# The Bear — Zuni Folktales character guide

> The Bear in Zuni Folktales by Frank Hamilton Cushing.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the old Bear, the great Black Bear, The Bear, yours, himself, myself, your

**First appearance:** 0001-zuni-folktales

## Snapshot

A great Black Bear who claims the datila and piñon patch, then loses a contest of frights to a painted boy.

## Who they are

He meets the boy on the plateau with a bellow of ownership — 'They are mine!' — and proposes a trial: whoever can scare the other keeps the ground. He charges from the thicket snapping trees and snarling, yet the boy never stirs a leaf, so the Bear must submit to being frightened in turn. His bluff, blustering confidence and his comic collapse before soot, ashes, and a magic axe make him the tale's grand obstacle and its loudest joke.

## In the story

### [How the Summer Birds Came](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/chapters/how-the-summer-birds-came)

A great Bear living in a cave, the first monster slain by the boy.

### [The Coyote Who Killed the Demon Síuiuki](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/chapters/the-coyote-who-killed-the-demon-s-uiuki)

Lazy and good-natured, brings an antelope but says little.

### [How the Corn-Pests Were Ensnared](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/chapters/how-the-corn-pests-were-ensnared)

One of the corn-pests lured into the pit by the Coyote's deception.

### [The Ugly Wild Boy Who Drove the Bear Away from Southeastern Mesa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/chapters/the-ugly-wild-boy-who-drove-the-bear-away-from-southeastern-mesa)

The antagonist who claims the mesa and its resources, ultimately frightened away by the boy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/characters/bear
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/zuni_folktales_se/characters