Halloween is the time for spooky stories, and recently I heard an especially fun one during an Ohlone folklore program at Fremont Main Library. Vincent Medina of Cafe Ohlone told the story of Blood Monster, who figures in a well-known Ohlone scary story.
Blood Monster looks like a cross between a bear and wild pig, with a patchy coat and a mouth full of crooked fangs. He’s gnarly. Like many monsters, he has a favorite food: in this case, the blood of the Ohlone people. If he comes to an Ohlone village, he’ll smash everything in sight and eat everybody.
Now, a particular village got wind that Blood Monster was on his way. Luckily, they had a wise leader on their side: Coyote. Coyote told the villagers to make watertight cooking baskets, cook acorn soup and gather red ochre dye. They were confused at first, but Coyote assured them he had a plan. The people lined the path through their village with baskets of the fake blood soup, and hid in the roundhouse with the biggest basket of all.
Also like many monsters, Blood Monster was not the sharpest arrow in the quiver. He slurped up all the soup, and by the time he got to the roundhouse, he couldn’t fit through the door. Nevertheless he was so possessed by gluttony he tried to ram himself through to get at the terrified trapped villagers.
Coyote had one more trick—he had lined the doorway with obsidian and concealed the sharp points with tule branches. As Blood Monster struggled, the knives dug in and—Pop! Blood Monster turned into a thousand tiny (but still bloodthirsty) mosquitoes.
This spooky story, explained Medina, has several lessons. First, everything in moderation. Also, a problem is easier to deal with when you break it down into smaller chunks. More centrally to Ohlone culture, you need to fight back from your place of power. The villagers use their everyday skills and retreat to the roundhouse, the place for community gatherings.
Coyote acts as a trusted leader by Ohlone standards, which is why others have faith in his mysterious plan. This is not a story of “Question Authority.” Listeners already know what the Coyote figure is about: He’s the wise leader, even in dire situations. Here, Coyote gives clear, doable instructions, and he comes through for his people.
This Ohlone lesson is still relevant for us today. In our modern age of information overload, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by fear, and hard to focus on what you can actually achieve. It helps to have someone in charge you can trust, even when you don’t know all the answers.
