Directions

In this part of the test, you will listen to two essays: Shi-ma-sani and Shi-Cheeh" by Peggy Yazzie and "Gone Forever" by Buffalo Bird Woman. Then you will answer some questions to show how well you understood what was read.

You will listen to the essays twice. The first time you hear the essays, listen carefully but do not take notes. As you listen to the essays the second time, you may want to take notes. You may use these notes to answer the questions that follow.

Here are some words and definitions you will need to know as you listen to the essays:

" Shi-ma-sani and Shi-cheeh"  To hear the passage click here.

"Gone Forever" To listen to the passage click here.

(Both selections are available in text format by clicking here. Text is NOT available for the students on this section of the test.)

 

26.  Using the specific details from the essay, complete the chart below to show what Peggy Yazzie learned form each grandparent.

SHI-MA-SANI SHI-CHEEH
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

27. Why were things Peggy Yazzie learned form her grandparents important to her? Use information from the essay to support your answer.

 

28.  How has life changed for Buffalo Bird Woman? Use details from the essay to support your answer.

 

29. Discuss the memories of both Peggy Yazzie and Buffalo Bird Woman.

In your discussion, be sure to include

Check your writing for correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

 

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Text for the Listening Selections

Peggy Yazzie, a Navajo Indian student, wrote this essay about her grandmother and grandfather in 1971 for Shush Da Bizaad, the monthly publication at Wingate High School in Fort Wingate, New Mexico.

Shi-ma-sani and Shi-cheeh

I was born in a hogan. Shi-ma-sani raised me. She let my hair grow long and made my Navajo bun.

She made me long silk skirts and velveteen blouses,decorated with buttons made by Shi-cheeh. She taught me how to make fry-bread, take care of sheep, and use mutton for food.

Shi-cheeh would sing over me when I was sick. Shi-cheeh made me nice jewels, which I wear to the ceremonies, and he made moccasins for me. Shi-cheeh told me lots of stories, taught me how to sing, pray, and hand-tremble.

I’m proud and happy that Shi-ma-sani and Shi-cheeh taught me a lot of things.

Selection #2 - Gone Forever

In the mid-nineteenth century, when she was a child, Buffalo Bird Woman of the Hidatsa tribe lived along a bend of the Missouri River named "Like a Fishhook." As an old woman she looks back on those faraway times.

I am an old woman now. The buffaloes and black-tail deer
are gone, and our Indian ways are almost gone. Sometimes I find it
hard to believe that I ever lived them.

My little son grew up in the white man’s school. He can read
books, and he owns cattle and has affirm. He is a leader among our
Hidatsa people, helping teach them to follow the white man’s road.

He is kind to me. We no longer live in an earth lodge, but in a
house with chimneys; and my son’s wife cooks by a stove.

But for me, I cannot forget our old ways.

Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the
cornfields; and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young.
No one cares for our corn songs now.

Sometimes at evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. The sun sets,
and dusk steals over the water. In the shadows I seem again
to see our Indian village, with
smoke curling upward from the earth lodges; and in the river’s roar I hear
the yells of the warriors, the laughter of little children as of old. It is but an
old woman’s dream.

Again I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river; and tears come into my eyes.
Our Indian lift, I know, is gone forever.

 

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