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Call Me Indian
- From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL's First Treaty Indigenous Player
- Narrated by: Wilton Littlechild
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
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Unreconciled
- Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance
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- Narrated by: Jesse Wente
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples.
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Heart-wretchingly Honest
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Like thousands of Aboriginal children in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school. These institutions endeavored to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family and eloquently articulates her own path to healing.
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A must read for those planning for later years.
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The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history - in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America. Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other.
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Angry, embarrassed, disgusted, horrified, nauseous, scared and so so sad, but hopeful and now informed.
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There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
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A must read for Canadians
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Unreconciled
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Brilliant Must Listen/Read for all Canadians
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In My Own Moccasins
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- Narrated by: Helen Knott
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Heart-wretchingly Honest
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They Called Me Number One
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- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
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Overall
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Like thousands of Aboriginal children in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school. These institutions endeavored to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family and eloquently articulates her own path to healing.
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Thank You!
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Neglected No More
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It took the coronavirus pandemic to open our eyes to the deplorable state of so many of the nation's long-term care homes: the inhumane conditions, overworked and underpaid staff, and lack of oversight. In this timely new book, esteemed health reporter André Picard reveals the full extent of the crisis in eldercare, and offers an urgently needed prescription to fix a broken system.
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A must read for those planning for later years.
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The Inconvenient Indian
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- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
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The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history - in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America. Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other.
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Angry, embarrassed, disgusted, horrified, nauseous, scared and so so sad, but hopeful and now informed.
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True Reconciliation
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There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
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A must read for Canadians
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Highway of Tears
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For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia. The highway is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. Highway of Tears is a piercing exploration of our ongoing failure to provide justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and testament to their families and communities' unwavering determination to find it.
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Just get it. It's worth is.
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All Roads Home
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Over the course of his incredible career, Bryan Trottier set a new standard of hockey excellence. A seven-time Stanley Cup champion (four with the New York Islanders, two with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and one as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche), Trottier won countless awards and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was named one of the NHL's Top 100 Players of All Time.
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Honesty
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Written by: Bryan Trottier, and others
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Five Little Indians
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Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them.
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Poor narration,mediocre plot
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I Escaped from Auschwitz
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April 7, 1944 - This date marks the successful escape of two Slovak prisoners from one of the most heavily-guarded and notorious concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The escapees, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, fled over 100 miles to be the first to give the graphic and detailed descriptions of the atrocities of Auschwitz. Originally published in the early 1960s, I Escaped from Auschwitz is the striking autobiography of none other than Rudolf Vrba himself. Vrba details his life leading up to, during, and after his escape from his 21-month internment in Auschwitz.
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Excellent performance
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A Knock on the Door
- The Essential History of Residential Schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Edited and Abridged (Perceptions on Truth and Reconciliation, Book 1)
- Written by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Phil Fontaine - foreword, Aimée Craft - afterword
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“It can start with a knock on the door one morning. It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer.” So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools prepared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).
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Not an easy read, glad I did
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Written by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and others
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The Scientist and the Psychic
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Weaving together the story of his fractured relationship to his mother with research into her paranormal abilities, Dr. Christian Smith has created, in The Scientist and the Psychic, a captivating, one-of-a-kind memoir of belief, skepticism, and familial love.
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One Split Second
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When a car carrying five teenagers home from a party crashes into a brick wall, the consequences are devastating - not just for the young people directly involved, but also for their families, their friends and the wider community. By 2:30 a.m. the whereabouts of most of the kids were known. Most - but not all. Because, for a small handful of parents, there was no response to their frantic calls and messages.
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Calmly and respectfully narrated
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Willie
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In 1958, Willie O'Ree was a lot like any other player toiling in the minors. He was good. Good enough to have been signed by the Boston Bruins. Just not quite good enough to play in the NHL. Until January 18 of that year. O'Ree was finally called up, and when he stepped out onto the ice against the Montreal Canadiens, not only did he fulfill the childhood dream he shared with so many other Canadian kids, he did something that had never been done before. He broke hockey's color barrier. Just as his hero, Jackie Robinson, had done for baseball.
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A must read for Canadian Hockey Fans
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Can You Hear Me Now?
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Celina Caesar-Chavannes digs deep into her childhood and her life as a young Black woman entrepreneur and politician, and shows us that effective and humane leaders grow as much from their mistakes and vulnerabilities as from their strengths. Both memoir and leadership book, Can You Hear Me Now? is a funny, self-aware, poignant, confessional, and fierce look at how failing badly and screwing things up completely are truly more powerful lessons in how to conduct a life than extraordinary success.
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Truer words were never spoken.
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-10-29
Written by: Celina Caesar-Chavannes
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Mamaskatch
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- Narrated by: William C. Wikcemna Yamni ake Wanzi
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Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family's history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family, and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. Bertha taught him to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that would return to watch over and guide him at key junctures of his life. However, in a spiral of events, Darrel's mother turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic.
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Engaging Memoir
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"Indian" in the Cabinet
- Speaking Truth to Power
- Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Narrated by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. Inspired by the example of her grandmother, who persevered throughout her life to keep alive the governing traditions of her people, and raised as the daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous leader, Wilson-Raybould always knew she would take on leadership roles and responsibilities.
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Interesting but not revelatory
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Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
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21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
- Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality
- Written by: Bob Joseph
- Narrated by: Sage Isaac
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. The Indian Act, after 141 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous peoples, and is at the root of many lasting stereotypes.
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Essentially Canadian - Must Read.
- By Marcel Molin on 2019-08-23
Written by: Bob Joseph
Publisher's Summary
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner will have you cheering for 'Fast Freddy' as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice--a great gift to every proud hockey fan, Canadian, and Indigenous person."
— Wab Kinew, Leader of the Manitoba NDP and author of The Reason You Walk
Trailblazer. Residential school Survivor. First Treaty Indigenous player in the NHL. All of these descriptions are true—but none of them tell the whole story.
Fred Sasakamoose, torn from his home at the age of seven, endured the horrors of residential school for a decade before becoming one of 120 players in the most elite hockey league in the world. He has been heralded as the first Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL, making his official debut as a 1954 Chicago Black Hawks player on Hockey Night in Canada and teaching Foster Hewitt how to pronounce his name. Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, and Maurice Richard. After twelve games, he returned home.
When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. That returning to his family and home was more important to him than an NHL career. But there was much more to his decision than that. Understanding Sasakamoose's choice means acknowledging the dislocation and treatment of generations of Indigenous peoples. It means considering how a man who spent his childhood as a ward of the government would hear those supposedly golden words: "You are Black Hawks property."
Sasakamoose's story was far from over once his NHL days concluded. He continued to play for another decade in leagues around Western Canada. He became a band councillor, served as Chief, and established athletic programs for kids. He paved a way for youth to find solace and meaning in sports for generations to come. Yet, threaded through these impressive accomplishments were periods of heartbreak and unimaginable tragedy--as well moments of passion and great joy.
This isn't just a hockey story; Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir sheds piercing light on Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows this extraordinary man's journey to reclaim pride in an identity and a heritage that had previously been used against him.
What the critics say
National best seller
One of Indigo's Top 10 Books of 2021
Indigo Staff Pick of The Month for Non-Fiction
“Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner will have you cheering for 'Fast Freddy' as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice - a great gift to every proud hockey fan, Canadian, and Indigenous person.” (Wab Kinew, leader of the Manitoba NDP and author of The Reason You Walk)
"Call Me Indian needs to be in every library and on every school curriculum in Canada. Fred Sasakamoose’s story is gripping and powerfully told - a story of triumph and tragedy, of great success and the perils of excess. There is laughter and tears here aplenty, but also inspiration. Characters as large as Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull are easily matched by the likes of Moosum, Freddy’s grandfather; Father Roussel, the only good to be found in residential school; George Vogan, who always believed in Fred - and Loretta, who loved him, gave him family, and ultimately saved him.” (Roy MacGregor, best-selling author of Chief: The Fearless Vision of Billy Diamond and Canadians: Portrait of a Country and Its People)
"Sasakamoose goes on to become an award-winning player and a celebrated storyteller, an inspiration to Indigenous communities across the country. Fred Sasakamoose['s]...legacy is not ancient history; thanks to this memoir, his continuing presence will become all the more widely and deeply felt." (Winnipeg Free Press)
Featured Article: Finding the Canadian Voice That Speaks To You
The Canadian voice is a powerful, distinct and rich one. From the First Nations and those that have lived in Canada for generations to new immigrants, the tapestry that makes up Canada from Nova Scotia, to Toronto, Winnipeg to Vancouver and every city in between is a colourful combination of people, voices and stories. Whether you’re searching for a relatable experience or seeking to hear a new perspective of this country we love, we’ve compiled a list of 10 amazing audiobooks by Canadian authors to help you find the voice that speaks to you.
What listeners say about Call Me Indian
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- RL9
- 2021-12-01
Eye Opening!
Great story which tears at your heart and feelings. Felt the pain of Fred throughout, but also enjoyed the highs that he did have.
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- Bren H
- 2021-11-19
every canadian needs to listen or read this story
great story and performance. heart-wrenching and enlightening. every canadian needs to listen or read this story
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- Dusty Richard
- 2021-08-14
What a journey
I was sickened. I was sad. I was angry. I was proud. Great Read
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-07-24
Incredible Story
Beautifully narrated important piece of history. Thank you for sharing your heritage especially the trauma you have endured. I feel I have a bit more understanding of indigenous peoples and the impact of multigenerational trauma.
If your choosing between this book and Indian Horse…read Call me Indian.
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- Phyllis
- 2021-06-06
Anger, laughter, and tears.
I absolutely love this book! This is the best book I've heard in years. I
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-09-21
Very well written.
This book makes you angry and sad . This things done to this man is so so sad to me. This is a must read
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- Chris Foote
- 2023-08-23
Wonderful Entertaining and Informative
I really enjoyed this book and got through it quickly. This is a must read for Canadians and should be in the school curriculum.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-06-07
Honest and moving story
I enjoyed the honesty of the author throughout the book. The narrator brought the story to life. A fantastic read!
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- scott
- 2023-03-20
Fantastic Story Telling
This book is one to be read (listened) by all, not just sports and hockey fans. Sasakamoose’ story of his past and horrors of the residential schools are eye opening and ones that need to be heard more.
This is a book I will share with many and my own children once they are older.
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- Robert
- 2023-01-16
Great book!
This book is much more than Mr Sasakamoose’s hockey career, it’s very well written and narrated.. I have recommended to friends, Mr Sasakamoose has lived quite an interesting life in northern Sask..
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-05-27
Reviewing “Call Me Indian” as an Indian
When people think of Native American/First Nations athletes they consider two of the great gold medalists - Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills. Hardly does one have the honorable privilege to learn of Cree hockey legend Fred Saskamoose, the first Indigenous hockey player in the NHL [Chicago Blackhawks.]
I like how Fred begins his story plainly stating, “Call me Indian.” Acknowledging the gravity of that labels affect upon his life personally and upon the greater community of Indians. Fred does not condone the usage of the “Indian“ term for non Indians. As you listen to his story you will learn that he like many others were forced to wear this label like a cloak to diminish what lies beneath - a human being but also a proud member of the Cree community.
Fred Saskamoose was a skillful hockey player of Debden, Saskatchewan and grew up on the Ahtahkakoop Indian Reserve in Saskatchewan. And a Survivor from the Duck Lake, Saskatchewan Catholic residential school. He survived a time when Indigenous children were being ripped from their families at the age as young as 5 years old. had heard horror stories of the Catholic residential schools but there were some things that I learned from this story: like kids were only ALLOWED to return to their families after two years spent at the residential school. So if a child was stolen at the age of 5 they could not even visit home until 7. Also, I knew of the beatings and sexual abuse but didn’t know that Indian children were essentially slaves serving not just the church grounds but were farmed out into the community; Fred alluded to intensive labor physically toughening him up to play hockey at a high level an attribute gained and recognized by the young priest at his residential school who would become his first and maybe his most fearsome coach. I learned that kids could attempt to escape only to be snitched on by townsfolk who were rewarded for turning in Indian children as runaways. Fred and his brother did attempt escape after a particularly tragic episode in his life that I am sure would have a tragically profound effect upon Fred’s life.
My favorite part of the story is hearing how Fred felt when he was called up to the big leagues as he arrived in Chicago - seeing all the skyscrapers, smelling the air, and how he was approached by people in this foreign world to a 1950s Indian. In this world he was only referred to as , “Chief” never as Fred. From the beginning he was treated as a spectacle by the whites and a trail blazer for Indians. He was rightfully adored by his community.
I loved hearing the voice of Fred the hockey fan making his way in the big city even though it was fleeting. Although it was jarring to learn that the Blackhawks paid him indirectly through a 3rd party like a sponsor who signed his contract with Fred. Fred seems to gloss over this occurrence but I think that this dehumanizing act had a greater impact on Fred than he lets on.
I can best describe Fred’s story as a beautiful tragedy. Being an Indian myself this story was familiar. Ironically (or not) as I write this story, First Nations hockey players are in the NHL doing great things on the Ice. But just last week Ethan Bear and the NHL had to make a statement denouncing racist remarks directed towards Ethan of the Edmonton Oilers and a Cree nonetheless. I think the NHL should strongly encourage the reading or listening of “Call Me Indian”. Maybe then the hockey world would KNOW we Indians BELONG!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Maura P.
- 2023-01-07
Inspiring and heartbreaking.
I read this because of my children’s hockey experiences, and because of the influence of an African-American coach in the Pittsburgh area, working tirelessly to bring this wonderful game to all young people who may not have the financial means to participate. He recommended the book. The world needs more people like Fred to bring us all together.
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