In most Native American societies, as in many societies worldwide, the trickster figure and the stories surrounding it serve as a warning to others on how to act. To many southeastern U.S. cultures, Rabbit is known as the king of the tricksters. He is the subject of many stories across different cultures from the region and is revered as one of the craftiest beings in the southeastern worldview.
In most societies throughout the world, the trickster figure plays a prominent role in stories to serve as a guide to what is either the moral or proper action to take in a situation. They do so by generally doing the opposite of what is expected or conventional in the situation, breaking the norms or rules and often suffering the consequences, having to rely on their cunning to get themselves out of sticky situations. For the majority of the major historical Native American nations in the southeastern United States, this role fell to Rabbit.
The rabbit character played the role of trickster, not in a malicious sense, but in the sense of a lighthearted, jovial character, intent on having fun no matter what conventions he breaks. In many stories, his exploits get him into trouble in one way or another, often in quite humorous ways. In several stories, the rabbit brags he can perform tasks or has similar attributes to other animals, which often gets him into trouble. When he is confronted about these boasts, he is put in a bind to try to prove it. In the story of Rabbit duck hunting with Otter, Rabbit boasts he can swim and fish just like Otter. When others do not believe him, he states he sometimes eats ducks, which otters do at times. To prove himself, he lets Otter go first, and as Otter is underwater swimming to retrieve a duck, Rabbit fashions a noose by peeling bark and rolling it into twine. As his turn arrives, he swims underwater clumsily and attaches the noose to a duck, which subsequently takes off, dragging Rabbit into the sky with it. Rabbit loses his grip and ends up in a hollow tree, which he cannot climb out of, and begins to starve, resorting to eating his fur until a group of children come along. He begins to sing, convincing them he is a beautiful creature inside the tree that they must cut a door to see. When they have cut it large enough, he escapes and runs away quickly, hiding his shame from the other animals.
In the story the actions of real rabbits are explained, as some will eat at their fur if they are missing particular nutrients or fiber content. This is a common theme among many Native American stories and those of other indigenous communities. Specific actions or attributes of particular animals are explained in roundabout ways through the stories, such as the raven’s black color, why deer have antlers, and other interesting attributes. In many of the southeastern Rabbit stories, his actions cause these interesting qualities, such as why the possum’s tail is bare and how the deer got his antlers. The rabbit is also a helpful creature in southeastern society, and in several cultures he is the one who stole fire for humans.
Another facet of the rabbit stories centers on his use of cunning to get out of trouble, such as threats from predators or other predicaments a rabbit would encounter. In one Caddo story, Rabbit is cornered by Wildcat and is staring death in the face when he explains that he is heading to catch a few turkeys to eat, insisting that he is more valuable to Wildcat alive because he can trick the turkeys into becoming easy prey for such a powerful and swift predator. He tells Wildcat to lie down as if he is dead and says he will call the turkeys to dance around Wildcat in a victory dance. Then Wildcat can take them as easy prey by jumping up as they dance around him. When Wildcat leaps at one of the turkeys, Rabbit runs off, escaping his date with the dinner plate.
For those outside of the southeastern region, the rabbit as trickster is most recognizable as Brer Rabbit, a trickster character who shows up as a part of the Uncle Remus stories from the 1880s. Brer Rabbit is likely a combination of Cherokee Jistu stories and traditions from West, Central, and Southern Africa, which would have likely continued in the slave communities of the South. Based on the content of the stories, they closely follow those of the Akan traditions, which include the spider Anansi as the primary subject. The stories have aspects from both cultures, including the briar story, which is a link to the traditional Jistu stories of the Cherokee, and the story of the tar-baby, which was published in the Cherokee Advocate in 1845.
The southeastern cultures are not the only American Indian groups that have trickster characters in the form of the rabbit. For the Anishinaabe cultures, the trickster figure Nanabozho often takes the form of a rabbit. For the Mi’kmaq, Ableegumooch, one of two main trickster figures in their stories, takes the form of a rabbit and goes through similar situations as Jistu and other southeastern rabbit trickster characters. Mahtigwess is almost an identical trickster character for the Passamaquoddy. There are several other shape-shifting trickster characters in other American Indian cultures, which take the form of a rabbit as well. As there are linguistic ties between several of the southeastern cultures and those of the Northeast, there is possibly a cultural tie between the trickster figures of the different cultures, taking the form of a rabbit, which predates the historic forms of these cultures.
Folklore traditions in Native American and African American communities include the character of trickster rabbit. Storytellers place the character in dangerous situations in which the rabbit’s cleverness and cunning, along with the adversary’s gullibility, provide the means of self-preservation and escape. (Old Paper Studios/Alamy)
Jonathan Byrn
See also Anansi/Anancy; Brer Rabbit; Coyote Tales; Tar-Baby; Tricksters, Native American
Further Reading
Duvall, Deborah L. 2005. Rabbit and the Wolves. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Erdoes, Richard. 1999. American Indian Trickster Tales. New York: Penguin.
Lankford, George E. 2011. Native American Legends of the Southeast: Tales from the Natchez, Caddo, Biloxi, Chickasaw, and Other Nations. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
“Native American Rabbit Mythology.” 2015. Native Languages of the Americas website. http://www.native-languages.org/legends-rabbit.htm. Accessed October 13, 2015.
Stott, Jon C. 2010. A Book of Tricksters: Tales from Many Lands. Victoria, BC: Heritage.