Indian Horse

For the film adaptation, see Indian Horse (film).

Indian Horse

First edition book cover
Author	Richard Wagamese
Language	English
Genre	Drama
Publisher	Douglas & McIntyre
Publication date	2012
Publication place	Canada
Media type	Novel
Pages	224
Preceded by	Runaway Dreams
Followed by	Medicine Walk

Indian Horse (Template:Lang-fr) is a novel by Canadian writer Richard Wagamese, published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2012. The novel centres on Saul Indian Horse, a First Nations boy from Ontario who survives the residential school system and becomes a talented ice hockey player. But his difficult past interferes with his life and the novel explores Saul's journey to self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Wagamese's best known work, Indian Horse won the 2013 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, and was a competing title in the 2013 edition of Canada Reads.

A film adaptation, Indian Horse, was directed by Stephen Campanelli and premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It is streaming on Netflix in 2021.

Plot

In 1961, the Indian Horse family—an Ojibway family consisting of eight-year-old Saul, his grandmother Naomi, and his Christian parents John and Mary—live in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, hiding from the authorities, who previously took Saul's siblings, Benjamin and Rachel to force them in to Indian residential schools. When Benjamin suddenly returns after escaping from a residential school, the family travels to Gods Lake, a remote region where their ancestors lived before they were all killed by a collapsing cliff. Benjamin soon dies of tuberculosis, and his parents take his body away on a canoe to be blessed by a priest, leaving Saul with his grandmother. Winter sets in but the parents have not returned, and Naomi tries to lead Saul to Minaki for shelter. Their canoe is overturned in rapids, and they suffer from the terrible cold. They run out of supplies, and Naomi dies at a railway depot outside Minaki. Saul is found by the authorities and taken to St. Jerome's Indian Residential School in White River.

At St. Jerome's, a Catholic school headed by Father Quinney and Sister Ignacia, Saul witnesses daily abuse of the children. He sees that some die, commit suicide, or are traumatized. The same year Saul is placed at St. Jerome's, new priest Father Gaston Leboutilier joins the faculty, and he becomes popular with the boys. He constructs a hockey rink outside and forms a hockey team composed of older boys. After watching Hockey Night in Canada on a television, Saul begs Father Leboutilier to allow him to play, but he is prevented because of his young age. Father Leboutilier allows Saul to clean the rink each morning, and Saul uses part of that time to practice hockey. After a player is injured during a scrimmage, Father Leboutilier allows Saul to play, and is astounded by his high skill level. Father Quinney, noticing Saul's talent, allows him to join the team. St. Jerome's plays against the White River team, and Saul leads his team to victory. Father Leboutilier begins to practice and train with Saul. Saul is invited to play for the White River midget hockey team, though he is soon kicked off due to his ethnicity.

In 1966, when Saul is thirteen, he is invited by Fred Kelly of Manitouwadge to live with his Ojibway family and play for the Manitouwadge Moose junior hockey team (nicknamed "the Moose"), coached by Fred and captained by their son Virgil. Father Quinney and Father Leboutilier allow Saul to leave St. Jerome's. Saul, Virgil, and the rest of the Moose get along quickly. Despite his smaller size and younger age, Saul's skills allow him to lead the team to numerous victories in their games against teams from reserves across Northern Ontario. Saul reunites with Father Leboutilier after a game in Pic River, and they share one last exchange before Father Leboutilier leaves. Saul never sees him again.

Eventually, the Moose are invited to play against the Kapuskasing Chiefs, a senior A team from the Northern Hockey Association, and their first non-Indigenous opponent. They win, and are invited to play against teams from towns and cities along the Trans-Canada Highway and across Northern Ontario. Due to their ethnicity, however, the youths are often heckled by the audience, and the opposing players mock, fight, and intentionally bodycheck them during games. At one point, while eating at a café near Chapleau, the team has an altercation with a group of men who, one by one, beat and urinate on all of them except Saul, who they spare due to his young age and his hockey skills. After the Moose beat the Owen Sound Clippers in a rough game where Saul manages to show considerable restraint, Saul is scouted by the Toronto Marlboros, a feeder team for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although Saul is initially reluctant to leave, Virgil and the Moose persuade Saul to join the Marlboros.

At the age of sixteen, Saul travels to Toronto to attend the Marlboros' training camp. Saul makes the team, but he is viewed as an outsider by the press, the crowds, and the other players, who all discriminate against him. Saul starts to react violently, and returns to Manitouwadge after being benched indefinitely. Saul becomes a logger; harassed by coworkers, he viciously attacks one in retaliation. He rejoins the Moose, but plays very aggressively. When Saul realizes his teammates have stopped talking to him as a result of his violent playing, he leaves Manitouwadge once he turns eighteen.

Saul travels across Canada for several years, taking any low-level labor job he can find. He becomes an alcoholic and travels in Redditt in 1978, the same town where his family had reunited with his late brother Benjamin before his death. Saul meets Ervin Sift, a farmer who offers the young man a job and a home.

But Saul, who feels empty inside, leaves for Winnipeg. After a seizure there, he is hospitalized. He is accepted by the New Dawn Centre, an Indigenous rehabilitation center. While there, he meets his counselor, Moses, and has a vivid spiritual experience in which he sees his deceased family, including his great-grandfather Shabogeesick, the first "Indian Horse".

He returned to White River, visiting St. Jerome's, now long closed and in severe disrepair. He breaks down in the abandoned hockey rink as he finally acknowledges his past trauma: Father Leboutilier routinely molested and raped Saul, who used hockey as a means of escaping his trauma and personal guilt. Saul returns to Minaki, rents a boat, and travels back to Gods Lake. He has another spiritual experience where he sees his family, as well as his ancestors, and he has a brief discussion with Shabogeesick.

Saul returns to Manitouwadge. He reconnects with Fred and his wife Martha, both residential school survivors, who he learns had also endured abuse. He also reconnects with his foster brother Virgil, now coach of a bantam hockey team at the town's new rink. Saul suggests that he coach the bantam team, of which Virgil's son Billy is a member, and Virgil invites Saul for a game of hockey with his former teammates. Later that night, waiting for Virgil and the Moose, Saul notices a ball of tape on the rink, and he begins to practice with it, much like he did at St. Jerome's, as Virgil, the Moose, and their families arrive.

Writing and development

Indian Horse is in the form of a memoir written by Saul at the New Dawn Centre, as an alternative to him telling his story to the group there.

According to Wagamese, he originally intended to write a novel about hockey, but the legacy of the residential school system gradually became a focal point of the story. He said that writing the book took him about five times longer than it typically would have "because of the emotional territory it covers". Although Wagamese did not attend a residential school, he was affected by that system because his mother, aunts, and uncles were residential school survivors.

Reception

Indian Horse won the 2013 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature.

Indian Horse was a competing title in the 2013 edition of Canada Reads. It was advocated by Carol Huynh. It lost to February by Lisa Moore.

In 2020, the novel's French translation, Cheval Indien, was selected for Le Combat des Livres, the French-language edition of Canada Reads. It was defended by Romeo Saganash.

Adaptation

It was adapted for a 2017 film of the same name, which is now streaming on Netflix. Directed by Stephen Campanelli, it starred as the adult Saul and has a largely indigenous cast.