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Robyn Harper
Reggie Bushie was one of the titular “seven fallen feathers” who disappeared and whose body was later found in one of Thunder Bay, Ontario’s rivers. After a night out drinking with his brother Ricki Strang in October of 2007, Reggie disappeared. Ricki had blacked out and regained consciousness in the middle of the McIntyre River—he had no memory of what happened, but he believed that his brother was in the river. Reggie’s family struggled to get the NNEC and the Thunder Bay Police to adequately investigate Reggie’s disappearance and death. After Reggie’s death, Indigenous elders began calling for an inquest as to why five Indigenous students had died in Thunder Bay in less than a decade.
Reggie Bushie Quotes in Seven Fallen Feathers
The Seven Fallen Feathers quotes below are all either spoken by Reggie Bushie or refer to Reggie Bushie. 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 7: Brothers Quotes
When he got to the river's edge, Ricki carefully squatted down, resting on his heels. He spent some time thinking before he slowly stretched his arms out over the water, his palms gently skimming the surface. Then he put his hands in the river, his arms spread out as far as possible. His body began to shudder.
It was as if he were reaching out for his brother.
The police were touched into silence. They backed away, giving the boy the time he needed before taking him back to the station.
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Chapter 9: Less Than Worthy Victims Quotes
After the attack on Darryl Kakekayash, Alvin and Julian saw a clear and disturbing pattern. They could not help but wonder if First Nations kids were being targeted and murdered. It was extremely rare to hear of Indigenous kids drowning on their reserves. Most First Nations people were born and raised on the water. Equally perplexing was how quickly the Thunder Bay Police wrote off investigations into the deaths. For Jethro, Curran, Reggie, and Kyle, police had issued press releases that came to the same conclusion: foul play was not suspected. Each of the deaths was classified as accidental: death by drinking too much and then drowning. To Thunder Bay Police, no one was readily responsible for the deaths of the students.
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Reggie Bushie Character Timeline in Seven Fallen Feathers
The timeline below shows where the character Reggie Bushie appears in Seven Fallen Feathers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Why Chanie Ran
...Fiddler heard of Jordan’s disappearance, he was sad and furious—in 2008, after another student named Reggie Bushie had been found dead in the water, he’d warned NAN that children in Thunder...
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Chapter 7: Brothers
...water—he had no idea how he’d wound up in the river, or where his brother Reggie was. Ricki dragged himself from the water, calling for Reggie, but there was no answer....
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On November 1, less than a week after he was last seen, Reggie Bushie’s body was pulled from the McIntyre River. He was the third boy to have...
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...and Curran Strang, police almost immediately determined that “no foul play” had been involved in Reggie’s death without conducting a thorough investigation. All three statements imply that the boys fell into...
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When Ricki learned the next morning that Reggie wasn’t home, he wasn’t immediately alarmed—he assumed that Reggie was at another friend’s house. But...
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...backpacks were missing. Ricki took police to the underpass where he last remembered being with Reggie—they’d gone there to drink with some friends, even though they weren’t particularly big drinkers. At...
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...at lunch with her NNEC colleague Lydia Big George when she got the call about Reggie’s disappearance. The two of them immediately left the restaurant and began the eight-hour drive down...
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...around drinking lots of alcohol, and that at one point in the evening, Ricki and Reggie had broken off from the rest of the group. Norma decided that she needed to...
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...that afternoon, one of her colleagues received a call from Alvin Fiddler—the police had found Reggie’s body. Norma retrieved Ricki from the gym, where he was playing hockey with his friends,...
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Reggie’s mother Rhoda, Alvin Fiddler, and the other members of the Poplar Hill community wanted answers....
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...the coroner’s office issued a press release announcing their intent to begin an inquest into Reggie’s death in January of 2009—but they neglected to mention beginning inquests into any of the...
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...2008, 16-year-old Darryl Kakekayash was beaten and thrown into the Neebing river. Just like Jethro, Reggie, and Curran, Darryl was an Indigenous student living far from home and attending DFC. While...
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...January 14, 2009, Rhoda King and her husband Berenson requested standing at the inquest into Reggie’s death. So did Julian Falconer, on behalf of NAN; and so did the NNEC, the...
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Chapter 9: Less Than Worthy Victims
In March of 2011, the Court of Appeal judgement in Reggie Bushie’s case came out: the Court was concerned with the representation in the coroner jury...
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...the Thunder Bay Courthouse. Dr. David Eden, the coroner originally assigned to preside over the Reggie Bushie inquest, oversaw the proceedings. He rejected Alvin Fiddler’s proposal to expand the scope of...
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Chapter 10: Seven Fallen Feathers
Ricki Strang got a tattoo of his favorite random number, 71; Reggie had a similar tattoo of his favorite random number. Strang settled down with a partner...
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