A nun and teacher at St. Jerome’s school, described by Saul Indian Horse as being a cruel, narrow-minded woman. Ignacia is perhaps the most vocal proponent of the cultural genocide that Saul and other Indigenous Canadians experience during the book: she openly claims that Native Americans should be prevented from speaking their own language or celebrating their own culture. As such, she’s the embodiment of an evil and destructive ideology.
Sister Ignacia Quotes in Indian Horse
The Indian Horse quotes below are all either spoken by Sister Ignacia or refer to Sister Ignacia. 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:
).
Chapter 11
Quotes
She smiled again with the same ghastly lack of feeling. “At St. Jerome's we work to remove the Indian from our children so that the blessings of the Lord may be evidenced upon them.”
Related Characters:
Sister Ignacia (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sister Ignacia Character Timeline in Indian Horse
The timeline below shows where the character Sister Ignacia appears in Indian Horse. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 11
...Then he’s taken downstairs to meet the two heads of the school, Father Quinney and Sister Ignacia . Quinney and Ignacia are impressed that Saul already has a Biblical name. However, the...
(full context)
Father Quinney and Sister Ignacia continue to instruct Saul and the other children how to behave at the school. Ignacia...
(full context)
Chapter 19
Although Father Quinney and Sister Ignacia protest, Father Leboutilier is able to convince them to allow Saul to join the hockey...
(full context)
Chapter 24
When Father Leboutilier mentions Fred Kelly’s idea to Sister Ignacia , Ignacia is disgusted. She claims that hockey is a “soulless game,” even after Father...
(full context)
