Sent out into the outside world with inadequate education and lacking any counselling, financial support, or job placement, many became victims of sex traffickers or fell into drug and alcohol abuse.
Their distraught parents were forbidden to visit so they were denied family support and comfort. The generation of children who survived their years of suffering in these residential schools was emotionally broken from their time held in captivity there, when unable to have contact with their families or community.
The survivors told their stories to investigative panels many years later, and much guilt rests on government policies and religious institutions. By focusing on the experiences of five children forcibly taken from their families,(which are based on factual accounts), the heart-wrenching experiences should carry a greater emotional impact on Canadians than dry, factual news reports. I believe this is an important book that centres on the horrible systematic abuse native children endured in residential schools. With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job-through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps-trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.įuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement.
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.Īlone 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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