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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was something that was very sacred, especially to Indians, that the clowns could give the Sioux people?

2. What did Richard keep doing all the way back to their campsite after his first experience with the American West?

3. Lame Deer tells the story of the heyoka turtle and the heyoka frog in Chapter 16. At the beginning of the story, what were they sitting on?

4. Richard states in the Epilogue of the book that one kind soul solved his problem of religion by taking him where?

5. How many hunters were sent out who discovered the White Buffalo Woman?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe some of the strange things that a heyoka, or clown does.

2. Before Richard Erdoes met his Indian friends, what did he do in New York?

3. What did Richard Erdoes see when he rushed to the window and looked outside on his first day in New York City?

4. In the story of the White Buffalo Woman, what did she say kept the tribe alive?

5. According to legend, where did the Sioux nation come from?

6. When Lame Deer tried to describe a thunderbird, why did he say that could not do it?

7. Some medicine men have an eagle feather attached to their pipe. Where is the eagle feather attached and why?

8. What is the story that Lame Deer tells about the heyoka turtle and the heyoka frog?

9. What happened when Richard Erdoes was arrested by a brutish-looking policeman?

10. How does Lame Deer suggest that mankind can get back on the red road of the pipe or the road of life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the sun dance. Why would this ritual be considered harsh in the white man's world? What were you feelings about this ritual when you read about it? After reading Lame Deer's explanation of the sun dance, would you still consider it to be harsh? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

What importance was having an epilogue in the book? What insight does this epilogue provide into Lame Deer's life and into Richard Erdoes' life? How does the epilogue benefit the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Why does Lame Deer state that one word like medicine man cannot describe what an actual medicine man is in the Sioux culture? How complex is being a medicine man and why? What different names and definitions does Lame Deer give for the Sioux "medicine men"?

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