Eventually, the two of them make their ways to the outskirts of the town of Minaki. Naomi leads Saul through wilderness and fierce snowstorms. Naomi decides that she and Saul will have to travel down the river so that they don’t freeze to death. Saul’s parents take Benjamin’s body into the nearest town to seek a Christian burial for him, but they never return. He dies one day while harvesting rice with the family. Shortly after this vision, Benjamin begins coughing up blood, a symptom of a disease he contracted during his time in school. Then, he sees them crushed under enormous rocks. He sees his ancestors, laughing and playing at the water’s edge. The family decides to journey to a place called Gods Lake, where Saul’s ancestors lived generations ago.Īt Gods Lake, Saul has a mystical vision.
Miraculously, they reunite with Benjamin, who has run away from his school. At the time, all Indigenous Canadian children are required by law to attend such schools, which means that Canadian authorities have the legal right to tear families apart, often using kidnapping to do so.Īfter they lose their children, Saul’s parents begin drinking heavily, and migrate from town to town in search of work. At an early age, his brother, Benjamin, and his sister, Rachel, are kidnapped by white Canadians in the area and sent to Christian schools where the teachers’ primary aim is to “remove the Indian from” them. He grows up in the early 1960s with his parents, John Indian Horse and Mary Mandamin, his two siblings, and his grandmother Naomi. Saul Indian Horse is an Indigenous Canadian and a member of the Fish Clan, a tribe that lives near the Winnipeg River.
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