenty he went back to the spot where he had put on his suit and began to skin the antelopes. He killed all those that were not yet dead.

He stayed three days and took much game. He killed more than all the rest of the party. (The rest did not wear antelope disguise.) In this way he became a great antelope hunter. At last he went on a hunt. He had sighted antelopes on the plains and put on the antelope skin. He went to windward and came to a high place. While he stood waiting the eagle came flapping his wings. With his claws the eagle took the boy by his neck. His companions were watching. They went to help. When they got there, Eagle had the boy by the neck and his wings over the body. This was the end of the great antelope hunter. This is a true story.

Footnotes
[1] Informant 4.

Tales of the Cochiti Indians, by Ruth Benedict; U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin no. 98; US Government Printing Office; [1931] and is now in the public domain.

A band of Cheyenne Indians went on one of their visits to Bears Tipi to worship the Great Spirit; as did many other tribes before the white man came. The Cheyenne warriors took their families with them as they felt that would be safe as Bears Tipi was a holy place.

After having camped there for several days, one of the Cheyenne warriors noticed that his wife was often gone from camp, staying away for a short time. As time went on he noticed that she was gone longer than before. This brave could not understand why his wife should be gone from their lodge so much as he had always been devoted to her and being a good hunter as well as a brave warrior, she always had much buffalo, antelope, and deer meat. He furnished her fine skins to make nice clothes.

Becoming suspicious that some other warrior in his band might be courting his wife, he watched to see what man was missing when his wife left camp. He found that no man was missing when his wife was gone. This man also saw that his wife had a skin over her shoulders now that she did not wear before coming to this camp.

One day when she had been gone longer than usual, he lay in wait for her, and on her return he asked her where she had been and what drew her from camp so much of the time. She would not answer any of his questions. Then the man became very upset, and he tore the skin from her shoulders and saw that she was covered with scratches.

He demanded that she tell him which man had abused her. Becoming frightened at the way her husband was acting she told him that she had been charmed by a very big bear that lived in the big rock. The bear had no mate and had become infatuated with her while she was out gathering fruit. Fearing for the safety of the camp, she had submitted to the bear’s embraces, which accounted for the scratches on her shoulders.

Then the warrior told his wife to lead him to the bear so he could kill it. When they found the bear, the man had great fear because the bear was big, very big. The bear slapped the woman with his paw and changed her into a bear. The man ran to the camp to get the rest of the warriors to help him kill the big bear.

They found the bear had crawled into a cave, leaving his hind feet in the door. The bear’s feet were so big that nobody could get past them. They could not get close enough to the bear to kill him so they shot at his feet to make him come out. When the bear came out he was so big that all the warriors were scared and climbed up on a big rock.

There men were so scared that they prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. In answer to their prayers, the rock began to grow up out of the ground and when it stopped it was very high. The bear jumped at the men and on the fourth jump his claws were on the top. The Great Spirit had helped the men and now they had great courage and they shot the bear and killed him. When the bear fell, he fell backwards and pushed the big rock which made it lean.

After that, the bear-woman made this big rock her home, so the Cheyenne called it Bears Tipi.

This legend was told to Dick Stone by Young Bird.
Samuel Weasel Bear, Interpreter.

http://www.nps.gov/deto/stories.htm