Summary Of Seven Fallen Feathers By Tanya Talaga

This book review will define the important aspects of continued mistreatment, deaths, and alienation of Canada's First peoples in Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga. One of the most compelling aspects of Talaga’s book is defined in an investigation of the deaths of indigenous students in the mid-20th century, and more importantly, the continued lack of government response to the deaths of seven indigenous youths in the 21st century. All of these incidents show a systemic problem with government monitoring and investigating these deaths of native peoples living in the Thunder Bay region. The tragedy of these incidents reveal an ongoing problem with racism and government non-compliance with preventing the deaths of neglected youths, which

The historical trajectory of Talaga’s (2017) book is defined in the ongoing “colonial” legacy of racism that has neglected the deaths of indigenous youths. For example, a young child, Chanie Wenjack, ran away from a residential school in 1966, but was found frozen to death on railway tracks. This example is based on Talaga’s objective observation of the records kept on these children, which define a pattern of runaways at the St, Joseph’s residential School that Chanie attended: “There are reports of runaways in different frequencies throughout historical archives” (Talaga, 2017, p.159). In this manner, Talaga accurately shows a historical pattern of runaways due to the abusive and neglectful environment of these schools, which define the continued “colonial” pattern of forcing children to adapt to European/Canadian culture. More importantly, Talaga (2017) begins to connect the ongoing alienation and neglect of indigenous youths into the 21st century. However, with the removal of the residential schools the Canadian government took differing tactics to avoid a committed enforcement of policies that would protect these children in the 21st

Talaga (2017) investigated seven deaths from 2000-2011 that exposed the neglect and uncaring attitude of the Canadian government after the death of these young people. In these findings, an objective accounting for the five deaths was directly related to young people having to travel hundreds of miles to get to high school. Talaga (2017) defines the harsh traveling conditions that young people had to endure when traveling to school along the Kaministiquia River: “Teens come down to the river’s gummy banks to take cover under bridges, or in bushes to drink and party” (Talaga, 2017, p.120). these dangerous conditions during the winter are extremely dangerous, which defines why Talaga found that these deaths often occurred because of the willingness of young people in northern towns to travel to high schools in more urbanized areas. This aspect of Talaga’s (2017) book defines the cause of these deaths, which is based on the continuing neglect of indigenous people in northern cities that do not have a high school in closer vicinity to their reservations. These facts prove Talaga’s (2017) argument that the Canadian government is still making it very difficult for indigenous people to receive an education, as there appears that the government is taking no action to remedy