As Canada marks Indigenous Veterans Day on Nov. 8, historian Cole Nolan from Garden River First Nation in northern Ontario says Indigenous soldiers were some of the first to enlist during the First World War -- despite facing prejudice at home.
The government initially prevented many minority groups from enlisting in the army, but that restriction was gradually eased as casualties mounted. From 1916 until the end of the war, the government began accepting some visible minorities, which included 1,000 Black Canadians, several hundred Canadians of Chinese and Japanese descent, and nearly 4,000 Indigenous soldiers.
“These guys, they enlisted in an army to fight for a country that didn't want them to exist at that point in time,” Nolan told CTVNews.ca in a video interview.
“First Nations men didn't have to join, they weren't compelled in any way to do so,” he said. “It's incredible. It's incredible to think about.”
Like in the First World War, thousands volunteered in the Second World War and with loosened restrictions, many were also conscripted. During the Second World War, at least 3,090 First Nations soldiers enlisted in the Canadian military, with thousands more Métis, Inuit, and non-Status Indian soldiers serving without their ancestry being officialy recognized.
Nolan noted that many of them survived residential schools or ended up having their children forcefully sent to residential schools. While many Indigenous soldiers faced prejudice in Canada, during the war they stood on equal footing with their white counterparts – which was the first time they experienced this type of equality, Nolan added.
-- with files from CTV News --