 Hello, my name is Roger Fernandez. I'm a Native American artist and storyteller and educator. I belong to the Lower Elba Clalem tribe across from Seattle, Olympic Peninsula. I'm going to share with you a story and I'm a storyteller. As I said before, artist, storyteller, educator. Well, I'm a storyteller. I'm going to tell you a story. And in telling you a story, I'm trying to teach you something. I'm not trying to entertain you. I'm trying to teach you something. But my job is just to tell the story. Your job is to figure out what you learned. So the story I'm going to tell you now is called the Ayesh Girl. It comes from the Sahaptan-speaking people across the mountains in eastern Washington, like the Yakama people. And so I'm going to share this story with you because I want you to learn something. What did you learn in this story? That's your job to figure it out. So, oh, I got to tell you the word Ayesh is a bad word. Ayesh means dumb and stupid. And so people say, oh, it's not a bad word. But when you say that word, are you trying to make people feel good or hurt their feelings? Usually you're trying to hurt them. So it's not a good word. I don't like to use it. But it's in the story. Ayesh. So a long time ago, across the mountains in a Yakama village, there lived a little girl. Now this little girl, she didn't listen when the grown-ups were talking to her very much and she wouldn't pay attention. So she would all lose something and break something or mess something up and the grown-ups would say to her, oh, little girl, you're Ayesh. You don't listen. So the little girl wondered, maybe I'm Ayesh. Maybe I can't learn. Then when she played with the other kids, she would always not listen and pay attention so she would mess up the game or make her team lose. So they would say, oh, you're Ayesh. You don't know nothing. So after a while, that little girl believed that she was Ayesh. She believed she was dumb and she couldn't learn anything. And because of that, she stopped playing with the other children because they would all laugh at her, make fun of her, call her Ayesh. She was always alone and by herself. And one day she was so sad and lonely, she walked out of the village and she walked into the woods and followed the trails up into the hills. Followed the trails for a long ways up into the hills and she sat down by a big tree right by the trail and she started to cry. She cried and she cried. She cried so loud she woke up the tree. It was an old grandma cedar tree and grandma cedar tree said, little girl, what are you crying so loud for? You woke me up. She said, oh, I'm Ayesh. I don't know anything. I can't learn anything. Everybody makes fun of me all the time. Grandma cedar tree said, little girl, I can teach you something you want to learn. She said, yes, I want to learn. What can you teach me? Cedar tree said, I want you to take off some of my bark, dig up some of my roots and tear them into strips. Can you do that? Little girl said, yes. And she took off some cedar bark from the tree, dug up some roots and tore them into strips. She said, what do I do with all these strips now? Well, come sit by me and I'll show you. So the little girl sat down by the cedar tree. The cedar tree reached branches down like hands and guided the little girl's hand until she wove a little basket. Now it was a crooked looking basket, all lopsided, had a bunch of big holes in it. There's all the bark and roots hanging from it. But little girl said, did I make a good basket? The cedar tree said, the only way you'll know is to take your basket down to the river, dip into the water and lift it out. And all the water poured out of those big holes. So she went all the way back to the cedar tree and said, all the water poured out. What do I do now? The cedar tree said, what you have to do is take it apart and weave it again. The little girl said, do I have to? I don't want to go all the way down there. Can't you just look at little girl? This is how you will know. Take your basket down to the river, see if it holds water. The little girl went and she took her basket all the way down the hill, dipped it in the river water, lifted it out and all the water poured out of those big holes. Again, the little girl said, do I have to? I already did that once. You already showed me. Little girl, this is how you learn. Take it apart, weave it again. The little girl said, and she took the basket apart and wove it again. And this time, it didn't look so crooked and lopsided. There was hardly any holes in it and there was only a little bit of bark and moose hanging from it. But she said, did I make a good basket now? The cedar tree said, the only way you will know is to take your basket down to the river, and see if it holds water. If it holds water, you made a good basket. The little girl said, do I have to? I already did that once. You gotta tell. Little girl, this is how you'll know. Go to the river. The little girl went, oh, and she took her basket all the way down to the river, dipped it in the water, lifted it out. Now I was holding some water, but she could see the water was leaking out of those little holes. So she ran all the way back to the tree but by the time she got there, all the water was gone. She said, well it was holding water, but it leaked out. What do I do now? The cedar tree said, what you have to do is take it apart and weave it again. The little girl said, do I have to? I've been weaving baskets all day. My fingers are sore. Little girl, this is how you learn. Take it apart, weave it again. The little girl went, and she took the basket apart and wove it again. And this time, it wasn't crooked at all. This time, she couldn't see any holes in it. This time, there was no bark and roots hanging from it. But she said, did I make a good basket now? The cedar tree said, little girl, the only way you will know is to take your basket down to the river, put it in the water, see if it holds water. If it holds water, you've made a good basket. The little girl said, I don't want to do that. I've been going up to the hill all day. Little girl, this is how you will learn. Take it to the river. And she took it down to the river, dipped in the water, lifted it out, and guess what? It held water. And she ran back, look, look, it's holding water, cedar tree. It's holding water, grandma. The cedar tree said, you did it, little girl, you did it, little girl. It's a wonderful basket. It's a perfect basket. You did it. The little girl was so proud of her basket. She made it. It held water. She did it herself. All that work. But then she noticed something. Her basket didn't have any designs on it. It was an empty basket with no designs on it. It was naked. She needed designs in her basket, but she didn't know any baskets, designs. She couldn't make any designs. She didn't know any designs because she was, she didn't know anything. She started to cry. She cried. She cried. And cedar said, what are you crying for now, little girl? I need designs from a basket, but I don't know any designs. I don't know anything. I'm ayayesh. The cedar piece of little girl, it's very simple. All you have to do is take your basket up into the mountains and walk around. Keep your eyes open. If you keep your eyes open, a design will give itself to you. The little girl said, do I have to? I don't want to wear it for the mountains. Little girl, this is how you find your designs. Take your basket to the mountains. Keep your eyes open. The little girl went, and she went way up in the mountains walking around by herself holding her basket. And here's her basket. She was walking around holding this basket. But she couldn't see any designs. She couldn't see anything. Nobody was going to give her a design. She wasn't going to make it a design because she was ayayesh. She didn't know anything. And she started to cry. She cried so loud she woke up the mountain. And the mountain said, little girl, what are you crying so loud for? You woke me up. She said, I need designs for my basket, but I don't know any designs. I'm ayayesh. I don't know anything. The mountain said, little girl, look at me. Can you see that I'm a design? She's there like a big triangle. Well, you can use that for the bottom of your basket. So the little girl wove what we call the mountain design on her basket. A triangle with steps going up the side representing the trees in the forest. So this is the mountain design. Now she needed one more design for up here. So she said, thank you, mountain. And she went looking for one more design for the top of her basket. But she couldn't see any design. No design was going to give us off to her because she was ayayesh. And she started to cry again. She cried so loud she woke up a rattlesnake. And the rattlesnake said, little girl, what are you crying for? You woke me up. She said, I need one more design for my basket. Mountain gave me this one, but I need another one, but I can't find one. I'm ayayesh. I don't know anything. The rattlesnake said, calm down, little girl. Look at me. You see that I have a design in my back. She said, yeah, it looks like a bunch of diamonds hooked together. The mountain said, you can use that for the top of your basket. So the little girl wove what we call the rattlesnake design. Diamonds that are hooked together. And so the little girl wove them onto the top of her basket. She said, thank you. Thank you, rattlesnake. And she went back down the mountain, went by the cedar tree, went back to her village. She walked in the village and people saw her coming. And she was carrying something. So they came up to the little girl, what is that? She said, a basket. They said, where did you get a basket? I made it out of cedar bark or roots and it holds water too. They said, where did you learn all that? She says, cedar tree showed me? They said, little girl, what are those designs in the basket? She said, this is the mountain. This is the rattlesnake. They said, where did you get those designs? She said, mountain gave me this and rattle they gave me this one. The people said, little girl, can you teach us how to make a basket like that? She said, yes, I can. They say, little girl, can you teach us how to put designs in a basket like that? Yes, I can and so the little girl taught her people how to make the cedar coil basket out of cedar bark and roots So tightly woven into whole water She taught them how to put designs in the basket like mountain and rattlesnake and you think the people called her ayayesh anymore and That is all the story called ayayesh girl and so I'm going to ask you a couple more questions again It's for you to think about I don't I'm not going to be answers I'm going to give you questions the little girl believed at the beginning of the story She was dumb. She couldn't learn anything at the end of the story. She was a teacher of her people She was teaching them how to make a basket with designs. How did she change? How did that change happen? How did that happen? Now one reason you might say she had a good teacher and I would ask to think about this question Why was cedar tree a good teacher? Why do you think she was a good teacher? There are many many many questions you can find in the story, but I want you to think about the ones I've asked you How did the scroll change? in the course of the story and Why was cedar tree such a good teacher? Again, these are questions you can ask as others because you need to find the answer for this for yourself within that story Not me give them to you, but you find them So again this gesture among our people means thank you. Thank you very much I was taught that this gesture comes from the cedar tree the cedar tree top branches Look at the cedar tree the top branches like this all the time our people say look at the cedar tree It's giving thanks every day. We must give thanks every day So the cedar tree talks a little girl how to weave a basket She also talks a little girl how to say thank you and I'm going to say thank you for letting me share this story with you