A book can be an eye-opening stimulus and challenge for many individuals. For instance, reading Indian Horse gave me an epiphany of the true worldview of Indigenous people and how the Indian Horse family managed to tackle the challenges of crossing their path. Heretofore, my discernment of Indigenous people was limited to what I passively absorbed from media, popular culture, and school. As it happens, Richard Wagamese's Indian Horse nourished my understanding by dismantling stereotypes and creating visual imagery by using descriptive language of the struggles Indigenous people endure through the perspective of a young Indigenous hockey player named Saul Indian Horse. The novel Indian Horse, written by Richard Wagamese, revealed the depth of …show more content…
The unmarked graves are glaring reminders of the scars left by residential schools. No individual should have to suffer through such a harsh reality. On the other note, learning about the diversity in culture of Saul's grandmother and mother was thought-provoking. Before reading Indian Horse, I was under the assumption that Indigenous people would follow their maternal religion. However, Saul's mother seemed significantly affected by her time at residential school. Understanding Saul's mother's cultural difference from Naomi after Benjamin died helped clarify to me that Indigenous people do not always stick to their maternal beliefs, and the assimilation used to strip Indigenous beliefs from the Indigenous people was effective. The cultural differences between Naomi and Saul's mother showed how assimilation in residential schools targeted destroying previous beliefs and moving the Indigenous people to a more Christian belief. In sum, all these points helped me discover and understand more about Indigenous peoples' experiences, history, and culture than the content that educated me before reading Indian Horse. Moreover, learning about these historical injustices can be a momentous step toward reconciliation and a future built on mutual respect and