Though initially considered too young to play, little Saul ingratiates himself with Gaston by cleaning the improvised rink each morning and practicing in secret with - in a wonderful detail that sounds like it could have come from experience - pucks made out of frozen horse dung. Thankfully for little Saul, at least he is introduced to ice hockey, which happens under the guidance of Father Gaston (Dutchman Michiel Huisman, Daario Naharis from Game of Thrones), who seems friendlier and less strict than his colleagues. The school’s “only test was our ability to endure,” he explains in a voiceover but that is about as much insight as is offered. Since his mother converted and taught him English, surely his feelings about the Anglophone Christian world must be more complex, even if he clearly resists the routine abuse and complete denial of his aboriginal roots by those running the institution he’s forced to stay at. There is an occasional voiceover from the adult Saul (voice of Wayne Baker), though oddly enough it is not used much to suggest how the boy feels about finding himself alone and between two cultures at such a young age. The early going sets up the fact that Saul’s background was mixed already, with his grandmother speaking Ojibwe and rigorously following in the footsteps of their ancestors, but his mother being closer to the English-speaking Christian world of the white Ontarians.

Indian horse the book