History of Indigenous veterans

Remembrance Day is also a time to honour our Indigenous veterans who have laid down their lives for Canada. Chuck Isaacs is Metis and a veteran himself, and he also serves as the president of the Aboriginal Veterans Society of Alberta. He would place the number of Indigenous veterans that have served our country between 30-50,000 throughout the years since the 1800s. He says for the longest time, Indigenous veterans were excluded from having membership at their local legion in Canada.

“And would have been slightly shunned until the 60s. Around 64, I believe they were allowed membership, and decades before that, they wouldn’t have been able to leave the reserve if they were First Nations. They would need permission from the Indian agent. They weren’t allowed to consume alcohol, and there’s a whole bunch of reasons why they just weren’t allowed to participate.”

Indigenous military history in our country includes the war of 1812, the two world wars, the Korean War and recent wars including Afghanistan and the Middle East.