Aboriginal Participation in Canadian Military Service: Historic and Contemporary Contexts

John Moses

SEE ALSO:

John Moses, Donald Graves and Warren Sinclair. A Sketch Account of Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian Military. Department of National Defence Canada, 2004.
http://www.dnd.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/Official_Histories/sketch_e.pdf

Notes

---

1. Terminology: In this paper Aboriginal is used as per its definition under the Constitution Act 1982 s.35 as an inclusive term identifying the Indian, Inuit and Metis populations of Canada. Indian continues in legal usage insofar as there remains in force the federal legislation of the Indian Act and the continuing mandate of the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Indian also remains in use within significant Aboriginal constituencies themselves, notably across the prairie provinces, as with the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College and the Indian Association of Alberta. First Nations is used as a more contemporary equivalent (dating from 1980) identifying status Indians (and their ancestral populations) , especially those communities of status Indians residing on Indian reserves, who are the principal participants in current comprehensive land claims negotiations and litigation presently before the courts. Status Indians are those Aboriginal persons who are legally recognized as Indians within the meaning of the Indian Act.
   
2. Dukelow, D., Dictionary of Canadian Law, Scarborough: Carswell, 1995, p 1097.
   
3. Leslie, John, "The Bagot Commission: Developing a Corporate Memory for the Indian Department", Historical Papers: A Selection from the Papers Presented at the Annual Meeting Held at Ottawa, 1982, Ottawa: 1982, p 51.
   
4. Stevenson, Michael D., "The Mobilisation of Native Canadians During the Second World War", Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 1996, New Series, Vol.7, pp 210-211.
   
5. St.G. Walker, James W., "Race and Recruitment in World War One: Enlistment of Visible Minorities in the Canadian Expeditionary Force", Canadian Historical Review, LXX, 1, 1989, 16.
   
6. Stevenson, "Mobilisation of Native Canadians", pp 208-211.
   
7. Ibid, p 224.
   
8. Weaver, Sally M., "The Iroquois: The Grand River Reserve in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, 1875-1945" in Rogers, Edward S. and Donald B. Smith, Eds. Aboriginal Ontario: Historical Perspectives on the First Nations, Toronto: Dundurn Press Ltd., 1994, p 246.
   
9. Walker, St.G. James, "Race and Recruitment in World War One", p 14.
   
10. Sheffield, R. Scott, "Of Pure European Descent and of the White Race: Recruitment Policy and Aboriginal Canadians, 1939-1945", Canadian Military History, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1996, pp. 10-11.
    
11. The Senate of Canada, The Aboriginal Soldier After the Wars: Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, the Hon. Raynell Andreychuk, Chair and the Hon. Len Marchand, Deputy Chair, Ottawa: The Senate of Canada, 1995, 17.
    
12. Ibid, 3.
    
13. Stevenson, "Mobilisation of Native Canadians", p 226.
    
14. Carlson, Keith Thor, Ed., You Are Asked to Witness: The Sto:lo in Canada's Pacific Coast History, Chilliwack: Sto:lo Heritage Trust, 1997, p 137.