A researcher in Grande Prairie, Alta., has undertaken a project to ensure past Indigenous soldiers and veterans are recognized for their sacrifices in both world wars.
Renee Charbonneau, who runs the Veterans Memorial Gardens in Grande Prairie, has been working for seven years to collect the stories of Indigenous soldiers from northwestern Alberta who were killed in action overseas. Elders in the region and Indigenous genealogists have helped her.
Charbonneau, who is not Indigenous but comes from a military family, considers the subject extremely close to her heart.
“Why wouldn’t we thank them for their service? Why wouldn’t we recognize that they served?” she told CBC News.
“Why, for so many years, did they have to be on the sidelines here in Canada, watching Remembrance Day ceremonies — but as a group not [be] allowed to lay a wreath? They could do it as an individual, but they weren’t allowed to do it in a group.”
On the Veterans Affairs Canada website, the federal government acknowledges it mistreated Indigenous veterans during that time. It states Canada expropriated hundreds of thousands of acres of reserve lands while Indigenous people served the country, some of which was given to non-Indigenous people as part of a program that offered farmland to returning veterans.
Indigenous veterans were often denied this program and other full veteran benefits, and faced other mistreatment and discrimination when they returned to Canada, the website says.
“When you work in such a dangerous situation together, you become brothers in arms and then you come home,” Charbonneau said.
“You have all of these situations where, when they came home, your Indigenous brother wasn’t allowed to go to the legion with you to have a beer at the bar, because the Liquor Act and the Indian Act said they weren’t Canadian citizens.”
Monday marks Remembrance Day, when Canadians honour soldiers who died while serving the country.
Friday marked National Indigenous Veterans Day, which Charbonneau finds to be an especially important day to reflect and try to educate those in her community.
“It’s sad that they have to be singled out for their service to be recognized,” said Charbonneau.
“[National] Indigenous Veterans Day is about so much more than their service. It’s about their treatment after service. It’s about them not being welcomed by the establishment — and this is their way of never forgetting.”
Piecing stories together
The Canadian military did not track details about race, ethnicity and region of origin of those who served during the world wars, Veterans Affairs Canada said in a statement to CBC News.
Charbonneau hopes her project can start to change that.
“As we started uncovering the magnitude of the Indigenous numbers, my heart broke, because most people have no clue,” she said.
The federal government estimates 4,000 Indigenous people served during the First World War and more than 3,000 served during the Second World War, according to the Veterans Affairs Canada website.
In its statement to CBC News, Veterans Affairs said historians estimate about 300 First Nations soldiers died during the First World War. In the late 1940s, the Canadian government estimated 170 to 220 First Nations soldiers died in the Second World War.
“Most historians today tend to round the number to 200,” the statement said.
The government’s estimates exclude Métis and Inuit people who served. It only includes people who had status and lived on-reserve, the statement said.
WATCH | Names, histories of Indigeous veterans uncovered by Alberta researcher:
A Grande Prairie woman is documenting the stories of Indigenous veterans from the region who were killed in action in both world wars. She’s confirmed 31 names and is investigating another 23.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, however, estimated that around 500 Indigenous people gave their lives during the Second World War, the statement said.
Veterans Affairs said the estimates include those killed in action and those who also died of their wounds or from natural causes while serving.
Charbonneau has slowly been piecing together the stories of Indigenous soldiers from Alberta’s northwest who sacrificed their lives in the world wars.
She has confirmed 31 from the area, and is researching 23 more, she said. Within the research documents are names, birth dates and death certificates, regiment and unit numbers, and family trees.
The research helped Bruce McAllister, an elder from the Dunvegan Beaver Nation who also works with the Veterans Memorial Gardens, discover more pieces about his family’s history.
His great uncle, Henry James McAllister, and six other Canadian soldiers were killed in the Second World War after coming under enemy fire during the liberation of Berville-en-Roumois, a village in France’s Normandy region on Aug. 26, 1944.
“It means the world to me. I was always told about my uncle being that big brother, so to speak, and to honour him on this day. I can’t believe it’s happening, to be honest,” McAllister said.
“I’m honoured to be part of it. He gave his life for us, and I feel that he gave [his] life for the way things were,” he said. “He didn’t want it to be racism and controlling government and controlling everything. So he went over there and fought against that and lost his life.”
A memorial now stands in the French village in honour of the seven fallen soldiers. It was erected by the “To our Canadian Friends” committee, which residents created a year after the village was liberated.
A group of 60 school-aged boys, who were at a holiday camp near the village at the time of the liberation, wrote to the soldiers’ families to send their gratitude, according to letters sent to McAllister’s relatives after his great uncle was killed in action.
“They have prayed for these soldiers, and each adopted spiritually one of the deceased,” reads the letter, a copy of which CBC News obtained.
Veterans Affairs Canada has funded the Veterans Memorial Gardens in Grande Prairie through its commemorative partnership program, which supports organizations taking on remembrance initiatives.
Many communities in Canada are undertaking similar initiatives to Charbonneau’s, the department’s statement said.
“We applaud them for taking on this important work,” it said