Sing Down the Moon (1970)

Sing down the moon is a great book about Indian slavery and how the spaniards made the people of the Navaho walk the trail of Tears. ( )

Summary- This book is about a young 14 year old Indian girl named “Bright Morning.” She belonged to the Navajo Indian tribe. One morning when she was letting her sheep graze she was kidnapped by Spaniards and took to be a slave. She and her friend “Running Bird” ran away and made it back home. White soldiers came and took over the entire village and canyon “Canyon de Chelly” where her tribe lived they were forced to leave by the white soldiers. This book is over a long period of time. She is much older now as they travel may of the elderly and many of the very young died. After many moons, there were thousands of different of Navajo tribes. The white soldiers were taking them to Fort. Sumner. The Navajos refer to this as “The Long Walk.” While they were at their place of living Bright Morning got married to “Tall Boy.” After being married for a short period Tall Boy was arrested by the white soldiers. After he escaped he and Bright Morning left Ft. Sumner and went back to Canyon De Chelly. Right before reaching the canyon they stayed in a place called “Elk Running Valley.” Bright Morning gave birth to their son there. Finally, they reached the canyon they called home, they settled in a meadow, where she found some of the sheep she left behind.

Personal reaction- I enjoyed reading this book. The author did an amazing job of recreating this historical story. As I read I was able to envision what was happening in the book. I would definitely read this book to my class.

Classroom extension- (1) This would be an excellent book to do a cultural study over.
(2) Draw pictures of what they think they characters may look like. ( )

Just as entertaining now as when I read it years ago in elementary school. It would be a great read for any kids studying Native Americans or early American history.

It is about a girl who gets capured and was abel to ascap. Then she got marred at the end of the book. But they moved to a place so they can be
free and only. ( )

In this book a Navajo girl named Bright Morning was captured by the Long Knives Soldiers came on thier horses. They also captured her friend Running Bird. The two girls were seperated and taken to the Soldiers home town. One of the Navajo soldiers helped the girls escape one night, and when the Long Knives figured out what had happened they captured all the Navajo people and held them as prisoners. Tall Boy and Bright Morning got married and planned another escape at night. They went to a place called Elk-Running Valley. Bright Morning and Tall Boy had a baby boy. This would be a good book to incorporate into Social Studies to discuss the Navajo Indians and their lives. ( )