SMS seventh-graders to become storytellers

Published 2:20 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE — Middle-school children have many

roles. Student, athlete, artist and friend are just a few. And soon,

12 Snoqualmie Middle School seventh-graders will have an

entirely new and important role — that of storyteller.

The storytelling program is a new innovation at the

middle school. It features students who applied to get into a class by

writing an essay and who have a desire to learn Snoqualmie Tribe

stories, then the students tell those stories to elementary classes.

The program was funded in part by the King County Landmarks and

Heritage and Arts in Education programs.

Last week, the young storytellers sat in a circle of desks,

listening to their principal and storytelling leader explain

the significance of the program.

“This is an important project,” Snoqualmie Middle School

Principal Jack McCullough told the students. “You are the first in

this project, and you should feel good about who you are and where

you are today.”

Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member, artist and teacher

Roger Fernandes will instruct the class, which will meet once a week for

the remainder of the school year. Fernandes was born and raised

in the Seattle area and has worked with many children in a

school setting, teaching them legends and stories of the native

people of Puget Sound. He knows by heart many Snoqualmie Tribe

stories.

“We’re going to be working on stories that have been

passed on from generation to generation,” he said, explaining the

importance of a tradition that involved no written words or paper.

“I feel that stories are meant to be shared,” Fernandes said.

“I feel like part of a chain with these stories, that people hundreds

of years ago told the same stories that I do today, and that

makes me feel good.”

The students will learn the correct Native American

pronunciation of Snoqualmie and other words and will make masks,

costumes and other tools to help tell their stories, such as “How

Raven Lost His Venison,” “Spring Salmon and Steelhead

Salmon,” and “Origin of Tolt River.”

The stories come from Fernandes’ memory, and are also in a

book called “Mythology of South Puget Sound.”

Once the students have mastered a few legends, which

should be in April, they will travel to elementary schools in

the Snoqualmie Valley School District and present the tales to

younger children.

“When they go to the elementary schools to tell the stories,

they will also leave the stories,” McCullough said. “This isn’t

just a one-shot deal, this is an integrated element of the

curriculum.” The plan is for the elementary

students to learn and appreciate the stories, with some of them

going on to be storytellers themselves.

The storytelling is an extension of the seventh-grade

studies of Washington State and Pacific Rim countries. Native

American studies currently are taught in seventh-grade social studies,

literature, language arts and art classes.

In addition to the curriculum, much of the school’s

remodeling was done with consideration to tribal patterns, colors and

designs. For instance, the entryway looks like a longhouse, which was

a type of structure Native Americans used as a meeting place,

and basket patterns are “woven” in the floor tiles along hallways and

in the commons area.

The reason for studying the Tribe’s stories and culture is

because the middle school sits on tribal land, McCullough

said, adding that since the community is changing and new residents

are moving in, Valley children don’t know the area’s heritage as

well as older residents.

“My feeling was we need to work with the kids as the

tribe worked with their children, which was storytelling,”

McCullough said. He added that teaching the Snoqualmie Tribe’s stories

will also teach a different perspective on land, history and progress.

“Progress sometimes tramples heritage,” he said. “We want

to teach them to think: `How can you find that balance between

history, heritage and progress?’ On every issue there’s a different

perspective, and if there’s anything that we teach them, we want them

to understand that every issue has different perspectives and

points of view.”

Fernandes said he is pleased that the school is

implementing the program and the students are showing an interest in their

land’s history.

“I think that they want to be respectful of the namesake of

the school, and to understand the complete history of this

area makes kids more connected with it,” Fernandes said.

In the future, students will carve a house pole, which was

traditionally placed outside one’s door to identify the family

living inside, but this house poll will tell of the middle school. When

finished, the pole will be placed at the entrance. A first- or

second-growth cedar was donated for the pole, and the Snoqualmie

Tribe is in the process of selecting a carver to work with the students.