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Norma Kejick
As of 2021, Alvin Fiddler is the current grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN). He stepped into the position after the former grand chief, Stan Beardy, stepped down. As such, Fiddler oversees the governance of 45,000 people across the northern half of Ontario. When Tanya Talaga began writing about the disappearances and deaths of seven Indigenous students in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Fiddler encouraged her to start with the story of Chanie Wenjack—an Indigenous student who died after running away from one of Canada’s residential schools in the mid-1960s. It was Fiddler who pointed out to Talaga the undeniable connection between the violence and trauma of the residential schools and the uncertainty, loneliness, and hostility that modern-day Indigenous boarding school students face in majority-white communities. Throughout the book, Fiddler emerges as an unrelenting advocate for his people. He repeatedly returned to Thunder Bay each time a student disappeared or died in order to comfort the students’ families and advocate for thorough investigations into their deaths. Fiddler ultimately called for a formal inquest into the deaths of the “seven fallen feathers,” forcing the office of the supervising coroner in Thunder Bay to formally and publicly answer for their insufficient, neglectful responses to the students’ deaths. In spite of all the trauma and grief Fiddler has witnessed, by the end of the book, he insists to Talaga that he remains hopeful about the possibility of truth and reconciliation between Indigenous and white Canadians.
Alvin Fiddler Quotes in Seven Fallen Feathers
The Seven Fallen Feathers quotes below are all either spoken by Alvin Fiddler or refer to Alvin Fiddler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: Brothers
Quotes
Alvin thought about the abject poverty most of his people lived in and the addictions they suffered in the hopes of making all their misery go away.
Alvin thought about their parents, even his own older brothers and sisters, who had gone to residential school before his family moved to Muskrat Dam. And he thought about the forced schooling of more than 150,000 Indigenous kids and what it had done to the psyche of the people and the impact it had had on the next generation and the next.
And then he thought about the five dead students there in Thunder Bay. A direct line of causation could be drawn from the residential school legacy to the failings in the government-run education system his people were left with.
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Chapter 9: Less Than Worthy Victims
Quotes
After the attack on Darryl Kakekayash, Alvin and Julian saw a clear and disturbing pattern. They could not help but wonder if First Nations kids were being targeted and murdered. It was extremely rare to hear of Indigenous kids drowning on their reserves. Most First Nations people were born and raised on the water. Equally perplexing was how quickly the Thunder Bay Police wrote off investigations into the deaths. For Jethro, Curran, Reggie, and Kyle, police had issued press releases that came to the same conclusion: foul play was not suspected. Each of the deaths was classified as accidental: death by drinking too much and then drowning. To Thunder Bay Police, no one was readily responsible for the deaths of the students.
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Epilogue
Quotes
The Canada Day holiday approaches and the country prepares to celebrate its 150th birthday on July 1; for Alvin it will be a day of reflection. He will be at a powwow […] with his family. He will be standing in a circle with all the nations surrounding him in ceremonial dance, and he will be thinking of the children before him decked out in their beautiful jingle dresses, their bright-coloured ribbons, and their feathers, and he will wonder about their future and what he can do to make sure they make it to the final prophecy—the eighth fire. Can the settlers and the Indigenous people come together as one and move forward in harmony?
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Get the entire Seven Fallen Feathers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Alvin Fiddler Quotes in Seven Fallen Feathers
The Seven Fallen Feathers quotes below are all either spoken by Alvin Fiddler or refer to Alvin Fiddler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: Brothers
Quotes
Alvin thought about the abject poverty most of his people lived in and the addictions they suffered in the hopes of making all their misery go away.
Alvin thought about their parents, even his own older brothers and sisters, who had gone to residential school before his family moved to Muskrat Dam. And he thought about the forced schooling of more than 150,000 Indigenous kids and what it had done to the psyche of the people and the impact it had had on the next generation and the next.
And then he thought about the five dead students there in Thunder Bay. A direct line of causation could be drawn from the residential school legacy to the failings in the government-run education system his people were left with.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9: Less Than Worthy Victims
Quotes
After the attack on Darryl Kakekayash, Alvin and Julian saw a clear and disturbing pattern. They could not help but wonder if First Nations kids were being targeted and murdered. It was extremely rare to hear of Indigenous kids drowning on their reserves. Most First Nations people were born and raised on the water. Equally perplexing was how quickly the Thunder Bay Police wrote off investigations into the deaths. For Jethro, Curran, Reggie, and Kyle, police had issued press releases that came to the same conclusion: foul play was not suspected. Each of the deaths was classified as accidental: death by drinking too much and then drowning. To Thunder Bay Police, no one was readily responsible for the deaths of the students.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue
Quotes
The Canada Day holiday approaches and the country prepares to celebrate its 150th birthday on July 1; for Alvin it will be a day of reflection. He will be at a powwow […] with his family. He will be standing in a circle with all the nations surrounding him in ceremonial dance, and he will be thinking of the children before him decked out in their beautiful jingle dresses, their bright-coloured ribbons, and their feathers, and he will wonder about their future and what he can do to make sure they make it to the final prophecy—the eighth fire. Can the settlers and the Indigenous people come together as one and move forward in harmony?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
