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Throughout Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers, the many rivers and other bodies of water that surround the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario symbolize how Indigenous youths are all too easily swallowed up and destroyed by a racist society that neglects their needs.
Between 2000 and 2011, seven Indigenous Canadian students (the titular “seven fallen feathers”) died while attending high school in Thunder Bay. Five of those seven were found dead in the city’s rivers—and in all five cases, Thunder Bay Police almost immediately reported that “no foul play” was suspected in their deaths, even though several of the students appeared to have recent bruises and burn marks on their bodies. The students, the book implies, may actually have been victims of racist attacks—many teenagers who travel to Thunder Bay from their home reserves to attend boarding school report facing racist harassment or physical violence while simply walking the city’s streets. The city’s rivers, then, become a potent symbol of how the system swallows these Indigenous teenagers up, both literally washing away their bodies and figuratively drowning out their stories in favor of narratives that the teens’ families and communities believe are false cover-ups.
Rivers and Bodies of Water Quotes in Seven Fallen Feathers
The Seven Fallen Feathers quotes below all refer to the symbol of Rivers and Bodies of Water. 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:
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Prologue
Quotes
The Kam still draws people to its shores. Teens come down to the river's gummy banks to take cover under bridges or in bushes to drink and party. Here they have privacy, a space of their own, beside the giant pulp and paper mill that spews smelly, yellow, funnel-shaped clouds into the air. Here they are close to nature. They sit on the rocks and listen to the rush of the water, and they are reminded of home.
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Chapter 3: When the Wolf Comes
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Dora remembers looking at Jethro and thinking that he didn't look as bad as the director had made out. But when she looked more closely, she saw a three-inch-wide gash, starting from the top of his forehead and ending at the middle of his head. There were round contusions on his cheek. She immediately thought it looked like someone had extinguished their burning cigarette butts on his face.
She checked his tummy. It wasn't bloated. She looked at his hands, which weren't purple or blown up with water.
Dora took in a sharp breath. She knew she was right: This was no accident.
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Chapter 4: Hurting from the Before
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Curran Strang's body was found in the Mclntyre River on September 26, 2005. The Ontario Coroner's Office officially listed his death as accidental, having determined the cause of death was by drowning. Authorities believe he decided to head into the water, alone, on a cold September night. Just like Jethro Anderson, who was afraid of the water.
There is absolutely no evidence that either Jethro or Curran ended up in the river of their own accord.
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Chapter 7: Brothers
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When he got to the river's edge, Ricki carefully squatted down, resting on his heels. He spent some time thinking before he slowly stretched his arms out over the water, his palms gently skimming the surface. Then he put his hands in the river, his arms spread out as far as possible. His body began to shudder.
It was as if he were reaching out for his brother.
The police were touched into silence. They backed away, giving the boy the time he needed before taking him back to the station.
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Get the entire Seven Fallen Feathers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Rivers and Bodies of Water Symbol Timeline in Seven Fallen Feathers
The timeline below shows where the symbol Rivers and Bodies of Water appears in Seven Fallen Feathers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...describes the story of a giant named Nanabijou. By stomping around the large body of water called Gichigami, Nanabijou created valleys and rock faces from the landscape around him. His stomping...
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...the Fort William side of the city—located on the Ojibwe’s traditional lands near the powerful Kaministiquia (or Kam) River—is the “red” one.
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...many of Canada’s Indigenous people lived in a thriving society along the banks of the Kam River and the lake called Gichigami, known by most white people today as Lake Superior....
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Chapter 1: Notes from a Blind Man
Stan parks the car near a bridge crossing the Kam. From that spot, Talaga can see Animikii-wajiw, or Thunder Mountain, a spiritual center for the...
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...Jordan scuffling with two young people near an industrial warehouse on the banks of the Kam on the night that he vanished. The blind man’s vision also included an image of...
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...the snow. Police called in a dive team to plunge the depths of the icy river near where the cap had been found, but nothing turned up. Meanwhile, Indigenous communities from...
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The Indigenous search team continued to look for Jordan, combing the Kam riverbanks and passing out missing person flyers tirelessly. Rumors about Jordan’s connections to a gang...
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...as spring began to arrive, boaters called police to report a body floating in the river near the swing bridge—the location that the blind Elder had seen in his visions. After...
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...home. Jordan’s death was ultimately marked “Accidental,” with the cause of death listed as “cold water drowning.” But during the inquest into the deaths of the seven Indigenous students, a lawyer...
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Chapter 2: Why Chanie Ran
As Talaga walks along Lake Superior in the crisp October air, she considers the boundary between different worlds this place represents....
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Chapter 3: When the Wolf Comes
...28—the last night he was seen alive. They were down by the docks of the Kam, and Jethro was arguing with some girls. That day, Jethro’s mother, Stella, had seen a...
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In the morning, Dora and Tom looked for Jethro near the Kam, where they learned he’d been out drinking—but there was no sign of him or anyone...
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...and his wife, Tesa, were among the team assembled to comb the banks of the Kam. The police didn’t start an investigation until six days after Jethro’s disappearance, and they didn’t...
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...Dora was called to DFC because police had found a pair of boots by the river. The boots weren’t Jethro’s, and Dora hoped that meant that Jethro was still alive somewhere....
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...stated that “foul play [was] not suspected.” Dora was livid—Jethro had always been afraid of water, and she knew that there was no way he’d jumped in of his own accord....
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Chapter 4: Hurting from the Before
...told his boarding parent that he’d left Curran passed out by a tree near the river. The missing persons report stated that Curran was likely a “runaway.” Police did not start...
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Chapter 7: Brothers
One night in late October of 2007, Ricki Strang suddenly gained consciousness in waist-deep water—he had no idea how he’d wound up in the river, or where his brother Reggie...
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...a week after he was last seen, Reggie Bushie’s body was pulled from the McIntyre River. He was the third boy to have been pulled from a Thunder Bay river, the...
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...without conducting a thorough investigation. All three statements imply that the boys fell into the water due to inebriation. But both Reggie and Ricki were experienced swimmers, and Ricki alleged that...
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Ricki told police that he had a feeling his brother was in the water, since he himself had regained consciousness in the icy water. He admitted to worrying that...
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...at DFC, but there were few search parties heading out. The police were dragging the river, but they couldn’t find anything. By the next day, the community’s frustration was mounting. Norma...
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...the night of Reggie’s disappearance, Ricki asked her if she’d accompany him down to the river the next day. Norma said that she would. She’d heard that Ricki had been placed...
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...the brothers’ community of Poplar Hill, and a Thunder Bay Police constable down to the river. There, a dive team was searching the river. Ricki ran down to the water’s edge,...
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That afternoon, Norma called the police to tell them that they were dredging the river in the wrong spot—they needed to be searching on the opposite shore and under a...
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Meanwhile, yet another student was attacked one night near the McIntyre River. On October 28, 2008, 16-year-old Darryl Kakekayash was beaten and thrown into the Neebing river....
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Chapter 8: River, Give Me My Son Back
...the mall. From there, he went drinking with a couple of friends at the McIntyre River. Kyle apparently asked one of his drinking buddies, a runner named Ivan Masakeyash, if Ivan...
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...search for Kyle, Christian suffered a breakdown. He got drunk and went down to the river to curse Nanabijou; he begged the rock formation to give him his son back. Police...
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...body, he picked up some tobacco and took Josh on a walk down to the river. They laid the tobacco down at the river’s edge, and Christian thanked the river for...
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Chapter 9: Less Than Worthy Victims
...student to die and the fifth whose body was recovered in one of Thunder Bay’s rivers. The Government of Canada was failing to take any meaningful action to stop Indigenous students...
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...the inquest began, the body of a middle-aged Indigenous man was pulled from the McIntyre River on October 19, 2015. Less than 24 hours after the body was discovered, police declared...
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Chapter 10: Seven Fallen Feathers
...He moved to Poplar Hill, but he agreed to meet Tanya Talaga at the McIntyre River to show her where he last saw his brother. As the two of them approached...
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Epilogue
...Betty Achneepineskum made it clear to their search teams that they were to check the rivers.
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...ears when he heard the news—though Tammy was the sixth Indigenous youth found in the water, police still weren’t taking the patterns before them seriously.
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