Early tetrapods had surprisingly little ability to move their necks

Uppsala University

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An artist’s interpretation of the study. 

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Credit: Vic Putinski

A new model has made it possible to estimate how the backbones of some of the first animals on land could and could not move using sturgeon as a material analogue. These results disprove a long-standing hypothesis that changes in early tetrapod anatomy as they moved onto land gave them improved neck mobility. The study, led by a researcher at Uppsala University, formerly of Carleton University in Canada, has been published in the journal Nature.

Researchers have overturned a long-standing hypothesis that our ancestors, the early tetrapods, gained increased neck mobility early on in their transition to land. In fish, the shoulder blades are attached to the skull. In the early tetrapods, however, the shoulders became detached sometime in the Devonian Period and we acquired a new region of neck vertebrae separating these two parts of the skeleton. It has been reasonably assumed for decades that this separation must have allowed the head to move more freely, so the hypothesis that neck mobility was an evolutionary driver for this change in the tetrapod body plan has prevailed.

But the structure of early tetrapods’ backbones is very unusual compared to most vertebrates today, making it hard to model how they moved. They keep a long rod of tissue called the notochord for their whole lives that runs through the whole vertebral column, so their actual vertebrae are small and arranged around a large tube of soft tissue. Because this soft tissue behaves differently from joints between vertebrae that are typical today, scientists have not been able to test the neck mobility hypothesis. In this new study, though, researchers came up with a way of modeling early tetrapod neck mobility using a distantly related fish, the sturgeon, that has the same kind of backbone. By applying the material properties of sturgeon notochordal backbones to fossil animals, researchers have found that early tetrapod necks were surprisingly stiff and, even free of surrounding bones, they would not have allowed much mobility.

“We know that tetrapods did eventually gain higher neck mobility so these results push that gain-of-function forward in time and up the evolutionary tree from where we previously thought it occurred. Clearly it was advantageous eventually, but it was not an advantage available to these early tetrapods yet because of the limitations of their anatomy,” says lead author Dana Korneisel. 

To figure this out, the researchers first had to dissect out the backbones of sturgeon to bend and twist them on a Universal Testing Machine. They spent three days testing batches of three or four at a time, cutting out first the whole backbone and then sections of the notochord to test both tissues. From these test data, they calculated the material stiffness of the sturgeon tissues and then applied this stiffness to extinct animals.

“If you can measure the size and shape of both the thing you are testing and the part of the animal you want to model mobility of, it all comes down to dividing out the sturgeon number and multiplying by the fossil number,” says Korneisel.

“I undertook this study to find out how big of a difference this change in anatomy made for these animals” she continues, referring to the separation of the head from the shoulders, “even while performing the dissections on sturgeon and handling their vertebral columns, which are built a lot like those of early tetrapods, I felt that the tissue wasn’t terribly stiff. So, after doing the math, the lack of significant head mobility for almost all of these animals was a huge surprise”.

Korneisel emphasizes that all of these estimates are based on just the backbone, so actual mobility will have been less than the estimates presented here because of all of the tissues that surround the backbone like muscles, skin, and for many of these animals, bones embedded in the skin. And what about looking up or turning the head?

 “Head elevation in these animals was no more than what you would expect in fish, and sometimes even less. We found that the kind of head twisting that we can do when we shake our heads was not feasible in any of these animals.”

Where might this go in the future? Notochordal vertebral columns are rare today, but they were very common throughout life’s history on earth. The researchers also collected data on the whole vertebral column of sturgeon, not just the front-most part, so mobility could be estimated for other parts of the body of early tetrapods or for a number of other extinct groups provided a good enough reconstruction of the skeleton can be made from the known fossils.

Dana Korniesel dissecting a sturgeon. 

Credit

Hillary Maddin

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-026-11158-3

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Early tetrapod neck mobility modelled using an extant analogue

Article Publication Date

14-Oct-2026

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for STURGEON

Hikers Spotted 3 Stranded ‘Dinosaur Fish’ In A Michigan River, And Rescuers Found 27

Ashley Driggs
Sun, October 11, 2026 
A-Z Animals.

On Aug. 23, hikers on the North Country Trail crossed Michigan's West Branch Ontonagon River, downstream of Victoria Dam, and noticed three large fish stuck in a shallow, cut-off pool. They called the Michigan DNR's Report All Poaching hotline. That one call set off three separate rescue missions, and by the time crews finished, they had pulled 27 lake sturgeon, fish so old-looking that people sometimes call them "dinosaur fish," out of water that was about to run dry.

Lake sturgeon first show up in the fossil record from 100 million to 150 million years ago, according to the Michigan DNR. This particular group was stuck in a part of the river that barely flows for much of the year, and the reason traces back to a dam.
How the Rescue Grew From Two Fish to 27

DNR fisheries technicians Kyle Urban and Jack Cole were first on scene and found two sturgeon in the pool the hikers had reported. They carried the fish nearly a mile over rough ground to reach flowing water, keeping the sturgeon's gills underwater in hiking bags the whole way.

A second mission, run with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Upper Peninsula Power Company, moved ten more fish. A third brought in extra staff and equipment, and crews found roughly two dozen more sturgeon swimming in a murky, disconnected pool nearby. In total, 27 fish were moved to safety, including one measuring 55 inches. None of the rescued sturgeon were older than 28, though the species can live well past 100.

Why Losing These Fish Would Have Hurt a Recovering Population

Lake sturgeon have been listed as a threatened species in Michigan since 1994, and the state has stocked young sturgeon in the Ontonagon River since 1998 to help rebuild the population there. They are also slow to reproduce: males typically need around 15 years to mature, and females need 20 to 25, according to Michigan Sea Grant.

Because the Ontonagon population is still recovering, the DNR said losing all 27 fish would have been "extremely detrimental." Every adult that survives to spawning age matters more in a population this small.

What Caused the Low Water, and What the State Is Changing

Victoria Dam is run by the Upper Peninsula Power Company, which operates under a federal license to generate hydroelectric power. Under that license, water is pulled from this stretch of the river and piped to a powerhouse downstream, rejoining the river later. That leaves the channel between the dam and the powerhouse with little or no flow for parts of the year, including the section where the sturgeon were trapped, according to the DNR.

As crews worked out how to reach the rest of the fish, the power company released extra water into the channel, within what its permit allows, to buy the remaining sturgeon more room to move. The DNR is now reviewing historical flow and temperature data and looking at extra surveys with its partners, aiming to catch stranded fish earlier next time.

"We can't be everywhere at once," said Cory Kovacs, manager of the DNR's Lake Superior unit. The agency credited the hikers directly: without that one report, the rescue would never have started.

 

Plating matters: How sauce placement can make a dish appear healthier

Researchers found that placing sauces separately can make a dish appear healthier even before tasting

Keio University Global Research Institute

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The sturgeon-filet dish presented using two different sauce arrangements: minimal plating (left) with sauces placed separately on the plate, and drizzle presentation (right), with sauces distributed across the plate and around the food.

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Credit: Motoki et al. (2026) Image link: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15173081

Our experience of eating is shaped by the combined influence of vision, smell, touch, and taste. The way food is presented can shape diners’ expectations before they even taste it. Visual features, such as arrangement and esthetic design, can influence perceptions of taste, quality, healthiness, and overall appeal. Although previous studies have examined factors such as plate size, arrangement, and neatness, relatively little attention has been given to sauce presentation. Sauces can serve as both flavor additions and visual elements, and their placement may shape how diners perceive and interact with a dish.

To investigate these effects, researchers led by Dr. Kosuke Motoki of the Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University, Japan, examined how chef-designed sauce presentations influence consumers’ evaluations of a dish. The research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Kohei Yamaguchi and Dr. Haruka Tohara of the Department of Dysphagia Rehabilitation, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, and Dr. Shin-ichi Ishikawa of the Department of Food Science and Business, Miyagi University, Japan, along with Chef Tatsuya Noda of the PLUM KNOT Co., Ltd., Japan. Their findings were published in Volume 15, Issue 17 of the journal Foods on August 31, 2026.

The idea for the study grew from discussions among Dr. Motoki, Dr. Yamaguchi, Dr. Ishikawa, and Chef Noda about food artistry and plating at 8go, the restaurant at Gastronomy Innovation Campus Tokyo (GIC Tokyo), where the study was later conducted. GIC Tokyo, developed in partnership with Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd., provides a collaborative setting for researchers, chefs, and industry partners.

“Our study involved 57 participants in a real restaurant setting at 8go, where we evaluated the same sturgeon-fritter dish presented with two different sauce arrangements. Sturgeon aquaculture is primarily oriented toward caviar production, while sturgeon meat is less commercially prominent. Its fuller use may improve resource efficiency, placing the study in a sustainability-oriented culinary context,” explains Dr. Motoki.

Participants evaluated a sturgeon-filet dish in two ways. In the minimal plating condition, sauces were placed separately on the plate, while in the drizzle presentation condition, sauces were distributed across the plate and around the food. Each participant experienced both versions, allowing the researchers to compare individual responses. The dish was prepared in collaboration with a professional chef from a restaurant recognized with a Michelin Green Star.

Before tasting, participants rated various measures including expected tastiness, perceived healthiness, intention to eat, overall liking, perceived artistic presentation, and willingness to pay. Minimal plating produced a significantly higher perceived healthiness rating than drizzle presentation: 4.65/7 compared with 4.05/7. This difference remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons.

“We observed that minimal plating made the same dish appear healthier, showing how small visual details can influence our first impressions of the food,” notes Dr. Motoki.

No significant differences were found in the other pre-tasting measures. After tasting, minimal presentation received higher ratings for overall liking and intention to eat more, but these differences did not remain significant after correction for multiple comparisons and were therefore considered preliminary.

One possible explanation for the pre-consumption healthiness finding could be visual simplicity. The minimal presentation may appear less visually dense, potentially associating it with qualities such as simplicity or naturalness. Additionally, separately placed sauces may also give diners greater control over how much sauce they use, which could influence the eating experience. However, these mechanisms were not directly measured.

The findings offer a practical direction for evidence-based food presentation in restaurants and hospitality. “By bringing together researchers, a professional chef, and 8go as a real-world research setting within GIC Tokyo, we were able to examine how chef-designed plating shapes diners’ evaluations before and after tasting,” says Dr. Motoki. These findings show that sauce placement can help communicate a healthier impression. The preliminary post-tasting results also provide a starting point for investigating whether presentation and the way diners use the sauce may influence enjoyment.

Importantly, the researchers emphasize that looking healthier does not necessarily mean being nutritionally healthier. Further studies across different foods, plating styles, and dining environments are needed to gain deeper insights.

 

***

 

Reference

Title of original paper: How Chef‑Designed Plating Shapes Consumer Evaluations of a Dish in a Real Restaurant Setting

Journal: Foods

DOI: 10.3390/foods15173081

 

About Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), Japan
The Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), established in November 2016, serves as a university-wide platform connecting faculties and graduate schools. It promotes interdisciplinary and international collaborative research that transcends academic and geographic boundaries, while disseminating research outcomes both domestically and globally.

In 2024, Keio University launched the Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS), funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), under the vision of becoming a “research university that forges the common sense of the future.” Through this initiative, KGRI is strengthening research infrastructure to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, promoting the societal implementation of research, and fostering a research ecosystem that enables collaboration across the university and with leading institutions in Japan and abroad.

Website: https://www.keio.ac.jp/en/org/kgri/

 

About Associate Professor Kosuke Motoki from Keio University
Kosuke Motoki is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business and Commerce at Keio University, Japan. His research focuses on consumer psychology, sensory and consumer science, particularly how sensory cues influence consumer perceptions and eating behavior. His work has been recognized with the 2023 Ando Momofuku Award in Japan and the 2023 Food Quality and Preference Award for Contributions by a Researcher of the Future.

 

Funding information
This research received no external funding.

---

Journal

Foods

DOI

10.3390/foods15173081

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

How Chef‑Designed Plating Shapes Consumer Evaluations of a Dish in a Real Restaurant Setting

COI Statement

Tatsuya Noda is employed by PLUM KNOT Co., Ltd. The company was commissioned and paid by the researchers to prepare the food materials used in this study. Tatsuya Noda participated in the preparation of the food materials. PLUM KNOT Co., Ltd., did not provide funding for this study and had no involvement in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of the results, writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

CANADA

Four provinces set different rules for data centres

Jennifer Friesen
August 21, 2026

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash

Before anyone pours concrete, a Canadian data centre proposal comes with a bevy of local questions.

Can it get enough power? What will that power cost? Who controls the data? And who gets to say yes?

Ontario added its own on Aug. 13 with a draft Data Centre Playbook.

Alberta, Quebec, and B.C. already have their own rules, and they all look pretty different.

Ontario is proposing to charge new data centres a premium for electricity. Any data centre pulling more than one megawatt (MW) would pay more than the province’s largest factories.

Ontario isn’t offering subsidies, just faster permitting and what it calls white glove service.

Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce said the plan makes data centres pay for “every single cent” of the power they use.

Paying up is only part of it. Projects would be judged on the benefit they bring the economy, the investment they make locally, and their plan to keep Canadians’ data in Canada, according to the government.

Ontario calls the playbook an early part of its coming AI strategy, and pitches that strategy as $122 billion in economic growth by 2035 and 17,000 jobs a year.

That last pillar puts the big U.S. cloud providers on watch, and it’s a harder promise than it sounds.

Data sitting on Canadian soil isn’t automatically beyond American reach.

Under the U.S. CLOUD Act, a U.S.-based provider can be compelled to hand over data it controls wherever that data physically sits. Who controls the provider matters more than where the building is.

All of this is still a proposal. Ontarians have until Sept. 12 to tell the province what they think.
Alberta, Quebec, and B.C. drew three different lines on power

A single large AI data centre can draw as much power as a city, and the requests are arriving faster than any province wants to approve them blindly.

Alberta, Quebec, and B.C. are each sorting them in different ways.

Alberta gives priority to data centres that bring their own power. Those projects move to the front of the line, and the developer pays for whatever grid upgrades their power needs.

Normally a data centre deals with the grid operator, the energy regulator, and the local municipality separately. Alberta’s concierge program, as the province calls it, gives them one provincial point of contact instead.

The largest project to break ground is Meta’s $13 billion campus in Sturgeon County, its first in Canada.

Bigger builds have been announced, including a $70 billion project near Grande Prairie, but many are still in the planning stage.

Meta’s first phase is expected to connect up to 970 MW to Alberta’s grid. Its dedicated gas plant, a 932 MW facility being developed by Pembina Pipeline and its partners, doesn’t open until the second half of 2030.

Alberta Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish said the province used no grants, tax credits or incentives to land Meta.

“We did not want to be first and rush in blindly,” he said at the Calgary announcement in July. “We wanted to be smartest.”

Alberta Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish, speaks at The Princeton in Calgary on July 8, 2026. — Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

The Pembina Institute warns that Alberta’s reliance on natural gas could raise consumer electricity costs and make them more volatile. But the province points to a different line in the bill, saying Meta is covering its own transmission costs and could lower the transmission portion of other customers’ bills.

Quebec markets some of the lowest power rates in North America to data centres. Now it wants to charge the large ones more, roughly doubling the rate for any new data centre over 5 MW to about 13 cents a kilowatt-hour, so it can save that cheap power for the users it wants most.

Operators are already lining up to fight the increase at the province’s energy regulator this fall, since low-cost hydro has been one of Quebec’s main draws.

B.C. makes data centres compete for a limited slice of power, and it keeps its big resource industries out of the contest.

AI and data centre proposals are competing for a capped pool of about 400 MW over two years.

The province scores those bids partly on data sovereignty and First Nations participation. It says data centres deliver fewer jobs and less revenue than natural-resource projects, so traditional industries like mining, forestry, and LNG sit outside the competition altogether.

Energy Minister Adrian Dix said B.C. built it that way because the province “learned from other jurisdictions that have had an extremely negative economic effect.”

South of the border, some Americans are already paying more because of them.

Right now, everyone else gets stuck with the bill. The fight is over whether data centres ever do.

All four governments want data centres to cover their own power costs. They’re going about it differently, of course, with Alberta using its own-power priority, Quebec its pricing, B.C. its rationing, and Ontario a separate rate. Whether it holds at this scale is untested.

None of this is a sure thing, either.

Companies love to announce capacity they haven’t built yet. The industry even has a word for it, bragawatts, the megawatts that live in a press release and never get built.

In B.C., Conservative MLA David Williams, the party’s critic for BC Hydro and electricity self-sufficiency, calls the process rationing, one that in his words “avoids the root problem” of a province without enough power to go around.
Skipping consultation is what stops these projects

Even where a province says yes, a local council can still say no, and many residents are asking them to.

Oakville became the first Ontario municipality to pass a one-year moratorium on new data centres, two days before the province released its playbook. Hamilton said no to a similar freeze while Mississauga is preparing its own, and residents in Toronto are fighting two projects over water and noise.

Ontario now holds the final say on grid connections, but municipalities still control zoning and development approval. No project has yet tested what happens when the province says yes to the grid and a municipality says no to the site.

Communities fight these projects when they see the risks landing on them (the water, the power bills, the emissions) while the payoff goes somewhere else.

In Manitoba, Premier Wab Kinew said no to a gas-powered AI data centre near Île-des-Chênes, saying it threatened the environment with little economic upside, as a petition against it passed 13,500 signatures.

The energy sector spent 60 years learning this, and its veterans brought the lesson to the AI industry at Upper Bound in Edmonton earlier this year.

“The person who doesn’t get a cheque has the ability to disrupt the whole project,” said energy economist Peter Tertzakian. “It’s a big learning for AI.”

Peter Tertzakian, energy economist and founder of Studio.Energy, speaks at Upper Bound in Edmonton. — Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

The developers who get ahead of it build the community into the deal.

In Alberta, Woodland Cree First Nation holds 51% of a proposed data centre on its traditional territory that is planned to reach 650 MW, with revenue funding housing, education, and elder care. A few hundred kilometres away, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is in court challenging a water licence tied to Wonder Valley, arguing Alberta failed to consult it. The Nation also says it was not consulted on the land sale.

Same province, same technology, and a very different answer on who got a say.

The frameworks for doing it already exist. Canada spent a decade building them for pipelines and mines, through Indigenous equity ownership and community benefit agreements, and the First Nations Major Projects Coalition that advises on them now represents 186 First Nations.

The data centre industry can use that playbook or repeat the fights.

Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, who chairs Ontario’s Big City Mayors, wants consistent federal and provincial rules so individual councils aren’t writing data centre policy from scratch.

Ontario’s comment window closes Sept. 12, and the province says the final playbook will support its AI Industrial Strategy this fall.

Four provinces have staked out their terms. What no one can say yet is which of these projects gets poured, powered, and switched on.

Final shotsThe province a company builds in sets its power cost, its approval odds, and who can legally reach its data.

Data on Canadian soil can still fall under U.S. law. Provider ownership and control belong in the vendor contract.

Grid approval can still leave a project facing a municipal vote or a court challenge.

Monsters, Coyotes and Other Native Tales of Resistance

Jan Haaken

 July 24, 2026

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Image by Tristan Frank.

Part I

“We live in a time of monsters,” Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci was thought to have said in the 1930s. He was describing the rise of fascism in his time. Another quote by Gramsci circulates in the fascism of our time: “The old world is dying and the new struggles to be born.”

We are witnessing that struggle across the land as a dying American Empire bludgeons popular resistance. Our monsters seem intent on taking the planet itself with them to their graves. Yet everyday people band together to try to stop them. We see this in the revolts against AI companies and their massive data centers. In protests against this corporate devouring of land and resources, we hear the echo of longstanding indigenous resistance to extractive industries: Water is life!

As a psychologist and documentary filmmaker, I have for decades followed stories that circulate in social movements. In many Native-led climate actions, fables and legends are enlisted to place the struggles of the moment and the sense of urgency in a wider temporal and existential frame. We understand how important fables are for the moral education of young children. When my son was little, he was particularly fascinated by West Africa fairy tales, many centered on small animals outwitting the bigger ones. In Native cultures, however, animal fables are not left behind in childhood. Non-human animals inhabit our shared planet and make moral claims on us. They teach us about our world if we know how to listen.

In my two documentaries on climate resistance, the Necessity Series, Native traditions of storytelling are more than just allegorical tales. I came to understand the stories as carrying vital symbolic power in the climate justice movement. Facing off against the pipeline companies and oil trains, imagined as black snakes, circulated as a powerful signifier of the deadly oil pipelines. In countering the climate denial promoted by reactionaries and the individualistic carbon-tracking of liberals (“Don’t fly, don’t drive, don’t eat meat!), Native evoking of the black snake represented an old struggle against ongoing colonial forces. Rooted in the folklore and visions of Lakota People and other Indigenous elders, prophecies warn of a great black snake that will stretch across the land, poison waterways, desecrate sacred sites, and bring sickness and destruction. The image and the prophecy circulated widely during the Standing Rock resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016.

During that valiant struggle, I was reminded of bible stories in my childhood about cunning snakes that do the devil’s work. The lessons inevitably led to submission before the Almighty. In Genesis Chapter 3, Eve is seduced by a serpent into eating the forbidden fruit. And for acting on that desire, she was condemned by God to everlasting suffering: “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” This was one of many bible lessons that led me to leave the religious fold of my childhood and to look to feminism for adult wisdom.

The first Necessity film opens with a more local allegory. “The Monster Who Came Up the River” is a fable passed through oral traditions of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation here in Oregon. One version of the story was told in the 1950s by Esther Motanac, a beloved Umatilla storyteller. Chief Peo-Peo Mox-Mox (aka Don Sampson), a hereditary chief, narrated the story for the Necessity film and talked with me about how the Monster in the fable works as an allegory for settler colonialism in the Columbia Gorge region.

This huge monster came up from the ocean. He would open his huge mouth and inhale anything that was in his path. He soon had all the salmon and other fish like sturgeon and eels, all eaten and because he was so huge he began taking in the deer and all food animals of the forest. Soon there was nothing left for the people and they were getting hungry, and babies and old people began to die. Finally, someone went to Coyote and told him he would have to kill the monster. He got a length of a vine that is called coyote’s rope. He tied one end around his waist and coiled the other around his arm. He got some pitchy kindling and flints for starting a fire. He stood on a far hill and called the monster a shameful name, he teased him until the monster began trying to eat him. Every time the mouth opened, coyote would throw out some useful thing. The monster was near collapsing. The fire got so hot that the monster died and went back into the sea. Some parts of him clung to the sides of the river bank so it was rough like it was before Bonneville Dam was built.

The enormous mouth and insatiable appetite of the monster symbolize sanctions against greed. Passed on through oral traditions, stories such as these reflect the tragic losses and deprivations people have suffered as well. The monster devours salmon, other animals and people and produces starvation among Indian survivors. The powers of Coyote lie in its clever tactics of resistance as well as in the stupidity of the monster.

While listening to this story, I was struck by parallels between Motanac’s tale and the Judeo-Christian story of Jonah and the Whale (or the Big Fish). The tale of Jonah may have been particularly popular in the fundamentalist Christian church we attended in Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle settled by Norwegian fisher families. My family, like many others in the congregation, had lost relatives at sea so this allegory held special resonance. In my Sunday School class the lesson of Jonah centered on punishment, submission to authority, and rebirth through suffering. The rebellious Jonah was spit out onto the beach, subdued after three days in the creature’s stomach.

Unlike the biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, where the Whale engulfs Jonah under the disciplinary control of the Almighty, Coyote allows himself to be consumed by the Monster as a ploy. Jonah is belched onto the land after being devoured by the creature, transformed from rebel into loyal supplicant. Coyote, in contrast, outmaneuvers the monster and is then able to destroy it and cast it back into the river. In the biblical tale, Jonah is redeemed through engulfment by the great fish and his three days and nights of endurance in its belly. “The Monster Who Came Up the River” unfolds around a more active contest of wills.

While listening to Chief Don Sampson’s interpretation of the Monster story, I was struck by another difference between Jonah and Coyote. Sampson explains how the monster represents the potential for greed and selfishness in all people, and that Coyote in Native stories is both a deliverer and sometimes a betrayer of his people. Coyote enters stories as a morally ambiguous figure. The forced assimilation and the destruction and displacement of Native peoples generated a rich trove of literature where the powerful spirits, both good and bad, are more dispersed across the cosmos than are the spirit forces in the Abrahamic traditions. While respect for elders carries enormous moral weight in tribal cultures, the tribes in the Northwest also stress respect for children and for their independence. Fables with Coyote tricksters abound. There is considerable latitude for children to explore the world around them and to find their own animal spirits or guides.

Colonial powers returned to Indian Country last year with an aggressive push by tech companies to build their monstrous data centers on tribal lands. Honor the Earth’s Stop Data Colonialism Manifesto has gathered support, even in Oklahoma where battles among tribes over Big Oil and now Big Tech are most fierce. After intense opposition, the Muskogee Nation, 40 miles south of Tulsa, rejected a rezoning plan that would have converted 5,570 acres of farmland to a data center “park.” The coyotes may not be clever enough to outsmart these new monsters. But they carry a long history of surviving and subverting their conquerors. And they have many tales to tell.

This is the first piece of a four-part series. The other three parts can be read this fall for free on my Substack page.

Jan Haaken is professor emeritus of psychology at Portland State University, a clinical psychologist and documentary filmmaker.