Twenty Questions

The Medicine Bag

Twenty Questions

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1. What is main idea?

The most important idea in a paragraph or selection; tells what the paragraph or selection is about.

2. What are supporting details?

Details such as examples, explanations, or reasons that support the main idea.

3. What is theme?

The central idea or lesson the author wants the reader to learn.

4. What happened during Grandpa’s trip from the reservation to the door of his family’s home?

Grandpa rode on buses for two days and then started walking to find his family. He stopped to rest at a downtown building, and a policeman helped him find the right local bus. When he got to Martin’s street, he walked down the middle so he could see the house numbers.

5. What do Martin’s friends think Grandpa looks like? Why do they think this?

They think he is tall and stately with braided hair. They get this idea from the way Native Americans are portrayed in movies and on television.

6. Why does Martin feel ashamed and embarrassed when Grandpa visits?

Martin is embarrassed and ashamed because Grandpa is short, old, and gray.

Grandpa’s real appearance doesn’t fit the glamorous stories that Martin has told his

friends about him.

7. How does Grandpa react to the knowledge that Martin is afraid of being embarrassed by him?

With understanding

8. Why does Grandpa come to visit Martin’s family?

Grandpa was lonely after the family’s

summer visit to the reservation where he lives. He wants to see their home and where they live. Also he says he needs to give Martin the medicine bag.

9. Grandpa says it is time for him to give Martin the medicine bag. What does this mean?

Grandpa thinks he will die soon.

10.What happens when Grandpa gives the medicine bag to Martin?

Shortly after giving the bag to Martin, Grandpa dies.

11.Why do you think Grandpa cries after he tells Martin about how Iron Shell gave him the medicine bag?

Grandpa cries because Native American culture has died, and his father and son are dead. He may also be mourning his own impending death.

12.How does Martin change during the story?

Martin learns to appreciate his great-grandfather more. He also learns that his Sioux heritage is not something on the surface, like the feathers on a “TV Indian.” It is a culture that is all but lost.

13.What does the medicine bag mean to Martin? What does it represent to Grandpa?

To Martin, the medicine bag is proof that he is a Sioux.

To Grandpa, the medicine bag represents his cultural heritage, his father, and his son.

14.At the end of the story, Martin puts the sacred sage—an aromatic plant—in his medicine bag. Why does he do this?

It fulfills Grandpa’s wish. It seems to reflect Martin’s coming to respectful terms with his heritage and traditions.

15.How does Martin feel about Grandpa at the end of the story?

Martin feels proud, accepting, and respectful of Grandpa.

16. What does stately mean?

noble; dignified; majestic

17. What does unseemly mean?

not proper to the time or place; not in good taste

18. What does sheepishly mean?

in an awkwardly embarrassed way; bashfully

19. What does awed mean?

filled with wonder combined with respect

20. What does sacred mean?

holy; deserving of great respect

21. What was in the medicine bag?

a broken piece of an iron kettle a pebble from the butte a piece of the sacred sage