 Hello, my name is Roger Fernandez. I'm a Native American artist and storyteller and educator. I belong to the Lower Elwa Clalem Tribe, we're called. Our real name is Nixklaim, 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 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 was heavy and 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 were 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. And she felt the sky move a little bit. She said, huh, if I call the other people out of their houses and we push together, maybe we can push this guy 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, all right. So they all put their hands in the sky. And they pushed up as hard as they could. 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 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, no, 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 we work together? How can we push together? We have different languages. And the people talked and argued and talked and thought, they couldn't 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 YAHAUT. YAHAUT means work together. YAHAUT means push together. When I say YAHAUT, we all say YAHAUT 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 YAHAUT and the people said YAHAUT and they pushed up on the sky. He said YAHAUT, they said YAHAUT and they pushed up on the sky again. He said YAHAUT, they pushed up again. Now is that high enough? The old man said no. Get some long poles, some big sticks, keep pushing up. And so they did again. YAHAUT, YAHAUT, YAHAUT, YAHAUT. YAHAUT, YAHAUT, YAHAUT, YAHAUT. We did it. We pushed this guy up to where it is today. And so we did a good thing. There's no qualmy 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 it 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 birds couldn't sing anymore. And they were upset. They were angry. They said those crazy people. They pushed this guy up without telling us. And now our songs are stuck up there. What are we going to do? The bird talked and argued and talked. They couldn't think of anything until finding one bird. You know who it is? Always bragging about himself. Always talking about himself. Crow. Crow came up and said, I can 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 had got three-fourths of the way there. Then Hawk got tired and came back down and said, Crow is 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 to 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 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 crowed, past where hawk went. Almost to the sky, the 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 Wren 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're 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. 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 coming 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 the 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 from you? For you, every person will have their own questions. So again, this gesture here means thank you and our way here. Thank you for letting me share that story with you.