The Birchbark House

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. In Omakayas’s family, what do makazins symbolize?

A) Hunting

B) Familial love

C) “Women’s” work

D) Relationships

2. How does Omakayas’s family keep track of time?

A) Arrival of sugaring season

B) Growth of the bear cubs

C) Encroachment of white settlers

D) Changes in nature

3. What does the Birchbark house symbolize to Omakayas’s family?

A) Labor

B) Deforestation

C) Love and safety

D) Deydey’s return

4. In what way is Fishtail’s observation that the west is where dead spirits walk ominous?

A) Indigenous people are on the verge of annihilation.

B) Indigenous people will finally get land they can keep.

C) Indigenous people will lose touch with their ancestors.

D) Indigenous people will lose their harmony with nature.

5. Why is it significant that Neewo ends Nokomis’s winter food storage prayer with a cry?

A) The cry brings the family back to reality.

B) The cry demands the attention of family.

C) The cry foreshadows his death.

D) The cry symbolizes the coming winter.

6. How does Pinch shift his role within the family?

A) He soothes Andeg after his mother’s outburst.

B) He channels his energy into spreading laughter.

C) He makes his first deer kill alone in the woods.

D) He burns his foot during the sugaring season.

7. What marks Omakayas’s transition from childhood to adulthood?

A) Her grief over losing Neewo to smallpox

B) Her confrontation with the yellow dog

C) Her selflessness when caring for her sick family

D) Her admittance into the bear family

8. In what way are the seasons connected to the family’s emotional state?

A) The family feels grief in winter and hope in spring.

B) The family feels hope in winter and grief in spring.

C) The family feels happiness in fall and sadness in summer.

D) The family feels sadness in fall and happiness in summer.

9. Which of Omakayas’s traits make her a good healer?

A) Stubbornness

B) Non-conformity

C) Intuition

D) Curiosity

10. By the novel’s end, what stage of grief does Omakayas reach?

A) Anger

B) Acceptance

C) Bargaining

D) Denial

11. With what clue in the Prologue might you have correctly guessed Omakayas’s identity?

A) The fears of Hat

B) The suspicions of the trappers

C) The smallpox epidemic

D) The mention of Tallow

12. In what way are Omakayas and Andeg similar?

A) Both must soothe Mama.

B) Both must reject Pinch.

C) Both must be who they are.

D) Both must leave home.

13. In what way does Omakayas’s identity shift?

A) She allows Andeg the freedom to be a crow.

B) She makes peace with Angeline.

C) She becomes the girl from Spirit Island.

D) She laughs at Pinch’s foolish antics.

14. After Omakayas reconciles her past with her present, where does she look?

A) To the future

B) To Tallow

C) To Neewo

D)  To the summer

15. Why are bears symbols of healing?

A) They are protective.

B) They use healing herbs.

C) They rely on their sense of smell.

D) They sense the danger of humans.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. In the Anishinabe culture, what is the significance of dreaming? Cite examples from Omakayas’s family.

2. In the Anishinabe culture, what is the significance of storytelling? Cite examples from Omakayas’s family.