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 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The novel opens with the narrator, 14-year-old Sound of Running Feet, as she travels on horseback to gather supplies for her tribe. She has several friends and cousins with her, and it is cold in the mountain passes, though it is spring. In a familiar meadow, Sound of Running Feet notices trees cut down and a cabin, which indicates the presences of white men. She and her caravan try to sneak past but Jason Upright and his wife, white settlers panning for gold in a stream, see them. Sound of Running Feet asks why they built on land they don’t own, and a troubled Native boy who went to a nearby mission school translates. Jason Upright challenges her, replying, “You Nez Perce own too much land. You can’t use all the land, not even half of it […] You are a greedy bunch” (4). Sound of Running Feet leaves on horseback but turns from a distance and shoots a hole in Jason Upright’s wife’s gold pan using her grandfather Old Joseph’s rifle.
Chapter 2 Summary
Sound of Running Feet returns home and tells her father about the cabin. It is a windy day, and Chief Joseph says he can hear horses running in that wind: “On the backs of the running horses are soldiers […] their leader is Howard” (7). Sound of Running Feet is angry that her father won’t fight the men—he says there are too many soldiers. A warrior-priest, Too-hul-hul-sote, indicates the presence of Howard and his men, who soon arrive. They demand Chief Joseph move his people to Lapwai. Chief Joseph insists there is no room, for other tribes live there now. In the trees, Sound of Running Feet sees the Red Coats, two men who want to seek revenge on the whites by killing them. She also sees her love, Swan Necklace, an artist forced by his father to be a horse handler for the Red Coats. Sound of Running Feet gives Swan Necklace a sign of love.
Chapter 3 Summary
Howard demands the Nez Perce leave Wallowa, their homeland. Chief Joseph argues with him, telling the story of his naming: the spirits came to him in a nearby mountain and tied him to this land. He says, “I have many names, but Thunder Rolling in the Mountains is the name that binds me forever to this Land of Wandering Waters” (15). Howard does not care enough to listen. He demands the tribe leave in 30 days. Too-hul-hul-sote argues, asking who he is to go against the Spirit Chief and his plans. Chief Joseph agrees to leave to avoid blood, and the Red Coats and Too-hul-hul-sote ride off to plan an attack. Sound of Running Feet is happy at their insolence. She imagines herself fighting for her home, shooting soldiers, and setting fire to tents.
Chapter 4 Summary
Chief Joseph tells his people they will leave in 10 days. Most of them agree except some young warriors who insist they can fight. Chief Joseph argues their ignorance, saying, “To escape them would be dodging hail in a hailstorm” (18). The wind clears, and there is sadness among the people. A drum beats. Sound of Running Feet goes to Swan Necklace, who is painting her buffalo blanket for their wedding. He tells her they cannot marry until after the war, according to his father. Sound of Running Feet gives Swan Necklace her gun and her bullets. She encourages him to learn how use them.
Chapter 5 Summary
When the time comes to leave, the people make rafts for supplies and buffalo skin boats. The river water is high, and they know they will lose cattle and horses, and perhaps even die in the rapids. Too-hul-hul-sote gives a speech:
‘This earth is my mother. You tell me to live like the white man and plow the land. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s bosom? […] The Spirit Chief gave no man the right to tell another man where he must live and where he must die’ (24).
They finally cross the river—all the people and horses make it, but the river sweeps away half of the cows and all the calves. Springtime, Sound of Running Feet’s mother who is pregnant with a child, will not cross until her baby is born. Chief Joseph allows her to have the baby, Bending Willow, that night. In the morning, they cross the river.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
Connection to home, the symbolic importance of Wallowa, and the power of women are all clearly represented in these early chapters, which establish the primary themes of the novel and its central conflict.
Deep knowledge and appreciation for the ancestral home of the Nez Perce is clear early on, and it becomes even more significant when white soldiers force the tribe to leave. Chief Joseph expresses the great immorality of this forced exodus, telling the Chief: “That is not good, to drive people from their homes” (9). Chief Joseph does not speak for himself, but for the people currently at Lapwai, whom General Howard promises he will evacuate. For Chief Joseph, the significance of home for strangers is more important than any promise of land.
Connection to ancestral homeland is also clear when Chief Joseph tells the story of his name. He says to Howard, “I have many names, but Thunder Rolling in the Mountains is the name that binds me forever to this Land of Wandering Waters” (15). Chief Joseph establishes the foundational part that Wallowa plays in Nez Perce culture—it is present even in the names of his people.
The power of women is also clear in these chapters. Sound of Running Feet establishes herself early on as a powerful figure who is unafraid to fight white invaders. She shoots the gold pan from the hands of a white woman and later states, “Unlike other girls in our village, I often talked back [to the chief]” (6). Sound of Running Feet is not afraid to fight for her home and what she believes in, and she pushes her deeply passive father, Chief Joseph, to fight too.
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