Collateral Bloggage What passes for thought around here…

Wordful Wednesday Morning: The Girl Who Ran

One of the things I’ve long thought was cool about homeschooling is that all the teaching materials are in my house, and I stand a fair chance of actually (gasp!) learning something.  Now, I’m sure that all parents are surprised at the things they’ve forgotten that their kids are just learning (hence, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader).  But I think the condition is particularly acute with homeschoolers.

At this point in our homeschooling experience, I’m mostly the nighttime read-aloud dude.  And the library-book-procurer.  And the baseball thrower and catcher (sometimes catching one on the spine).

I’m loving the read-alouds, because I get to learn something new almost every time.

Our latest read-aloud was Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran, by Kenneth Thomasma.  The story follows Naya Nuki, a young Shoshoni girl and friend of Sacajawea who was taken captive by an enemy tribe during the Shoshoni Buffalo Hunt (which took them into enemy territory), along with her more famous friend.

Both girls, among others, were taken on a long trek (a thousand miles, give or take) and made slaves of the other tribe.  While Sacajawea apparently made peace with her fate, Naya Nuki focused on planning her escape.  For the entire trip, she noted landmarks to help her find her way (the Missouri River was a major help in this).

Once they came to their destination, Naya Nuki worked hard in order to gain trust, and then began gathering materials she would need for her long return trip, including a buffalo skin and knife.

The story of her arduous return trip after her escape is very inspiring, as she was attacked by bears, nearly died of some kind of illness, and struggled to find enough food to make it home.

The narrative is interesting, because there is rarely any dialogue.  This is expected, of course, because for a full three quarters of the book, Naya Nuki is entirely alone.

One quirk of the book was the frequency of occurrence of Naya Nuki’s name.  It appeared in practically ever other sentence.  Now, I understand that using “she” over and over again would get tiresome, and I may not have noticed the frequency of the name if I hadn’t been reading it aloud.  But it was still somewhat strange.

By the way, the book notes that we have actually no idea of Naya Nuki’s real name, because her name was changed after she returned home.  Naya Nuki means “Girl Who Ran.”

The Epilogue mentions the joyful reunion of Sacajawea and Naya Nuki, and excerpts Meriwether Lewis’ journal describing the event.

In many ways, Naya Nuki’s story is more interesting and inspiring than Sacajawea’s.

Once again, Ethan was riveted by the story.  I sometimes wonder if I could read baseball box scores to him and he’d still beg, “just a little more!”