The Well-Baked Man

Pima

The Magician who made things wanted to make a man so he built himself an oven, but Coyote soon became interested in what he was doing. The Magician made two figures from clay, and turned his back. Coyote changed the figures to appeal to him. The Magician put them in the over without really looking at them. When they were done, he took them out and told them to stand up. They stood up on all fours and barked. This is how the dog came into being.

The Magician made figures again, but they were both the same. He didn’t know how they would reproduce. He pinched a little on one of the figures and used his fingernail to make a slit in the other. He figured that they would be able to reproduce at this point. He put them in the over to bake, but Coyote said they were done, so The Magician took them out. They were too white. They were not fit for this land, perhaps somewhere far away.

The Magician tried again. He made his figures and put them in the oven. Coyote said they were done. The Magician took them out and they were way too dark. He said that they would be good for across the ocean somewhere.

The Magician tried one more time, this time he himself watched the time. He took his figures out and they were just right. The figures moved around and made merry and became the Pueblo Indians.

Observations

Coyote that old trickster…making dogs. Dogs were made first huh? Well, if you follow the story of creation in the Bible, all animals were made before Adam was, so, yes, dogs were made first.

Themes

This story is about the creation of three different peoples, plus dogs. The Native Americans were seen as the perfect type of people in this story, but all three peoples are fundamentally the same, they just didn’t get baked in the oven for the same amount of time. The Magician made all people out of the same materials and the only difference is how long they were in the oven. So essentially, discriminating against someone who doesn’t have the same skin color as you is basically like saying, “I don’t like you because you were in the oven longer or shorter than I was,” which sounds silly as human beings didn’t really come from an oven, but the whole concept of racism is silly anyway. Your skin has more or less melanin, I don’t like you. What a stupid thing to even think about.

Underneath, we’re all made of the same stuff people, whether you think we were baked in an oven or not.

Overall

Let’s get out our EZ-Bake Ovens and see what we can make.

Weigh In

What else do you think the Magician baked?

Do you think coyote would have made anything else in the oven? If so, what would it have been?