Indian Horse How Did Hockey Contribute to Sauls Life?

Although hockey may not contribute much to your life, I believe that it contributes greatly to Saul’s. I think that because Saul endured all of the negative things and still managed to end up being okay.

Hockey brings a value to Saul’s life that he never knew before.

Hockey saves Saul from the residential schools. Saul says “When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That's what they inflicted on us,”  after he reflects on what he went through. It is clear to see the importance of him being saved from a residential school. I can just imagine how much relief Saul must feel when Father Leboutilier announces “ Fred wants you to go play and live with his family and play hockey for the moose.” It is clear to see how hockey saved Saul from the horrors of residential schools. Saul learns how to collaborate by playing on hockey teams with other people. He shows how much he belongs when he says: “I sat there breathing in the atmosphere. I was a moose.” Saul then expressed “For the first time in my life I felt a part of something.” Without hockey, Saul would never have had that chance to collaborate and connect with other people. Hockey gives Saul hope.  Hockey at times was Saul reason to keep living that became evident to me when Saul explains that “‘It’s not a perfect country,’ he said. ‘But it is a perfect game.’” What I take out of this passage is that Saul virtually idolizes with hockey, he believes the game is perfect which to me means something is completely free from faults or defects. In my opinion nothing can be completely perfect or flawless so I have a theory that if someone perceives something as perfect they most likely idolize or have a lot of faith in it. Hockey gave Saul people to connect with.  Hockey contributed to Saul’s life in positive ways,  hockey is an outlet for saul, hockey saved him from the residential schools and he learned to collaborate with others.

Saul faces racism from his teammates, crowds that watch his hockey games, and his coworkers. Saul also gets bullied and neglected by his teammates. “No matter what I did I remained the outsider. My teammates never called me chief, but they never called me by my name either. They never called me anything but thirteen.”(pg.162) In my opinion the number represents his identity, this symbolizes how people portrayed him. I am under the impression that his own teammates only thought of his as a hockey player not as a person because they neglected him and refused to call him his real name, they only referred to him as thirteen. The fans weren’t any better. “They called me Indian whores, Horse piss, Stolen pony.” (pg. 164) This shows how aggressive the fans were towards Saul as well as aboriginals.  When he played in a tournament  for the moose Saul  describes the game and the racism involved in it “White ice, White players.” Most of the time when the boys were on the ice it was about the fact that they were First Nations and how they needed to be put down instead of how well they could play and their skills in the game. Racism changed who Saul was. When Saul started to play for the Marlboros his lost the joy in the game because he wasn’t treated with respect or equality. “I wanted the game to lift me up. To make the world disappear as it always had. But as a Marlboro, I could never shake the indian.”(pg 165) I think that racism pushed Saul to become a fighter. “That was the end of any semblance of joy in the game for me. I became a fighter.” (pg 165) Saul eventually couldn’t deal with it anymore, he could never part ways with who he was. It was like being native came before anything in his life. “I’m the indian that’s all they see.” (pg.166) Racism sucked the joy out of the game and pushed him to become a fighter then eventually quit. The racism and bullying that Saul receives leads him into confusion, bring him into self-conflict. From all the race discrimination that he gets, he transforms into a different character, someone who is full of rage and sadness. “But they wouldn’t let me just be a hockey player. I always had to be the indian.”(pg 164)   A study by the healthy place shows that when you are a victim to racism you are more likely to second guess themselves or have some degree or self confliction. I believe that the racism is hockey had a large role in Saul become who he is, this is proven by Saul overall experience with racism, how it affected his game and the self conflict racism brang.