Sgt. Allen Derouin was just 16 years old when he joined the Canadian Army in 1950, bound to fight in the Korean War.
The Ojibway teen was in the same infantry battalion as decorated First Nations war hero Sgt. Tommy Prince, whom he credits with saving his life overseas.
“He knew I was underage,” Derouin recalled, standing by the cenotaph in Vancouver’s Victory Square on Tuesday.
“If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today — his teachings and his skills in the military.”
Hundreds marched through downtown Vancouver to lay wreaths and flowers on National Indigenous Veterans Day. Celebrated annually on Nov. 8, it recognizes the contributions and sacrifices of Indigenous Peoples not only to war efforts, but Canadian peacekeeping as well.
Derouin said he thought of his fellow veterans on Tuesday, and of Prince, who appeared on a Canadian stamp for the first time in October.
“When we came home, we didn’t get the help we needed to get over these bad memories and dreams. I still suffer from them,” Derouin said quietly.
More than 7,000 Indigenous people served in the First and Second World Wars, according to official government records, and several hundred served in the Korean War. The true number is higher — thousands who were deployed did not hold government-issued status, and record-keepers at the time did not include Métis people.
In addition to the horrors of combat, Indigenous service members faced challenges many fellow soldiers did not, including racism, language and cultural barriers.
They brought invaluable skills to the war efforts, according to Veterans Affairs Canada, including expert marksmanship and their languages, which were used to protect secret messages against enemy interception.
When they returned home, however, Indigenous veterans received none of the benefits afforded to other veterans, such as access to loans or free farmland for resettling, reads a 2019 report presented to the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
They were denied basic civil rights, and after the First World War, the federal government took between 35,000 and 75,000 hectares of Indigenous lands to give to non-Indigenous veterans.
It took Derouin 18 years to regain the Indigenous status he was stripped when he joined the military, yet he said one of the most hurtful realities he faced was not being welcomed at the local legion.
“The legion was supposed to be our home when we came home as veterans, as soldiers, and us Aboriginal veterans that came back — they wouldn’t allow us in the legion,” he told Global News.
“(Injustices are) still happening today — we got veterans laying on the street here, homeless. We wouldn’t be half of this country today if it wasn’t for them.”
Brothers Richard Campbell and Laurence Paul marched Tuesday to honour all veterans, including their father, Laurence Paul Sr. They said their late father joined the U.S. Army after escaping residential school in Canada and moving to Washington state.
“He was beautiful inside and out. He stood up for everyone,” said Paul, who carried a Musqueam First Nation flag during the ceremonies.
“It’s truly an honour to be able to do this every year in honour of my father, in honour of all the veterans and the ones who are still serving today.”
Lizette Paul, who carried a wooden talking stick for her husband Kenneth Robertson, agreed. Robertson comes from a family of Cree veterans who have made many sacrifices for Canadians, she added.
“It’s such an honour to be here amongst them. They’re our royalty because they stood up for us, the future generations,” Paul said.
“If they’re lucky, they survived, but their lives are never the same. They suffer post-traumatic stress and being away from their families … It’s a time in history we need to learn more about and understand, not just one day of the year.”
According to the 2019 report, complaints of injustice from Indigenous veterans were not seriously heard until the late 1990s, and in 2002, Ottawa agreed to provide up to $20,000 “per living First Nations veteran, or their spouse, who returned to the reserves after the wars.”
Last year, however, marked the first National Indigenous Veterans Day in Canadian history that federal flags were lowered for Indigenous veterans. Other injustices remain unresolved today.
“Indigenous veterans and their families have fought throughout every step of our shared history to receive the recognition and commemoration that they deserve,” said Murray Rankin, B.C. Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, in a Tuesday statement.
“Today, we collectively recognize and remember more than 200 years of military service by Indigenous communities across the country … On this sombre day, we remember those who never came home. We also remember those who returned home forever changed by their service. Lest we forget.”
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