INDIAN HORSE

CONFLICT

• Saul struggling to deal with the atmosphere around him at the school

"In what seemed like an instant, the world I had known was replaced by an omnious black cloud." ( 46)

INDIAN HORSE

"I read once that there are holes in the universe that swallow all light, all bodies. St. Jerom'es took all the light from my world. " ( (43)

• Saul feeling excluded from the other children

"At St. Germ' the kids called me "Zhaunagush" because I could speak and read English." ( 48)

• No place for a kid to be a kid

"You couldn't be a kid under that regime. There was no room for creativity to flourish." (40)

Richard Wagamese

by: Cheska, Hannah, Allyson and Rachel

THE INDIAN YARD

• significant because it honours the lives of the Aboriginal children that suffered at St. Germ's
• St. Germ's was a place of suffering and these children were laid down to rest in the Indian Yard

"Row on row of unmarked graves. Row on row of four- and five-foot indentations like a finger from Heaven had pressed them down. Dips in the earth. Holes they fell into." - pg 50

CHAPTERS 11-18

THE CREEK

• the creek brought the kids back in touch with their Aboriginal roots

• reminded them of where they come from

"We were Indian kids and all we had was the smell of those fish in our hands." - pg 54

SETTING

THE RINK

• Residential School Research
• Characters
• Plot
• Theme
• Symbols
• Literary Devices
• Conflict
• Game!

• Saul feels a sense of belonging when he is on the ice
• gives him purpose
• distracts him from all the sadness at St. Germ's

"I'd stand there, arms held in triumph, and I would not feel lonely or afraid, deserted or abandoned, but connected to something far bigger than myself." - pg 62

ST. JEROME'S

METAPHORS

• Saul is taken to St. Jerome's Residential School
• run by the church

" The whistle of the leather still hung in the air." pg47

"They learned to speak without moving their lips, an odd ventriloquism that allowed them to keep their talk alive." pg48

"St. Jerome's took all the light from the world. Everything I knew vanished behind me with an audible swish." - pg 43

LIFE IN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

• children were not allowed to acknowledge their culture
• severly punished if they broke the rules
• underfunded, overcrowded
• poor sanitation = higher death toll
• some children are actually reported to have fond memories from Residential School

SIMILIES

" Everything I knew vanished behid me with an audible swish, like the sounds of a mouse makes disappering into spruce" pg45

" The tearing away of the bush and my people was like ripped flesh in my belly" pg 48

" Their faces burned with zeal and joy and their breathing was like the expled air of mustangs." pg67

THE SIXTIES SCOOP

• "scooping up" Aboriginal children and placing them into foster care or adoption
• 20,000 children were taken from their families
• Aboriginal parents were thought to be unfit to raise their children

LITERARY DEVICES

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

VIDEO

HYPERBOLE

" They rubbed us nearly raw." pg 43

PERSONIFICATION

" The clomp of ther blade made me think of hoofs on frozen ground." pg 67

ONOMOTAPOEIA

"Ziping by me in a blur." pg67

CHARACTERS

• Saul Indian Horse
• Father Quinney
• Sister Ignacia
• Lonnie/Aaron Rabbit
• Father Gaston Leboutilier
• Sheila Jack
• Arden Little Light
• Shane Big Canoe

• Saul was sent to St. Jerome's Indian Residential School

• Saul was greeted by Father Quinney and Sister Ignacia

- "At St. Jerome's we work to remove the Indian from our children so that the blessings of the Lord may be evidenced upon them," (p47)

• In chapter 12, Saul tells the cause of death stories of Curtis White Fox, Arden Little Light, Sheila Jack, and Shane Big Canoe

- "I could never understand how the god they proclaimed was watching over us could turn his head away and ignore such cruelty and suffering," (p52)

• Saul and a dozen other kids escaped during unsupervised time to a small creek where they witnessed a bunch of fish

- "The fourth time, we stod quietly, each of us lost in our thoughts, as the fish struggled for air, for life for freedom," (p53)

• Saul is emotionally traumatized due to the many deaths he has witnessed within the residential school

- "When the ears threatened to erupt from me at night I vowed they would never hear me cry. I ached in solitude. What I let them see was a quiet, withdrawn boy, void of feeling.

PLOT

• Father Gaston Leboutilier introduced hockey to the children

- "He convinced Father Quinney to let him build a rink, outfit the older boys and start a team. Things changed at St. Jerome's after that," (p56)

CHAPTERS 11-18

• Saul developed an interest and love for hockey

- "I begged to play after that. I begged to be taught to skate. But Father Quinney allowed only the older boys to play. I was eight and small," (p59)

• Passion

"I'd stand there, arms held high in triumph, and I would not feel lonely or afraid, deserted or abandoned, but connect to something far bigger than myself." (62)

"When I released myself to the mystery of the ice I became a different creature. I could slow down time, choose the tempo I needed whenever I launched myself into learning a new skill." (65)

• Isolation

"So I retreated. That's how I survived. Alone. Alone... I ached in solitude. What I let them see was a quiet, withdrawn, void or feeling. (55)

• Saul replaced a kid who got injured playing hockey, and ended up playing centre

- "Father Leboutilier blew his whistle and I lined up to take the first faceoff of my life," (p71)

• Suffering

"I was sore inside. The tearing away of the bush and my people was like ripped flesh in my belly. Every time I moved, or was forced to speak, it roared its incredible pain." (48)

"St. Germ's scraped away from us, leaving holes in our beings." (52)

• Hope

"I no longer felt the hopeless, chill air around me because I have Father Leboutilier, the ice, the mornings and the promise of a game I would soon be old enough to play." (66)

• Death

"I saw young boys and girls die standing on their own two feet. I saw runaways carried back, frozen solid as boards. I saw bodies hung from rafters on thin ropes. I saw wrists slashed and the cascade of blood on the bathroom floor and, one time, a young boy impaled himself. (55)

THEME

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: THE BATH

" It felt as though they were trying to remove our skin" pg44

• Removing the Indian from the child
• Washing away their culture and past and presenting them with a "clean slate"

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL: ST JEROME'S

" At St. Gerome's we work to remove the Indian from our children so that the blessings of the Lord may be evidenced upon them" pg 47

• Assimilation- forcing children to strip away their pass and adapt a new culture
• It human nature to make everyone the same, residential schools are an example of this
• Fear of the unknown, instead of getting to know the Aboriginals they forced them to change

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: ST. JEROME'S

" Curtis White Fox had his mouth washed out with lye soap for speaking Ojibway. He choked on it and died right there in the classroom" pg48

• Death of a native
• In many was Residential School led to death; murder, suicide
• Killing the Indian in the child most often than not actually led to the death of an Indian

SYMBOLS

THE IRON SISTER

" No one ever comes back from there the same. Ever" pg 51

• Punishment
• Death
• Black hole

HOCKEY

" I will never forget the first time I watched the older boys play. The white glory of the rink. The sun was shining and the sky was a pale blue." pg 57

• Hope
• Bright light in the darkness
• Gave the Aboriginals something to look forward too, gave them a reason to wake up in the morning
• Passion

WORKS CITED

• http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government-policy/the-residential-school-system.html