Navajo Stories: Chicken and Hawk

Narrator: Anonymous Elder   

The story goes that chicken and hawk used to be best friends. This story is before the coming of people and the time that animals used to talk to one another.

Hawk had a nice gold ring. When Chicken saw that Hawk had this nice ring he immediately wanted to borrow and wear it. Hawk hesitated at Chicken’s request to loan out the ring and he didn’t want to give it to him. Chicken then bribed and coaxed Hawk to loan him the ring. Finally, Hawk gave in and loaned it to Chicken against his better judgment. Hawk gave specific instructions to Chicken for him not to lose the ring.

After Chicken got the ring he went out and lost the ring. Chicken then told Hawk that he lost the ring and Hawk replied, “I will kill you in the future.” To this day Chicken is still scraping the ground and looking for the ring. Chicken also lost his best friend, the Hawk.