Tuesday, October 14 at 4:30pm we gather for our Dedication Event for a new public art installation at Discovery Park. This powerful piece depicts The Legend of Coyote and Crow, by Warm Springs artist Lillian Pitt, with creative collaboration from Ben Dye and Juno Lachman.
Towering 14 feet tall, a steel tree rises at the heart of this work, alive with cast crows. Coyote perches across the way on a basalt stone, his eyes blooming bright yellow, pieces that retell a beloved Native American legend. (Read the story of Coyote and Crow below and experience how this timeless tale comes to life through art).
Funded by the Visit Bend Sustainability Fund and in partnership with Bend Park and Recreation District, this installation joins the many creative discoveries found across the Discovery West neighborhood.
We hope you’ll join us in commemorating the creation and installation of this meaningful work, right here in Discovery West.
Parking and Access Instructions
The Legend of Coyote and Crow
In this Native American legend, the clever tricksters Coyote and Crow meet in a playful — and fateful — contest.
Crow and his friends are racing their eyes: popping them out, sending them soaring across a meadow, and catching them on the return. Coyote, always eager to impress, tries to join in but fails again and again.
Crow, feigning kindness, offers to help. He plucks out Coyote’s eyes and launches them into the air — only to fly off laughing, taking them with him.
Now blind and alone, Coyote stumbles through the landscape until he discovers a patch of bright yellow flowers. Desperate, he presses one into each empty eye socket and turns toward the sun. Slowly, the shapes and colors of the world return. Coyote can see again — and his eyes are now the color of those golden blooms.
High in a tree nearby, Crow and his companions watch and laugh.
And that is how Coyote came to have yellow eyes.