The spectre of assimilation, was even more pronounced in the native community. In the Hockey Game, Wes Fineday relates the memory of a game played on his reserve. Children were taken to boarding schools, where even the food was unfamiliar. Hockey was the one thing that Fineday could relate to and it brought him fond memories of home. The boarding school experience illustrates Canada's policies towards natives for most of the 20th century. This contempt towards native culture coloured the histories of hockey from that era. Thus, the history of hockey writing was coloured by racism that specifically excluded any special recognition of natives. Thus, even today it is mainly native people who are versed on the history of hockey among native Canadians.

Another contributing factor to the whitewashing of hockey's history is the fact that hockey is viewed as a national icon. Hockey is "an authentic and autonomous expression...
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