76 pages • 2 hours read
Indian Horse
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Character Analysis
Saul Indian Horse
Saul Indian Horse is the main character and narrator of the novel. He is writing it as a form of therapy while residing at the New Dawn Centre treatment facility for his alcoholism. He begins his life living in the bush, a fear of the white man having been instilled in him. He then lives in various border camps and eventually in his ancestral land of Gods Lake, where he experiences his first vision. When he leaves and his grandmother dies, Saul is taken to St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School, where he is an outsider due to his familiarity with English.
Only when introduced to hockey does he feel any sense of comfort or camaraderie, and he practices every day, covertly at first, then alongside his teammates. His visions help him master the game, enabling him to see patterns and anticipate plays. Saul is uncomfortable playing white teams but is asked to do so due to his skill. When he is shunned due to racism, he is at first steadfast in maintaining his ideal of the game but eventually succumbs to violence, unable to escape his rage at his painful childhood. When hockey stops providing escapism, he turns to manual labor and nature and, eventually, alcohol.
Though given chances to open up, heal, and start again, Saul is unable to open up, even to himself, and keeps retreating further and further from others. Finally, after getting hospitalized, he goes into treatment and, after receiving a vision of his ancestors, understands that he needs to revisit the places of childhood in order to heal. At the ruins of St. Jerome’s, he uncovers the repressed memory of his rape and molestation at the hands of Father Leboutilier, which he realizes is why he used hockey to escape and turned to violence and alcohol. After a healing visit to Gods Lake, he is able to return to Manitouwadge, the only place that offered him a real sense of home, and hopes to teach in order to reclaim and pass on the pure joy of the game now unmarred by his painful past.
Shabogeesick
Shabogeesick is Saul’s great-grandfather. He was a seer and the first to introduce horses to his people. He often appears in Saul’s visions.
Naomi
Naomi, Saul’s grandmother, is still connected to the old ways. She derides St. Jerome’s and strives to protect Saul and his family from the white man. It is on her insistence that they settle in Gods Lake. She clashes with Saul’s mother, father, aunt, and uncle over religion—they insist on practicing Christianity and giving Benjamin a Christian burial, while Naomi wants to honor him in the old way. She gives her life to Saul when they travel away from Gods Lake to escape the winter, covering him in her shawl and carrying him when he collapses.
Benjamin
Benjamin is Saul’s brother. At four years old, he is captured by the white man and sent off to the school. He runs away and returns a few years later, thin and with a cough. He dies after a day of intense physical exertion in helping with the rice harvest.
Saul’s Mother, Father, Aunt, and Uncle
The other adults in Saul’s life practice Christianity and become consumed by alcohol after Benjamin’s disappearance. They leave Gods Lake to give him a Christian burial and never return.
Father Gaston Leboutilier
Father Leboutilier comes to St. Jerome’s the same year as Saul and introduces the children to hockey. Saul refers to him as his “ally,” and Father Leboutilier often hugs him and gives him encouragement and affection. As an adult, Saul uncovers the memory of being sexually abused by Father Leboutilier, who preyed on his excitement for hockey and desire for love.
Fred and Martha Kelly
Fred and Martha are both alums of St. Jerome’s, who now live in Manitouwadge where Fred coaches a traveling hockey team called the Moose. They take Saul in and give him a home. Saul says that they treat him a friend rather than a child. When Saul returns as an adult, Fred and Martha are the first people outside of the center that he opens up to about his abuse. They, having gone to the school themselves, sympathize.
Virgil
Virgil is the teenaged son of Fred and Martha and captain of the Moose. He helps Saul with school, and helps him train. After winning a tournament, Virgil and other team members are taken behind a café and beaten up and urinated on due to being “uppity.” Eventually, Virgil tells Saul that Saul owes it to him to try out for the Toronto Marlboros, as Virgil’s the one who cleared it with the team to let him join the Moose. Virgil says Saul is like a brother to him. When Saul leaves Manitouwadge to travel from job to job, Virgil accuses him of running away. When he finally returns at the end of the novel, Virgil has become a hockey coach and they talk after practice, with Virgil listening to Saul’s past and arranging for him to play his first game in fifteen years.
Jack Lanahan
Jack is a scout for the Maple Leafs who offers Saul the chance to try out for the Leafs feeder team, the Marlboros.
Patrick and Elissa Sheehan
Patrick, an ex-hockey player and his wife, Elissa, house Saul when he lives in Toronto and plays for the Marlboros.
Ervin Sift
Ervin is a widower that Saul meets in a bar while he’s traveling. He nurses Saul through a three-day hangover and then lets him stay, offering him a room and work gathering and delivering firewood. Saul refers to him as an “angel,” but he refuses to open up to him and returns to drinking, eventually landing in the hospital.
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