Indian Horse Richard Wagamese Summary

Comprehending an excerpt of Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese leads me to feel various negative emotions that can be classified into three major feelings which involve fury, agitation, and sorrow. With a ridiculous reason that they were Aboriginals, numerous children got forced into residential schools and were sacrificed to add such a disgraceful history of Canada. The first emotion I felt was fury in the scene when the boy who opposed to change his family name was beaten by the supervisor “until he collapsed” (46). I thought this behavior was cruel enough to be considered as a child abuse and deserve criticism to use violence against kids. Additionally, the part where the author described the “rare unsupervised time” generated most agitation.

In today’s world, many students have had some sort of tragedy happen to them or their families. In his novel, “Indian Horse,” Richard Wagamese chronicles the story of one man’s journey through his troubled life. He uses descriptive language to present painful memories of loss and abuse. "Indian Horse" accurately illustrates the effects of irresponsible drinking, the abuse that took place in Residential Schools, and the inspiring way in which adversity can be overcome; for these reasons, among others, Canadian students should engage with this subject matter despite its use of explicit language.

For years, First Nations children endured the harrowing experiences of residential schools. It was not until 1996, did the final residential school close down. It took over a hundred years of physical, physiological, and the sexual abuse of thousands of children before residential schools existed no more. Although they do not exist anymore, residential schools continue to cause pain throughout First Nations communities. There are a variety of novels that describe the accounts of residential school survivors, both fiction and non-fiction, each powerful in their own way. Indian Horse, a novel by Richard Wagamese, is one of these novels. The book follows Saul Indian Horse, a boy of Ojibwe descent, and his experiences within St. Jerome 's Indian Residential School. Saul turns to hockey as a form of protection from the fowl memories of his experiences at St. Jerome 's, using the game to ignore the sexual abuse he endured. This denial results in Saul 's pain, which comes out in the form anger on the ice, and which ultimately results in him taking up alcohol. It is only when Saul returns to St. Jerome 's, that he is able to stop the denial, and begin his path to healing. Richard manages to lead the reader down the same path of denial as Saul, therefore allowing the reader to experience the same feeling of shock as felt by Saul in his moments of realization. Saul 's denial of his sexual abuse

Theodore Fontaine is one of the thousands of young aboriginal peoples who were subjected through the early Canadian system of the Indian residential schools, was physically tortured. Originally speaking Ojibwe, Theodore relates the encounters of a young man deprived of his culture and parents, who were taken away from him at the age of seven, during which he would no longer be free to choose what to say, how to say it, with whom to live and even what culture to embrace. Theodore would then spend the next twelve years undoing what had been done to him since birth, and the rest of his life attempting a reversal of his elementary education culture shock, traumatization, and indoctrination of ethnicity and Canadian supremacy. Out of these experiences, he wrote the “Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools-A Memoir” and in this review, I considered the Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd publication.

“Indian Horse” is a novel written by Richard Wagamese that follows the life of Saul Indian Horse, a young Ojibwe boy in Canada. Throughout his life, Saul has endured many traumas, such as being neglected by his family, watching the people he loved die, undergoing rehab for alcoholism, and being taken from his family and placed in a residential school. Set against the brutal assimilation policies of the Canadian government in our history, the novel explores Saul’s experiences in the residential school system at St. Jerome’s, where he faces abuse, loss, and the suppression of his cultural identity. Despite the challenges he faces, Saul discovers his purpose and a means of escapism from his life through the game of hockey, which becomes a powerful tool of coping and self-discovery for Saul. Saul’s involvement in hockey serves as a profound coping mechanism amidst the harsh realities of the residential school system.

Indian Horse, written by Richard Wagamese tells the life story of a man named Saul Indian Horse and he describes his many years at residential school and how they affected his life. From the 1870s to the mid-1990s Indian residential schools were put in place to “civilize” the Indian child; the primary goal of residential schools was to take the Indian out of the child. Richard Wagamese’s, Indian Horse sheds light on the different horrors that aboriginal children were forced to endure while at residential school. Aboriginal children were severely physically abused, psychologically abused, and girls as well as boys were forced to perform physically demanding and often dangerous tasks during their time at these institutions

In “My Name is Seepeetza” (Sterling 2013), Seepeetza’s identity is profoundly influenced by her experiences at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. These experiences, which include the struggle to maintain her indigenous identity in the face of forced assimilation, shape her into a resilient individual. This is evident when she keeps a diary to hold onto her personal history and identity. Similarly, in “Indian Horse” (Campanelli, 2017), Saul’s identity is molded by his experiences in Canada’s Indian residential school system. Despite the harsh conditions, Saul finds comfort and a sense of identity in ice hockey.

Racism, much like classism in the book is presented in a subversive manor throughout the landscape of the reservation. Whether through conditions imposed upon Native Americans, or the overall neglect. We are, however, presented with a few direct examples in the book of the destruction inherent in smaller forms of racism. At one point during a conversation, Victor, thinking to himself said, “It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.” (Alexie 1993:49) Victor puts forth an interesting concept of how daily minute racism has more damaging impacts than even some of the most severe transgressions against Native American Culture. Considering the title of the book, which

“At St. Jerome’s we work to remove the Indian in our children so that the blessings of the Lord may be evidenced upon them” (Wagamese 46). These words provide the exact mindset the white people had toward the Indians. In the novel Indian Horse written by Richard Wagamese, the protagonist Saul grows up and is accustomed to the period of time where there is a pro - white bias. A bias so strong that the racism becomes institutionalized. This bias in all its forms and degrees crushes Saul’s spirit and turns what could have been a terrific athletic career to years of fighting, searching and drinking. Through the definite racism of his taking, the sexual and verbal abuse he receives from high religious figures, as well as the hierarchy created within the National Hockey League it is clear Saul believes his people are inferior to the whites which, in tail, develops the racism and prejudice central theme in the novel.

On the other hand, the Ojibway people have half-functional vans to carry their hockey superstars. However, this makes me feel proud of Saul’s underdog team that have all odds against them but continue come out on top when it comes to tournaments. Furthermore, the white colonizers treat the Indians inhumanely.

For Victor, growing up on a reservation was not easy. Multiple times he experienced discrimination, on and off the reservation. His second grade teacher decided to punish him instead of rewarding him for his phenomenal grade on a spelling test. He was also subjected to discrimination when a teacher assumed he passed out due to drunkenness because of his skin color, Victor says to this, “Sharing dark skin doesn’t necessarily make two people brothers.” (Alexie, 1993, p. 5) Discrimination was not the only issue Victor experienced, hunger was another problem. While he and his family barley had any food, girls in the bathroom stalls were throwing up their lunch. People take advantage of the luxuries they possess when there are people who barley

Stereotyping is an ongoing issue in today’s sociality where people are quick to judge something from the outside, and this can be depicted when constable shows the character as Walter as aggressive and angry. In the opening chapters on this novel Walter is seen as a troublesome and misbehaved young boy who gets into trouble, “someone said he’d stolen a car, someone else said he stabbed a kid in the playground, and someone else said he’d been caught dealing drugs. Everyone agreed he was ‘pyscho’ ” (4 Constable). This quote shows that people are associating Walter with doing bad things before they have even him and goes with the stereotype that indigenous people start trouble.

When we study about Canadian history through gender, racism and colonialism, we need to look relationships between Canada and Indigenous peoples. How did Indigenous communities follow their actions and decision-making based on their ideology while they tried to maintain their cultural values and identity. An effort for coexisting Indigenous people in Canada represented diverse reactions and behaviors such as the system of slavery and violence. Indigenous people (Upper Canadian slaves) did not expect this status and racialized by Caucasians. A resistance against the system of slavery was a desire of Indigenous people for a corporation with Caucasians. "

In the course of reading this literary piece, I acquired knowledge that an abundance of different Indigenous nations, although in a number of ways similar, prefer to be referred to in ways other than those that are incorrectly used towards them. Despite having plenty of distinctive nations across Canada itself, we still lack the basic wisdom of how these diverse peoples like to be addressed and will practically continue to do so due to the inadequate widespread of awareness, the inability to receive accurate information, and also the contrasting advice from a variety of sources. Whether it is calling a person of Aboriginal descent "Indian" or another concept measured

“When your people are degenerated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backwards, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That’s what they [the residential school] inflicted on us.”(Wagamese, 81) is the heart-wrenching way Saul expresses this. By making the children feel this way, they are making them question and doubt their Native identity, which is the first step, to losing it completely. Secondly, Saul starts to conform to the way people expect him to be and loses who he actually is. This goes on until it gets even in the way of Saul playing hockey. When his coach confronts him about it, all Saul can say is “‘Hey, I’m just giving them what they want.’ ‘Who?’ [the coach asks] ‘The crowd, the team. Don’t you read the papers? I’m the rampaging redskin.’”(165) Showing how Saul seems to have accepted his fate as a stereotypical Indian and player; forgetting the thoughtful and insightful person he used to be. Finally, towards the end of