[MUSIC] My name is John MacDonald. I have served 38 years in the Canadian Military, in the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers. I'm presently the president of the Aboriginal Veterans Society of Alberta. It's important for the Aboriginal people to be part of the military, because they need the employment, they need the discipline, they need the structure, and it's a good living. They can advance, everybody's given the same opportunity. They can advance through the ranks, and if they get by the first two years, three years, then they've got it made. I know many, many that are still in the armed forces. And I have a book that I should have brought to you about Aboriginals in the First World War. In the Second World War, who have gone on to be judges, lawyers, school teachers. And they made a good life out of the training they've got from the military. For instance, the Bold Eagle Program, when these youth get their certificate on it, it says that they have participated in military training. And when they fill out their resume for a job, people will look at this and say, oh he's had military training. He's somebody I want. It's summer employment for Aboriginal youth. 16 to 29 with the minimum grade ten education. It's run in Wainwright, July and August, and they receive about $4,000 for their summer employment. We travel Alberta to the schools, and to the reserves telling the youth about this program. And last year, we had 77 applicants from Alberta, and we only accepted 23. So, as a rule, one in three make the grade, for numerous reasons. The north country, they have to come in to Edmonton for a physical, a suitability interview, an IQ test and a physical fitness test. Many of them have no transportation in here. And of course, if they miss their appointment, then their application is null and void, and they go onto the next person. And unfortunately, a lot that could use this program and need the program desperately, don't get it, they fall through the cracks. On graduation day in August, you wouldn't know the youth that we interviewed. The transition from an adolescent to a young adult is astronomical. It is just great. They hold their heads high, they're proud of what they've done, they have confidence in themselves, they want to be with people, whereas before, they didn't. And at the present time, Aboriginal youth are in crisis. And they need more programs like this. It gives structure in their life, time management, all these sort of things that we all need but they are in desperate need of it. >> During World War I, Levi General, also known as Deskaheh, a Cayuga man who lived as a farmer on the Six Nations Grand River territory in Ontario, petitioned the League of Nations in Geneva for Haudenosaunee self-determination. In 1917, he became chief of the Cayuga and was given the traditional name of Deskaheh. He brought the cause of Iroquois sovereignty first to England in 1921. Deskaheh traveled with a six nations passport fully aware that the federal government would deny a Canadian passport. In London, he distributed a pamphlet entitled, Petition and Case of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and met with Winston Churchill, who was, at the time, the British Undersecretary for the colonies. Unfortunately, the petition was rejected. Churchill, citing reasons that it remained a Canadian issue, and not a British one. In retaliation, the Canadian government sent the RCMP on the reserve to search houses, and prohibited the Iroquois to cut wood for fuel. These actions pushed Deskaheh to go to Geneva in 1923, hoping the League of Nations would place sanctions on Canada. He stayed there for six months, giving lectures to the Swiss people. During his speaking tour, he spoke of the obligations under the Two Row Wampum, the most significant pact made between the Iroquois and the Europeans. In 1924, the Canadian government ordered the dissolution of the traditional government of the Six Nations, as well as an election in accordance with the Indian Act. Although Deskaheh did not succeed in being heard by the League of Nations, he did leave a copy of the proclamation at their offices. His mission is still remembered on the international scene. [MUSIC] >> Yeah, I do have an interest in Aboriginal veterans both in World War I and World War II, and it is interesting, the number of veterans that enlisted, sorry, Natives that enlisted because, ethnically speaking, they were probably the largest ethnic group in the Canadian Army. It's estimated 4,000 in World War I, at least 4,000 in World War II. Now, when I'm talking ethnically, I'm including Status Indians, Métis, Inuit, I'm including all in that definition. They reached, interestingly enough, all ranks. There were colonels that were Aboriginal. Yes, the majority stayed at the private level, but they were right across even at that time. I had an interview with one out in Saskatchewan He was a sergeant and talked about one of his experiences. And he had crawled up onto a pill box, a German pill box with machine guns shooting out of it. And he threw a hand grenade inside the pill box, and it went off, and the pill box went silent. And he expected when he kicked in the door that the Germans would be lying there on the floor. No, their body parts were all over the place, and he always remembered that. He later on got wounded, and was shipped to England. He wasn't a wound he had to come home for. He recovered from it, and then he became a drill sergeant. And so for the rest of the World War I, he was a drill sergeant in England for Native, non-Native, didn't matter, troops. What did they experience sometimes? Yes, discrimination, of course. But at the same time, there is this feeling of a soldier is a soldier is a soldier, regardless. And I did get that from the few that I was able to interview, whether it World War I or World War II. And what was more interesting was some of the issues that they had. Language, being one, coming from the North, especially. But why they wanted many from the North was because they were still good marksman. And many of them became snipers. And the language issue was still there in training them to become snipers. Number two, a lot of them worked in what was called the, it was sort of a construction battalion. Very dangerous, because in World War I, they're building the trenches. So, they're not actually fighting, but they're right out in the open too, a lot of the ones that came from Manitoba. The other interesting issue that some of them experienced was the idea of warfare, especially in World War I. I asked a couple of them, did they know where they were going? And they just couldn't think back to that point in time, did I know? because they know where Europe is now. But there was one that I'll always remember with the Bloods that enlisted, and then he showed up. They gave him his uniform, and he showed up for inspection. And of course, he was wearing moccasins. He threw away his boots, he had his own gun, he brought his own gun, he wouldn't use theirs, he was wearing his earrings. He'd cut off the brow of his hat, and still wearing braids, because he wouldn't let them cut his hair. And of course, he was wearing his warshirt that included his spirit protector amulets on it. Not needless to say, they quietly allowed him to leave the army [LAUGH], and he was honourably discharged. But this was one of the issues that they did face, language, culture, idea of where Europe was. These guys were leaving Canada to go over to Europe, where many of the soldiers that they were with were people who had come from Europe over to Canada and were going back. But they did get that camaraderie, but I also found that they saw the war differently. And I'll always remember this one letter from one of the vets from Manitoba. And he was sitting on top of the bunker, because it was November 11th. And so the 1918 war was over, it had been declared over, and he was sitting on top, and he could hear the no guns. I thought that was interesting, so quiet, you could hear the birds. But he was sad, and he was sad that it was over. Because now, he was going to have to go back to the reserve, and what it told me, he did go on a little bit more. But what it told me was that the reserve life for many of these Indians, at that time, was so stifling, that going over to Europe and getting shot at was much more exciting and something to want to do than live on a reserve. So, I think it gives you an indication of what kind of reserve life existed, at least at the turn of the century. [MUSIC]
