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.

Once, Rabbit lived with Frog. Rabbit ran around hunting. He found a beaver lodge along a creek. He thought it was an evil cannibal emerging from the snow. Rabbit was really terrified. He ran home very frightened. Frog said to Rabbit, “Are you out of your mind? It was probably just a beaver lodge.” She told him, “Let’s go over there.” She told him to take his ice chisel along. They left.

Here was a beaver lodge standing there. Frog told her husband, “Let’s try to kill the beavers.” She told him, “Make a hole in the ice there.” Rabbit chiseled a hole in the ice. Frog ordered Rabbit to scoop out all the ice from the hole. Frog ran towards the hole and jumped in. Rabbit stood there and waited.

Frog surfaced and said, “Break open your beaver lodge now.” Rabbit broke open the lodge. Here were all the beaver that were in the lodge that she had killed. Both Frog and Rabbit dragged their beaver’s home.

Rabbit skinned the beaver and cooked them. After he had cooked them, he ate. Rabbit didn’t give any of the beaver meat to his wife, Frog. She told him, “Feed me.” He didn’t. Frog got annoyed and threatened him by saying, “Hey, I’m going to tell Owl that you’re not feeding me.” Rabbit still didn’t feed Frog. Frog got angry and said, “Owl, Rabbit isn’t feeding me his beavers.” They could hear Owl hooting. Now, Rabbit was really frightened. He gave Frog the beaver meat she was asking for. She said, “Owl, it’s OK. He is feeding me now.”

After living together for a while, I guess they finished off eating their beavers. Rabbit went to look for food again. He saw the large tracks of someone. He was really frightened again. Rabbit ran home. That is also why a rabbit is very cowardly today. He said, “I have seen the large tracks of someone.” Frog said, “It must be a moose because I had heard that a moose is walking around.” She must have heard that a moose was walking around. She said, “Let’s go track it.” They left.

It was the tracks of a moose. They tracked the moose. Then they reached it standing there. Frog and Rabbit creeped towards the moose. Frog told Rabbit, “Stand here.” Frog approached the moose. When she got close to it, she burrowed into the snow. She emerged at the leg of the moose. She carefully climbed up the leg and entered into the anus of the moose. She went to the heart of the moose and that was where she started biting and chewing at the heart.

Rabbit was just watching the moose standing there. Then the moose, who just stood there not noticing anything, suddenly collapsed. Rabbit just stood there. Then Frog emerged from the nostril of the moose. They butchered it and took all the meat home. They had plenty of food.

Then one night, they heard a cannibal screaming. They could hear the evil being coming closer. Then it reached them. Rabbit jumped into the food that was on the platform. That was where he hid. Frog jumped into the pot of blood. The evil cannibal barged into their lodge and began eating their food. Then Frog heard the cannibal enjoying itself as it ate her husband, Rabbit. The cannibal ate Rabbit.

The monstrous cannibal turned over the pot of blood where Frog had jumped in. She burrowed into the boughs and burrowed into the ground. The evil creature didn’t find out about her. It didn’t know where she was. Frog couldn’t be killed. That is how long the legend is.

Told by Florrie Mark-Stewart Eastmain
http://www.creeculture.ca/e/traditional/frogandrabbit.html

There was a widow, Frog (wexwext), who was maltreated and became angry. So she went up the river to the source, and sat over the fountain-head, so that the entire river went dry. There was no water except in some deep holes. Now, the people had not missed her; but Coyote (itseyeye) thought something like this must have happened to make the river go dry. He went upstream, because he knew the place where the water had been stopped. As he travelled up the dry bed, he made five rafts, and placed them about five bends of the river apart.

At the head of the river he saw a lodge. He was nearly dead of thirst when he arrived; so he entered the lodge. Inside he saw a mountain-sheep-horn bucket of water, and he said to the woman, “Pass that water over to me; I have drunk a great deal of water along the river to-day, still I am very dry.” So he drank up all the water.

Coyote lay down on the opposite side of the lodge from the woman, and covered his head with his blanket. But he had an eye-hole in the blanket; and he saw her rise, take the empty bucket, and dip up water from where she had been sitting. After this, Coyote arose and went out.

Near that place he spat upon some tule rushes, and told them to give war-whoops after he had re-entered the lodge. So he went again into the lodge, and soon there was a great noise of war-whoops. He said out loud to himself, “I thought I heard something when I was outside.” But for all his strategy, the Frog widow would not budge from where she sat. So Coyote seized her by the arm and jerked her up. Then the water came out. When the water was running freely, he threw the woman into the stream, saying, “This is the way you will always be: whenever high water comes, it will always carry frogs down the river.”

Coyote then started downstream, running as fast as he could. When he reached the place of the first raft, he found it had broken adrift. So he ran on to the next one, and found it also adrift; and the third the same, and the fourth. He reached the fifth, however, just as it was breaking loose, and managed to jump aboard. Then he went down the river on the raft. This is how Coyote recovered the water from Frog.

Nez Perce Tales, By Herbert J. Spinden, 1907

Frog had a smooth pole set in the ground, and with it he had devised a means of killing off all the birds. A race would be run up this pole, and whoever got to the top first would cut off the other one’s head. The pole leaned a little; and Frog would get on the upper side, and make the opponent get on the under side. Thus Frog continued to win races for a long time, and managed to kill off many birds.

Coyote was in this camp. He became afraid that Frog was going to kill off all the birds. So Coyote gave a big feast, and invited every one to attend. He wanted the people to work out a plan to get the best of Frog; but every one was afraid to run him a race. After a scheme had been devised, Bluejay (kuyeskuyes) undertook the job; and Coyote made a speech, calling everybody to the pole, and announcing that there was to be a race between Frog and Bluejay.

Now, little Frog became uneasy, and feared that Bluejay was going to win and then kill her. So when they were half way to the top, Frog tried to kick Bluejay off the pole. When they were nearly to the top, Bluejay used his wings and flew the rest of the way. He got to the top first. When Frog got to the top, Bluejay kicked her, and she fell to the ground and was killed. Ever since that race there have been no feathers on the side of Bluejay’s face, because Frog had torn them all off when she tried to knock Bluejay from the pole. After the race was over, Coyote made a speech, saying, “Hereafter there will be frogs on the earth, but they will never hurt any one. People will hear the frogs singing, and then they will know that warm weather is coming.”

Nez Perce Tales, By Herbert J. Spinden, 1907

Long, long ago in the days of the animal kingdom. Miss Frog lived with her father, Wekwekt, the bullfrog, in the swamps where the two great rivers come together in Siminikum. Wekwekt was the most gifted musician in all the land. The animals gathered every evening to hear him sing in his melodious bass voice. Everyone was very fond of Wekwekt because he was kind and good as well as a marvelous musician.

Miss Frog was considered the most beautiful of all the animal maidens. Many suitors came to her door. Because of her popularity she grew very vain and treated her admirers in a most unkind manner. Some said they came mostly to hear Wekwekt sing, but this was not entirely true, for Miss Frog was indeed lovely to look upon.

Of all the many suitors who called at the tipi of the bullfrog and his daughter, Tiska, the skunk, was the most faithful. He came even when he was ignored by Miss Frog, and whenever he had a chance for a moment alone with her, he would beg her to marry him. But vain Miss Frog would only dismiss him with a sniff.

“Me marry you, Tiska? Why, I can have my pick of all the young fellows in the valley. Why should I settle for you?”

Now, Itsayaya, the coyote, thought very highly of Tiska, the skunk.

He was intelligent and handsome. Be-cause of his brilliance and his dependable character, Itsayaya appointed him to the highest council in the land, giving him charge over the coming and going of the salmon in the rivers.

Miss Frog continued to turn away suitors, but they admired her so much that at first they came back again and again. Tiska, the skunk, came, too. Finally, all the others became tired of her foolishness and began to call on other animal maidens in Siminikum. Wissi, the wood rat, who had been a frequent caller at the tipi of Wekwekt, began to see Lockaz, a fragile young field mouse. Miss Frog heard of this and the next time he came to call she scolded him.

“I thought you loved me, you fickle rat. I knew you were beneath me all the time. Imagine preferring a little timid field mouse to me!”

“Well, she is honest and faithful and suits me much better than you, Miss Frog.” And with that Wissi, the wood rat, left the home of Miss Frog and never returned. In a few days she heard of his wedding to Lockaz, the field mouse. And she wasn’t even invited to the festivities.

So it went with those who had been in love with Miss Frog. She was cruel to all of them and gradually they stopped coming, all but faithful Tiska, the skunk. In spite of all her rebuffs, he continued to come every three days. Finally, Miss Frog decided that if she were to have a husband at all she had better accept the skunk.

Wekwekt, the bullfrog, prepared a great wedding feast. All the animals came to toast the bride and groom, and it was the gayest wedding ever seen in Siminikum. Then the newlyweds set up house in a little meadow near the council place in Siminikum.

Miss Frog seemed happy as the wife of Tiska, and for many moons everything went smoothly. Then one day Tiska, the skunk, came home from his work with the salmon and found his wife gone, the fire dead, and no supper cooking. Late that night Mrs. Skunk came home and went to sleep without speaking to her husband.

Tiska, the skunk, was puzzled and angry, and next morning he questioned his wife about her strange behavior.

“Where did you go, wife? I was very worried about you.”

“Why should you worry about me? I can take care of myself,” she answered with a toss of her head.

The next day the same thing happened, and the day after that Mrs. Skunk didn’t come home even at night.

Tiska was puzzled and terribly worried. He went to Itsayaya, the coyote, with his problem.

Now Itsayaya was wise and clever, and he kept his ears and eyes open, too. He had heard that Mrs. Skunk was spending her time with Apapapap, the lizard, up on the hillside. Apapapap had a bad reputation in Siminikum. Itsayaya thought and thought about the problem. He was fond of Tiska, the skunk, and hated to see him unhappy.

Then the coyote called Tiska and his wife to him and said to her, “Mrs. Skunk, I order you to stay home where you belong. Tiska is one of the finest of all the animal people, and you should be a good wife to him.”

“And what business is it of yours, Itsayaya?” she asked. “I shall do as I please.”

“I am warning you,” said the coyote. “If you leave Tiska again, I shall call down my strongest medicine upon you and something dreadful will happen to you.”

“I don’t believe it, and besides, I don’t care,” she said.

Then fickle Miss Frog, who was now Mrs. Skunk, packed her things in a little buckskin bag and started up the rocky hillside to meet Apapapap, the lizard. She was just beyond Hatwai Creek when she felt as if a great weight had been put on her feet. Her steps moved slower and slower, until she stopped and couldn’t move any more. She has never moved since. Itsayaya used his magic medicine to turn her to stone.

If you should care to see fickle Miss Frog, look at the hillside above Hatwai, for she sits there just as she has all these years since the time of the animal kingdom in Siminikum.

Taken from Tales of the Nimipoo – From the Land of the Nez Perce Indians, Eleanor B. Heady, 1969