Many indigenous people in Canada suffer a lot of trauma from residential school. Priests and nuns hit indignous people and make them forget their own cultures. Indigenous people have to leave their parents and they are not allowed to speak their languages. The book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese is about how people have traumas and the effect of it. The main character, Saul Indian Horse is indigenous person from the Fish Clan of the northern Ojibway. When he was young, he went to residential school, St. Jeromes. But it wasn’t easy to live and his life at residential school caused his whole lifes. Therefore, residential school gives traumas to indigenous people and the way to deal with it is to talk about acknowledging it.
The purpose of residential school is to do cultural genocide. For that reason, indigenous people have to follow the rule of the Canadian government. The first thing Saul did at residential school was wash his body and cut his hair by nuns. During that, nuns stilled his belongings. He has to speak English. If someone speaks their languages, they have to be punished. Also, he has to call the priest and nuns to father and sister. The Canadian government does not allow anything to be related to the culture of indigneous people. Furthermore, priests and nuns conceive that indigenous people are property. Saul is one of the properties of Father Leboutillier. “You are a glory, Saul.’, “That was the phrase that began the groping, the tugging, the pulling and the sucking.”(199) He is threatened and pressured by father Leboutilier. The only thing he can do is wait until the end. That causes Saul to be scared of people and interact with others. So he tried to focus on hockey instead of his traumas. Hockey makes him forget his trauma easily that he has to focus on the games but it is transient. Then he attempts to repress bad memories. In many cases, people want to repress as a defense. Father Leboutilier is the only person who is nice to him and relies on. In Particular, Father Leboutilier recommended playing hockey which he really likes. All of these things give him a lot of trauma and influence his identity.
He repressed bad memories of residential school. But in hockey games, the teammates ignore Saul a lot even though Saul is the best player of the hockey team. They never called Saul to Chief or his name. They call him to the numbers like “Thirteen don’t talk much.” In the game, they tackle him to fall down. The crowds of the game throw the Indian figures to Saul. Everyone racist to Saul. People remind Saul about bad memories of residential school. That makes Saul so violent because of that he has to sit on the bench and watch the game. He decides to quit hockey and start drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol can forget his past but it’s temporary. So he becomes an alcoholic. After he faints from the alcohol, Saul resolves to visit a residential school. This is really tough but it helps to release his pain from the past.
Facing the pain is the hardest way but it also can be the easiest way to deal with it. Saul thinks that is the hardest way but there is no way to carry it out. Thus, he visits the residential school. He imagines his past. He is so horrible. He acknowledged what Father Leboutilier did to him. He realized that Father Leboutilier took advantage of Saul for solving his desire. Before he went to residential school, he hated himself but now he detest Father Leboutillier. Saul experienced catharsis. “I felt revulsion rise in me. My throat was parched.”(199) It is his arduous past but through facing his past, he can be better. He is determined to not restrict his past. After he treats his traumas, he starts to talk about his past to others and they comfort him.
Overall, indigeous people get lots of stress. That is an unforgettable wound to indigenous people. It will be hard to heal the hurts of indigneous people. Even though the skin colour is different, the governments need to apologize several times as the same Canadians. Moreover, the important point is that many indigenous people still deal with violence and alcoholism. This can be a big task to solve the problems.