Remembrance Day and Indigenous Peoples

WITH ANOTHER REMEMBRANCE DAY COME AND GONE, Canadians have an opportunity to re-evaluate our treatment of veterans as a whole. Taking care of those who served has been a contentious issue in Canada since the World Wars, with Veterans Affairs often coming up in elections and parliamentary debates. However, the veterans who have historically gotten the shortest stick are also those who are also disproportionately affected by systemic problems within society: Indigenous Peoples. This contrast can be traced back to the Indian Act, and how its provisions affected veterans returning from the World Wars.

First of all, you may even ask what the historical impetus was for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples to serve in the wars, despite historically not being Canadian citizens or possessing the right to vote. While there is no one definitive answer that can describe the motivations of all people, some believed serving in the war was a way of militarily honouring the treaties that different nations held with the Crown, Britain. By volunteering to serve in the war, they were honouring their traditional treaties, thus Britain — and therefore Canada — should do the same. Others felt that by serving alongside Canada in the war, Indigenous Peoples could demonstrate the right to fair and equal treatment, whether that was the right to vote or the right to autonomy. Some felt that fighting in the wars could rekindle the suppressed warrior culture that had been lost beneath the oppression of colonialism. Regardless, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit folk alike volunteered and served in both World Wars, as well as the Korean War. Anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 First Nations men enlisted during World War One, with the total number of Indigenous Peoples who served being hard to say, as numbers are skewed due to non-status ‘Indians,’ Métis, and Inuit not appearing in official, military records. Métis was not yet an official status, and the Inuit would have served in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, part of the British army.

And serve they did.

Indigenous soldiers were some of the most highly decorated soldiers of the wars. Some of the most famous include Anishinaabe sniper Francis Pegahmabow, who earned the Military Medal with two bars denoting outstanding acts of courage. Lance Corporal John Shiwak of the Inuit, awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. And for World War Two and the Korean War, Lance Corporal Thomas Prince who was decorated eleven times. Prince famously disguised himself as a farmer while stationed in Italy during a 24-hour, solo watch, so that he could infiltrate a strongly held German front and repair vital communication lines, thus allowing for artillery bombardment.

Women played a vital role as well. Perhaps the most famous, was Edith Monture, a Mohawk woman who served as a nurse in France with the American army in World War One. After the war, she returned to Canada and became the first registered nurse of the First Nations people.

With such a display of bravery and sacrifice, one would think Indigenous Peoples were treated fairly and venerated as heroes upon returning home. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Following World War One, reserve lands were taken up and given to Settler veterans for their service, reducing the amount of already diminishing reserve lands. Those who served overseas returned home to find themselves “enfranchised,” that is, because they were away from reserves for so long, First Nations soldiers “lost” their legal Indian status.

Veteran allowances, designed to financially aid and support those who served, were held in trust by Indian Affairs, and were often misplaced or misappropriated. Thomas Prince served in World War Two and the Korean War, yet when he arrived home he was barely able to make ends meet. He had to sell his war medals to support himself financially. He died virtually alone in a Salvation Army hospital in 1977.

Indigenous Peoples were not invited to lay ceremonial wreaths at the National Monument on Remembrance Day until 1997.

While the Indian Act saw some significant revisions post-World War Two, partly due to Indigenous service and partly due to Indigenous anger at mistreatment, a stark contrast still exists during times of remembrance. On Remembrance Day, we should take into consideration what we choose to honour and glorify, and what we should treat with reverence. Fundamentally, the World Wars were wars of imperialism, aimed at defending and acquiring land, power, and resources. They were devastating and saw horrendous displays of human cruelty. It was an incredible sacrifice for Indigenous Peoples to serve in those wars, for they had everything to lose and not a whole lot to gain. While I want to refrain from jumping on an already bloated bandwagon, when highly visible cultural icons use divisive terms like “you people,” especially when referring to integral aspects of national identity, they are making a statement about who should be considered Canadian, and who should be othered.

Thus, we must constantly contrast the treatment of Indigenous Peoples with the treatment of the settler population in an attempt to show how Indigenous Peoples are put into situations in which they suffer disproportionately to other parts of Canada despite their sacrifices, simply for being Indigenous. That is, selective memorialization and the ways in which we honour sacrifice makes a statement about the valuation we attribute to bodies. The ways in which Canada has chosen to honour Indigenous veterans can be paralleled with how the colonial state views and has viewed Indigenous bodies, as second-class citizens whose value do not equal the lives of settlers. While progress has been made, further progress still is always possible. Thus, when the next Remembrance Day rolls around, take an extra minute for Francis Peghamabow, Thomas Prince, Edith Monture, John Shiwak, and hundreds of others who served and gave their lives to a country who tried its hardest to give nothing back.