Tom St. Amand and Tom Slater
The Aamjiwnanng First Nation has a proud military history, with at least 34 men and women enlisting to serve with the Canadian and U.S. military during the two World Wars.
And they are part of over 8,000 First Nation soldiers who served. Stanley Jackson, the last surviving Amjiwnaang veteran from WWII, passed away just two years ago at the age of 94.
Yet Indigenous people throughout Canada had every reason not to volunteer. During the Great War, First Nations people did not have the rights of Canadian citizenship. As wards of the Crown they could not vote; they couldn’t own land; and residential schools were attempting to strip away their culture.
By the Second World War the situation had not improved greatly. In fact, both the Canadian Air Force and Navy required volunteers to be “of pure European descent and of the white race” until 1942 and 1943 respectively.
The military hierarchy also worked almost exclusively in English, a language many Indigenous soldiers did not understand.
Only on the battlefield things were different. As one First Nation veteran recalled, “the fighting zone … [was] the only time in my life I was equal to the white society or anybody else.”
Two aboriginal units were formed in the Great War, and its recruits were valued for their skills at tracking, navigating without instruments, scouting and marksmanship.
First Nations soldiers left a remarkable record of wartime accomplishments. They served in all branches of the service, fought in every major battle and campaign, and were decorated for their bravery.
Corporal Mike Mountain Horse, a Vimy Ridge survivor, later said, “The war proved that the fighting spirit of my tribe was not squelched through reservation life.”
The Remembrance Day ceremony at the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Cenotaph is held on Nov. 10th. It is planned that way to gives residents an opportunity to honour all those from Aamjiwnaang who served, and to attend the ceremony at Veteran’s Park on Nov. 11th.