- Sing Down the Rain
is about a cultural and spiritual tradition of the Tohono
O'odham American Indians who live in southeast Arizona and Sonora,
Mexico. Their name means "Desert People."
- The book was first published by Kiva
Publishing in September, 1997. The painting at the top of the page
is the cover illustration. It's called "Rain Dance."
- The poem was written to be performed as a choral
reading by a classroom of students.
- Michael Chiago, the
illustrator, is Tohono O'odham. This is the first children's picture
book illustrated by a member of the Nation.
- Michael and I sat down together to decide what
images should be on each page of the book. His original watercolor paintings
are the exact size of the book's two-page spread illustrations. Open
your book to the first page of the poem. Why is the coyote hiding behind
the rock? You can also look at the first slide in the slide
show on this Web site.
- Danny Lopez, Tohono O'odham storyteller and
teacher, wrote the introduction to the book. He also served as the cultural
advisor for the text. Danny helped me choose authentic words and taught
me more than books could about his traditions so that my writing would
be more accurate.
- The poem tells about the Sonoran Desert environment:
"A dusty land bakes; its washes run dry. / The blazing hot sun hovers
high in the sky. / Cicadas make music a sharp scraping sound. / The
spreading mesquite trees hang close to the ground." Do you know what
cicadas are?
- It also tells about how the Tohono
O'odham harvest the fruit of the saguaro cactus, cook it to make
a syrup, ferment some of the syrup into wine, and drink the saguaro
fruit wine as part of their annual rain-making ceremony. Visit
these pages for more information on the Ha:san
Bak, saguaro fruit harvest. To learn more about the saguaro
cactus in general, visit Sabino
Canyon: The Web of Life: Saguaro Cactus.
- The book is written in rhyme with a strong meter
or beat to help you read the "voices" together. Do
you have a group of friends with whom you can read the poem?
- The eight voices used to create the choral reading
are: narrator, clouds, saguaros, flowers, women, grandparents, medicine
man, and headman.
- This sound file will
let you hear the beginning of the poem being read by the author.
Sing Down the Rain
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