Five Little Indians Characters

Wilfred is Lucy’s brother and Kenny’s and Howie’s friend during their time at the residential school. After he ages out at 16, Wilfred drifts around. He travels to the United States he happens to run into Kenny when they’re both seasonal workers in the same apple orchard.

Lily attended Arrowhead Bay Mission School at the same time as Clara; the two were best friends. Lily died in the mission school as a child of tuberculosis. Many years later, Clara was able to obtain her remains from the Catholic Church and bury them near Mariah’s cabin.

Kendra is the daughter of Lucy and Kenny. She’s raised by her mother and Clara, to whom she is deeply attached, but she grows to resent her absentee father. Eventually, she becomes a doctor.

Harlan is the white proprietor of the Manitou Hotel. He employs Clara, Maisie, Liz, and Lucy. He treats them poorly, subjecting them to racists attacks and verbal abuse as well as trying to take advantage of Lucy and making several attempts to sexually assault Clara.

Connie is a kind waitress who befriends Howie soon after he gets out of jail and who helps him get a job with Mike. Like Jimmy, Connie’s parents protected her from the residential school system; her father gave up his Indigenous status to keep her safe.

Father Levesque is the principal of the Arrowhead Bay Mission School. He sexually abuses girls there, including Maisie and Lucy. He refuses to let Bella have contact with her son Kenny and threatens to have her arrested if she keeps trying.

Brother is a monk who works at the Arrowhead Bay Mission School. He physically and sexually abuses boys there, including Kenny and Howie.

Clifford is Kenny’s uncle. After Kenny flees from Arrowhead Bay, Clifford takes him back to their village to be reunited with Kenny’s mother.

Auntie Mae is Sagastis’s sister and Howie’s aunt. She married a white man, Charlie, and followed him from Saskatchewan to British Columbia. She and Charlie help Sagastis rescue Howie from the school.

Uncle Charlie is Howie’s uncle, Mae’s husband, and Sagastis’s brother-in-law. He is a white man who works in the logging camps. He helps rescue Howie from the mission school.

Maggie was Sagastis’s neighbor until her death. When Howie moves back to his mother’s home and begins fixing it up, she becomes his friend and a kind of surrogate mother.

Edna is one of Lucy’s closest friends at Arrowhead Bay Mission School. She is one year younger than Lucy, and she makes sure that the girls celebrate together before Lucy leaves the school.

The foreman runs the Washington state orchard where Kenny and Wilfred pick apples. He displays a prejudiced, offensive attitude toward Kenny and other Indigenous workers, and he enjoys wielding his power over them.

The Old Man is a man who pays Maisie to have sex with him and who plays a role in her obsessive reenactment of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Father Levesque.

Mike is the owner and proprietor of the Balmoral beer hall. He gives Howie his first job out of prison.

The Old Indigenous Woman is a spectral figure whom Clara sees while she’s detoxing in a Vancouver drunk tank one night.

Walt is a pimp who tries to victimize Lucy after she arrives in Vancouver.

Steve is a drug dealer who supplies first the Old Man and then Maisie.

Rose is the senior Native Courtworker who mentors Clara.

Liz works for Harlan at the Manitou Hotel along with Maisie, Clara, and Lucy.