Cougar Trickster of Pomo
The Pomo people of northern California speak of a cougar trickster that inhabits the dense redwood and oak forests of their ancestral territory. In Pomo cosmology animal spirits play central roles in creation stories and continue to influence daily life through their presence in the landscape. The cougar trickster is particularly associated with the transition zones between the coastal mountain ranges and the interior valleys, areas where different ecological communities meet and where spiritual energy is believed to concentrate. Pomo oral tradition includes the cougar among the first animals