Courtesy of The Morning Chronicle, Tuesday, April 6, 1920
More Than Four Thousand Enlisted in the Expeditionary Force, And Many Of Them Made Great Records – Canadian Indians no Longer a Warlike Race.
OTTAWA, April 5 – During the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada, be unveiled at Brantford, Ontario, a bronze tablet inscribed with the names of eighty-six members of the Six Nations Indians who had given their lives to the Empire in the Great War. The Indians signalized the occasion by making the Prince a chief under the name of “chief Dayrohaserah,” which signifies “dawn of the day.”
The incident draws attention to the really fine part played by the Indians of Canada in the war. Out of a total Indian population of less than 100,000 men, women and children, more than four thousand enlisted for active service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force; while there were undoubtedly many cases of Indian enlistment which were not reported to the department. This represents approximately thirty-five percent of the Indian male population of military age in the Dominion.
This record becomes the more striking when we recall that their services were absolutely voluntary. The Indians of Canada were specifically exempted from the operation of the Military Service Act, and there was no possible way of compelling them to enlist. But this was not necessary, as they were anxious to go to the front from the first.
The Indians of Canada are no longer a war-like race, under ordinary circumstanc ...
Tags: featured
