by Connie Vines
“I have tried, Tay, to make a difference. Having served under Sister Kathleen for so many years, it seems strange to be headmistress of the school.”
I felt a tug at my heart. Even though Sister Kathleen had been dead for three years, I still missed her.
“She came to visit the reservation school that first year I taught. Did they ever tell you that? it meant so much to me that she came.” I said.
Anna Thunder’s eyes misted with tears. “Tay, she was so proud of you. We all were.”
“I know.”
“Are you still teaching, Tay?”
“Yes. It has become such a part of my life. I would not ever dream of giving it up. Remember how fearful I was after I graduated?”
“Marriage is a big step. Especially when you and Jacob immediately moved to the San Carlos Indian Reservation. You had a reason to be fearful. What you did was very brave and your letters to us were filled with your love of teaching.”
“Anna, the first five years on the reservation were very difficult for us all. Often, we went hungry. Still, Jacob and I were happy. Jacob's parents and grandparents even moved to the reservation. They lived long enough to see our first two daughters born.”
“I know all of this was very important to you, Tay.”
I smiled at the memories. I hadn't thought of those early years in a long time. My life had been too busy, too filled with happiness.
“I taught in a one-room school and Jacob took up silver smithing,” I said. “We were happy and our people were looking forward to the days to come. Those were good days.”
Anna Thunder reached for my hand. “They are good days,” she replied, before glancing out the window. “It is so good to have you here again, Tay. Lately my thoughts have been with Mary Billy. Have you heard from her?
A smile curved my lips, “She sent me a telegram last week. Mary will be here tomorrow.
We will be together again.”
- The End -
Background Information
The first government academy for borders was opened in 1879. During the two decades which followed, more than 1,200 Indian students from 79 different tribes attended this school alone.
Student Workbook
Introduction
In order for the students to fully understand and appreciate the novel, this resource section has been designed. It can be utilized in either a Social Studies or Language Arts class. Although specifically designed for 8th graders, it can be adapted for 4th graders and high school students. The purpose is not only to teach about the lives of Apache Indians, but also to obtain higher-level thinking and writing proficiency.
The applicable National Social Studies and Language Arts standards have been included. This will enable the teacher to justify using the novel and workbook as part of their curriculum map.
Bloom’s Taxonomy is employed throughout the workbook. While Knowledge and Comprehension level questions needed to be included, the body of the workbook lends itself to the higher levels. Since there are a number of Application and Evaluation questions, there can be no right or wrong answers. Therefore, the answer key is sparse. In order to evaluate the students’ response, on suggestion is to allow for the students’ answers to be the start of the class discussion. This will force the student to justify their answer and enable the class to judge the validity of that answer.
Critical analysis is a crucial part of this workbook and will help students appreciate the plight of the Native American. This unit includes writing and research opportunities, poetry activities, cooperative learning assignments, culminating activities and many open-ended questions in order to help students develop their analytical skills.
There are many different ways to uses this workbook. It lends itself well to independent study in which the novel and the worksheets can be given to a student or group of students with a specific deadline attached in which to take the assessments. It can be done as a class, with the students working on each chapter at a time. Also, the unit can be easily compacted, with each student working at his or her own reading pace.
Given the novel and workbook’s historical and writing components, this is a great interdisciplinary unit. While the Social Studies teacher can use the background material, the Language Arts teacher is able to delve into the novel. The worksheets can then be divided up depending on what each teacher feels needs to be covered in their individual class.
Tanayia by Connie Vines
Whisper upon the Water
Summary
Tanayia—Whisper upon the Water is a 45,000 -word novel told in the first person by Tanayia, a thirteen-year-old Apache girl. The story opens at Tanayia’s Sunrise Ceremony. It was during this important event that the village is attacked by Mexican Revolutionaries, leaving Tanayia the only survivor.
Tanayia escapes her captors, but is near death when she stumbles into a traveler’s camp. She is taken to an Army fort where she is nursed back to health. Law in the 1800s decreed that all Indian children be educated at boarding schools, so the Army has her transported to the New Mexico Territory.
All the students must obey the headmistress’ unbending rules. Only English is to be spoken and all the children are given new names. When the girls are forced to bunk with those of warring tribes, arguments break out. Punishment by Sister Enid is prompt and harsh: confined to the attic with no food or water.
Anna Thunder, a Comanche, forms an immediate dislike for Apache, Tay. But when Tay is sent to work in the garden she meets Jacob Five-Wounds. Anna sees the two of them together and threatens to tell Sister Enid. In exchange for her silence, Tay must give her a share of her food.
Diphtheria strikes the school causing Tay’s friend, Mary Billy, and Anna’s sister, Little Fawn, to become ill. Sister Enid forces the remaining students to keep up their work and studies. It is during this time that the headmistress accuses Anna Thunder of stealing and locks her in the attic. Tay, knowing it isn’t true, confronts Sister Enid. The headmistress attacks her and then drags her into the attic, telling the other sisters to confine the girls for five days without food or water. When the sisters balk at her orders, Sister Enid threatens to turn them out of the school.
Sister Kathleen telegrams the chief Army doctor, and Indian named Simon Joseph, informing him of the epidemic. When the doctor arrives, he releases the girls from the attic. Even thought Anna has cared for Tay while they were locked in the attic, Tay also has diphtheria. Jacob Five-Wounds visits Tay when she recovers. He asks her to marry him. Though Tay is in love with Jacob, she is confused. He wants to join the Army and Tay doesn’t want to live her life in an Army fort as a white woman.
Sister Kathleen is placed in charge of the school. Dr. Joseph tells Tay that the Reservation the government is opening for the Apache is in need of teachers. Tay, even though she knows it may cost her Jacob’s love, agrees to teach at the Reservation. Jacob agrees to go to the Reservation with Tay. They marry.
Ten years later, Tay brings her daughter to visit the boarding school where Anna Thunder is the new headmistress. Life on the Reservation has been hard, but Tay and Jacob’s life is a good one.
Native American Background Information
Sunrise Ceremony
Almost every Western Apache girl had a puberty ceremony, or na’ii’;ee, known as he Sunrise Dance. This is a ritual enactment of the Apache origin myth. Long ago the Changing Woman lived alone. One day she mated with the Sun and gave birth to the Slayer of Monsters (a main Apache hero). Four years later, Changing Woman became pregnant by Water Old-Man and gave birth again. As the children matured, Changing Woman and other powerful figures taught them all the things Apaches need to know. As soon as they were old enough, the two children left home and ride the earth of much evil.
Changing Woman’s power is longevity. Although she grows old, she is always able to regain her youth by walking towards the east and turning around counter clockwise four times. This power is transferred to the Apache girl during the Sunrise Dance through songs sung
by the medicine man. This power lives in the girl for four days after the ceremony. During this time, the girl is said to be about to cure the sick and bring rain.
The Sunrise Ceremony is important in bringing the tribe together and linking the Apaches t their past. As their saying goes, “Changing Woman never died and she will always live.”
Apache Indians
The Apache Indians belong to the southern branch of the Athabascan group. This tribe settled into the region of what is now Arizona and northern Mexico. The name Apache most probably came from the Zuni work apachu, meaning “enemy,” The Apache refer to themselves at Nde, meaning “the people”.
Most Apaches lived in small bands of five to ten families. Leaders were always male, but females held a central place within the tribe. Upon marriage, the groom moved in with his wife’s family and had to hunt and work with his in-laws. If the wife should die, the husband was required stay with her family, who would usually supply him with a new bride.
The Apaches were nomadic and lived almost completely off the buffalo. They were among the first Indians to learn to ride horses. They were an aggressive tribe and began migrating into Comanche land. This cause great conflict between the two groups and may devastating raids occurred—usually with the Comanches as the winners.
Apache Beliefs and Customs
Death and Ghosts:
Apache went into mourning upon hearing of a death. Men and women cut the ends of their long hair and wore old clothing. An Apache was buried as soon as possible in the daytime. The deceased was taken to a hill or mountain away from the tribe. After return home, the burial party burned the clothing they were wearing and burned juniper or sage plant as a ghost medicine in which they could bathe or purify themselves with the smoke.
Apaches didn’t say someone was dead. They said, “he is gone”. Apaches believed in ghosts and because of this no Apache would go near a burial ground.
Owls and bears were believed to be forms used by ghosts to hurt people. So those animals were feared, too. An owl feather was thought to cause sickness, even death.
It is believed that the ghosts of the dead rose from their graves and entered the bodies of owls; the hooting of an owl was the voice of the ghost speaking in the Apache language and uttering threats against the living. Those who heard and understood the words were exposed to the ghosts of darkness.
Even today, one would not give a carving of an owl or bear to a member of the Apache tribe. To do so would be regarded as a show of disrespect or wishing that harm befall that person.
Luck:
The number four was lucky. Repeating things four times was part of the Apache’s everyday life. The four directions-north, south, east, and west-were also important to the Apache.
Apache Life:
Male and female roles were sharply defined. Men hunted, raided and went to war. Women cared for children, obtained food for the family/tribe, and tended the home.
Because of the harsh environment the Apache lived in, the girls of the Chiricahua (band) learned to keep spare rations and weapons so if the tribe had to flee, they could protect themselves and survive. The older girls learned tracking, camouflage, and horsemanship. They also learned to use a bow and arrow, or a knife and rifle.
Chiricahua infants had their ears pierced after birth so they would obey and hear appropriate things. The baby was placed on a cradleboard when he/she was four days old, and began wearing clothing at the time it began to walk.
In the spring of his first year, an Apache boy received his first haircut. His hair was cut three more times. Then it was not cut again. Some men had hair that reached their waists.
When to boys were about sixteen they were prepared for a test of manhood. He had to be on four raids with men of his band (raiding parties were made up of four to eight men). If he did well on these raids, he was called a man. He was then free to marry, hunt and raid with the men of his band. He could even become a leader at this time. (Apache thought of raiding as another form of hunting. Settlers called it stealing, but the Apache didn’t. Thievery was punished among the Apache).
Apache Bands:
Most Native Americans lived in tribes. The Apache lived in bands. There were no chiefs among the Apache. Every band chooses their own leader. He had to be strong, but he could not brag. A good leader listened to his people; he cared about them and he shared with them. No selfish person could ever be a leader. These local leaders were called nantans.
Apache Wars:
Apache warriors prepared themselves for battle. For four nights they did the angry dance, what the white man called the war dance. They also painted their faces and chests with the signs of war. They put on war caps made of hide, and the quietly left camp. The Apache warrior, on foot, could cover seventy miles per day. Their families waited as their men fought to the death.
In war, the Apache gave no help to the enemy and asked for no help. They showed mercy to those who fought bravely, but cowards were killed in horrible ways.
Historic Events that had an Impact on the Apache
1853-1857: United States negotiates fifty-two different treaties and subsequently acquires 157 million of acres of Indian lands; it ultimately fails to honor any of the treaties, but retains the land.
1854: Oregon territorial legislature makes it illegal to sell firearms or ammunition to Indians, and people with at least one-half or more of Indian blood are prohibited from testifying in court.
1861-1863: Apaches lead by Mangas Coloradas and Cochise fight numerous battles with United States troops.
1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, opening western lands to settlement.
1864, Jan. 6th: Troops led by Kit Carson attack and subdue Navajos in the Battle of Canyon de Chelly, subsequently removing the Indians to Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This is the event the Navajos call The Long Walk.
1864: Kit Carson and New Mexico Volunteers clash with the Kiowas and the Comanches in the Battle of the Adobe Walls.
1865: The Ute Indians, led by Black Hawk, began what becomes a twenty-year conflict with the Mormons
1868: The Navajo are allowed to return home. The Comanche agree to move to a reservation in Indian Territory. The United States Government broke it promise to supply food to the Indians living on the reservation, and many of them starve to death.
1871: U.S. Congress declares an end to all treaty make with the Indian tribes.
1872: Chiricahua Apache move to a reservation.
1874: Red River War breaks out involving the Kiowas and Comanches.
1878: U.S. Congress authorizes Indian Police units.
1879: Utes relinquish their Colorado lands and move to a reservation in Utah.
1879: Carlisle Indian School opens.
1879 – 1885: Apache continue resistance with raids led by Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo.
1883: U.S. Congress approves the Court of Indian Offenses, giving tribal units authority to administer justice for all but major crimes.
1886: Geronimo surrenders, but subsequently escapes. He is then recaptured and the Apache Wars end.
1887: President Cleveland signs The Dawes Act. The act dissolves Indian tribes as legal entities and divides tribal lands, giving heads of Indian households 160 acres, single Indian people 80 acres, and minor Indians 40 acres. The Indian agree to farm their land and cannot sell it to a non-Indian for 25 years. Subsequent changes to the act weaken it.
1890: U.S. Bureau of the Census declares there is no longer an American Frontier.
1892: Education for Indian children becomes compulsory. Rations were withheld for those who did not comply.
1898: Congress approves the Curtis Act that dissolves tribal governments, requires Indians to submit to allotments, and authorizes civil government for Indian Territory.
Tanayia by Connie Vines
Whisper upon the Water
Pre-reading Activity—Prologue
1. What do you know about the forced education of Indian children in ‘w
hite man’s ways?”
2. How do you feel when someone forces you to do something you don’t want to do?
Read the Prologue on Page 4.
3. What do you think Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan meant?
4. What do you think about what he said?
Read the back-cover blurb.
5. What do you expect to lean from Tanayia—Whisper upon the Water?
Tanayia by Connie Vines
Whisper upon the Water
Vocabulary