ShmoopTube

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We've got a real treat for you today!

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… No, it's not a box full of kittens. [Man thinking about box of kittens]

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Though that would be a real treat…

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It's a Native American creation myth called, "Pushing Up the Sky," which comes to us from [Pushing up the sky book appears]

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the Snohomish tribe.

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…Yeah, we wish it was a box of kittens too, but trust us, this is almost as good.

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The story begins as many stories do - with the Creator making the world. [Earth spinning]

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He started in the East and then went West, giving a different language to each people

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he came across.

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When he reached Puget Sound, which is in the present-day state of Washington, he liked [Man hovering over coastline]

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it so much that he decided to scatter many, many different languages across it.

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That’s why there are so many different Native American languages spoken there.

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Because we all know when you love something, you give it a bunch of different languages [Box of books in different languages]

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…No?

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You don't do that?

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Well that explains why no one ever likes our presents… [Person puts books in the trash can]

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But there was a problem with the Creator's gift of languages.

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See, there were a ton of different people living close together who had no way to talk

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with one another.

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It'd be like living between someone who speaks Japanese and someone who speaks French.

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Sure it sounds cool, but you'd never know if they were asking to borrow a cup of sugar, [Man stood in the middle of foreign neighbors]

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or telling you your house is on fire…

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Anyway, back to the story…all of these people shared a little problem: the Creator had made

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the sky too low, and as a result, they were all bumping their heads on it!

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Tall people will know how terrible that is.

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Short people – use your imaginations. [Woman bouncing up and down]

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So the wise people of every tribe came together to have a meeting to fix the problem. [Tribe people gather round campfire]

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And though they couldn’t speak with each other, they managed to decide upon one word

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that they could all share.

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This word was “Ya-hoh” and it would act as a signal for everyone to push the sky up

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together at the same time.

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So they all went back to their tribes and with everyone working together, they shouted

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“Ya-hoh!” and pushed the sky up. [Tribesmen shouting Ya-hoh]

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That really gives a different meaning to the phrase “raise the roof," huh?

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All the different peoples pushed.

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Even the animals and birds and trees joined in. It was quite a party. [Hands pushing up the sky]

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They pushed and pushed and pushed and….

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….the sky moved upwards!

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We know this sounds like a happy ending, but hold your horses – we’re not done quite yet. [Mother reading story to girl]

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You see, there were three hunters that didn't get the message about the day of the big sky push.

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So instead of helping to push the sky, they were out chasing four elks. [Tribe people chasing Elks]

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The hunters had chased the elks way up high, right up to the point where the earth and

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the sky met.

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And so, when the sky was finally pushed up, the three hunters and four elks got trapped

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on the sky side and entered the Sky World. [Tribesmen and elk in the sky]

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Which, trust us, is not quite as fun as Disney World.

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It doesn't even have churros.

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Anyway, this transformed the three hunters and four elks into stars, and they remain

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there in the sky in the form of the Big Dipper. [Big Dipper in the sky]

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So now that we know the story, we should probably figure out what it all means.

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Or more specifically, “What elements of this story make it a myth?”

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Well, we know that myths are stories, and this is definitely a story, so that fits the bill.

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But, more importantly, myths help us learn about the world.

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They explain things to us. [Coop explaining myths]

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So what do we see in this story that we recognize from the world we live in today?

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Well for starters, it explains language.

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It tells us that the creator made the earth and gave each different group of people a

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different language. [Creator dropping languages]

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It also explains the origin of the Big Dipper by saying that the three hunters and four

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elks got trapped in the sky and turned into stars.

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And what about theme?

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What sort of moral or lesson can we gather from this myth?

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Well, seeing as the story is all about many different people with different languages [Tribesmen round a campfire]

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coming together to work towards the common goal of pushing up the sky, we could say that

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theme of the myth is “teamwork.”

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When people set aside their differences and work together, anything is possible – even [Hands lifting the sky]

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lifting the sky.

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…okay, so maybe we can't lift the sky, but whatever.

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You get the point.

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Anyway, the next time you read or hear a myth, you can ask yourself these same questions:

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what makes it a myth?

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What does it explain about the world around us?

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What’s the myth's theme? [Questions appear]

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And while you're at it, maybe learn the phrase, "your house is on fire," in different languages…that [Man with house on fire and fire engine appears]

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sure would've saved us a lot of sugar over the years.

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