Season 7 Bonus Episode: The Trickster

In this episode, we are exploring one of the most fascinating and misunderstood figures in Native American storytelling: the trickster. This figure embodies complexities and contradictions that reveal deep truths about ourselves and our place in the universe.

History UnErased is putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place — the classroom — and uniting all "We the People" with a more complete story of America. UnErased.org

Transcript

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Deb Fowler: Hello, and welcome to UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities — A Podcast. I’m Deb Fowler, co-founder of History UnErased.

In this episode, we are exploring one of the most fascinating and misunderstood figures in Native American storytelling: the trickster.

When you hear the word "trickster," you might think of mischief, pranks, or deception. And while that's part of the story, the trickster in Indigenous cultures is so much more. This figure is a teacher, a transformer, and a creator who reveals deep truths about our identities and our place in the universe.

Kathleen Barker: The next time you’re outside on a clear winter night, look to the skies and find the constellation known by some cultures as Orion. Did you know that you’re looking at a trickster? In the Cree tradition, one variation of the creation story tells of the stars and features a central character named Weesageychak, who is represented by this constellation. Weesageychak is both a trickster and a teacher—a figure who shifts gender, form, and space to playfully teach us about ourselves and our connection to the wider universe, the land and waters, living things, and each other. 

Think about that for a moment. This being can change gender. Can change physical form. Can move through different realms of existence. And all of this shape-shifting, all of this fluidity, serves a purpose: to teach. The trickster's very nature—unpredictable, transformative, boundary-crossing—becomes the lesson itself.

So what does Weesageychak teach? The ability to shift form reminds us that identity isn't always fixed. The crossing of boundaries shows us that categories we create—male and female, human and animal, physical and spiritual—are often more flexible than we think. And by appearing in the stars, this trickster connects the everyday world to the universe, reminding us that our stories and our lives are part of something infinitely larger.

Weesageychak is just one of many trickster figures in Native American traditions. Across hundreds of distinct Indigenous nations, each with their own languages, territories, and cultures, the trickster appears again and again—taking different forms, different names, but sharing core characteristics. 

In many Northwest Coast traditions, you'll find Raven—the clever bird who steals the sun, moon, and stars to bring light to the world. Raven is greedy, selfish, and always hungry, yet through his self-serving schemes, he ends up creating the world as we know it.

In the Southwest, Coyote is perhaps the most famous trickster. Coyote is cunning and foolish, creative and destructive, often outsmarting others only to be outwitted by his own appetites and impulses. The Great Lakes region has Nanabozho, who in Anishinaabe tradition is both a powerful spirit being and a bumbling fool. The Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois peoples, tell stories of Sapling and Flint, twin brothers whose conflicts shape creation itself. 

All of these figures share a sense of ambiguity. They're not heroes in the Western sense. They're not purely good or evil. They create and they destroy. They help and they hinder. They're wise and foolish, sacred and profane, often in the same story.

Why would so many cultures center such morally ambiguous figures in their most sacred stories? In Western European tradition, heroes tend to be virtuous, villains clearly evil, and moral lessons straightforward. But the trickster operates on entirely different principles.

First, the trickster is a teacher through experience rather than lecture. These stories don't tell you what to think—they show you what happens. When Coyote's greed gets him into trouble, listeners learn about the consequences of excess. When Raven's cleverness creates something beautiful, we see how even selfish motives can lead to positive outcomes. The lesson is in the story itself, not tacked on at the end.

Second, the trickster reveals the importance of adaptability. In many Indigenous worldviews, physical and spiritual survival requires the ability to navigate change, to read situations, to understand that rigid rules don't always serve us. The trickster, constantly shifting and adapting, models this essential skill.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the trickster breaks down false boundaries and exposes hypocrisy. When a trickster violates a taboo or reveals a secret, they're often pointing out the gap between what a society claims to value and what it actually does. They're truth-tellers precisely because they refuse to go along with the status quo. 

If these trickster stories sound familiar, that might be because the trickster isn't unique to Native American cultures. In fact, Creek-Cherokee author Craig S. Womack argues that tricksters are not inherently Indigenous. Instead, they were “invented by anthropologists,” often non-Indigenous scholars who, in the 1800s, gathered all the Indigenous figures and stories with similar characteristics and labeled them as “tricksters.” It is perhaps less surprising then that figures with trickster characteristics appear around the world, in traditions that developed independently, thousands of miles apart.

In West African traditions, Anansi the spider is a trickster who uses cleverness to outsmart more powerful beings. Anansi stories traveled with enslaved peoples to the Caribbean and Americas, evolving into characters like Br'er Rabbit. In Norse mythology, Loki is a shape-shifter who creates chaos among the gods—sometimes helping them, sometimes nearly destroying them. Like many Native American tricksters, Loki can change gender and form. In Greek tradition, Hermes is a trickster god: a thief, a messenger, and a guide between worlds. And in Japanese folklore, the tanuki and kitsune are trickster animals—raccoon dogs and foxes with shape-shifting abilities who love pranks but can also bring good fortune or teach important lessons.

So why does the trickster figure appear across human cultures? 

Perhaps it is because the trickster embodies something fundamental about the human experience—our capacity for both creation and destruction, our intelligence and our foolishness, our need to question authority and test boundaries. Or maybe it’s because the trickster serves a specific social function. In many cultures, certain types of criticism or questioning are dangerous. Speaking directly against leaders, traditions, or social norms can get you punished or ostracized. But a story? A joke? A tale about a foolish Coyote or a clever Raven? That's safe. The trickster gives cultures a way to examine themselves, to critique power, to explore taboos, all within the protective frame of a story.

Let's return to Weesageychak for a moment, because this figure illustrates something essential about Indigenous ways of knowing. Remember, Weesageychak is both in the stars and in the stories. This trickster connects the cosmos to everyday life, and the ancient past to the present moment. When Cree people look up at Orion, they're not just seeing a random pattern of stars. They're seeing a character they know, with stories and lessons and personality. The night sky becomes a storybook, a connection to ancestors, and a reminder of their teachings.

And that gender-shifting quality? That's not incidental. Many Indigenous cultures recognized gender diversity and fluidity long before contemporary Western discussions of these topics. The trickster's ability to cross gender boundaries reflects a worldview that saw such fluidity as powerful, even sacred. Two-Spirit people in many Native communities were (and still are) often seen as having special spiritual gifts precisely because they embodied both male and female characteristics and perspectives. 

Trickster tales aren't just stories from the past. They continue to live in Native communities, continue to be told and retold, and continue to teach new generations. What lessons can these trickster stories teach us today?

First, they remind us that wisdom doesn't always come in respectable packages. Truth-tellers often make us uncomfortable. They break rules, and ask inappropriate questions. Second, these stories model adaptability and resilience. The trickster survives—often thrives—through cleverness, flexibility, and the ability to see opportunities where others see only obstacles. In an era of rapid change and uncertainty, that's a valuable lesson. And finally, figures like Weesageychak teach us about connection—to place, to community, to the cosmos. The trickster is never truly alone, even when wandering. Every action ripples outward, affecting others, affecting the world. 

In Weesageychak, who shifts through forms and genders, who appears in the stars yet walks the earth, and who teaches through trickery and reveals truth through deception, the trickster reminds us that we don't have all the answers, and that the universe is more mysterious and magical than binary categories allow.

DF: This episode is intended as an introduction to tricksters, to spark your curiosity and, most importantly, to illuminate the wisdom of millennia of Indigenous philosophy that has much to teach our nascent nation.  This episode is not meant to be comprehensive! These are living traditions told and retold over generations, adapting and evolving over time.  We hope this brief taste of trickster stories will encourage you to cross boundaries of your own and explore this topic further. 

Kathleen Barker is History UnErased’s program director and podcast host, and is a library and information specialist and public historian with over 20 years of experience as a museum and library educator. This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack, our youth equity program director and podcaster. 

Our theme music is “1986” by BrothaD via Tribe of Noise. Please rate this podcast and share!  

I’m Deb Fowler. Thanks for listening. And visit UnErased.org to learn how we are putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place - the classroom.

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Secondary Sources

• Encyclopedia of the Great Plains: https://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.fol.044.html 
• Canadian Encyclopedia: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trickster 
• University of Winnipeg: https://archives.uwinnipeg.ca/our-collections/indigenous-2slgbtqqia-identities.html