White men abduct Saul's brother Benjamin when Saul is four, and the family begins a slow descent into alcohol.

Benjamin escapes his residential school and walks sixty miles back to his family, but is thin and gravely ill.

Benjamin collapses and dies from a tuberculosis coughing fit during the rice harvest at Gods Lake.

Naomi sacrifices her life to get Saul to safety and dies holding him at the Minaki railroad depot.

Saul is discovered alone and taken to St. Jerome's Indian Residential School.

Father Leboutilier arrives at St. Jerome's and convinces the school to allow the children to play hockey.

Saul covertly practices hockey alone each morning, using a hidden stick and horse turds as pucks.

Saul subs into a scrimmage for an injured player, stuns everyone with his talent, and earns a permanent team spot.

After ten games on the white midget town team, Saul is turned away because he is too good and Indigenous.

Ojibway man Fred Kelly invites Saul to join his traveling hockey team, the Moose, and live with his family.

The Moose defeat the Kapuskasing Chiefs in an exhibition match and Saul is named first star of the game.

Scout Jack Lanahan offers Saul a tryout with a Toronto Maple Leafs feeder team, the Marlboros.

Saul punches a rival player during a Marlboros game, becomes a violent puck hog, and is eventually benched and cut.

Years of heavy drinking lead Saul to collapse from seizures and wake up in a hospital ward.

Saul returns to the ice for the first time in fifteen years and plays a joyful shinny game with old friends.

Saul Indian Horse's story begins with the devastating loss of his brother Benjamin to a residential school, which sends his family into grief and alcoholism. After his grandmother Naomi dies saving him during a brutal winter journey, Saul ends up at St. Jerome's Indian Residential School, where hockey becomes his only means of escape and survival. He rises from covert practice to becoming a prodigy, eventually joining an Indigenous touring team before a scout recruits him to the major leagues in Toronto. The racism and isolation of the Marlboros destroy his love for the game, and after abandoning hockey he turns to alcohol, eventually collapsing from seizures. Through treatment and a long journey back to his roots, Saul reclaims his connection to hockey by returning to the ice with old friends, finding the pure joy he once knew.

The headline story of Saul's survival, rise through hockey, fall into addiction, and return to joy.

Saul's great-grandfather Shabogeesick brings the first horse to his people and delivers a teaching about great change to come.

After losing Benjamin, Saul's family drifts through transient camps near mill towns, eating roasted dog and hunting squirrels to survive.

The family settles in Redditt, acquires a wood stove, and Saul's father begins drinking less as hope returns.

Saul's parents and relatives leave Gods Lake with rice to buy a coffin for Benjamin and never return.

Saul and Naomi's canoe crashes into a boulder in winter, leaving them stranded without food or supplies.

At St. Jerome's, Arden Little Light hangs himself, Sheila Jack goes mad, and Shane Big Canoe is broken by the Iron Sister.

Father Quinney declares Saul's talent God-given and formally welcomes him onto the school team, where he begins open daily practice.

Saul joins the white midget town team, chooses jersey number 13, and outplays the older white players across ten games.

Father Leboutilier unexpectedly appears at a Moose game, tells Saul he is free, and the two never see each other again.

After winning a tournament, a group of men take the Moose players behind a café one by one and urinate on them.

Saul's Moose teammates corner him and insist he must pursue the NHL tryout on behalf of everyone with no way out.

After being benched by the Marlboros following repeated fights, Saul leaves Toronto and boards a bus back to Manitouwadge.

A man named Ervin Sift nurses Saul through a three-day hangover and offers him a room and steady work cutting firewood.

Saul arrives at the crumbling, long-abandoned ruins of St. Jerome's and kneels on the earth where the rink once stood.

After visiting Gods Lake, Saul returns to the New Dawn Centre and begins genuinely opening up in treatment.

This pool captures the moments that set the stage for Saul's story, from his great-grandfather's prophetic teaching about change to the family's years wandering in poverty before settling in Redditt. The brutal world of St. Jerome's is shown through the fates of other children, while Saul's own path through the school includes his formal acceptance onto the hockey team and his humiliating stint on the white midget town team. Life with the Moose brings its own milestones and horrors, including the traumatic café incident and Father Leboutilier's unexpected farewell appearance. Saul's descent into addiction is traced through smaller steps — the teammate pressure to pursue the NHL, the quiet collapse of his Toronto career, and a brief refuge with the kind stranger Ervin Sift. The final events mark Saul's tentative return: arriving at the ruins of St. Jerome's and coming back to the New Dawn Centre finally ready to heal.

The hidden moments and supporting scenes that fill in Saul's full journey.

Standing at Gods Lake, Saul sees a vivid vision of his ancestors thriving and then being crushed by boulders, revealing the land's past.

After Benjamin's death, Saul's parents clash bitterly with Naomi and force a Christian burial instead of honoring him the old way.

As they struggle through winter, Naomi wraps Saul in her own shawl and carries him when he collapses in the snow.

Saul watches hockey on Father Leboutilier's television for the first time and immediately feels a deep, instinctive connection to the game.

Saul begins hiding skates in the snow and practicing skating alone on the St. Jerome's rink in secret before dawn.

Saul plays his first organized game against an outside team and scores three goals, silencing a crowd that laughed at him.

Saul moves into the Kelly household in Manitouwadge and receives proper clothing and a real set of hockey equipment.

Saul threads a precise pass to Virgil in his first Moose scrimmage that ends in a goal and earns the team's acceptance.

Despite being brutally targeted with hits throughout the Espanola tournament, Saul refuses to fight back and the Moose win the championship.

Saul leaves Manitouwadge at eighteen with no direction, and Virgil tells him he has already disappeared from himself.

While drifting between labor jobs and missing the camaraderie of teammates, Saul begins drinking in taverns and quickly becomes fully addicted.

Despite the friendship and stability Ervin Sift offers, Saul walks away without explanation, unable to risk being truly known.

While wandering near the New Dawn Centre, Saul sees a vision of his ancestors singing and resolves to face his past.

While at the ruins of St. Jerome's, Saul suddenly recovers his long-repressed memory of being sexually abused by Father Leboutilier.

Saul openly tells Fred and Martha Kelly about his abuse at St. Jerome's and uses the word rape for the first time.

This pool focuses on the pivotal moments where Saul's path shifts, beginning with the vision at Gods Lake that connects him to his ancestors and the burial dispute that first fractures his world. At St. Jerome's, key turning points include his first encounter with hockey on television and his secret skating sessions that reveal his extraordinary gift. As Saul moves through the hockey world, each event marks a new turn: his first public triumph, his arrival at a real home with the Kellys, and his principled refusal to fight at the Espanola tournament. His fall is traced through the fateful decision to leave Manitouwadge, his surrender to addiction, and his failure to open up to Ervin Sift when given the chance. The final revelations — recovering the buried memory of Father Leboutilier's abuse and speaking openly about it with Fred and Martha for the first time — mark Saul's turn toward genuine and lasting healing.