Sing Down the Moon

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1970

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapter 21-Postscript

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Weaving Historical Details into Fiction

O’Dell takes care in Sing Down the Moon to provide details that are historically accurate and reflect the realities of Navajo life during the period in which the novel takes place, 1863–1865. As an outsider to Navajo culture and the historical period in which his novel is set, O’Dell’s characterizations of Navajo culture are limited. However, the specific details he includes convey his intent to treat Navajo culture and history with respect. These details reflect the geography of Navajo culture in 1863–1865, including Bright Morning’s village in Canyon de Chelly (in Northeastern Arizona) and Bosque Redondo in New Mexico, where the white soldiers lead the Navajo.

O’Dell’s novel also resists viewing Native American culture as homogenous. It instead stresses the diversity of Native American tribes, with the Kiowa, Comanche, Nez Percé, Zuñi, Apache, Hopi, and Ute among the groups mentioned in the novel alongside the Spaniards and other settlers of European descent. The novel provides as much detail as possible regarding Navajo life through the vehicle of Bright Morning. For example, Bright Morning’s fixation on sheep not only reflects her personal desires and goals, but also the importance of sheep within Navajo culture. O’Dell also references woven blankets, the womanhood ceremony Kin-nadl-dah, marriage rituals, and other elements of Navajo culture in order to convey a sense of their reality.

The novel’s most powerful attempt at historical detail emerges in its portrayal of the Long Walk, a historical event during which white soldiers forced thousands of Navajo and members of other tribes to leave their lands and become captives on a reservation in Bosque Redondo. The novel stresses the emotional trauma of the walk, such as when Bright Morning notes, “My mother had not cried since we left our canyon. But she cried now as she stood there and looked down upon this gray country that was to be our home” (99). Sing Down the Moon does not gloss over the physical violence associated with the Long Walk, such as describing when soldiers jeer at the struggle of elderly Navajo on the lengthy forced march. The novel also indicates that the violence and injustices committed against the Navajo and other Native Americans were widespread, such as when it alludes to the Sand Creek massacre of 1864, in which a preacher gave an order to “[k]ill and scalp all [Cheyenne and Arapaho], big and little, […] since nits make lice” (105). While its depictions of the Navajo and other cultures are limited and imperfect, Sing Down the Moon takes a clear stand in terms of acknowledging and condemning the violence and historical injustices committed against Native Americans.

Bright Morning as an Empowered Young Woman

The opening pages of Sing Down the Moon describe Bright Morning’s shame at having failed her mother and her sheep a year prior. At the outset, the reader understands Bright Morning’s resolve to prove herself, and throughout all of the tribulations described in the novel, she does just that. By the end of the novel, Bright Morning grows into a bold, independent, opinionated young woman.

When Bright Morning faces the terrifying experience of being captured and enslaved, she is understandably fearful and anxious. Yet she resists Rosita’s assurances that life as a slave is favorable. Bright Morning forms her own opinion and decides to escape. She is both savvy enough to keep silent about the plan and bold enough to move forward with Nehana and Running Bird. She refuses to accept the loss of her dignity and freedom, which foreshadows her future insistence upon escape from the reservation in Bosque Redondo.

During the Navajos’ captivity in Bosque Redondo, Bright Morning notes, “our men did nothing. They sat and shook their heads, but made no plans to defend themselves or their families should the Long Knives come” (105). Even more strikingly, this realization comes in the novel just after the recounting of the brutal Sand Creek massacre, in which men, women, and children of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were killed. In contrast to the ineffectuality of the men, Bright Morning resolves to take action, forming another plan to escape. She makes careful plans to prepare for the escape, secretly storing food and sacrificing her turquoise bracelet “for three old blankets […]. By taking one of them apart [she] was able to save enough thread to repair the other two” for the journey (113). Even Tall Boy is reluctant to accept her plan, but he ultimately acquiesces after Bright Morning and her mother ridicule him for being complacent, unlike themselves. Bright Morning’s steadfast persistence convinces Tall Boy to accept her plan to go back to Canyon de Chelly.

Bright Morning’s boldness is clear when she stands up to the officer presiding over Tall Boy’s hearing. Bright Morning speaks up without prompting and tells the officer directly that the Apache’s injured “arm is his fault” (117). The annoyed officer replies, “Whose fault it is […] is for me to decide” (117), but Bright Morning’s perspective is clear: She is not afraid to stand by what she believes in. Even in a situation in which she has little power, Bright Morning acts on the strength she finds inside herself.

Trauma and Recovery

Sing Down the Moon addresses a dark time in Navajo and American history in describing the Long Walk and injustices the US government committed against Native Americans. The specific trials Bright Morning and other characters face—ranging from enslavement to gunshot wounds—are traumatic. However, the characters successfully overcome many of these challenges, and, in his postscript to the novel, O’Dell characterizes the Navajo as gaining strength in the years since the Long Walk.

Bright Morning’s perspective provides a lens through which the reader can view the traumas of this time period. When the Spaniards sell her into slavery, the experience is frightening. Seeing Nehana on the city street, for instance, Bright Morning sees her eyes as saying “[r]un, run, even though they kill you” (30). She must plot her escape in the face of fearsome risks, all while dealing with the abuse of slavery. When Bright Morning arrives back home in Canyon de Chelly, however, “a Navaho wind” greets her, and she says, “Joyously I breathed it in” (62). She overcomes the trauma and feels enlivened by her homecoming.

Tall Boy also faces serious trauma in the novel after being shot while defending Bright Morning, Nehana, and Running Bird from the slave traders. Losing the use of his arm, he also loses his identity as a warrior. His repeated attempts to maintain that identity despite his injury, and the failure of those attempts exacerbates his trauma. The experience of the Long Walk breaks his spirit further, as does his imprisonment on the reservation. It is only once he surrenders his former identity of masculine warrior and embraces a new fate as supportive husband that he can begin to evolve through his trauma.

The experience of the Long Walk was a trauma collectively experienced by thousands of Navajo and other Native Americans. Sing Down the Moon does not shy away from characterizing the horrors of the Long Walk and notes details of death, soldiers’ cruelty, and food scarcity. As the novel clearly presents, the march was devastating for each individual and the tribes collectively. Yet, as the tribes arrive on the reservation, Bright Morning notes, “Spring came overnight, with fleecy clouds and larks soaring from the grass. It made us happy to know that winter was behind us” (99). This moment of joy in the face of the traumatic events preceding and following it foreshadows how Bright Morning and Tall Boy will ultimately overcome the injustice of the Long Walk and an oppressed existence on the reservation by escaping back to Canyon de Chelly. In his postscript to the novel, O’Dell expands on this idea as it relates to the Navajo as a people, stating that “[t]he Navahos wanted to live. They still do” (123). O’Dell imagines that while the injustices they faced are real, the Navajo fought to thrive.