Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

The story of Robyn Harper is the focus of Chapter 6. She had just arrived in Thunder Bay from Keewaywin First Nation for her first week of 11th grade at Dennis Franklin. Like the other seven fallen feathers, Robyn had never been to a city before. In an attempt to make friends, Robyn went out drinking with several other Indigenous teenagers one evening. The seven teenagers consumed a “60-ounce bottle of Smirnoff vodka, three big cans of Smirnoff Ice coolers, and a half-dozen 40-ouncers of Olde English beer” (183). They also smoked weed. When it was time to go, Robyn had trouble standing up. The group left Robyn with Skye Kakegamic, who got Robyn to the bus stop. Robyn threw up once along the way.

Skye called counselors from Dennis Franklin because Robyn was extremely intoxicated. Cheyenne Linklater, Robyn’s boarding parent and an NNEC member, arrived at the same time as another NNEC member, David Fox. David took Robyn, and Cheyenne gave Skye a ride home. Cheyenne later says she was never at the bus stop and didn’t arrive home from work until 4:00am.

According to Talaga, David and Cheyenne took Robyn home around 10:30pm. They laid her on the floor on her side. Cheyenne’s husband, Bryan, remembers checking on Robyn around 2:00am when he went to use the restroom. She was still alive. By 6:30am, however, Robyn was dead from acute alcohol poisoning. The coroner’s report suggested that Robyn had been dead for several hours. More importantly, the coroner failed to follow proper procedure when investigating Robyn’s case.

In 2007, Cindy Blackstone filed a complaint against the Canadian federal government for the harm that its inequitable funding was causing Indigenous children. That same year, the UN held a special assembly on September 13. The focus of the assembly was the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples, which established a universal framework of minimum standards for the well-being, dignity, and survival of Indigenous people around the world. There were 42 articles, including that Indigenous people couldn’t be forcibly removed from their homes and that they had the right to establish and control their own education. Four countries, including Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, voted against the declaration. Jordan’s Principle, a guide for how the different levels of government in Canada should treat Indigenous children, passed in 2007 as well. Amid these complaints, declarations, and policy, two of which pushed Canada to acknowledge its mistreatment of Indigenous children, another student at Dennis Franklin died.

Talaga turns to the night of Reggie Bushie’s disappearance. Reggie was drinking with his brother, Ricki Strang, and friends. Ricki blacked out and woke up in the freezing McIntyre River. He called for Reggie but couldn’t find him. Thinking that his brother had left, Ricki returned home. Late in the evening on October 26, 2007, one of the other boarders in the home called Deb Elliot, who was the boarding home parent, telling her that only Ricki was home (although he initially mistook Ricki for Reggie). Cheyenne Linklater, Robyn Harper’s boarding parent, called the police two days after Reggie’s disappearance to report him missing.

The police questioned Ricki. Ricki couldn’t remember how he and Reggie ended up in the river but suspected that they were mugged since both of their backpacks were missing. Norma Kejick, an NNEC board member, arrived to help search for Reggie. Norma talked to two other boys who were with Ricki and Reggie the last night that anyone saw Reggie alive, and these boys said they drank large quantities of alcohol, possibly around 40 ounces each. The group left Ricki and Reggie behind because Reggie was extremely inebriated. They were afraid that Reggie’s state would get them into trouble with the NNEC. Ricki expressed thoughts of self-harm to Norma after his brother’s disappearance. Police recovered Reggie’s body on November 1, 2007, in the middle of the river near a spot where Ricki said he sensed Reggie might be.

Reggie’s mother, Rhoda, was furious after the police recovered his body. She demanded an inquest to understand how so many children could die within a few years of one another in Thunder Bay. Alvin Fiddler asked to expand the inquest to all five children. Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer represented the families. He fought hard to make sure that the Indigenous communities were part of the judicial process, including having representation on the jury.

In this chapter, Talaga focuses on Kyle Morrisseau. Kyle came from a talented family of artists. His grandfather, Norval Morrisseau, was a residential school survivor and one of the most famous Ojibwe painters. His career was cut short, however, because of alcohol use, which caused a stroke. Kyle was an extremely talented artist, kind, and close to his family, especially his father, Christian. Christian initially moved with Kyle to Thunder Bay to watch over him. However, he had to move back to Keewaywin because of financial difficulties.

Kyle stayed in Thunder Bay with a boarding parent. At first, Kyle adjusted well to living without his family. He called home regularly. However, this changed: Kyle began to skip classes and started drinking heavily, which got him in trouble with the police and NNEC.

On the night that Kyle disappeared, he asked one of his friends, while they were all drinking, how to get a gun, claiming that he needed it for protection. Kyle spoke with his mom that night. He admitted to drinking and told her that he was going to a bus terminal. He asked for money and told his mom he loved her. Kyle disappeared on October 26, 2009. Initially, his boarding parent just thought he missed curfew, since he’d done this a few times. A missing person’s report was filed several days after Kyle went missing.

Christian returned to Thunder Bay to look for his son. During the search, family members grew concerned that Kyle might have gotten mixed up with the Native Syndicate gang based on notes they found in his bedroom. Christian grew increasingly frustrated with the search and demanded that Nanabijou “give me my son back” (262). Thunder Bay Police found Christian, who had been drinking and Christian dreaming of his son. Shortly afterward, the police recovered Kyle’s body from the McIntyre River. His body showed signs of physical abuse, including burn marks on his clothes and abrasions on his shins. Police still don’t know how Kyle died.