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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the best thing the narrator recalls his father saying to him?
(a) You are a fine young man.
(b) All of his kids were accidents, but he was his best accident.
(c) Take care of your mother.
(d) He is the son he always wanted.

2. Who sang an old mourning song by the graveside after Hector's casket was buried?
(a) The tribal elder.
(b) The whole group of mourners.
(c) The narrator's mother.
(d) The narrator.

3. What does the narrator plan to do at the end of the story as he stands in the cemetery?
(a) Bury the memory of Hector for good.
(b) Live longer than every other Indian in the world.
(c) Take care of his mother.
(d) Find out who killed Hector.

4. At the graveside, what does the narrator hope whoever killed Hector would do?
(a) Send him a letter telling him where his body was buried.
(b) Turn himself in.
(c) Pray for forgiveness.
(d) Commit suicide.

5. Due to the violence to which Hector was born into, the narrator says it was inevitable Hector would become what?
(a) A gentle man who strove for peace.
(b) A violent man who died violently.
(c) An angry man who left everyone.
(d) A joyful man who loved everybody.

Short Answer Questions

1. At Hector's grave, the narrator wonders if it is possible for an Indian to die in what way?

2. Which South Dakota battle does the narrator say the U.S. Army massacred hundreds of unarmed people?

3. At the graveside, what does the narrator hope the Indians who killed Hector did as they "buried his body deep in the woods" (3)?

4. How old was Hector's grandmother when she moved to the newly formed Coeur d'Alene reservation?

5. How many children did Hector's grandmother have?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator feel at the end of the story standing in the cemetery?

2. At the cemetery, who does the narrator imagine is in Hector's casket?

3. Why does the narrator feel certain Hector would not have been killed by a white man?

4. Why does the narrator say it was inevitable that Hector would become "a violent man who died violently" (3)?

5. What does the narrator wish one of his uncle's killers would do after the funeral?

6. What does the narrator say about why he does not know the mourning song his mother "whisper-sang" (3) after the mourners left the cemetery?

7. What is the best thing the narrator's father ever said to him?

8. Why does the narrator feel certain Hector was most likely killed by a member of his own tribe?

9. What does the narrator hopes the Indians who killed his uncle did as they buried him?

10. What does the narrator plan to do at the end of the story?

(see the answer keys)

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