Aboriginal veterans among those honored

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If you scan a map of Saskatchewan, you will find there the names of the more than 3,800 men from across the province who lost their lives fighting in the Second World War. To honor their memories and their sacrifices, each has had a geographic feature named after them.

Of those 3,800 or so geographic features, Doug Chisholm estimates he's seen and photographed about 3,000.

Chisholm's interest in the geographic formations named in honor of Saskatchewan's war dead started in 1997 when he was asked to use his plane to fly over Lac La Ronge and photograph an island named after one of the fallen men. His interest has grown over the years, as has his collection of photographs of the various sites. Recently, some of those photographs have found their way into a book.

Their Names Live On: Remembering Saskatchewan's Fallen In World War II features stories about 89 of the men who have had geographic features named in their honor, along with the aerial photographs of those features taken by Chisholm. Of the 89 men whose stories are told in the book, two were First Nations, and at least three were Metis, Chisholm said.

Although many First Nations veterans faced unequal treatment when they returned home from the fighting in comparison to their non-Native comrades, that inequality doesn't exist in the commemorative-naming project initiated by the provincial government at the end of the war, Chisholm said.

"What I have is a list. And the list is 3,800 names. And it doesn't tell me who's Aboriginal and who's not. It just has names. If any names were missed, it was because they slipped through the cracks. It wasn't an intent," Chisholm said.

"I know that there were situations where there were some of the benefits that Aboriginals didn't get that others got. I know that. But I have, through my four years of research, found none of that in here. That doesn't exist."

Although the list doesn't indicate which of the soldiers honored were Aboriginal, through his research, Chisholm has been able to identify at least 50 of them that were treaty, and at least another 50 that were Metis.

"I'm quite sure there's more. I've made numerous attempts to try and get a hold of an Aboriginal honor role, and have had no success. I've got an honor role from one band, and an honor role from another band, and that kind of thing. But if there's a master list someplace, I don't know where it is," Chisholm said.

Included in the book is the story of Sergeant Harvey Dreaver, from Mistawasis First Nation, who was killed Oct. 6, 1944 during the battle at the Leopold Canal. Dreaver Lake, located about 100 km north of La Ronge, was named in his honor.

The book also tells the stories of Private Archie Isbister, Private Russell Isbister, and Private Vernon Colin Isbister, three cousins from the Mont Nebo area, west of Prince Albert. All three men lost their lives on the battlefields of Normandy. Both Archie and Russell were killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944, while Vernon was killed two days later. Isbister Lake, located near the Manitoba border southeast of Hudson Bay, was named in honor of Archie Isbister. Another Isbister Lake, this one located 250 km northeast of La Ronge, was named in honor of Russell, while an island in that lake was named Isbister Island in memory of Vernon.

The story of Private Joseph Okemasis is also recounted in the book. Okemasis, from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, was killed Dec. 7, 1943 in Italy. Okemasis Lake in Northern Saskatchewan is named in his memory.

Also included in the book is the story of Lance Sergeant Conrad Rene Fleury, who was from the Meadow Lake area, and who was killed April 22, 1945 in Holland. Fleury Creek is named in his honor.

While Chisholm has no concrete plans to publish any further books about the other men whose names dot the map of Saskatchewan, he does plan to continue collecting their stories.

"As I come across families, some people open up and they've got all kinds of information. And if they're pepared to send it to me, I have a file on each of the servicemen that were killed," he said.

"There are lots of stories out there, and they surface. And so it's really important to record the information now while its still available, because five years from now, a lot of these siblings are going to be gone. And then the story goes too."

While Chisholm's book deals specifically with efforts to honor Saskatchewan's war dead, other such commemorative naming projects took place in other provinces as well. According to the geographical names division of Natural Resources Canada, more than 10,000 features across the country have been named for Canadian war casualties of the First and Second World Wars, as well as from the Korean War.

To order a copy of Their Names Live On: Remembering Saskatchewan's Fallen In World War II, you can contact the publisher of the book, The Canadian Plains Research Centre at the University of Regina, at 306-585-4758, call Doug Chisholm at 306-425-3186, or through your local book store.