(upbeat instrumental music)
-: Hello, my name is Roger Fernandes.
I'm a Native American artist, and storyteller, and educator.
I belong to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, we're called.
Our real name is Nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm and it means strong people.
So, I come from the strong people.
I'm here to share some stories with you today,
and I'm going to start with one story
and that is called, Pushing Up The Sky.
A long time ago, the world was very different
than it is today.
Can all of you point to where the sky is today?
And everyone has their fingers going up like this
and the sky is way, way up there.
But in the Snoqualmie story that they tell,
the sky at one time, was not way up there.
It was dark, and it was heavy, and it was way down here.
Here was where the sky was, right here.
And because of that the people had to walk
around all bent over all the time.
They walked around bent over because
they would bump their heads in the sky.
Well, it's not fun walking around all bent over.
You keep bumping your head,
your back starts to hurt and you can't see where
you're going, you can only see your feet
beneath you and so,
it wasn't fun walking around all bent over
and the people, they started to argue all the time.
They're arguing with each other,
and yelling at each other all the time.
And then they began to fight,
hitting each other, pushing each other,
shoving each other out of the way.
So the people were arguing and fighting all the time.
And, is this how people should be?
No.
Well, there was a little girl in her house there,
and she saw this, her people arguing and fighting
all the time and she said,
"This is not right, there must be something I can do."
And so, she thought,
and she thought,
and she thought some more,
and she had an idea.
She walked out of her house to the middle of the village,
put her hands in the sky and she pushed up
as hard as she could.
(groaning)
And she felt the sky move a little bit.
She said, "Ah, if I call the other people out of their
houses, and we push together, maybe we can push the
sky up a little bit more."
And so, she did.
She called them out and she told them her idea.
But they were grumpy,
"Ah, that's a crazy idea, that'll never work."
She said, "Oh please try just once,"
they said, "Alright"
so they all put their hands in the sky and they pushed
up as hard as they could (groaning)
and they felt the sky move a little bit more.
Now, this was a very smart little girl,
she said, "I know, we can invite all the Indian
tribes that are around here to come to our village
and we can tell them, we're going to push up the sky
and we can push up the sky.
And the people said, "Now, little girl that's a
very good idea."
And so all the tribes were invited to the Snoqualmie
village up in the mountains and they were told
the plan, how we're going to push up the sky.
Well everyone agreed it was a good idea, but someone
way in the back said, "Wait a minute,
wait a minute, there's a big problem here.
All the tribes around here,
we all speak different languages."
And it's true, they do.
"So we all have a different word for push. How can
work together, how can we push together,
we have different languages?"
And the people talked and argued,
and talked and thought, and they could think of anything.
Well, the people knew then as we should know now,
if you have a problem that one person cannot solve,
is what you do, is you go to an elder, an old person.
Because old people are not just smart,
they're also wise.
So, they went to this old, old man at the
end of the village.
And they explained the problem to him.
And he said, "Wait a minute, let me think about this
for two days, come back in two days and I will tell you."
In two days, they came back and the old man said,
"You shall use the word, yahow.
Yahow will mean work together,
yahow will mean push together.
When I say yahow, we all say yahow.
And push up on that heavy sky.
Well, everyone followed the directions of the
old man and they got down, they put their
hands in the sky like this and you can
do it too, if you want to bend down
pretend you're bending down, you're pushing
up on that sky, it's right here.
The old man said, "Yahow." And the people said,
"Yahow," and they pushed up on the sky.
He said, "Yahow,"
they said, "Yahow," and they pushed up on the sky again.
He said, "Yahow," they pushed up again.
"Now, is that high enough?" The old man said, "No,
get some long pull, some big sticks, keep pushing."
And so they did it again,
"Yahow"
"We did it, we pushed the sky
up to where it is today."
And so we did a good thing.
The Snoqualmie people say, "If we work together,
we can do great things.
We can even push up the sky.
We can do the impossible."
Well, the story goes on, how there were
a problem ... there were some problems
as they were pushing up the sky because things got stuck
in the sky, as they pushed up.
Three hunters and their dog were chasing
three elk, and they got stuck in the sky,
they were lifted up and they turned into stars.
Stars we call, the Big Dipper today.
And something else got stuck in the sky,
the songs of the birds were stuck in the sky
and the bird couldn't sing anymore.
And they were upset, they were angry, they said,
"Those crazy people, they push the sky up
without telling us and now our songs are stuck up there,
what are we going to do?"
The birds talked and argued, and talked,
they couldn't think of anything until finally
one bird, you know who it is,
always bragging about himself, always talking
about himself, crow.
Crow came up and said, "I could just fly up there
and get our songs."
And he put out his black wings and he started to fly.
He got halfway to the sky, and then he got tired,
and came back down.
And said, "It's too high, we can't do it."
Well then hawk came up,
"I will try."
and hawk flew into the sky, went past where
crow went, got three-quarters to the way there.
Then hawk got tired, and came back down
and said, "Crow was right, it's too high, we
can't do it."
And then eagle came up, "Look at my wings," she said.
"I was meant to fly that high."
And she put out her wings and she started to fly.
Past where crow went, past where hawk went, she
was almost in the sky world.
And then she got tired and came back down.
And said, "They're right, our songs are
trapped up there, they'll never come back
because the biggest and strongest can't do it."
Well, out of the bushes and out of the grass came
the littlest bird.
Little tiny wren, and little tiny wren said,
"I can get up there."
And all the big birds laughed, they said,
"No way little wren, you can't do it,
I mean look at yourself, I mean come on, think
about it, if us big strong birds can't get up
there, how can a dinky puny little bird like you
do anything?"
Little wren said, "Because I'm so little,
I can climb on eagle's back and hold on
and if she can carry me as high as she can,
when she starts to come down, I'll fly the rest
of the way and get the songs of the birds back."
And the bird said, "Now, little bird that's a good idea."
So little wren climbed on eagle's back and held on.
And eagle started flying again, past where crow went,
past where hawk went, almost to the sky world, started
to come down.
Little wren jumped off and flew the rest of the way,
and got the songs of the birds back.
And then when little bird got back, little wren got back.
Little wren remembered something,
what did the big birds do when little wren said,
"I can get up there," they laughed at him.
They made fun of him,
"You can't do it, you little and tiny."
So when he got back, he said, "Cousin robin,
here's a song, cousin sparrow, here's a song,
cousin thrush, here's a song.
And that is why all the little birds have
pretty little songs, don't they?
But the big birds like crow and hawk and eagle,
they sing like this,
(bird noise)
and their songs are not so pretty.
And that is a story called, Pushing Up The Sky
and The Birds Fly To The Sky For Their Songs.
And those stories are meant to teach you something.
So, I'm going to ask you a couple questions,
for you to think about.
In this story, there's a thing called,
metaphor.
Metaphor means something lesser represents
something greater, like storm clouds
represent a hard time in your life,
dark clouds coming towards you.
So, again there are metaphors.
And in this story, a dark and heavy sky,
what could that be a metaphor?
What does that maybe mean?
Something happening, and so again
that's for you to determine, not for me
to say, this is what it means, but for you
to determine, you to figure it out.
And then the other thing, why in this story
was that little girl and the little bird
who solved the problems?
What do you think that means?
There are so many things,
how do people work together?
How do we solve a big problem?
The story says, work together.
But how do we work together?
Again, these are things for you to think about.
When you're done hearing a story,
you should have as many questions,
as you have answers.
What are the questions that will come from
this story for you?
Every person will have their own questions.
So again, this gesture here means
thank you in our way here.
Thank you for letting me share that story with you.
(upbeat instrumental music)