Racial Abuse In Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

Father Leboutillier plays an important role in the book, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. He is seen as Saul’s ally and father figure during his time at the residential school. Father Leboutillier allowed Saul to play hockey with the older boys, gave him books to read about hockey, let him watch his television, and defended him when the nuns were too hard on him. Saul saw Father Leboutillier as his friend and protector, as did the readers. However it is not discovered until later in the book that all of these courtesies given to Saul from Father Leboutillier come with a price.

Emotional Abuse – pattern of behaviour that ruins a child’s emotional development or sense of self-worth. This may include constant criticism, threats, or rejection, as well as withholding love, support or guidance. Emotional abuse is often difficult to prove.

“When your people are degenerated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backwards, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That’s what they [the residential school] inflicted on us.”(Wagamese, 81) is the heart-wrenching way Saul expresses this. By making the children feel this way, they are making them question and doubt their Native identity, which is the first step, to losing it completely. Secondly, Saul starts to conform to the way people expect him to be and loses who he actually is. This goes on until it gets even in the way of Saul playing hockey. When his coach confronts him about it, all Saul can say is “‘Hey, I’m just giving them what they want.’ ‘Who?’ [the coach asks] ‘The crowd, the team. Don’t you read the papers? I’m the rampaging redskin.’”(165) Showing how Saul seems to have accepted his fate as a stereotypical Indian and player; forgetting the thoughtful and insightful person he used to be. Finally, towards the end of

Physical abuse is typically described as the use of physical force against another person that may in turn cause injury, pain or impairment. This type of abuse could be perform with or without an object.

Emotional abuse is any kind of abuse that is emotional rather than physical in nature.

Abuse is any form of mistreatment by any other person or even persons that will violate an individual 's basic human and civil rights. The abuse can vary, from treating someone with disrespect in a way that significantly affects the person 's quality of life, to causing actual physical or mental suffering, either over a short term or a long term of time, clearly the longer it goes on the worse the

“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.

Abuse is when a carer tries to control or dominate another person. It can be physically, emotionally harmful, arousing fear in an individual, preventing them from doing what they want, or forcing them to do something against their will. Abuse can happen to anyone but it mostly happens to people who are vulnerable like a

Young Indigenous children from all over Canada were snatched from their homes, taken from their families, and placed in residential schools that would ruin these children and bring out the feeling of pain that would last their entire life. In Richard Wagamese novel Indian horse, Saul Indian Horse, one of the many victims of the sixties scoop was taken as a young boy, where he was abused mentally, physically and emotionally at St. Jerome's residential school. This school would inflict pain that would last forever and has a terrible aftermath on his life that puts him in a long and difficult healing process he endured to turn his life around from the distractions he used to hide from the pain. Richard Wagamese tells the story of Indian Horse through the eyes of Saul Indian Horse to demonstrate the feelings he endures during the story for the readers better understanding of the character.

Foremost, after Saul decides to quit his forestry job, he opts to leave Manitouwadge and look elsewhere for work. Saul is able to find jobs as he mentions that “Medicine Hat. Fort Chipewyan. Wabasca. Skookum-chuck. Tagish Lake. I worked in all those places and more.” (179). Nonetheless, Saul is unable to hold down a job because he cannot focus due to the abuse he suffered in the past. He is never consistent with his career and keeps changing with every new location he resides. Additionally, Saul mentions that “Whenever the stories and the invented histories started to unravel, I’d move on to a new crowd…” (181). He is not able support himself as a person as he is incapable of facing what happened in his past. Whenever his past caught up to him, Saul is reminded of had happened to him; something he wants to forget consequently, Saul struggles with moving on as any human would. Not only is Saul unable to focus on his job, he states that “A part of me missed the banter of the bench and the dressing room…So I began to eat lunch and supper in beverage rooms and taverns…” (180). Since Saul is not able to fill the feeling of something being empty, he tries to push everything away by spending as much time as possible in scenes such as taverns. Moreover, his frequent visits to pubs, further aggravates his incapability to focus on his life. After spending much of his time in taverns, Saul remarks that “I’m not sure when I began to drink myself. I only know that when I did the roaring in my belly calmed. In alcohol I found an antidote…” (180). The drinking habit Saul develops aids him temporarily by filling the vacuum in his life. Drinking took over his life and he used it as means of escaping from reality. Saul continuously tries to escape from reality and immerses himself in activities that will allow him to not acknowledge his pain and

In the text, Why do people abuse?, the authors state that “some abusers learned to abuse from their parents” and that “abusive behavior can also result from mental or health disorders”, which is derived from many different problems, including alcoholism. I for one understand abuse because “abuse situations must be lived in and experienced before the internal logic makes any sense”.

Saul had his entire way of life taken away from him when he got taken to St. Jeromes Residential School, and the land helps reconnects him with his Aboriginal culture. During his time at St. Jeromes, Saul seldomly practiced tradition due to it being banned. Although, one time “during some rare unsupervised time, a dozen of [kids] escaped to [...] a

Children had to endure many terrible and horrific things while attending a residential school. They endured physical, mental and sexual related trauma. Many of these things happened to Saul (the books protagonist) while attending St. Jerome's (the residential school). Saul had to deal with being sexually assaulted by a character named Father Leboutilier numerous times. It’s a big part of the book because it shows how the kids would not accept reality, they would rather doubt or never accept they were assaulted much like Saul never admitted that it happened till much later in life (Wagamese 199). In addition, it’s important for others to read about what happened to Saul because it shows that even the nicest people can be someone

Physical abuse involves the use of force by pinching, punching, slapping, scalding, hitting, kicking, burning or misuse of medication, restraint or inappropriate sanctions. It is a form of physical attack on an individual, it can also be a intentional neglect to prevent physical injury.

“Emotional abuse is any act of verbal assault, confinement, degradation, dishonor, daunting, isolation, demoralization or any other treatment which may lower self esteem, dignity and self identity”. It is most common form of abuse. It is any kind of abuse in emotions rather than physical in nature. It is like verbal abuse such as constant criticism, repeated objection or even the refusal to ever be pleased. It is like brain washing that systematically impairs the victim’s self respect, sense of self worth, trust on their capabilities and self confidence. The act of abuse in the form of specific behaviors is performed by parents, teachers, peers and other people lived in society. People do emotional abuse by denying, minimizing,