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St. Jerome's Residential School

In Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse, the protagonist, Saul Indian Horse, is taken against his will to St. Jerome's residential school in White River Ontario. At the residential school, Saul faces many struggles and challenges that he tries to overcome using hockey as a way to escape these issues. However, the residential school left an everlasting impression on Saul that impacted his life throughout the story.

St. Jerome's residential school had many impacts on Saul both at the time and throughout his life. The discrimination and abuse Saul had faced in this residential school are very similar to what Indigenous children faced when they were forced to attend these residential schools but worse.

At St. Jerome's residential school, Saul and the other kids were forced todo chores, physical labor, learn English, and forget their past culture and ways of living. If Saul or any of the other kids were to speak Ojibwe, they were punished, beat, or worse. Not to mention these kids in the story were treated very poorly with minimal shower time, public embarrassment, poor or no meals, and lack of hygiene. Saul even talks about what happened to him at that residential school still haunts him today.

St. Jerome's residential school in White River, Ontario

One example that Saul remembered that continues to haunt him. In chapter 39, before Saul goes to sleep, he remembers a girl from St.Jerome’s residential school named Rebecca. Rebecca and her sister came to the residential school together and her sister was very sensitive and homesick. Rebbeca's