Netherlands ceremony acknowledges role of First Nations soldiers with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
Indigenous soldiers who served overseas with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry in the Second World War will be commemorated on Wednesday in a poignant ceremony in the Netherlands.
The event will unveil a memorial plaque that is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe and is being described as a step towards acknowledging a vastly overlooked aspect of the war.
The plaque will specifically honour the First Nations members of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry but is a tribute to all Canadian First Nations soldiers. It may very well be the first such tribute in Europe," says a statement from an international group of volunteers" that has been spearheading the project.
The Feb. 8 commemoration is scheduled to take place near Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, near the German border, on the 78th anniversary of the first day of Operation Veritable, a major Anglo-Canadian offensive in February-March 1945. Canadian military representatives including Chief Warrant Officer Joel Pedersen, Canada's most senior First Nations non-commissioned officer, are scheduled to attend.
The initiative arises from the newly published Tidewater Press book The Hawk and the Hare," by award-winning author Janet Love Morrison, who will also be at the ceremony. The novel is based on the true story of her father Private Ewen Morrison's experiences as an RHLI scout over 10 months in post D-Day Europe. The book focuses on a friendship her dad had with an Indigenous fellow soldier who taught him important survival lessons that drew from First Nations traditions.
And while Ewen managed to live through extremely dangerous reconnaissance missions, his comrade didn't make it home.
In civilian life Ewen never spoke about the details to his family. He was very reluctant to say anything about the war - as is often the case with veterans because of the trauma they faced - including the man's name.
But Ewen did say at one point that shortly after his return to Canada from overseas, he visited his friend's mother at the reserve where she lived to offer his condolences. Janet thinks the reserve was Six Nations, but she doesn't know for sure.
Several years after Ewen died in 1996 at the age of 73, Janet set out to find what she could about his time overseas, first serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada before transferring to the RHLI. She also hoped to learn more about the comrade who died sometime in early 1945 or late 1944.
She made five trips to Europe to gather research where she followed the pathway of the RHLI's push across Europe as outlined in copies of regimental diaries provided by regiment historian Stan Overy.
Janet, 60, is white but throughout her life she has had a great interest in Indigenous culture. She taught at a Saskatchewan reserve for four years and was raised to have great respect for First Nations people," she says.
In researching the book, she learned that more than 4,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis soldiers joined the Canadian Armed Forces in the war, and it is believed thousands of others enlisted with their status unrecognized. They served mostly in the army, many as scouts. Others famously worked as code talkers, using Indigenous languages to keep sensitive wireless communications from enemy detection.
A Canadian government Veterans Affairs website says more than 200 Indigenous soldiers were killed or died from wounds in the war. Dozens of First Nations soldiers are thought to have served with the RHLI, with several deaths. But specific numbers are unavailable.
Janet found numerous names of First Nations soldiers while scouring military cemeteries in Europe, but there was no way for her to determine whether the friend was among them.
Maybe I was staring right at his name. I just don't know," says Morrison.
Privacy rules limit access to military records. Generally, only family members are allowed to see detailed information. And without a name, where would she start?
Retired Captain Tim Fletcher, a historian with the regiment this known by its nickname the Rileys, says Morrison's book has drawn attention to the lack of historical research on Indigenous involvement with the Hamilton-based regiment.
I think it is high time the Indigenous connection with the RHLI, which anecdotally goes back to very early days, was more thoroughly explored," he says.
Bruce Patterson, the president of the Six Nations Veterans Association, says he has few RHLI details as well, and welcomes further historical research.
Six Nations veterans served with numerous military units during the war. There is a cenotaph that honours soldiers from the reserve who at various times fought with Canadian, American or British regiments in conflicts going back to before Confederation. At Remembrance Day ceremonies last year, names of 61 Haudenosaunee were read out who paid the supreme sacrifice fighting in both world wars, as well as six others who died in Korea, Vietnam or Iraq.
For her book, Janet used her research to create a composite character she called Reggie Johnson. And Pedersen made suggestions about her manuscript. As well as being a knowledge keeper about First Nations history in the Canadian military, he is someone who has had first-hand experience doing the kind of scout work that Ewen and his First Nations companion would have done during the war.
Scouting tactics that are used today were forged at the time of the world wars. And much of the tactics are from Indigenous people," says Pedersen, who lives in Saskatoon. Look at special forces units. They always have heavily relied on the lessons learned from the early contact with the Indigenous peoples of North America."
Pedersen believes the recognition in Europe of the role of First Nations soldiers in the war is long overdue. And he hopes the book helps to spread word about the sacrifice as well.
He says the author's descriptions of military life and Reggie rings true for him.
I think Indigenous people will see in Reggie some of the stories of their grandfathers or their great uncles or maybe their fathers," he says.
Fletcher from the RHLI praised the book as well. You feel the prejudices, the acceptance, the squabbling, the pride, the injuries, the death. You are there with 17 Platoon, D" Company. You live the history from inside looking out," he wrote in a review for a regimental newsletter.
But Pedersen says he finds it sadly ironic that while the Canadian military made great use of traditional First Nations scouting skills in reconnaissance missions and with Indigenous languages in code talking, the Canadian government was trying to destroy their culture through the residential school system.