Trail of Lightning

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

CHAPTERS 1-6

Reading Check

1. To whom was Maggie apprenticed?

2. What is Maggie’s occupation?

3. What does Neizghání compare evil to?

Short Answer

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

1. What does Maggie mean when she says the Diné have already survived an apocalypse 100 years before?

2. What is k’é, and why is it so important?

Paired Resource

“To Combat COVID, Fort Lewis College Embraces Navajo Principle of Kinship”

• This news article illustrates the importance and pertinence of Indigenous cultural knowledge in addressing the challenges of the future.
• Shared themes include Familial Obligations and Kinship.
• Even though she claims to reject traditions, how might Maggie benefit from k’é in this post-apocalyptic future, and what does she lose by rejecting it?

CHAPTERS 7-10

Reading Check

1. What resources does the Tribal Council control?

2. Rather than climate change, what did Maggie’s nalí (paternal grandmother) think caused the Big Water?

3. To what theme does Black Mesa connect most directly?

Short Answer

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

1. In what ways is Kai a good partner for Maggie?

2. What is ironic about Dinétah’s resources?

3. Why does Neizghání insist on calling monsters “bad men”?

Paired Resource

“The Black Mesa Syndrome: Indian Lands, Black Gold”

• Though written from a Western perspective, Judith Nies’s exposé of the policies and practices exploiting Indigenous lands can clarify and contextualize Rebecca Roanhorse’s themes and narrative choices.
• Shared themes include Climate Change and Environmental Destruction.
• How does the history of Black Mesa anticipate its role in Maggie’s story and the larger story of Dinétah before and after the Big Water?

CHAPTERS 11-17

Reading Check

1. What two “monsters” does Maggie say Neizghání left her to fight alone?

2. What does Ma’ii claim the Big Water ended?

3. What undermines trust between Kai and Maggie?

Short Answer

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

1. Why might Ma’ii’s chosen appearance and dress serve as a warning?

2. What advice does Kai give Maggie regarding enemies like Ma’ii?

3. What betrayal of family obligation have Kai and Maggie experienced?

Paired Resource

“How the Stars Were Placed, What It Means For You, and What Is the Way of Integrity?”

• Diné historian Wally Brown shares the story of how Coyote scattered the stars and what it teaches about the nature of good and evil.
• Shared themes include Trust and Betrayal in Relationships.
• What cultural role does Coyote play for the Diné, and what might this foreshadow about both Ma’ii’s character and Maggie’s inner conflicts?

CHAPTERS 18-22

Reading Check

1. What causes the fire at Tah’s hogan?

2. In what historical area of Dinétah is Grace’s All-American Bar located?

3. What does Kai call Maggie after rescuing him from Longarm?

Short Answer

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

1. What connotations does the word “daughter” carry among the Diné?

2. Why does Maggie deny that she is a hero?

3. Why does Maggie keep pushing Kai away?

Paired Resource

“Grownup Navajo: K’é, Kinship, and Responsibility”

• This vlog that explores the complexities of k’é can be used to help students unpack the deeper obligations and conflicts Maggie’s character faces.
• Shared themes include Familial Obligations and Responsibilities and Trust and Betrayal in Relationships.
• How does understanding k’é help explain Maggie’s inner conflicts, fears, and outward actions?

CHAPTERS 23-27

Reading Check

1. For how long does Grace say Maggie’s debts to her are paid?

2. What idea or concept makes Maggie feel responsible for helping Rock Springs, Tah, the Goodacres, and Kai?

3. What skills make Clive a “bundle of contradictions”?

Short Answer

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

1. What actions when planning for the Rock Springs’ monsters show a growing trust between Kai and Maggie?

2. What does Maggie suspect about Neizghání, and could there be another explanation for her suspicions?

3. In what ways do Ma’ii’s deals with Maggie mock the concept of k’é?

CHAPTERS 28-32

Reading Check

1. What gets Kai and Maggie into the Shalimar?

2. What makes the Shalimar strange?

3. Who has the fire drill?

Short Answer

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

1. How is Mósí portrayed, and why?

2. What does Kai want Maggie to understand about her relationship with Neizghání and herself?

3. Why is Neizghání’s final blow in the grudge match symbolic?

CHAPTERS 33-38

Reading Check

1. Which of Maggie’s injuries from Neizghání proves most difficult for Kai to heal?

2. What does Ma’ii hope to gain from orchestrating Maggie’s clan power awakening, training, and feud with Neizghání?

3. What does Maggie want more than Kai or Neizghání?

Short Answer

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

1. In what ways is Kai’s other clan power potentially monstrous?

2. What misuse of power do Maggie’s three closest male confidants commit against her?

3. What does Kai’s acceptance of Maggie’s plan show about their relationship?

Paired Resource

“Four Worlds: The Diné Story of Creation”

• This written version of the Diné Creation helps contextualize Trail of Lightning within the genres of climate fiction and Indigenous Futurism.
• Shared themes include Familial Obligations and Responsibilities and Trust and Betrayal in Relationships.
• What patterns within the Creation Story does Roanhorse borrow, and in what ways might understanding the Big Water as another iteration of the Creation offer hope for the future?

Recommended Next Reads

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• Shared themes include Environmental Destruction and Climate Change, Familial Obligations and Kinship, and Betrayal and Trust in Relationships.
• Shared topics include adapting to a changing world, the legacies of colonialism, indigenous representation, control of women’s bodies, faith, and found family.
• Future Home of the Living God on SuperSummary

The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

• In a world devastated by climate change, fire, and social unrest, teenage Lauren Olamina knows it is only a matter of time before her safe community falls into chaos. Determined to survive after an attack leaves her community in flames, she uses traditional knowledge and growing faith in a home for humans among the stars to recruit others on a quest to build a better future for humankind.
• Shared themes include Environmental Destruction and Climate Change, Trust and Betrayal in Relationships, and Familial Obligations and Responsibilities.
• Shared topics include adapting to a changing world, the power of traditional knowledge, faith, and found family.
• The Parable of the Sower on SuperSummary