Sing Down The Moon Summary

Haley Ansel

7AD English

3-14-16

Book Report

Sing Down The Moon by Scott O’Dell. The setting takes place in the Navaho tribe in Arizona, between the time periods of 1863 to 1865. The lands of Arizona are very dry & some parts are grassy. There are many Indian Tribes that plant their own crops, and take their sheep to mesas where they graze & then sheared to survive. Indians have to do a lot to keep their tribes healthy and strong, including many jobs to accomplish. Then there are the Long Knives, enslavers of the Indians.

The main characters are Bright Morning, Running Bird, Nehana, Rosita, Señora, and Tall Boy. The point of view is told by Bright Morning, a 14 year old brave girl who is a tall and skinny Indian girl, with a chipped tooth who loves her tribe, family, and her dog. Running Bird is a 14 year old Indian girl who is best friends and gets enslaved by the Spaniards with Bright Morning. Nehana is the 14

year old Indian girl who helps Bright Morning & Running Bird flee from the Spaniard’s village. Rosita is the 12 year old Indian girl who was enslaved by the Spaniards and put into a home for work, and she has been living & working with the Señora for 2 years, and likes it there. Señora is the the woman who payed for Bright Morning as her slave, and she is a very grouchy short dark skinned woman. Tall Boy is a tall man with long rope braids that lie on his chest, is chief of the hunters of the Navaho tribe, and seeks love with Bright Morning.
Bright Morning & her best friend, Running Bird are taking care of their mother’s sheep in the mesa, when later they meet these Spaniards who enslave them.

They’re taken back to the Spaniard’s village to be slaves, & they meet Nahana, a girl who helps them escape off with the Spaniard’s horses. They make it back to the Navaho village safe, accompanied with Tall Boy, & two other Indian men. Few days have past, and their village gets a notice to leave by the Long Knives, Americans they strongly dislike, to move out or be raided & killed. The tribe leaves & watch the Long Knives destroy their whole village. They go out and try to discover new land to build their new village on but the Long Knives catch them & bring them to the Bosque Redondo, a home to many Indians controlled by the white men. Bright Morning’s parent’s plan a marriage with her and Tall Boy. Bright Morning and Tall Boy escape Bosque Redondo and set out for a nice place to have her baby. She has her baby, & they visit their old home at Canyon de Chelly to see the sheep and how they’re

doing.
I give this book 4 stars out of 9 stars,b because I didn’t really like it. I liked how much Bright Morning liked Tall Boy before they were forced to marry, because she would always try to talk to him & care for him. I don’t like how the Long Knives destroy the Navaho village when they said they wouldn't if the Navaho tribe could keep their own peace, when they did. My favorite part was when Bright Morning took care of a young lady’s child for a long period of time. She couldn’t find the child’s mother until the child had passed away, but Bright Morning hugged & prayed for the child’s mother when they met. I don’t recommend this to the kids in my grade because this book was boring & not very humorous.