The Birchbark House

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Prologue, Neebin (Summer): Chapters 1-4

Reading Check

1. What is the “Birchbark House” cited in the book’s title?

2. What have readers previously learned about Tallow?

3. How is Omakayas treated by her family when she returns from the encounter with the bears?

4. What is Deydey’s gift to Omakayas?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Which character do you suspect is the baby from the Prologue?

2. Why doesn’t the mother bear attack Omakayas?

3. Why does Omakayas voluntarily help to scrape the moose hide?

4. Based on the meeting with the mother bear and the scene babysitting Neewo, what skill does Omakayas seem to have?

Paired Resource

“Anishinaabe”

• This article provides background on the Anishinabe. Note that the article uses an alternate spelling for the name of this group.
• As you consider the theme Anishinabe Culture and White Settlement, think about the role of the fur trade in the life of Omakayas’s family.

Dagwaging (Fall): Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. In what ways is Andeg a useful pet?

2. Why does Andeg come to distrust Mama?

3. What special skills do Omakayas and Nokomis learn about each other?

4. What skill does the Catholic mission school offer Omakayas’s people?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the conflict between Omakayas’s people and white people?

2. In what way do Two Strike Girl and Omakayas break tradition during the rice harvest?

3. When Nokomis blesses the winter food storage with a prayer, what fears does she express?

4. What development takes place in the relationship between Omakayas and Old Tallow?

Paired Resource

“‘In the Old Language’: A Glossary of Ojibwe Words, Phrases, and Sentences in Louise Erdrich’s Novels” by Peter G. Beidler

• This free-to-access article is a valuable resource for navigating the Indigenous language in The Birchbark House. Note that the Ojibwe term in each chapter title is followed by its English translation.
• Consider the ways in which the novel expresses the theme Anishinabe Culture and White Settlement through language, both English as instructed by the Catholic mission school and Ojibwe, the language of the characters.

Biboon (Winter): Chapters 9-11

Reading Check

1. What does Ten Snow give to Omakayas?

2. How does smallpox come to the village?

3. How does Deydey help the family combat its hunger?

4. What is the theme of the muskrat story?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Nokomis’s grandfather die?

2. What is Omokayas’s family’s experience with smallpox?

3. What is the result of the charcoaling of Omokayas’s face?

4. What happens during Omakayas’s encounter with the old yellow dog?

Paired Resource

“What Is Smallpox?”

• This entry from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the history, transmission, symptoms, and treatment of the disease.
• In thinking about the theme Anishinabe Culture and White Settlement, consider the ways in which smallpox acts as an agent of genocide within the Anishinabe community.

Zeegwun (Spring): Chapters 12-14

Reading Check

1. Of whom does the taste of maple sugar remind Omakayas?

2. What advice does Omakayas give to her bear family?

3. Why does the family laugh at Albert LaPautre’s story about his new spirit helper?

4. To what does Omakayas come to associate Neewo’s voice?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What calms Omakayas’s grief?

2. What event changes the relationship between Omakayas and Pinch?

3. What change takes place in Omakayas’s relationship with Andeg?

4. What story does Old Tallow tell Omakayas?

Paired Resource

“How to Tap Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup”

• This entry from the University of Maine describes a process similar to that Omakayas’s family follows during the sugaring season.
• Consider the ways in which this ritual exemplifies the theme of Community and Generosity.

Recommended Next Reads 

The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich

• The Birchbark House begins a five-book series. The Game of Silence is the second book in the series.
• Plot summary of The Game of Silence on SuperSummary

The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich

• The Birchbark House begins a five-book series. The Porcupine Year is the third book in the series.
• Books four and five are Chickadee and Makoons.