The memoir of Fred Sasakamoose is now on book store shelves.
In Call Me Indian, Sasakamoose, who is from the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, shares the story of his life from childhood, to becoming the first player with treaty status to make it to the National Hockey League with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1953-54.
Fred’s son Neil Sasakamoose explained his father, who passed away, last November after contracting COVID-19, had been approached by Penguin Publishing about doing a book.
Neil said his father had been reluctant in the past to talk about his life, but after some encouragement from his family Fred agreed to do a book.
However, Fred made sure he got to tell the story of his life on his own terms. This involved him sitting down with his grandson, who had a recorder and asked his grandfather questions about his life.
“My dad Fred, gave all of his story to Zane Michael, his grandson, my son,” said Neil.
Zane also got questions from the author who helped Fred write the book, the two spent a lot of time together and Neil said as they went on his father got more comfortable talking about his life.
“They spent hours doing this, a whole year and it ended up being 30 plus hours of interviews,” said Neil.
Neil explained there was a learning curve for the publishers as the way Fred decided to tell his story is not the way they are used to. He added people of his father’s generation pass their stories down orally and they decide how their story is delivered.
“My dad made it clear, I am giving it to this grand kid and I want to teach him about life for him at the same time and I am going to teach him through my stories,” said Neil.
Growing up Neil said his dad never spoke about his hockey career or his childhood. So when Fred shared the stories from his life with his grandson, his son also learned about his father.
“I didn’t know he was the most valuable player of the league, I didn’t even know that, in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League,” said Neil.
Neil added he also learned about Fred’s family including his mother and father, which was completely new to him.
Call Me Indian as well has a forward written by former NHL great Bryan Trottier, who is originally from Val Marie in southwest Saskatchewan. Neil said he has met Trottier in the past and explained the six time Stanley Cup champion got in touch with him and asked Neil if he could write the book’s forward. Neil added Trottier was aware of Fred’s career growing up.
“His father used to come and watch Fred play as a 16, 17, 18, 19-year-old and used to come back and tell Bryan, I just watched the fastest person on ice, he was a big fan,” said Neil.
Going forward Neil said it also possible that his father’s story could end up on the big screen as the family has been approached by people who are interested in developing movie scripts.
“I know one firm has been trying to set up a call for next week with us to talk about a movie script or going down that path and seeing what would one look like,” he said.
(PHOTO: Fred Sasakamoose. Photo courtesy of sasksportshalloffame.com)