Indian Horse: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

In 1961, Saul is just a boy. His grandmother, Naomi, is the matriarch of Saul’s community. Even as a child, Saul can sense that Naomi is worried about something. She whispers, “The school,” and Saul knows that she is referring to the school that turned his mother, whose name is Mary Mandamin, “inward.” Naomi has watched her own children being abducted and then corrupted at this school.

Saul has a brother named Benjamin and a sister named Rachel. Saul never met Rachel, since she disappeared at the age of six. Naomi tells Saul and Benjamin about how, one day, the white man, or “Zhaunagush,” came to their community and abducted Rachel, taking her away by boat. Benjamin and Saul learned early on in their lives how to hide from white men: whenever they come to the community, the boys run and hide in the trees. Saul and Benjamin grow up learning to read Zhaunagush books. But they also learn to be terrified of the white man.

In 1957, when Saul was four years old, the Zhaunagush kidnapped his brother, Benjamin. Had the white men not come armed with guns, Saul’s family would have fought them to the death to keep their son. After Benjamin was taken away, Mary collapsed in misery. Saul’s father, whose name is John Indian Horse, began selling berries to white men, in exchange for “spirits.” When Saul’s family drank these spirits, they became wild and frightening.

At night, Saul is scared. But Naomi comforts him by telling him stories about the old days—the days when Saul’s grandfather used his medicines to cure disease, and when the people sang proud songs.