Join us for lively discussions about thought-provoking books. Register online or by calling any library, then visit the library hosting this event to pick up your copy of the book.
After registering, pick up your copy of the book at Cliff Wright Library.
Call me Indian: From the trauma of residential school to becoming the NHL's first treaty Indigenous player
By Fred Sasakamoose
Trailblazer. Residential school survivor. First Indigenous player in the NHL. All of these descriptions are true – but none of them tell the whole story.
Fred Sasakamoose suffered abuse in a residential school for a decade before becoming one of 125 players in the most elite hockey league in the world – and he has been heralded as the first Canadian Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL. He made his debut with the 1954 Chicago Blackhawks on Hockey Night in Canada and taught Foster Hewitt how to correctly pronounce his name.
Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard. After 12 games, he returned home. When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL after only a dozen games to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. That returning to his family and home was more important to him than an NHL career. But there was much more to his decision than that.
The Cliff Wright Library replaced the Lakewood Library, which relocated when the Lakewood Civic Centre opened in October 1988. The library officially opened on Jan 9, 1989, and was named after former Saskatoon mayor, Cliff Wright, on Mar 30, 1989.
