Summary Of Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

Saul in Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese demonstrates the importance of perseverance and resilience through the many challenges that he has to face. First, when Saul is young, his grandmother Naomi, who is the one person he has left freezes to death right before he gets kidnapped and taken to a residential school, where he endures physical and sexual abuse. Life at the residential school is torture for the kids. They are beaten, threatened, and given labour work. Many kids commit suicide because it is too much to handle.

“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.

When Junior started his new high school, he dealt with a multitude of problems because he was different from everyone else. Going to a different high school was difficult for Junior to do; he was going to a school that was off the Indian reservation, to a town where the people are affluent and mostly-white. When Junior started to attend his new school, he had trouble fitting in, and the students treated him as an outsider who did not belong. The first girl that Junior met at school was named Penelope, after becoming aware of his name, she and other students laughed at it because it was alien to them, although on his reservation it was not uncommon. Throughout the school, students would tease him for being Native American by calling him names such as, “Chief” or “Tonto” or “Squaw Boy.” (p 64.) Unfortunately, the student body was not the only ones that Junior had to deal with, some of his teachers treated him wrong as well. For instance, in a class discussion, Junior corrected his teacher on a topic, although he is right, the teacher did not believe him because he thought Junior was just an unintelligent Indian student. Although Junior experienced problems at his new school, he continued to deal with them and try to overcome them.

The Spokane Indians were victims of adversity, whereas the students of Reardan high school were met with privilege. With this in mind, the reader is able to recognize the deviation in the aforementioned environments throughout the novel. To support this, a statement that exposes a confession of the direct oppression youth on the reservation face is one made by Arnold’s teacher, Mr. P. Mr. P is in the midst of lecturing Arnold about the reasons he should leave the reservation when he says, “We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child” (Sherman 35). Mr. P explains to Arnold that the teachers were instructed to strip Indians of their culture. Within the same conversation Mr. P continues on to say, “The only thing you kids are being

Residential schools are educational institutions established for Indigenous children. It was funded by the Canadian government and administered by Christian churches with the sole purpose of civilizing the native children and assimilate them into the modern western culture. In the novel Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson describes the impact of residential schools on multiple characters in the story. Uncle Mick, Aunt Trudy, and Josh are just a few who have experienced many types of abuse-physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual. Those horrid memories left permanent emotional scars and still resides with them even until adulthood. Residential schools disrupted lives, isolated families, eliminated cultural identity and caused long-term problems among the Indigenous community.

The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie, is a semi-autobiographical novel that narrates the story of a Native American teenager. The narrative uses ‘humour to soften the sometimes difficult and emotional story’ of the protagonist, Arnold ‘Junior’ Spirit who was born with ‘water on the brain’ and is constantly targeted by bullies. The main themes that is carried throughout the novel is isolation as well as determination. These themes are expanded on with many of Arnold’s life events. Throughout the novel there are many narrative features; some of these are focalisation, diction, imagery and point of view. All of these narrative features positions the reader on how native Americans are seen as a lower class than white people as they are poorer than the white people.

Residential School’s were introduced back in the 1870’s, they were made to change the way native children spoke their languages and how they viewed their cultures. The residential school system in Canada was operated by the government, where the native children were aggressively forced away from their loved ones to participate in these schools (1000 Conversations). The government had a concept, where they can modernize the native children, aged of three to eighteen and extinguish the aboriginal culture. In the twentieth century the Canadian Public School’s had arrived and had improved treatments than residential schools. In Contrast, the treatments within these schools were both different, whereas Canadian public school students had more freedom than residential school students because children were taken away from their families. However, the treatment in these schools were different and some what similar. Even though Residential schools and Canadian Public schools were similar in some form, there were numerous amounts of differences in how the children were taught, how they were treated and how their living conditions were like throughout these schools.

During the 19th century the Canadian government established residential schools under the claim that Aboriginal culture is hindering them from becoming functional members of society. It was stated that the children will have a better chance of success once they have been Christianised and assimilated into the mainstream Canadian culture. (CBC, 2014) In the film Education as We See It, some Aboriginals were interviewed about their own experiences in residential schools. When examining the general topic of the film, conflict theory is the best paradigm that will assist in understanding the social implications of residential schools. The film can also be illustrated by many sociological concepts such as agents of socialization, class

Canada has a very rich history, stretching back over a hundred years. It is composed of countless events; some are good, while others aren’t so much. The residential school system was definitely one of the worst situations, a dark patch on the events of the past. For a variety of reasons, I believe that it’s important we remember it, even though it was unacceptable; in fact, it might be even more important that we remember because it was terrible. In this essay, I will describe in detail exactly what the residential school system was, what effects it had on the Aboriginal society, and why we should remember this atrocity.

The remaining memory of residential schools is not yet forgotten. The abuse had caused trauma that lasted a lifetime. When children returned home they would have forgotten their traditions and language. This tragedy had led First Nations to experience depression, Drugs, Alcohol abuse and low education, Not only that, but low self-esteem and crime.

Although Canada’s history is rich with admirable qualities that justify great patriotism, it also has a disturbing past. In particular, this past is centred around the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population in regards to the tragic residential schools that were implemented. From 1800 until 1990, residential schools were established to eliminate Indigenous culture in hopes to assimilate them into a mainstream white society (Statistics Canada, 2004). Reaching their peak in 1930, there were 80 schools in effect (Statistics Canada, 2004). Presently, there is an extensive history of residential schools, in which the various perspectives and conditions of the schools are outlined. To begin, the assorted perspectives regarding the usage of these

In the mid 1900’s children and youth were forced to attend residential schools across Canada. They were treated in such a way that their cognitive and socio-emotional development developed differently than those of children and youth who did not attend these schools. Students were assimilated into mainstream Canadian society which ultimately killed “the Indian in them”. During the time that the children and youth were in residential schools their identity was shipped away. This shaped their ability to learn cognitively and emotionally differently. It is vital to note that the topic of residential school is a large matter and this paper will take on one focus. Youth were met with grief, loss and risk, yet furthermore with resilience

The schools aimed to assimilate the First Nation culture. Children were forced to speak English and got punished severely if they disobeyed. Try and imagine how you would feel if you didn’t know one bit of English and you got abused when you didn’t understand or couldn’t speak. This was the abominable routine of most First Nations children’s life. The churches that ran the schools did not believe the children were human, they taught them that they were savages and that because their skin was dark it meant they were dirty. Not knowing anything otherwise, the children learnt that they were supposedly not as good as everyone else and if they did not obey and follow the rules they learnt they would go to hell. When they were not learning, they were either serving their teachers and leaders, doing work, eating unsuitable food, becoming ill from the lack of nutrition, or being abused. At times where everyone would eat, children would be given jobs of serving their leaders food, or cleaning up after them like slaves. During the time of residential schools, which was not that long ago, children who were First Nations were given food that wasn’t their traditional food and the food they did receive came rotten or covered in bugs. Diets of these children were not even suitable for an animal, much less a human. Consequently, the children

Traditions and common ideas of our hometowns can play a large role in who we are. Junior’s Spokane Indian reservation is no different. Junior is faithful to the tradition of fisticuffs which demands you fight anyone who says/thinks/does/is anything insulting, despite his losses dwarfing his wins (True Diary 61-62). Despite being outnumbered, the narrator knows he must retaliate against the slurs and throws a single punch at the biggest bully, Roger (True Diary 65). Roger reacts with shock which confuses Junior to nearly become distressed (True Diary 65-66). The narrator’s parents admit white people have the most hope, causing the narrator to aspire to be among them (True Diary 45). Later on, he is able to note commonalities between himself and some white students. Penelope thirsts for adventure outside her small town, much like Junior (True Diary 111). This may tempt a reader to conclude this trait is independent of the reservation, as most Indians are content to live in such a small area, but how can one yearn to

In these residential schools many students were abused, tortured, raped, starved this is just a glimpse into the inhumane treatment children faced. Native language was forbidden in the residential schools. The state forced students to speak English at the residential schools and if they did not they were reinforced with harsh punishments. Since aboriginals were seen as ‘savages’ it was important to the state and church to eliminate aboriginal language and make them ‘cultured’ people. Brass explains that, “children in residential schools more than likely felt inferior because they could only speak their language when family came this way they would learn English faster” (1987: 6). Destroying and dismantling native culture through residential schools has left survivors with socially impaired and cultural damage. Euro centric views of the Canadian state has impacted aboriginal communities because many children today are unaware of what their mother tongue is creating a marginalized effect these communities. The government today hasn’t done much to compensate the linguicide of aboriginal societies. When a genocide or linguicide is not properly recognized it leaves a feeling of being second class citizens because their losses are not dealt with adequately.  Children were persistently reminded that their values, culture and beliefs are irrelevant. This resulted in many young children with poor self-esteem, depression, lack of self-respect and lack of motivation to succeed