Renee Benzaim

Coyote's Song Renee Benzaim

There was a legend among the Sierra Band of Miwok Indians. It said that a female would someday become the Shaman of the band and she would reunite the Miwok Indians and make them strong again. Many people believed in the legend at first but, throughout the years, less and less Miwoks even remembered the legend and it didn't get passed down to the newer generations. At least, not to all of them. There were a few who still remembered, and waited. The old Shaman was one of the believers, but one day he walked into the mountains and was never seen again. Everyone thought he had gone away to die. The band dwindled after that. They had a chief who was strong, but the young people left, especially those who lived in the isolated mountain town of West Point, California. There was nothing there for them. Then, one day in 1989, a little Miwok girl disappeared from her front yard on the reservation.