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Mariah
George is an Indigenous man who is involved with the American Indian Movement. He and his wife Vera befriend Clara and others via the Indian Friendship Center. They help Clara, Lucy, and Kendra move into their new home, and they help Clara find her way to Mariah. Unlike the other Indigenous men depicted in the novel, George is proud, happy, and comfortable in his own skin. He doesn’t let white people intimidate him. He thus represents the kind of person Kenny, Howie, and others should and would be, if the residential school systems and broader social prejudices hadn’t destroyed their heritage, identities, and psyches.
George Quotes in Five Little Indians
The Five Little Indians quotes below are all either spoken by George or refer to George. 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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Chapter 8: Clara Quotes
She didn’t have to call [John Lennon] this time. With the car back in order after the border pillaging, Clara walked around toward the driver’s door and that was enough for him to know. He ran to her through the purple flowering weeds, tongue lolling and happy. Weeds. She remembered George telling her once that Indians were like weeds to the white people. Something to be wiped out so their idea of a garden could grow. He told her weeds were indigenous flowers. “Clara, you’re an indigenous flower. Don’t ever think of yourself as a weed.” That’s what he said to her.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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George Character Timeline in Five Little Indians
The timeline below shows where the character George appears in Five Little Indians. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7: Lucy
...them away for being Indigenous women. Some of Clara’s friends from the Indian Centre, including George and his wife Vera, help the women clean up the house and make it habitable....
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Chapter 8: Clara
...Friendship Center. There, she followed American Indian Movement actions on the television. Then one day, George and Vera and other AIM activists held a meeting at the Center. At first, their...
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...her favorite Buffy St. Marie songs. And she thinks about how she fell in with George, Vera, and the AIM movement.
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...for breakfast at a diner she frequents on her trips to the states to visit George and Vera. As she drives east, she reminisces about her first meeting with George, how...
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Long after midnight, Clara arrives at George and Vera’s house. They live on a reservation outside of Billings, Montana. They visit comfortably...
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In the morning, George bolts a long box to the underside of Clara’s car, which he, Clara, and Vera...
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Clara comes to in the antiseptic environment of a hospital room. George is there. He and Vera found her—protected by John Lennon—the morning after her accident. They...
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George, Vera, and Clara plan Clara’s escape to Canada. It’s risky, but she’s going to have...
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Chapter 10: Mariah
In the spring, George and Vera come to bring Mariah more supplies and to collect Clara. Their reunion is...
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Chapter 12: Clara
The story returns to a year or so earlier, when Clara left Mariah’s place with George and Vera. They take her to Vancouver, where they are due to give a presentation...
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Two days later, when Clara goes to the Friendship Center for George’s presentation, she discovers a sign on a bulletin board advertising the Native Courtworkers’ Society. The...
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Chapter 16: Howie
...his friend Kenny. Afterward, he feels almost euphoric with relief. Clara drives him back to George and Vera’s new place and presents him with a dog, one of John Lennon’s grandchildren.
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Chapter 17: Clara
...Clara heads to Mariah’s cabin. Mariah greets her with a marvelous feast. They talk about George and Vera and their babies—something Mariah encourages Clara to think about before it’s too late—and...
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