Read the passage.During the spelling test, Adrian sees his friend Malcolm cheating. Adrian knows this is wrong. His first thought is to say something to the teacher, but Malcolm is one of Adrian’s few friends. If he tells the teacher, it could end their friendship. He decides to think about the situation before saying anything.
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” My buddies passed in a single file and shook his hand as I introduced them. They were so polite I almost laughed. “How, there, Grandpa,” and even a “How-do-you-do, sir.” “You look fine, Grandpa,” I said as the guys sat on the lawn chairs or on the patio floor. “Hanh, yes,” he agreed. “When I woke up this morning, it seemed the right time to dress in the good clothes. I knew that my grandson would be bringing his friends.”
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” “I sent your mother and sister away. What you will hear today is only for a man’s ears. What you will receive is only for a man’s hands.” He fell silent and I felt shivers down my back.
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” “You found the money in my boots?” he asked Mom.“Martin did,” she answered, and roused herself to scold. “Grandpa, you shouldn’t have carried so much money. What if someone had stolen it from you?” Grandpa laughed. “I would’ve known if anyone tried to take the boots off my feet. The money is what I’ve saved for a long time—a hundred dollars—for my funeral. But you take it now to buy groceries so that I won’t be a burden to you while I am here.”
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” “My father in his early manhood,” Grandpa began, “made a vision quest to find a spirit guide for his life. You cannot understand how it was in that time, when the great Teton Sioux were first made to stay on the reservation. There was a strong need for guidance from Wakantanka, the Great Spirit. But too many of the young men were filled with despair and hatred. They thought it was hopeless to search for a vision when the glorious life was gone and only the hated confines of a reservation lay ahead. But my father held to the old ways.”
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” As he shook my hand, his coat fell open to expose a bright red satin shirt with a beaded bolo tie under the collar. His get-up wasn’t out of place on the reservation, but it sure was here, and I wanted to sink right through the pavement.“Hi,” I muttered with my head down. I tried to pull my hand away when I felt his bony hand trembling, and looked up to see fatigue in his face. I felt like crying. I couldn’t think of anything to say so I picked up Grandpa’s suitcase, took his arm, and guided him up the driveway to our house.
Which statement most accurately describes what the medicine bag symbolizes to Martin’s grandpa?
Read this excerpt from "The Medicine Bag.” All I could do was stand there with the whole neighborhood watching and shake the hand of the leather-brown old man. I saw how his gray hair straggled from under his big black hat, which had a drooping feather in its crown. His rumpled black suit hung like a sack over his stooped frame. As he shook my hand, his coat fell open to expose a bright red satin shirt with a beaded bolo tie under the collar. His get-up wasn’t out of place on the reservation, but it sure was here, and I wanted to sink right through the pavement.
Which excerpt from “The Medicine Bag” supports the idea that the medicine bag is a symbol of manhood in the Sioux tradition?
Read this excerpt from “The Medicine Bag.” “Then a terrible thing happened to Iron Shell. He and several other young men were taken from their homes by the soldiers and sent far away to a white man’s boarding school. He was angry and lonesome for his parents and the young girl he had wed before he was taken away.”
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