IF I HAD WINGS ~

COYOTE AMERICA ~

C O Y O T E      A M E R I C A
D A N      F L O R E S
A Natural & Supernatural History
Basic Books, 2016




A Talk with Dan Flores







Usually I would show the book dust jacket but the drawing of a coyote image
on the dust jacket looks more like a malamute dog than a coyote.
The above photograph sharpens things considerably.
Historically and scientifically this book is quite sound.
Otherwise, troubadours and scoundrels take note —
the author seems quite evasive at sinking into the backcountry
legends of Jaime de Angulo, James Koller's Coyote's Journal,
even Gary Snyder and Edward Abbey.
For instance, DeAngulo is summed up in two short paragraphs,
whereas the cartoon character Wile E. (coyote) is given
a full six pages. We loved the Chuck Jones marvel as children
but grew up to know the lamp light and literature of de Angulo's
Indian Tales (1953) which the author first read live on KPFA radio in 1949 
prior to its book publication, plus the two volume Old Time Stories (1976). 
Indians in Overalls covers de Angulo's first linguistic trip in 1921 
to the Achumawi (Pit River Tribe of northeastern California).
Find these texts and find a coyote who wrote.

Jaime de Angulo with Achumawi 
medicine man Old Blind Hall