When Anna Woodward and Josiah Flint lived in Steuben County, New York, it wasn’t unusual for Indians to stop by the cabin to trade. One day an Indian squaw with her papoose strapped to a board came to trade baskets for bread. When finished, they started down the path. They were scarcely out of sight when Anna heard a piercing scream and ran to see what was wrong.…
In Saul Wagamese’s Indian Horse, Saul finds his escape and joy in hockey, contrasting against the horrors of St. Jerome’s Residential School. Wagamese uses the literary devices of metaphors and imagery to express the joy and escapism found by Saul when playing hockey. It is mentioned that his thoughts are that “There wasn’t a nuance that I didn’t try to incorporate what felt like flying, being borne across the sky on great wings.” This metaphor shows how much joy hockey brings him, as one would usually use feeling like they were flying to describe great happiness and would practice what they love at every moment if they truly enjoy it.. Also, by describing what Saul does to practice skating for hockey, the reader is allowed to envision the…
Innocent is the young man who is tortured and bullied. When the world is inescapably terrible, no one is can blame a man for turning alcohol as his solace. Richard Wagamese’s Book “Indian Horse” tells the readers about the fate of one brave boy named Saul Indian Horse as his life takes a big turn when he discovers hockey. The novel clearly demonstrates the terrible conditions kids like himself had to live through when attending St. Jerome’s residential school in northern Ontario. The story of this one young man is describing what all kids had to do in order to survive the residential…
Tayo’s journey in the Novel, “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko borders between the cultural differences of Native American beliefs and white Americans. While presenting the difficulties during World War II and the realism of discrimination against Native, White, Asian, and Hispanic culture. However, the story focuses on Native American beliefs and the healing process that change can bring. One of the many Native American beliefs used in the novel was the guidance and understandings of animals to give a point of symbolism. Along the journey Tayo has been taught valuable lessons with each animal encounter that prove to give a better understanding of Native American Culture.…
Chapter 5 discusses the cultural importance of “Buffalo” to the Plains’ Indians experiences. In the context of the debate on Ecology and Conservation (outline their relative positions and if, and how they apply to the Plains’ Indians) discuss the significance of the buffalo.…
In Stephen Graham Jones'"The Just Excellent Indians,"" the intertwining of mental scary together with sensible social discourse uses an extensive expedition of the American Indian experience. Via the lives of 4 American Indian guys pestered by an awful occasion from their young people as well as the ruthless search for a vindictive entity, the unique looks into styles of social identification, practice, and retribution, coupled with vulnerability. By analyzing the personalities' intersectionality of national politics, their battles with social heritage, and also the more comprehensive public problems dealt with by American Indian areas, Jones crafts a story that greatly reverberates with visitors testing assumptions together with clarifying…
Entry-Point Journal As I read the first few chapters of the novel, Indian Horse, I think I have gained a slightly different perspective of the world. For example, at first, I thought that Indigenous people were just individuals that had a strong relationship with Canada's land. Now I have learned why they have such a relationship with this land that they consider theirs. These individuals helped shape Canada physically and culturally. In World War II, they voluntarily joined the Canadian military to help protect the land that we now know as Canada.…
Native Americans have long been interested in maintaining cultural traditions they inherited from their ancestors. For Native American tribes with strong oral traditions, the primary sense of history comes from the narratives, stories, and accounts told by tribal elders. Indigenous peoples' stories are as varied as the clouds in the sky and yet have many common elements, whether told by the Cherokee in North Carolina, or the Chimariko in California. In the assortment of Native stories, we find legends and history, maps and poems, the teachings of spirit mentors, instructions for ceremony and ritual, observations of worlds, and storehouses of ethno-ecological knowledge. They often have many dimensions, with meanings that reach from the everyday to the divine. The stories fill places with…
The book is chock-full of mentors and teachers, from both sides, who help give insights on situations that are too complex to understand in itself. These mentors, the elders, are a precious and powerful thing; that despite the death of an elder their teachings can still be passed down orally as is the tradition of native storytelling.…
- Miller, Susan. “Native Historians Write Back: The Indigenous Paradigm of American Indian History.” 2009.…
Throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, whether be positive or negative, there have been events and people that have shaped an individual life. For Saul Indian Horse, there have been several experiences and people that significantly influenced him to be the way he is. Taken from his dead grandmother’s arms and propelled down a mysterious river, Saul Indian Horse was forcibly placed into a residential school as an orphan. Saul’s experience at the St. Jerome’s residential school was not pleasant. He witnessed the many atrocities done to the aboriginal children and was subjected to mental and physical abuse of nuns and priests.…
Edmunds, R. David. American Indian leaders: studies in diversity. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.…
* He tells of how Native tribes “have been made to retire from river to river and mountain to mountain until some tribes have become extinct”.…
My father was never unkind, always welcoming, always laughing. He has a soft spot for travelers for he came from three generations of travelers. Those that came from the mountains or the lowlands are welcome in his hearth to rest their weary bodies after days of traveling. He welcomed everyone; the dark skinned highlanders who were known as headhunters and the pale foreign people. On the rare occasions that he paid attention to me as a child, he would tell me the story of how he came to my mother’s village. I will cherish the almost boyish mischief in his eyes when he began his tale. According to him, his grandfather Acop (named after the owl perched on his shoulder) came from a village of the head hunters. The old man Acop, always thought there must be more than just trying to survive in a land where the constant fear for your life and your family’s life is a normal part of living. He was born to be a headhunter yet part of him wanted a peaceful life. But he was a warrior, and the desire for peace is unlikely for one; so he prayed to Kabunyan for a sign. It was told that the Old man Acop started the journey south when he saw a deer with golden teeth. This was a deer like no other, for he motioned Acop to follow him.…
“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” Adversity implies difficulties, trouble and misfortune as it tests the potential of man and strengthens his spirit of self confidence. In the novel Indian Horse written by Richard Wagamese there are many circumstances where the main character Saul is forced to overcome the adversity in which once shattered his human spirit and made him feel worthless. The ideas of adversity such as being beaten at residential schools and the racism he faced while playing hockey, demonstrates Saul’s constant inner struggle and his desire to become a more powerful individual.…