One of several novels about the shameful history of the treatment of aboriginal children in Canada’s residential schools, this one by a Saskatchewan Cree lawyer is easily confused with Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians. But they are very different and this one is the darker one. (I only read reviews of Ten Little Indians.) This concerns the messed up lives of children escaping or released from a northern Vancouver Island residential school for aboriginals run by abusive Catholic staff. This is in what I take to be the 1960s although throughout the story, there is no date mentioned to anchor the tale to any era. One escapee working as a maid in notorious East Hastings Street in Vancouver leads a secret double life as a hooker and drug addict, and eventually commits suicide. Another serves a long sentence for beating up one of the cruel abusive priests.
I found it hard to keep track of the five characters in the title as there are many more little Indians that make an appearance. They all seem to be psychologically crippled by the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of the priests and nuns running the school with the white legal authorities and RCMP providing support for the system. Stereotypically, no priests, nuns or teachers in the school are portrayed as showing any compassion or empathy, or any effort to understand the native culture.
The freed children, whether in Vancouver, Seattle, or Bigger, Saskatchewan are uniformly poor, working in menial and temporary jobs, and often breaking the law in order to survive or evade capture. There is little humour and the most admirable character is Clara’s huge adorable rescue cur.
There are allusions to late government efforts to provide compensation and restitution but nothing definitive is discussed.
Kenny, one of the escapees experiences pain in his liver from heavy drinking in spite of the fact that the human liver has no connections to the sensory nervous system. He also reminisces about his life while lying dead in a casket.
The merciful ending to this story is abrupt, without any warning to the reader.
The sad and continuing abusive treatment of our aboriginal kin deserves better characterization than this disjointed story provides.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/10
The Passionate Reader 