Quiz Indian Burial Ground Nick Medina

Indian Burial Ground Quiz: 20 Questions

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Quiz Questions

Plot/Sequence (8 questions)

  1. What event opens the novel? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Louie returns to the reservation.
    • B) Lena hits a man with her Jeep.
    • C) Noemi argues with her mother.
    • D) The Takoda Vampire attacks.

  2. Who arrives at Noemi's trailer at the start of Chapter One? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Chief Fisher.
    • B) Uncle Louie.
    • C) Roddy.
    • D) Grandpa Joe.

  3. During the wake for Aubrey Forstall, what happens? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) A snake appears.
    • B) Aubrey sits up and speaks.
    • C) Miss Shelby faints.
    • D) Louie fights J.L.

  4. Which graves are desecrated? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Chief Broussard, Caroline Broussard, and Horace Saucier.
    • B) Aubrey Forstall, Fay Saucier, and Miss Shelby.
    • C) Roddy, Noemi, and Louie.
    • D) Only Horace's grave.

  5. What does Louie find on his porch after Fay's wake? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) A dead woodpecker.
    • B) A mutilated armadillo.
    • C) A bloody coyote.
    • D) A torn sleeve.

  6. What happens to Johnny? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) He drowns.
    • B) He falls into a fire pit.
    • C) He is hit by a car.
    • D) He is taken by the vampire.

  7. What does Louie discover J.L. doing by the river during their confrontation? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Fishing.
    • B) Hiding a pillowcase of bones.
    • C) Building a fire.
    • D) Swimming.

  8. How does Louie's mother die? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Car crash.
    • B) Chokes due to alcohol withdrawal.
    • C) Murdered by the vampire.
    • D) Falls into a septic tank.

Character Motivation (5 questions)

  1. Why does Ern trap himself in his trailer? (Short Answer)

  2. Why does J.L. dig up graves? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) To find treasure.
    • B) To gain the tamahka's strength by eating bones.
    • C) To honor ancestors.
    • D) To sell artifacts.

  3. Why does Noemi initially refuse to believe Roddy committed suicide? (Short Answer)

  4. Why does Louie agree to stay and care for his alcoholic mother? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Grandpa forces him.
    • B) He feels obligated because she has been abandoned.
    • C) He hopes to inherit money.
    • D) He wants to prove himself.

  5. Why does Miss Shelby appear to Louie at the cemetery? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) To accuse him.
    • B) To help him resist the Meli Omahka.
    • C) To ask for proper burial.
    • D) To tell him about Ern.

Theme/Symbol (4 questions)

  1. What does the coyote symbolically represent in the novel? (Short Answer)

  2. What does the tamahka alligator symbolize? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) Revenge.
    • B) Spiritual balance and ancestral strength.
    • C) The reservation land.
    • D) Capitalism.

  3. What is the significance of the woodpecker? (Multiple Choice)

    • A) It is a symbol of good luck.
    • B) It appears as an omen of death and recurrence.
    • C) It represents healing.
    • D) It is Ern's spirit animal.

  4. How does the theme of addiction manifest in the novel? (Short Answer)

Synthesis (3 questions)

  1. Compare the treatment of death in the 1986 storyline versus the present-day storyline. (Short Answer)

  2. How does the novel use the concept of "balance" between life and death? (Short Answer)

  3. What does the "Indian Burial Ground" title refer to beyond the physical cemetery? (Short Answer)

Answer Key

  1. B) Lena hits a man with her Jeep, establishing trauma and supernatural undertones (Prologue).
  2. B) Uncle Louie arrives after twelve years, reconnecting with Noemi (Ch 1).
  3. B) Aubrey sits up and speaks, startling mourners (Ch 2).
  4. A) Hilaire Broussard, Caroline Broussard, and Horace Saucier (Ch 8).
  5. B) A mutilated armadillo, mirroring Fay's corpse and deepening Louie's dread (Ch 23).
  6. B) Johnny crawls backward into the fire pit, a supernatural tragedy (Ch 36).
  7. B) J.L. hides a pillowcase of stolen bones, revealing his grave robbing (Ch 44).
  8. B) Chokes after sudden alcohol withdrawal; Louie feels guilty (Ch 52–53).
  9. He caged himself after killing his mother and Horace, possessed by the Meli Omahka spirit (Ch 54).
  10. B) He eats bones to gain the tamahka's strength, per J.L.'s own account (Ch 44).
  11. She cannot accept that she didn't know Roddy; she clings to his happy facade (Ch 19, 29).
  12. B) Grandpa insists Mae needs him because she has been abandoned (Ch 17).
  13. B) She commands him to recount the Takoda origin and resist the spirit (Ch 48).
  14. It represents the Caddo trickster, family bonds (mother returning to pups), and the mystery of Roddy's death (Ch 26, 46).
  15. B) The tamahka symbolize spiritual power, ancestral strength, and the balance between life and death (Ch 6, 48).
  16. B) The woodpecker repeatedly appears dead and returns, foreshadowing death and haunting (Ch 25, 36, 47).
  17. Addiction is shown through Mae's alcoholism, which burdens Louie and leads to her death; also community alcohol abuse (multiple chapters).
  18. In 1986, death is supernatural and communal; present-day death involves denial, suicide stigma, and emotional isolation (compare wakes vs. suicide investigation).
  19. The disruption of graves and the Meli Omahka unbalance life and death, causing spirits to return until balance is restored (Ch 33, 41).
  20. It refers to the "burial ground within" – buried secrets, guilt, and cultural trauma that resurface (Ch 57, Epilogue).