Five Little Indians (2020) is the debut novel by Indigenous Canadian author Michelle Good in which she describes the horrors of the Indian residential school system in Canada. Residential schools were mandated by the Canadian government to “civilize” or assimilate Indian children into the broader culture. The children were removed from their families and tribal traditions at the age of six, and many never saw their relatives again. In addition to the trauma of separation from family and community, these children were also subjected to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of the school’s teachers and administrators. Canada closed its last residential school in 1997.

The author of Five Little Indians spent many years as a lawyer advocating for the rights of survivors of the residential schools. She later pursued a master of fine arts degree that resulted in a thesis that became the basis for her novel. The book quickly became a bestseller and was named Best Book of the Year by Apple, Kobo, and Indigo. It also received multiple awards, including prizes for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and an Amazon First Novel Award.

Good was in her mid-60s when she wrote her first novel, but her poem, “Defying Gravity,” was published in Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She also penned essays entitled “A Tradition of Violence” and “Our Sisters: Walking with Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples.” As of late 2021, Five Little Indians is planned for a limited series adaptation on Canadian television. 

The novel falls into the categories of Native American Literature and British & Irish Literary Fiction. It is intended for adult readers and describes the abuse of children. For this reason, the material might not be appropriate for more sensitive readers. Some readers might also take exception to the use of the term “Indian” to describe the Indigenous people of Canada. This is the author’s preferred term, so this study guide will follow that nomenclature throughout for the sake of consistency. All page citations are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

Five Little Indians is set in Vancouver, British Columbia, and on the Red Pheasant Cree Reserve in Saskatchewan. It covers the experiences of five Indian children who survived the residential school system and follows their lives over a 30-year period beginning in the early 1960s. The story is told from multiple viewpoints using a limited third-person narrative technique. First-person narration is used only in the material related to Maisie and in a brief sequence in which Howie describes his abduction at the age of six.

The plot involves the life trajectory of five children: Kenny, Lucy, Maisie, Clara, and Howie. Many flashback episodes describe their years of abuse at the hands of the administrators of a Catholic Mission school on the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada. In later years, each of the children struggles with trauma. One takes an overdose of heroin, and another dies from alcohol poisoning. Two of the characters eventually overcome their early trauma to create happy and fulfilling lives for themselves. In describing the adult lives of the survivors of the residential school system, the novel explores the themes of post-abuse coping strategies, the failure of the assimilation theory, and the quest to find home.

Plot Summary

The novel follows the lives of five different children who were forced to live at a Mission school from an early age and denied contact with their families. The outcomes for each individual vary depending on their ability to face past trauma as well as their willingness to seek help to resolve the issues that have plagued them since childhood.

Kenny is taken from his mother at the age of six. Although she repeatedly writes to her son at school, he never receives her letters. During his time at the Mission, he is beaten by a priest and sexually abused by a faculty member named Brother. When he is 10, Kenny steals a boat and escapes to the mainland, where he is reunited with his mother. However, the psychological trauma of his childhood plagues him throughout life, and he continues to run away from his memories. Although he marries another survivor named Lucy, his need to escape ultimately results in his death through alcohol poisoning.

Orphan Lucy leaves the Mission at 16 and is given no preparation for how to make her way in the world. She briefly goes to live with another former schoolmate who finds her a job as a maid at a motel. Lucy eventually gets a degree and goes to nursing school. She later reconnects with Kenny, and the two marry and have a daughter named Kendra. After Kenny’s death, Lucy remains at the house they briefly shared. She looks forward to the day when she will die and reunite with Kenny in the afterlife.

Maisie is the most experienced of the survivors as she preceded Kenny and Lucy out of the school system and made a life for herself in Vancouver. She seems to be functioning independently and has acquired an apartment, a job, and a boyfriend. However, her memories of sexual abuse by a priest at the Mission have left her with a feeling of intense self-loathing and an inability to control her outbursts of rage. She indulges in risky sexual behavior, cuts herself to reduce her anxiety, and eventually takes an overdose of heroin to permanently escape the pain of her existence.

Clara preceded Lucy out of the system and is already working as a maid at the same motel when the two girls reunite. She was also sexually molested by the priest at the Mission. Both girls were beaten and emotionally abused by a nun as well. Clara is filled with rage until she becomes involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and realizes that it is possible to resist injustice. While recovering from a car accident, she finds herself at the cabin of an Indian healer named Mariah, who helps her overcome the emotional trauma of her childhood. Clara becomes a legal advocate for Indians in trouble with the law and eventually settles down at the Red Pheasant Reserve to make a life with another survivor named Howie.

Howie was abducted into the Mission school while visiting Vancouver with his mother at age six. He is younger and weaker than Kenny when he becomes the target of Brother’s pedophilia. When he meets his abuser years later, Howie almost beats him to death and ends up in prison. After his release, he also becomes involved with AIM and the Indian Friendship Centre. Both are constructive influences that set him on a more positive path. Howie gets his life back on track and returns to his mother’s property on the reserve in Saskatchewan. He successfully sues the government for the abuse he sustained as a child and uses the settlement money to fulfill his childhood dream of establishing a horse ranch in Red Pheasant. He also settles down to build a life with Clara within the Indian community on the Cree Reserve.