Film keeps memory of warriors alive

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Loretta Todd has found a unique way to keep the memory of Native war veterans alive: capture their stories on film.

Forgotten Warriors is "a story that has needed to be told for a long time," said the CBC director and writer.

Native Canadians were not conscripted during the Second World War but many volunteered to serve, even though it often meant losing their status.

"You had to be Canadian to serve, and theoretically the Indians weren't Canadian."

Whether or not they lost their status was up to the individual Indian agent, who could decide whether to remove their names from band lists. Assimilation was being stepped up at the time, and enlisting in the service was viewed as a part of that process, Todd adds.

Some vets regained status under Bill C-31, but because of the bill's two-generation cut-off, their grandchildren are not considered status Indians.

Party because of the citizenship requirement, many aboriginal did not register as Indians when they signed up, so there is no way of knowing how many Natives fought overseas. The Canadian government puts the figure at about 6,000, but Native peoples think the total is much higher - from 15,000 to 50,000. Todd has heard of whole families enlisting, seven or eight brothers together.

When the men returned home, they didn't get the same benefits that white soldiers got, in part because they weren't allowed to join the legion.

"I was paid $2,300 to start a new life. Non-Natives were paid $6,000," said James Scotchman, a veteran and grand chief of the Union of British Columbia.

The treatment the returning soldiers got varied. B.C. Metis Harry Lavallee got gratitude money of $715, which he was supposed to buy furniture with.

"I suppose I got what everybody else got," he said.

Most soldiers returned to a warm welcome from their communities, but sometimes their return was disruptive.

"Even though they got very little, the fact that they got something sometimes divided the community," Todd explained.

Reserve life under the Indian Act was very restricted, which might have prompted men to enlist.

"Soldiers got more freedom in the service than they were used to, and freedom is what they went away to fight for," Todd said.

James Dempsey, director of the School of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, has done extensive research into Native soldiers in the service.

"Legally speaking, the Natives were wards of the Canadian government but they could not vote, own land or be taxed. They had all the rights of children," said Dempsey, whose research concentrated on the First World War.

The warrior ethic still existed then, because the young men were only one or two generations away from being Plains Indians. Going into battle gave them honors and status.

"Upon their return, a lot of them were given welcomes similar to warriors coming back from a successful battle.

"As late as World War Two, it was a very common belief among the Blackfoot that it was better to die in war than from disease," Dempsey said.

Many men went to war because they felt an allegiance to the queen and the crown, and many succumbed to peer pressure and pressure from Canadian society. The military also did some recruiting on reserves.

According to some letters written by men serving overseas, the primary motive often was to escape life on the reserves.

"One said he was sad the war was over because that meant he had to come back home. Is this a comment on what their life was like at the time?" Dempsey said.

Forgotten Warriors is a docu-drama, filmed partly in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Gil Cardinal was the original director of the film and he travelled with a group of veterans to Europe, where they visited former battlefields and towns where they had been. Some filming was done there, but it was also part of a healing process for the vets, Todd said.

The film, which is national in scope, will also look at the women who served and the families who stayed home. Todd hopes to have the movie finished some time in 193.