The context of this quote is that Mr. P was telling Junior all the terrible things he had done to the Native Americans in his past. In a way, he was looking for forgiveness from Junior. The speaker of this quote is Mr. P. The interlocutor is Junior. Mr. P is saying that he and all the other white people on the reservation were trying to rid the children of their indian heritage. They thought that by doing this they were giving the children better opportunities. They thought they were “saving the child.” But, what Mr. P is realizing now is that when they tried to rid the children of their heritage, they were destroying a big part of the children’s lives. They were forcing them to think about their background in a negative way and by doing that they didn’t actually help the children. They “killed the Indian".
I think you answered this very well, and I agree. Mr P's point of view has definitely changed, and he now seems to want to help Junior, to reverse what he's been doing. On page 41, he says, "You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk from this sad, sad, sad reservation" (Alexie 41). He's recognizing that the reservation isn't helping anyone, really, and "killing the Indian" wouldn't "save the child".
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