Thou Shalt Not Be An Indian

by Robert Kakakaway

Robert Kakakaway attended Marieval Indian Residential School for six torturous years. His powerful memoir is more than just a glimpse, so prepare yourself, as you witness his daily experiences and the hardships he faced inside the prison walls of this notorious residential school. Sadly, his story is a common theme in most residential schools: it was wrong to be an Indian. Robert had a very happy childhood until he was six when his life changed for the worse. Most children have no concept of Hell, Robert found it, Robert experienced it. The happy times became memories, replaced by loneliness, fear and abuse. Robert endured the bullies and lived each day in fear of being punished for something he did or did not do. As he learned a different way of life, his parents became strangers.The great outdoors he knew as a child, replaced by foreign teachings from the Bible.

Genres: Indigenous, Nonfiction

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 11, 2020

About the author

Robert is from White Bear First Nations in SK. He lives on Whitecap Dakota First Nation near Saskatoon, SK. He is the founder of Kakakaway & Associates Consulting, an Indigenous organization that offers ceremonial teachings.
Robert completed his B.G.S. degree at UBC in 1992. He also completed several post-secondary diploma programs.
Robert attended Marieval Indian Residential School for six years. He shares his daily experiences and the hardships he faced inside the prison walls of this residential school. His story talks about a common theme in most residential schools: it was wrong to be an Indian.
He is currently working on two more books, "Torn Between Two Worlds" and "To Hell and Back." These books will give you a glimpse inside the walls of an Indian residential school.

Reviews

[Carlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was a good read. It documents his first year through the residential school and how confusing it was for him at 6 years old to understand why people were treating him badly because of who he was. Using fear to make the children obey, & the trickle down of abuse from the priest's/nuns, to the older students, to the younger students.

The book compares his old life to the new life he's in and how he feels of both. It mentions sexual abuse & physical abuse, but not in detail just in passing. It's mostly based around his feelings, emotions, and his understanding of what's going on around him as a 6 year old boy.

I recommend this book and hope many others read it to help get a better understanding of just how mistreated Indigenous people were & still continue to be in Canada.

I appreciate Robert Kakakaway being bold, strong, and brave enough to share this part of his life.

[Laura Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast read without much graphic content

For many people like myself who are trying to !earn more about residential schools this is a great book. It's a very quick read and the content is very mild. I would say it is well suited to younger teens as well.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right in the introduction Robert tells us That ‘these schools were nothing short of brutal prisons where the Indian was beaten out of the child and traditional teachings were replaced by religion, classrooms, and a strict code of conduct’. While I am sure that is true throughout the book he speaks to many happy things at the school and first experiences. I enjoyed many of his memories as they were my childhood memories too - watching Bonanza, skating parties, reading comics, tobogganing.

I am amazed that a 6 year old could remember in such detail. I totally understand him being lonely and wanting to be with his parents at that young age. Right from the start his name was changed to Walter Grant rather than Robert Gary confusing his identify and disrespecting him as a person. However it also seems that many of his sad memories were also a result of his parents, his dad in jail for unpaid fines, fearing his family would not be able to pick them up at Christmas. The letter from grandma telling them (him and his brother Norman) these things not having a great deal of warmth.

It was a happy surprise that they were picked up for Christmas. He says once home he told his grandparents ‘how mean the nuns, priests, and supervisors were at school’ yet up to this point he wrote of fairly positive interactions with the teachers. Confusing. Also even though their cousin Shirley told their grandparents about abuse and sexual abuse there didn’t seem to be any notion of the kids not going to Marieval and actually talked to them about younger kids attending and looking out for them. Their own family did not protect them! Did they feel they had no choice so turned a blind eye? Double abuse. ‘thou shalt not be an Indian’ they told them at school, yet their own family didn’t seem to mind. Norman was his older brother yet he talked protective of him like he was his younger brother. A confusing story to say the least. And then we find out that there are two schools on the reserve an one in Carlyle so why did they have to go to the residential school?

Very rudimentary writing. I was surprised to see how many degrees Mr. Kakakaway had given the style of writing. An interesting book but certainly not gripping and if it’s meant to tell of how terrible residential schools were I don’t feel it achieved that.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much to say about the author's daily narrative of a year in his life, specifically 1960 when he went from a happy child in a loving extended family to a number in an institution bent on erasing his sense of identity and assimilating him into Catholicism; turning him into "a little brown white man." I would recommend you read it for yourself.

[rileigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was such an amazing insight on the native residential schools so many indigenous people had to go through. mihsi neewe, robert kakakaway for sharing your story.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a look at the sad circumstances surrounding the residential schools from a 6 year olds' perspective.

[Carlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was a good read, documents his first year through the residential school and how confusing it was for him at 6 years old to understand why people were treating him badly because of who he was. Using fear to make the children obey, & the trickle down of abuse from the priest's/nuns, to the older students, to the younger students.

The book compares his old life to the new life he's in and how he feels of both. It mentions sexual abuse & physical abuse, but not in detail just in passing. It's mostly based around his feelings, emotions, and his understanding of what's going on around him as a 6 year old boy.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this book. I was expecting to read a personal report about the horrifying truth about Residential Schools. It was good to learn that not all Residential Schools were the same.

[Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt like it was written by a 12 year old. Bounced around and didn’t make sense sometimes. Just slot of talking about watching tv and playing hockey and his happiness about learning to read and write. Wasn’t what I was expecting.