With the help of Native American consultants, Gauder and co-writer Géza Bereményi arrived at a middle ground between solemnity and amusement, the latter mostly derived from Coyote's thwarted antics.

To many Native American cultures, coyotes were powerful mythological ... translates to “trickster,” while Navajo sheep and goat herders referred to the coyote as “God's dog.” European settlers, ...