Indian Horse
by Richard Wagamese
Indian Horse CRP.pdfSaul Indian Horse, an Ojibway boy from Northwestern Ontario, is snatched from his family and placed in a residential school (St. Jerome’s) despite his parents and grandmother trying to protect him by disappearing into the bush to avoid government agents. When a young priest introduces Indian Horse to the game of hockey it becomes evident that a passion for the game, natural talent and hardwork will make him stand out. Indian Horse’s experiences as a First Nations minor-league hockey player in the 1960s and 1970s are the overlay for a greater commentary on racism, violence and trauma, as well as a background for reconciliation and healing. As with all of Wagamese’s writing, Indian Horse is lyrical, engaging and touched with humour while also being poignant and thoughtful.
Richard Wagamese was an author, journalist and storyteller. He was Ojibway from Wabaseemoong First Nation in Northwestern Ontario and won numerous awards for his novels, poetry and non-fiction writing, as well as for his work as a broadcaster. Taken from his home as a young child by Child Services, as his parents struggled with the trauma from residential schools, Wagamese moved from one foster family to another until he finally left home at age 16. He spent time homeless, struggling with alcohol and depression, before finding peace with his pain and demons. Wagamese passed away in March 2017.
Curriculum Connections
Reading: Reflecting on Skills and Strategies (Metacognition) During the reading of Indian Horse, conference with small groups of students and ask them to identify the reading strategies they are using to understand. What do they do when they are “stuck”? Look for context clues? Discuss with someone else?
Oral Communication: Listening to Understand (Using Listening Comprehension Strategies)
Read aloud a passage from Indian Horse and ask students to analyse it afterwards. Explicitly address the listening strategies used to comprehend the ideas and messages within the passage.
Writing:
Using Knowledge of Form and Style (Diction) Identify what makes Indian Horse vivid in terms of the choice of language. Ask students to compose a descriptive, vivid paragraph that conveys a single event (In the style of the recounts of a single game of hockey in Indian Horse). Ask students to add a “think aloud” with their paragraphs that identifies what choices they made to ensure the paragraph was vivid and clear for the intended audience.
Media: Understanding Media Texts (Evaluating Texts)
Provide students a choice from one of the supporting resource texts listed below (such as the video Death at Residential Schools). Ask students to develop an analysis of what makes this text effective. What choices are made with the language? Images? Narration? Music? How did these choices contribute to, or take away from, the effectiveness of the message of this text?
Essential Questions
Residential Schools
What is the legacy of the forced assimilation attempts of the Canadian government on Indigenous Peoples through residential schools? What might reconciliation look like to address the legacy of intergenerational trauma? What should the consequences be to the perpetrators of the residential school system? What are the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission related to trauma that resulted from the residential school system? Is there a valid argument that there were positive outcomes from the residential school system?
Sports and Racism
What systemic issues exist in sporting organizations that marginalize particular groups? Is racism still common in organized sports today? Should teams be allowed to use logos and mascots that are deemed offensive to Indigenous Peoples?
Key Quotations
Reaction to Indian Horse’s brother, Benjamin, being accosted and taken forcibly to a residential school:
“After Benjamin disappeared my family left the bush and the shores of the river. We canoed out one day and left the camp behind. My grandmother came too though she’d argued against the move. My mother seemed almost weightless by now. I was always surprised that she left footprints. There was nothing to her by air. Her eyes were empty and she walked bent over like an old woman.
My father bore it all in stoic silence. But there was an angry arc when he swung an axe, a more vicious slice of the knife when he skinned out a deer. This energy, so heavy and thick, was the opposite of my mother’s” (13).
Saul Indian Horse’s arrival at residential school:
“Everything I knew vanished behind me with an audible swish, like the sound a moose makes disappearing into spruce….I was lonely for the sky, for the feel of it on my face” (43).
Turmoil resulting from sexual abuse:
“When that happened, I knew that the game could not offer me protection any longer. The truth of the abuse and the rape of my innocence were closer to the surface, and I used anger and rage and physical violence to block myself off from it” (200).
Experiencing racism while playing minor-league hockey:
“I started to notice things after that. I started to see a line in every arena we played in. It showed itself as a stretch of empty seats that separated the Indian fans from the white ones. Police were stationed at the separate entrances they shunted our people through. I saw that a lot of players on the opposing teams would not remove their hockey gloves to shake our hands after a game. Some of them didn’t even leave the bench. When I mentioned it to Virgil, he scowled. “White ice, white players,” he said. “Honky Night in Canada.” (137).
Trigger Warnings
“The purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning.” Lockhart
Sexual Assault of a Child (198-200).
Trauma Informed Practice A Coffey 2017.docx.pdfThe resource contains first hand accounts of traumatic experiences that may refer to, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, alcoholism and drug addiction and cycles of family violence.
Teachers are encouraged to prepare themselves and their students for discussing these events, to remind them the classroom is a safe space for discussion but they are not forced to speak, to encourage them to acknowledge important feelings about personal or group trauma and to remind them there are many caring adults in the building who are here to help and support them.
Discussion Strategy: Talking Circle
Promoting discussion, sharing feelings, being personally accountable for our own feelings and understanding how our words affect others.
Alberta Education; Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Métis and Inuit Learners, 2005, p. 163
https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/talkingtogether/facilitated_talking_circle_fact_sheet.html
Text to Self Connections
- Would you have made the same decision as Indian Horse’s parents to leave him in the bush with his grandmother? Why or why not?
- What do you think drove Indian Horse to be so committed to the game of hockey? Is there anything that you are as committed to in your life?
- How do your family and friends protect you? What is required for someone to offer protection to someone else?
- Have you engaged in organized sports teams? If so, what were your experiences? Did you always feel included?
Text to Text Connections
Text to World Connections
Unit Plan (Shared Folder)
Strategy from Mini-Lessons from Literature Circles
Taking Note of Strong Verbs (193)
Paired with suggested passage beginning with “I began to skate with the deliberate intention of shoving my skill up the noses of those who belittled me” (164) to “I drew a game misconduct penalty and marched to the dressing room, bloodied but filled with roaring pride”(165).