A Hunter's Promise: An Abenaki Tale
Book Summary:
This is an Abenaki story about a young hunter who leaves his
tribe and travels north deep into the forests to hunt in the fall. Once there
he decides that he is lonely there by himself and wishes he had a partner. The
next day he finds that there is food cooked for him and his lodge cleaned up. The
reader is shown that a woman has joined him to keep him company. When spring
came and it was time for the young hunter to return to his village with all the
skins and meat he had collected the woman made him promise that he would
remember her and return. The young hunter is happily welcomed backed to his village
and celebrated for all the meat and skins he has brought back. The moves on and
it is fall again and off the young hunter must go again. Once he returns to his
winter lodge he is greeted this time by his wife and their son Wadzo. Wadzo is
not like other boys because he seems to grow years in just one day and soon is
old enough to go hunting with his dad the hunter. With the two of them they are
able to gather more meat and skins to take back to his village. Spring came
again and he had to return to his tribe and again the wife said “Mikwalniona”
or promise to remember us. This time when he returned everyone was so
impressed. The chief asked the young hunter to marry his daughter, but the
hunter remembered his family and said no. This did not go over very well with
the chief’s daughter because she is used to getting what she wants so she had a
powerful “poohegan” or spirit helper help her trick him into marriage. Fall
came again and it was time to go to the lodge but this time his wife requested
that she go with him. He was not happy. When they reached the lodge deep in the
forest the hunter saw his other wife standing there with their first son and
now his second son Sibo. She then saw who came with him and was not pleased.
She said that he broke his promise and so she and her two sons turned and
walked into the forest. As they were walking into the forest they turned into
moose. The hunter knew that they were who he was suppose to be with and so he
joined them in the forest as a moose.
Cultural Analysis:
Joseph Bruchac, the author is a Native American himself from
an Abenaki background. This story was his retelling of a traditional story that
can be found in many different forms across the northeast. The tale is about
loyalty and trust and how it is important to keep a promise to your family.
Other people believe that this story is to show how people and nature work
together. The author incorporates words from the Native American language like “mikwalmi”
to add to the authenticity of the story. The illustrator, Bill Farnsworth,
created beautiful pictures to help tell the story and show the traditional
clothing of the Abenaki tribe. The pictures also show what the housing looks
like and how they tan the skins using sticks and string and how the Native Americans
live in the village and at his winter lodge.
Editorial Reviews:
From School Library Journal
Gr 2–5—A solid retelling of a traditional Wabanaki
Confederacy story. As a young man heads to his winter hunting camp, he is
thankful of the great hunter he has become. While walking along moose tracks he
is wistfully aware of his loneliness. Soon after he comes home each day to
meals prepared and tasks completed. Unaware of who is doing these things, he
continues his hunts until one day a silent woman appears. As he leaves for
spring she asks him to promise to remember her. Back in his own village he keeps
his promise, and returned the next winter to find his wife and child, who grows
each day in years. He know has a hunting companion. Again, as he leaves the
promise is mentioned. However, upon his return the chief's daughter, who is
used to getting her way, tricks him into forgetting so that she may be his
wife. When he returns in the winter, his memory clears and he realizes the
importance of the wife and children to him. Farnsworth's oil paintings add
depth to this story. The feelings portrayed through the images allows readers
to understand the emotions of the characters. Bruchac reinforces the importance
of balance in the land, and integrity of the keeping one's word. VERDICT A
great addition for traditional tale collections. Recommended.—Amy Zembroski, Indian
Community School, Franklin, WI
Other Books:
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom
Tingle, T. (2006). Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw tale of
friendship & freedom. Ill Jeanne Rorex Bridges El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos
Press. ISBN 978-0-938317-77-7
Book Summary:
This is the beautiful story of a Choctaw little girl and an
African American boy and their families. The Bok Chitto River separates the
Native Americans on one side and the plantations and slaves on the other side. A
Choctaw little girl named Martha Tom is asked by her mother to collect berries
and she can’t find any on her side of the river so she goes to the stepping
stones in the river that her tribe has placed there right under the water so
the people on the other side do not know they are there and so the Choctaw
people can cross easily. Once Martha Tom crossed the river and picked the
berries she sees a man standing by a clearing with large logs like they were
benches. The man called out “We are bound for the promise land” and then all of
a sudden several African Americans came from out behind the trees and started
singing. This is what Martha called slave church. While she was watching a man
found her and asked if she was lost. She had wondered too far away from the
river and needed help from him to find her way back. He had his son Little Mo
take Martha back to the river. The two children from opposite sides of the
river formed a great friendship and would cross the river and share in each
other’s culture. She would go to slave church with Little Mo and Martha would
take him to see a wedding ceremony. Then one horrible evening Little Mo found
out that his mother had been sold to another plantation and they would never
see her again. Little Mo’s family was so upset and he decided that this was the
time to leave and cross the river to freedom. With the knowledge that Martha
Tom had taught him about the stepping stones they had a good chance of getting
across the river safely. They each packed a small bag and walked slowly but not
too slowly through the forest and to the river. Once they got to the river he
was able to cross and then go get Martha Tom to help make sure the rest of his
family would make it across. Martha Tom’s mother heard what was happening and
aske all the women to put on their white dresses and go to the river. When all
the women were at the river with candles Little Mo’s family started to cross.
When the guards got to the river what they saw shocked and amazed them. To the
guards it looked like Little Mo’s family was walking on water towards angels. The
guards couldn’t do anything and Little Mo’s family was able to cross the river to
freedom thanks to Martha Tom and the women of the Choctaw tribe.
Cultural Analysis:
This book combines Native American culture and African
American culture in a beautiful tale of friendship. The illustrations show the
reader the attire of the Choctaw people and how they lived along with the
attire of the African Americans and the guards. The illustrations also show the
emotion and feelings of the characters in the story. The author describes the
Choctaw’s long row of log cabin houses to show the reader that not all Native
Americans live in teepees. The author also shows the Native American culture by
sharing what a Choctaw wedding is like and what the ceremonies consist of. The
author also shows a little bit of the African American history of being a slave
and how they had to sneak into the forest to have church. The author also shows
how plantation owners don’t pay attention to their slaves as Little Mo and
Martha Tom are able to walk right by them during their sipping and sighing on a
Sunday morning. The author also shared the experiences of how slaves were often
bought and sold given no thought to their families. The ability to cross the
river thanks to the Choctaw tribe shows how well the Native Americans thought
about nature and how to survive the elements. The author also used music as a
way to show the two different cultures. This is a wonderful story of friendship
between two different cultures that needs to be shared in today’s society.
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-6–Dramatic, quiet, and warming, this is a story of
friendship across cultures in 1800s Mississippi. While searching for
blackberries, Martha Tom, a young Choctaw, breaks her village's rules against
crossing the Bok Chitto. She meets and becomes friends with the slaves on the
plantation on the other side of the river, and later helps a family escape
across it to freedom when they hear that the mother is to be sold. Tingle is a
performing storyteller, and his text has the rhythm and grace of that oral
tradition. It will be easily and effectively read aloud. The paintings are dark
and solemn, and the artist has done a wonderful job of depicting all of the
characters as individuals, with many of them looking out of the page right at
readers. The layout is well designed for groups as the images are large and
easily seen from a distance. There is a note on modern Choctaw culture, and one
on the development of this particular work. This is a lovely story, beautifully
illustrated, though the ending requires a somewhat large leap of the
imagination.–Cris Riedel, Ellis B. Hyde Elementary School, Dansville, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 2-4. In a picture book that highlights
rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and
African Americans in bondage, a noted Choctaw storyteller and Cherokee artist
join forces with stirring results. Set "in the days before the War Between
the States, in the days before the Trail of Tears," and told in the
lulling rhythms of oral history, the tale opens with a Mississippi Choctaw girl
who strays across the Bok Chitto River into the world of Southern plantations,
where she befriends a slave boy and his family. When trouble comes, the
desperate runaways flee to freedom, helped by their own fierce desire (which
renders them invisible to their pursuers) and by the Choctaws' secret route
across the river. In her first paintings for a picture book, Bridges conveys
the humanity and resilience of both peoples in forceful acrylics, frequently
centering on dignified figures standing erect before moody landscapes.
Sophisticated endnotes about Choctaw history and storytelling traditions don't
clarify whether Tingle's tale is original or retold, but this oversight won't
affect the story's powerful impact on young readers, especially when presented
alongside existing slave-escape fantasies such as Virginia Hamiltons's The People
Could Fly (2004) and Julius Lester's The Old African (2005). Jennifer Mattson Copyright
© American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
Other Reviews:
"In a picture book that highlights rarely discussed
intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in
bondage, a noted Choctaw storyteller and Cherokee artist join forces with
stirring results… the story [has a] powerful impact on young readers."
—Booklist, starred review
"Crossing Bok Chitto… tells a tale with a happier
ending, but its journey is no less a departure from the narrative of American
uplift. In literature for children, this is a lesson as old as the Grimms. But
these realities cut deeper than any fantasy." —The New York Times
"Tingle is a performing storyteller, and his text has
the rhythm and grace of that oral tradition. It will be easily and effectively
read aloud. The paintings are dark and solemn, and the artist has done a
wonderful job of depicting all of the characters as individuals, with many of
them looking out of the page right at readers." —School Library Journal
"A moving and wholly original story about the
intersection of cultures…Bridges creates mural-like paintings with a rock-solid
spirituality and stripped-down graphic sensibility, the ideal match for the
down-to-earth cadences and poetic drama of the text." —Publishers Weekly,
starred review
"Crossing Bok Chitto is very highly recommended for all
young readers as a celebration of diversity, acceptance, and unity in a
remarkable production of expert authorship and invaluable illustrations."
—Midwest Book Review, starred review
"A very moving story about friends helping each other
and reveals a lesser-known part of American History: Native Americans helped
runaway slaves...While, this is a picture book; it would make a wonderful
read-aloud for middle elementary students." —Children's Literature
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time
Indian. Ill Ellen Forney New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-01368-0
Book Summary:
This book tells the story of Junior who is a
14 year old boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He was born with
hydrocephalus (water in the brain). This causes him many health problems, like
an awkward lisp and really bad eye sight so he has to wear thick glasses. He
comes from a very poor family and this causes more problems for him throughout
the story. Although he has many challenges he also has a best friend rightfully
named Rowdy. Rowdy tries to help defend his friend Junior and even cut the
ponytail off of a guy who beat up Junior once. Junior is a good student and
really wants to learn in school but on the reservation the school is old and
out dated so he transfers off the reservation and to an all-white school,
thanks to his teacher Mr. P. The move to the Reardan School hurt his friendship
with Rowdy but he was able to meet Penelope, a pretty girl and form a
friendship with a nerd named Gordy. Junior works hard to earn the attention of
Penelope and finally does and is able to take her to the Winter Formal wearing
his dad’s old suit. With Penelope’s help
the students start to accept Junior and he decides to try out for the Reardan
basketball team and makes it onto the varsity squad. Reardan's first game of
the season happens to be against Wellpinit, the reservation school. During the
game all the people from the reservation ignore Junior and think of him as a
traitor to his tribe. Then tragedy strikes one after another with his dad’s
drinking, his grandmother passing away, a family friend being shot and then
Mary’s death. Junior is devastated.
Despite all of the trials he has faced during his freshman year at
Reardan, Junior does really well in school. In the end he is accepted by his
new school and he and Rowdy are able to reconnect with the help of a cartoon
drawing and Rowdy being bored.
Cultural Analysis:
This is a very powerful story and look into one Native
American environment. This book will take you on an emotional rollercoaster
ride. The story will have you laughing out loud one moment, bawling your eyes
out on the next page and then back to laughing. It tugs at all your
heartstrings when you experience the trials of growing up on the reservation
and then going to an all-white school. This story gives an insider look at what
it is like on an Indian reservation and attacks some stereotypes head on. For
example as early as page two the author, Sherman Alexie, writes “our white
dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did,
so he only gave us half the Novocain” referring to when he had to have ten
teeth pulled at one time because the Indian Health Service only funded major
dental work to be done once a year. Alexie
has a great way with words and timing to remind the reader that the story is
about a Native American boy by saying statements like on page 10 “We Indians
really should be better liars, considering how often we’ve been lied to”. This book is rich in Native American culture;
Sherman Alexi takes a look a skin stones, religious ceremonies, dialect, foods
and celebrations in a contemporary and teenage point of view that teen readers
will appreciate.
Editorial Reviews:
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 7–10—Exploring Indian identity, both
self and tribal, Alexie's first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical
chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA.
The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the
target of bullies, and loves to draw. He says, "I think the world is a
series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little
lifeboats." He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation
school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making
friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball
team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions
about what constitutes one's community, identity, and tribe. The daily
struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths of the protagonist's
grandmother, dog, and older sister would be all but unbearable without the
humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world. The many
characters, on and off the rez, with whom he has dealings are portrayed with
compassion and verve, particularly the adults in his extended family. Forney's
simple pencil cartoons fit perfectly within the story and reflect the burgeoning
artist within Junior. Reluctant readers can even skim the pictures and
construct their own story based exclusively on Forney's illustrations. The
teen's determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the
handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a
low-key manner. Alexie's tale of self-discovery is a first purchase for all
libraries.—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a
division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot,
spends his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian
reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight
than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those
laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately
together. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness
of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as
much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He
weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon
faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay
amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation. Alexie's humor
and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn't
pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt.
A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this ultimately affirms the
incredible power of best friends to hurt and heal in equal measure. Younger
teens looking for the strength to lift themselves out of rough situations would
do well to start here. Chipman, Ian --This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
Other Reviews
"This is a gem of a book....may be [Sherman Alexie's]
best work yet."―New York Times
"A Native American equivalent of Angela's
Ashes."―(starred review), Publishers Weekly
"Sure to resonate and lift spirits of all ages for
years to come."―USA Today
"Realistic and fantastical and funny and tragic-all at
the same time."―(starred review), VOYA
"The line between dramatic monologue, verse novel, and
standup comedy gets unequivocally-and hilariously and triumphantly-bent in this
novel."―(starred review), Horn Book
"Nimbly blends sharp with unapologetic emotion....fluid
narration deftly mingles raw feelings with funny, sardonic
insight."―Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
"Few writers are more masterful than Sherman
Alexie."―Los Angeles Times
"Alexie's humor and prose are easygoing and well suited
to his young audience."―Booklist
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