Seven Fallen Feathers

Within two years, Keewaywin First Nation—a community of 350 people—lost two teenagers at DFC: Robyn Harper in 2007, and Kyle Morrisseau in 2009. Kyle was the grandson of Ojibwe painter Norval Morrisseau, often called the “Picasso of the North.” Norval was a survivor of the residential school system. Norval supported his family through his painting—and he taught his youngest son, Christian, how to paint as well. In 1962, after an exhibition in Toronto, Norval’s career began to take off—he was soon an international sensation. But at Norval’s artistic success grew, so did his troubles with excess and alcohol. It was only after suffering a stroke in 1994—two years after Kyle was born to Christian and his wife—that Norval was forced to slow down.

Norval died in December of 2007. Christian stopped painting for a while—but the sensitive, artistic Kyle was just starting to paint and draw. Kyle initially wanted to remain close to home rather than transferring to DFC, but after all his friends left for Thunder Bay, Kyle begged Christian to let him join them. Together, Christian, Kyle, and Kyle’s younger brother Josh moved to an apartment in Thunder Bay with Christian’s brother Eugene. But DFC only let students attend the school if they lived in a boarding home, so Kyle enrolled in a different school nearby. 

After their first year in Thunder Bay, Christian, Kyle, and Josh moved to a bigger apartment where Christian, who’d resumed painting, could have an art studio. After a successful school year, Kyle went home for the summer—a loophole once he arrived back on the reserve meant that he was eligible for the DFC waitlist. When a spot opened up, Kyle begged to go to the school with his friends and live in a boarding house. Christian agreed to this.  Money was tight, so Christian moved back home to the reserve, believing that Kyle would be okay on his own.

By October, Kyle’s calls home had become sporadic. Kyle was racking up occurrence reports—he’d been missing curfew, drinking, and struggling in school. He’d gotten arrested twice. On October 26, Kyle didn’t come home. The next day, Christian received a call from his cousin Robbie (who was also Kyle’s school counselor) telling him that Kyle was still nowhere to be found. Next, Robbie called Norma, now the NNEC director of education. She was devastated that yet another boy was missing. On Wednesday, Robbie filed a missing persons report. Kyle’s disappearance confirmed Alvin Fiddler’s worst suspicions: Indigenous kids who moved to the city to attend DFC just couldn’t be kept safe. There wasn’t enough support, no matter how hard the school and the NNEC worked to help them cope with life in a “hostile” new city—without proper funding and infrastructure from the government, they were in over their heads. 

On October 26th, Kyle left school and may or may not have visited his uncle Eugene before heading to the mall. From there, he went drinking with a couple of friends at the McIntyre River. Kyle apparently asked one of his drinking buddies, a runner named Ivan Masakeyash, if Ivan knew where he could get a gun—he said he needed it for “protection.” Ivan brushed Kyle off. Kyle and Ivan stayed under the bridge drinking after two of their other friends went home, and Kyle called his mother, Lorene, at 10 that evening. He told her that he was at home—but she thought he sounded high or drunk. Kyle asked his mother for some money and told her that he loved her. Christian deposited some money in Kyle’s bank account, but Kyle never accessed the funds.

Police waited two whole weeks before interviewing Ivan Masakeyash, whom some other DFC students described as “shady.” Ivan was arrested for an attempted break-in on the night of Kyle’s disappearance. Police noted that Kyle’s familiarity with Ivan Masakeyash led to “concerns that Kyle may be involved with Native Syndicate.” Even Robbie worried that Kyle might’ve been mixed up with the gang—he appeared to owe some debts. But Christian refused to believe that Kyle was involved with the Syndicate. Ivan would later testify that he wasn’t involved with the gang, either, and that he’d met Kyle for the first time on the night of his disappearance.

Ten days into the search for Kyle, Christian suffered a breakdown. He got drunk and went down to the river to curse Nanabijou; he begged the rock formation to give him his son back. Police picked him up and brought him home, where he slept all afternoon and dreamed about Kyle. When he woke up, his son Josh was shaking him and telling him that they had to go down to DFC—police had found Kyle’s body. Kyle had burn holes and tears in his pants and abrasions on his shins. He had an extremely high blood ethanol level. Police determined that Kyle died of drowning, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death.

Christian was enraged. But nevertheless, after identifying the body, he picked up some tobacco and took Josh on a walk down to the river. They laid the tobacco down at the river’s edge, and Christian thanked the river for taking his son.