(funky 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
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 gonna 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 Ay-ay-esh Girl".
It comes from the Sahaptin-speaking people
across the mountains in eastern Washington,
like the Yakama people.
And so I'm gonna share this story with you,
'cause I want you to learn something.
What did you learn in this story?
That's your job to figure it out.
So I got to tell you,
the word ay-ay-esh is a bad word.
Ay-ay-esh means dumb and stupid,
and so people say,
"Oh that'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. ay-ay-esh.
A long time ago,
across the mountains in a Yakima 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'd always lose something and break something,
or mess something up,
and the grown-ups woulds say to her,
"Oh little girl you're ay-ay-esh!
"You don't listen."
So the little girl wondered,
"Maybe I'm ay-ay-esh.
"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 ay-ay-esh,
"you don't know nothing!"
So after a while,
that little girl believed that she was ay-ay-esh,
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 ay-ay-esh,
so 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 in the hills,
followed the trails for a long ways up in 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 says, "Oh I'm ay-ay-esh, 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 if you want to learn."
She said, "Yes, I wanna learn!
"What can you teach me?"
Cedar Tree said,
"I want you to take 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 its branches down like hands,
and guided the little girl's hands
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 this bark and roots hanging from it,
but the 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 it in the water and lift it out.
"If it holds water you have made a good basket."
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 will hold water."
The little girl went, (sighing)
and she took her basket all the way down the hill,
dipped it in the river water,
lifted it out at all,
and all the water poured out of the big holes.
So she went all the way back to the cedar tree,
said, "All the water poured out.
"What do I do now?"
The cedar tree says,
"What you have to do is take it apart,
"and weave it again."
The little girl said, "Do I have to?
"I already did that once!
"You already showed me, I already--"
"Little girl this is how you learn.
"Take it apart, weave it again."
The little girl said, (sighing)
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 roots 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,
"dip it in the water 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."
Little girl went, (groaning)
and she took her basket all the way down to the river,
dipped it in the water, lifted it out.
Now it was holding some water,
but she could see the water
was leaking out of 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, (sighing)
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 or roots hanging from it.
But she said, "Did I make a good basket now?"
The cedar tree said,
"Little girl the only way we'll 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."
Little girl said, "I don't want to do that!
"I've been going up on the hill all day!"
"Little girl this is how you will learn,
take it to the river."
(sighing)
And she took it down to the river,
dipped it 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!"
Cedar said, "You did do 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 worked.
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 basket designs.
She couldn't make any designs,
she didn't know any designs,
'cause she was ay-ay-esh,
she didn't know anything.
And because of that she started to cry.
She cried and she cried,
and Cedar said,
"What are you crying for now little girl?"
"I need designs for a basket,
"but I don't know any designs,
"I don't know anything, I'm ay-ay-esh!"
The cedar tree said,
"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, way up in 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, (sighing)
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 gonna make a design
because she was ay-ay-esh,
and 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 ay-ay-esh, I don't know anything!"
The mountain said,
"Little girl look at me,
"can you see that I'm a design?"
She said, "Yeah, 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 itself up to her,
because she was ay-ay-esh!
So she started to cry again, (sobbing)
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 ay-ay-esh, I don't know anything!"
Rattlesnake said,
"Calm down little girl, look at me!
"Can you see that I have a design on my back?"
She said, "Yeah,
"looks like a bunch of diamonds hooked together."
The mountain said,
"You can use that for the top of your basket."
So 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 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, said,
"Little girl what is that?"
She said, "A basket."
They said, "Where did you get a basket?"
She said, "I made it out of cedar bark and roots,
"and it'll hold water, too."
They said, "Where did you learn all that?"
She said, "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 one,
Rattlesnake 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 said, "Little girl,
"can you teach us how
"to put designs in a basket like that?"
She said, "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 it could hold water.
She taught them how to put designs in their basket,
like mountain and rattlesnake.
And do you think the people called her ay-ay-esh anymore?
And that is all of the story called "Ay-ay-esh Girl".
And so I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions,
again it's for you to think about.
I'm not gonna give you answers,
I'm gonna 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 you to think about this question:
why was Cedar Tree a good teacher?
Why do you think she was a good teacher?
There many many many questions
you can find in this story,
but I want you to think about the ones I've asked you.
How did this girl 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 a cedar tree,
the top branches are like this all the time.
Our people say, "Look at the cedar tree,
"it's giving thanks every day,
"we must give thanks everyday."
So the cedar tree taught the little girl
how to weave a basket,
she also taught the little girl
how to say "thank you".
And I'm going to say thank you
for letting me share this story with you.
(funky music)