Grand Chief Anderson recollects war experiences

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The Europeans weren't the only ones liberated during the Second World War.

For many First Nations men, life in the armed forces was their first experience of a life without racism, of a life without being second-class citizens.

But when they came home, said Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association Grand Chief Howard Anderson, their efforts weren't appreciated by the Canadian government they defended.

Anderson comes from a family of military men. His uncle was one of two First Nations men who served with the Canadian army expeditionary force that was sent to South Africa during the Boer War. Anderson's father was a member of the Canadian army during the First World War.

Anderson's father was gassed in that war, he said.

"His legs never did heal, once he got back out of the army. They never took him back to check him out-he was never taken to the hospital. We used to have to wrap his legs-they were always raw from the gas.

When Canada declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, Anderson was a student at the residential school on the Gordons First Nation. It was a school in name only, Anderson said, because priority wasn't given to the three Rs, but to work -doing chores, feeding cattle and working on the farm. Students had two days a week, at the most, of classroom time.

"When I was 15, I got out of school and then I went to work on farms in the area. It was a good life. My father was a farmer."

Anderson joined the army when he was 16. He was a volunteer. He and seven friends were inducted into the army during the Dominion Day sports day in Punnichy in 1940.

"The one who actually got us into the army was the chief," he said. "The army was recruiting in Punnichy and he said, 'Who wants to join the army?'

"My cousin said 'I'll go,' and like a little pup I said, 'I'll follow you around.'"

They took the train to Saskatoon-the first train trip Anderson had ever taken. The new recruits were then taken to the temporary barracks at the Saskatoon fairgrounds.

Basic training wasn't as hard, physically or mentally, as life in the residential school, Anderson said.

"You had more freedom in the army. They weren't on top of you all the time," he said. "At the residential school, the kids did the work-doing the chores, milking the cows early in the morning.

"And we had discipline in the residential schools. We had to make our own beds in the army. Well, we had to do that in the residential schools. What was the difference?

"It was just that freedom we had in the evenings. If you wanted to go to town, you could go to town. All you had to do was sign out."

Anderson also said he never experienced any racist attitudes from anybody while in the army.

"You had to depend on one another when you were in the army. And I never heard any stories about discrimination in the army from any First Nations people.

"As far as we were concerned, we were all one. And we were all in the army."

After landing with the Canadian army shortly after D-Day, Anderson became a dispatch driver, couriering messages from command post to command post. It was risky work, he said.

"I was riding motorbikes. We drove fast, and we drove hard. Hitler said, 'Give all those Canadians a motorbike and they'll kill themselves.'"

But the German army was willing to help that process along. Often, retreating troops would string wires about shoulder high on roads, in order to catch and kill advancing motorcyclists.

"We used to have jeeps with iron rods on them, going ahead of us to break the wire."

Quite a few of the dispatch riders were Cree, Anderson said. Often they would translate the coded message they were to relay into their language, take it to another courier who could speak Cree, who would then translate the message back into text and deliver it to the intended person.

"We weren't allowed to speak our language at home, but out here it was something that came in handy. Makes you wonder," he laughed.

"It was a good move. If the message fell nto the wrong hands, nobody in Germany would understand it."

Anderson left the army in 1946, one year after the Nazi government and armed forces surrendered.

First Nations soldiers left Europe as free men, but the Canadian government expected them to go back to the lives they led before the war - without the opportunity to work and live as they pleased, or to even receive the same benefits as non-Aboriginal former armed forces personnel did.

Because of federal legislation passed in 1943, the federal government made the Department of Indian Affairs, not the Department of Veterans Affairs, responsible for looking after the needs of First Nations veterans.

In practice this meant Indian veterans received less money and other benefits from Ottawa after their discharge than non-Aboriginal veterans.

It also meant the Indian agents-not the veterans-decided what was best.

It was a galling situation for them to return home not as heroes but as second-class citizens.

"That's what our fight today is all about," Anderson said.

For example, any money that treaty Indians were to receive in benefits was to go to the Department of Indian Affairs, not to the veteran, he added. The federal government had programs that encouraged veterans to go into farming, but there was no similar program for First Nations veterans.

Instead, for example, Anderson was to take over some unsurveyed land on Gordons First Nation. But the land remained the reserve's and it wasn't Ottawa's to give away, he said.

As well, benefit payments made to wives and families of First Nations servicemen were sent directly to the Indian agent, instead of the families. The agent was to look after the money in trust, but few financial records exist which would show whether or not those families ever got that money.

And there was no legal recourse at the time. Indians were prohibited from hiring lawyers, and couldn't approach Ottawa for assistance.

The Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association was formed n 1972 to promote the rights of First Nations veterans.

The lobbying continues with the departments of Indian Affairs, Veterans Affairs and National Defense for compensation.

About 800 First Nations men from Saskatchewan served in the armed forces during that war.

Though they're running out of time to come up with a compensation package for the veterans, Anderson said, they're not running out of determination to right an historical injustice.