53 pages • 1 hour read
Scott O'DellThunder Rolling in the Mountains
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
The Nez Perce flee the area, while warriors hold off the soldiers. They use tipi poles to carry the gravely wounded and bury the dead in buffalo blankets: “As we wrapped them in soft buffalo robes, we wailed songs of mourning. The sounds pierced the air as our loss pierced our hearts” (59). The women, children, and elderly flee, settling finally near a creek to rest halfway through the next day. Sound of Running Feet struggles to feed her baby sister, who cries for her mother’s milk. Another woman who had lost a baby to the soldiers feeds Bending Willow from her breast. The warriors return, and Swan Necklace is still alive. He praises his guardian spirit. The tribe holds a war council meeting, and they appoint a new chief—a young warrior named Lean Elk.
Chapter 12 Summary
Lean Elk takes the tribe on many long rides, beginning at dawn and only stopping once, at noon, to eat. They finally stop for a bit and hear soldiers, including General Howard, behind them. The tribe makes a decision to steal Howard’s mules and horses in the night, so they can no longer follow the Nez Perce. That night, Sound of Running Feet follows the men secretly to watch the raid. A soldier wakes as the Nez Perce cut the horses’ ties. A shot fires out from the warriors. The soldiers get up, and the warriors set fire to the wagons quickly before running back to camp. The animals stampede toward her, but Sound of Running feet remains unharmed. Too-hul-hul-sote finds Sound of Running Feet and sends her back to camp. The tribe stole all of Howard’s mules along with three horses. Sound of Running Feet reflects, “A new spirit ran through the camp, some of the same spirit we had before the white general came” (67).
Chapter 13 Summary
The next day, Lean Elk asks to see Sound of Running Feet. He blames her for ruining the raid, though she insists she did not fire any shot. He reminds her of her place: “Ne-mee-poo women do not fight” (70). Later, the warriors capture three white settlers, two women and one man. Chief Joseph lets them go, insisting on the morality of the Nez Perce, who do not kill women and children for sport. Later, they catch the captives spying and kill the man. They capture the woman and her daughter, who eat with Sound of Running Feet. Sound of Running Feet tries to tell the younger girl her name, but she does not understand. She watches as the mother soothes her daughter and thinks how alike they are: “It puzzled me to see that white women acted no different from women of the Ne-mee-poo” (75).
Chapter 14 Summary
The next day, the white women ride beside Sound of Running Feet. She is able to make peace with the girl by giving her a woven hat to protect her head. The Nez Perce release the women on slow ponies. Scouts send back word of soldiers on all sides. The Nez Perce move through a dark and infrequently trodden path through the Absaroka mountains and evade Howard and his men once more. They find themselves in Crow land and send word of their arrival. Despite cooperation in the past, the Crow refuse to help the Nez Perce—they are afraid for their own lives. The chiefs meet and discuss a plan. Chief Joseph is upset by the inter-tribal conflicts: “Now all the tribes are enemies […] We hate ourselves” (79). They decide to ignore the instructions of Chief Looking Glass to keep moving south and plan to find Sitting Bull in Canada.
Chapter 15 Summary
The tribe travels for three days and nights but are still caught by soldiers. The women and children flee, and the warriors fight. Later, the warriors return, and Swan Necklace reveals that the Crow fight with the white soldiers. The bond between Nez Perce and Crow is broken. Later when they come upon some Crow men, they steal from them: “They were no longer our brothers, so we took their horses and left our worn-out ponies behind” (84). Soon after, the Nez Perce find supplies for the soldiers and steal it from the white men. It is enough for a feast after weeks of hunger. The warriors burn the rest so the white men will have nothing to salvage.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
Sound of Running Feet challenges her role as a woman in these chapters. She sneaks away to watch the raid and finds herself in a stampede. Despite her mistake, she is proud of her people and pleased that she saw the battle. Lean Elk puts her in her place: “Ne-mee-poo women do not fight” (70). Sound of Running Feet challenges this thought, remembering the women lost in battle, the ones shot while cradling their dying husbands. She stands up for the bravery of women in the face of war, regardless of conservative tribal customs.
The cost of war is also more apparent in this section, as the Nez Perce face defeat in battle. As they bury their dead, they must reconcile the losses of their friends, family, and lovers: “[W]e wailed songs of mourning. The sounds pierced the air as our loss pierced our hearts” (59). The grief of loss is also described as a kind of physical violence, as it “pierced […] hearts.” like the wounds from bullets, the physical pain of mourning takes its toll on the tribe.
Another cost of this war is a lack of solidarity among tribes. The Crow align with the white soldiers, which breaks the hearts of the Nez Perce, who considered the Crow friends and allies. The chiefs come together to talk about the impact white invaders have had on the community of all tribes. The idea of white violence turned inward from one tribe to another is just another facet of the long-lasting consequences of this conflict.
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