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Braids
Canadian residential schools were 19th and 20th century government institutions designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into the mainstream culture of European settlers. The residential schools, both the of the novel's present and of the historical past, are a concise representation of the way in which the Canadian government has abused Indigenous people over the centuries. While they represent the only way forward in the eyes of those who run them, Indigenous characters see the schools as symbols of the government's unwillingness to look at the whole problem and its tendency to instead find a quick fix at the expense of vulnerable populations.
Residential Schools Quotes in The Marrow Thieves
The The Marrow Thieves quotes below all refer to the symbol of Residential Schools. 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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Story: Part 1
Quotes
"But we sang our songs and brought them to the streets and into the classrooms—classrooms we built on our own lands and filled with our own words and books. And once we remembered that we were warriors, once we honored the pain and left it on the side of the road, we moved ahead. We were back."
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A Plague of Madness
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"Like how we are motivated to run because of the Recruiters?" Rose jumped in. "And the Recruiters are motivated to run after us because of the schools?"
"Almost," he answered. "We are actually both motivated by the same thing: survival."
"But isn't it just us that's trying to survive? No one's trying to kill those jerk-offs."
"But, nevertheless, they are dying. Mostly killing themselves, mind you. And so they are motivated by the need to be able to survive. And they see that solution in us."
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Story: Part 2
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"Soon, they needed too many bodies, and they turned to history to show them how to best keep us warehoused, how to best position the culling. That's when the new residential schools started growing up from the dirt like poisonous brick mushrooms."
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Miigwans' Coming-To Story
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Isaac didn't have grandparents who'd told residential school stories like campfire tales to scare you into acting right, stories about men and women who promised themselves to God only and then took whatever they wanted from the children, especially at night. Stories about a book that was like a vacuum, used to suck the language right out of your lungs. And I didn't have time to share them, not now.
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Finding Direction
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He'd lost someone he'd built a life with right in the middle of that life. Suddenly, I realized that there was something worse than running, worse even than the schools. There was loss.
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Rogarou Comes Hunting
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The schools were an ever-spreading network from the south stretching northward, on our heels like a bushfire. Always north. To what end? Now we'd lost RiRi. Now I'd shot a man. Would I even be welcome in the North? I couldn't even protect a little girl.
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Word Arrives in Black
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"I mean we can start healing the land. We have the knowledge, kept through the first round of these blasted schools, from before that, when these visitors first made their way over here like angry children throwing tantrums. When we heal our land, we are healed also." Then he added, "We'll get there. Maybe not soon, but eventually."
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Get the entire The Marrow Thieves LitChart as a printable PDF.
Residential Schools Symbol Timeline in The Marrow Thieves
The timeline below shows where the symbol Residential Schools appears in The Marrow Thieves. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Frenchie's Coming-To Story
...the tree and considers letting himself fall. He wonders if he’ll be taken to the school with Mitch and might be reunited with Mom and Dad too, but he knows this...
(full context)
About a year before, Dad met a man named Miig who escaped from the residential schools and who shared what the government is doing to the Indigenous people. Miig explained that...
(full context)
...knows that he has to get out of the tree and stay away from the schools. He knows he'll never see Mitch again. He waits until the van is gone and...
(full context)
The Fire
...Miig years before, examines his hand and imagines people taking Mitch's dreams at the residential school. Miig rolls a cigarette and elderly Minerva cups her hands to pull the smoke over...
(full context)
Story: Part 1
...However, the newcomers decided they liked subjugating the Anishnaabe. The newcomers opened the first residential schools, which almost robbed the Anishnaabe of their language. When the schools were shut down, they...
(full context)
...tells Story every week in some form or another: sometimes he focuses on the residential schools, and other times he explains treaties or earthquakes. Miig believes they have to know the...
(full context)
A Plague of Madness
...thing: they run because of the Recruiters, and the Recruiters chase them because of the schools. Miig says that they and the Recruiters are both motivated by survival—people are killing themselves...
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The Four Winds
...fell ill and died. Jonas was quiet but told Rose that their family survived residential schools and cautioned her to trust no one. He'd say that children need walls of some...
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Story: Part 2
...the scientists needed more bodies, so they turned to history and looked at the residential schools to build new ones. Now, Indigenous people go to the schools and their dreams are...
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Back into the Woods
...that the boots might've belonged to an Indigenous girl who was taken to the residential schools. Frenchie had assured her that the boots probably belonged to a rich blond girl. Whether...
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...Slopper had a parent each when they arrived, but their parents ended up in the schools.
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...pinkies. Frenchie wants to vomit. Miig says that he lost his husband Isaac to the schools, and Frenchie watches Miig rub the buffalo tattoo on his hand, his "wedding ring" that...
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Miigwans' Coming-To Story
...He didn't believe the rumors. Miig was terrified. Isaac's family didn't experience the original residential schools, and Miig knew that this was why Isaac wasn't afraid. Before they could argue, Recruiters...
(full context)
Finding Direction
...making good decisions for their community. He says that people are building a new residential school but insists that not everyone needs to know so that they can remain hopeful enough...
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...the beautiful hat under Wab's pillow. He wants to know how Miig escaped from the schools but knows he can't ask. He knows that Isaac died in the school, and suddenly...
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The Other Indians
...eat all the food. Travis says that Espanola is the link between the new residential schools and supplies from the south. Miig notes that he's heard that there's an Indigenous resistance...
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The Long Stumble
...Frenchie, and Mitch. Miig resumes his story and says that he walked back to the school and sat for two days, staring at it. He knew it was a suicide mission....
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Rogarou Comes Hunting
...As Frenchie climbs, he thinks that the sky to the north is black and the schools keep coming. He wonders if going north is pointless, and wonders if anyone will welcome...
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Found
...sees that the people are Indigenous. The captors suggest that Frenchie is working for the schools. Frenchie says that he's killed "snitches." The captors confer and one woman jogs away. Frenchie...
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The Miracle of Minerva
Father Carole visits the school the next day to investigate. The once-imposing school is now melted and broken. The fence...
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Loss
...asks if they need to discuss that Minerva found the key to beating the residential schools, but Miig insists that Minerva had the key all along—they just needed to listen better....
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...vials into the ground and says that after they get Minerva, they'll shut down the schools. Miig tells Frenchie that he knows he'll do that.
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Lost and Found and Lost
...Frenchie his pouch "for safekeeping," and says that it can't go back to the residential schools. The plan is to wait for the convoy, disable the drivers, and save Minerva. Frenchie...
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Kiiwen
...and nobody mentions that in losing Minerva, they lost the key to taking down the schools. They travel for ten days and then set up camp. Summer arrives over the next...
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Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts
...in Cree. The women say that they're helping to keep people out of the residential schools; they were nurses and snuck children out of the hospitals. Clarence speaks to the man...
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