Indian Horse

Indian Horse (2012) is a novel written by Canadian author Richard Wagamese. The story follows Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibway boy from northern Ontario who escapes his demons and rough childhood through hockey, only to succumb to alcohol after losing his joy for the game.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide include instances and discussions of rape, assault, racism, and substance use disorder.

Plot Summary

As a young boy, Saul lives in the bush and has little contact with the outside world. His grandmother, Naomi, hides him and his brother Benjamin from the threat of St. Jerome’s, a Catholic school intended to “civilize” Indigenous children. Saul’s sister, Rachel, was taken away by white men before Saul was born. In 1957, when Saul is four, the Zhaunagush (white men) abduct his brother Benjamin. His mother changes, having lost a part of herself along with her two abducted children. She and Saul’s father and uncle find alcohol and begin to lose themselves in it.

His family leaves the bush for transient camps on the outskirts of mill towns in pursuit of alcohol. They become nomads, moving from tent village to tent village, eating whatever they can, including roasted dog. They settle in Redditt in 1960 and begin to plant roots, and Saul’s father drinks less. In this environment, Saul’s brother Benjamin walks out of the bush and back into their lives, having escaped from the school. He’s thin and has a cough. Naomi says they need to leave, as Benjamin is sure to be found by the Zhaunagush, and take Saul back with him. They decide to move to Gods Lake, their ancestral home. While at first they thrive, Benjamin is overcome with a coughing fit during a rice harvest and dies.

Naomi pushes the family to honor him the old way, but Saul’s parents, aunt, and uncle insist that he be given a Christian burial. They leave with sacks of rice to sell for a coffin, while Saul and Naomi stay at Gods Lake to await their return. They never return. Naomi and Saul stay at Gods Lake as long as possible, but as winter starts to come, they must escape to find proper shelter. They leave to find Naomi’s brother’s son in Minaki. During the trip, Naomi gives everything to keep Saul alive, even carrying him when he falls. They make it to the railroad depot at Minaki and Naomi says she wants to rest before finding her nephew. She dies holding Saul, who is found by a group of white men.

Saul is taken to St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School. It is extremely regimented, and punishments are swift and extreme. Saul is seen as an outsider for his familiarity with English and becomes isolated. Children die by suicide, or go mad from their punishments. Father Leboutilier, a new priest at the school, convinces the school to allow the kids to play hockey. Only the older boys are allowed to play, but Saul feels an instant connection to the game, and is allowed to look after the ice. He begins to covertly practice after cleaning, and, in his second winter, is given a chance to play when a boy gets injured.

After a series of wins that next winter, a group of men ask Saul to join their midget town team, though he is several years younger than the other players. He plays well, outshining the other players. After ten games, Saul shows up to game eleven but is turned away. He’s too good, and too Indigenous.

As the winter dwindles down, an Ojibway man comes to their practice. He is named Fred Kelly, and invites Saul to play on his Indigenous tournament team and live with him. Saul moves to Manitouwadge and is treated well by Fred and his wife Martha, who are both alums of St. Jerome. Eventually, news of the team’s prowess spreads and they begin playing white teams. They play well, but experience racism in the players and crowd. While traveling, a group of men take the team behind a café one by one and urinate on them.

Eventually, a scout shows up to their games. His name is Jack Lanahan, and he wants Saul to try out for a Maple Leafs feeder team in Toronto. He is reluctant, but agrees when pushed by his Moose teammates. Once in Toronto, his new teammates largely ignore him, and the press and audience are constantly mock his heritage. Finally, he gets fed up and fights back one night when checked by a rival player. He becomes a puck hog instead of the masterful passer he was, and is often boxed, then benched, then removed from play. He spends one game on the sidelines before leaving to go back to Manitouwadge.

He starts working as a laborer. He plays for the Moose for a while, but doesn’t fit in and stops playing altogether. Missing the camaraderie of the team, he finds himself eating in taverns and eventually, begins to drink and quickly gets addicted. He drinks himself into a seizure, and ends up in the hospital, where the New Dawn Centre is suggested.

He sobers up, but doesn’t experience any sort of healing miracle. While out wandering one night, he sees a vision of his family and knows he has to revisit his past. First he goes to St. Jerome’s, which is now a ruin, having been shut down for some years. He revisits the piece of earth where the rink once was and breaks down. Suddenly, he remembers the molestation he experienced at the hands of Father Leboutilier. He had used the game to give him an escape from this reality, to shield him from the priest stealing his innocence.

He goes back to Gods Lake and has a vision of his great-grandfather and family. He cries and allows himself to mourn. He returns to the New Dawn Centre and begins to open up, learning how to cope with his past without drinking. He returns to Manitouwadge and speaks about his past to Fred and Martha, and opens up to Virgil as well. Saul expresses a desire to coach, in order to find the joy of the game again. He gets back on the ice for the first time in fifteen years and plays a game with his old teammates and children from the town. He doesn’t care that he loses; he’s just there to find the joy again.