Fred Gaffen Fred Soldiers Forgotten
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FRED GAFFEN Fred Gaffen FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS ForgottenSoldiers Fred Gaffen received his honours B.A. from Carleton Univer- sity and his M.A. in history from Ottawa University. He has contributed articles to military periodicals but this is the first book he has written and illustrated on his own. His hobbies include historical research, photography, gardening, fishing and skiing. He is an historian at the Canadian War Museum. Forgotten Soldiers Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Gaffen, Fred Forgotten soldiers / Fred Gaffen. Produced for the Canadian Defence Academy Press by 17 Wing Winnipeg Publishing Office. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued by: Canadian Defence Academy. ISBN 978-1-100-10443-0 1. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Indian. 2. World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Indian. 3. Veterans- -Canada. 4. Indians of North America--Canada. I. Canadian Defence Academy II. Canada. Canadian Armed Forces. Wing, 17 III. Title. D810.I5G35 2008 940.5403 C2008-980304-3 Dedication For Canada’s Native Peoples who served in both World Wars. A Forgotten Soldier A symbolic representation of the book’s purpose: the rescue of the native veteran from oblivion in the public consciousness. Fred Stelkia depicts two mythical outriders coming to the rescue of a wounded Indian soldier. NOTE The inferences drawn and the opinions expressed are those of the author himself and he alone is responsible for the presentation of the facts as stated. Contents Contents FOREWORD.................................................................................................................................... .iii PREFACE..........................................................................................................................................vii A.RETROSPECT............................................................................................................................... iX PART.i. THE.FiRST.WORLD.WAR.............................................................................................1 PART.ii. BETWEEN.THE.WARS.................................................................................................27. PART.iii. THE.SECOND.WORLD.WAR.....................................................................................33 PART.iv. A.COMPARiSON.WiTH.NATivE.PEOPLES.iN.AUSTRALiA,.................................79 NEW.ZEALAND.AND.THE.UNiTED.STATES CONCLUSiON................................................................................................................................ .87 APPENDiCES . Appendix.A. 1918.Report.on.indians.in.the.American.Forces.by... ...Lieutenant.John.R..Eddy,.U.S..Army.................................................................91 . Appendix.B. Roll.of.Honour,.1914-1918..................................................................................95 . Appendix.C. Honours.and.Awards,.1914-1918.......................................................................115 . Appendix.D. Roll.of.Honour,..1939-1945...............................................................................117 . Appendix.E. Honours.and.Awards,.1939-1945.......................................................................133 . Appendix.F. indian.Lands.Sold.to.Soldier.Settlement.Board.and.. veterans’.Land.Administration............................................................................135 MAPS . 1). Canada................................................................................................................................Xi . 2). The.Western.Front,.1914-1918..........................................................................................Xii . 3). italy,.3.September.1943-5.February.1945............................................................................37 . 4). victory.in.Europe,.6.June.1944-8.May.1945.......................................................................41 . 5). Route.of.James.Brady,.1944-1945........................................................................................53 ABBREviATiONS........................................................................................................................... 137 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................. 139 BiBLiOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................. 141 GENERAL.iNDEX.......................................................................................................................... 147 MiLiTARY.iNDEX.......................................................................................................................... 151 i Forgotten Soldiers Foreword Foreword The decision to reprint Forgotten Soldiers began in June 2006 at the Aboriginals and the Canadian Military: Past, Present Future conference hosted by the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute of the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) in Kingston, Ontario. At the conference, one of the presenters, Major Paddy Douglass, approached the Institute with his proposal to republish a book that had gone out of print. This book, Forgotten Soldiers, was an invaluable source of individual anecdotal stories of Aboriginal participation in the First and Second World Wars. It helped greatly with the presenter’s Master’s Thesis concerning the historical interaction between the Canadian military and Aboriginal peoples. In a most objective manner, the author Fred Gaffen presents the story of the overwhelming participation of Aboriginal persons in the conflicts that helped to define Canada as a nation. It seemed that a resource such as this, in its original form, would be an essential reference for not only the Canadian Forces but for military and First Peoples historians across the country. Since the book was out of print, the author was contacted to discuss the possibility of a reprint that would help retain his work in the public domain. Great thanks are due to Mr. Gaffen for he graciously consented and promptly forwarded all the original graphic material that was still in his possession. In deference to the author, the original text was retained verbatim. The original graphics that were available have been rescanned and prepared for publication. Some of the graphics in the original printing were no longer available and have sadly been lost to this edition. Finally, the decision was made to convert from a columned to a full-page presentation that is hopefully more pleasing to the eye. This was a project that had a sometimes tenuous genesis; however it persevered on the merits of the subject matter. Thanks are due not only to the author, but to the leadership at the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute of the CDA who saw fit to fund this project as well as those who helped in keeping it on track. Finally, credit is due the dedicated personnel of the 17 Wing Publishing Office who did the painstaking groundwork that resulted in this handsome volume. Thank you all. Bernd Horn Colonel Chairman, CDA Press iii Forgotten Soldiers Opening Statements by buffy SAinte-MArie And e.A. “SMokey” SMith (these statements were the foreword to the original edition.) I hate war! I hate the idea of war. I don’t even like thinking about war; but I live in the same world you do, so I must think about it, hoping to avoid the real thing. I don’t like fighting, conflict, anger, any of it. Did you ever notice that as the politicians are getting us ready for war we are presented with movies, marching bands, art exhibits, stories of heroism and fireworks, all to psych us up to want to participate? We’re all saps to go for it. I agree that decorations and uniforms and Sousa marches can be dazzling, but I’m the one who wrote “The Universal Soldier” and “Moratorium” and other stuff deglamorizing war, and it’s clear by now that I’m scared to death of nuclear possibilities, famine, death, etc; so why am I writing a foreword to this book? Because some real human stories of our Indian people are told here, and those people happen to be soldiers or the loved ones of soldiers. I know veterans of Vietnam. They’re my relatives and my friends, and I love them. They told me about the excite- ment of getting out of their home towns and how they anticipated a trip overseas; about the patriotism in their hearts as they signed up; about their disillusionment with the realities of all they went through over there, and my heart spreads out on the ground for them. I’ve sat beside my uncles around a table or a fire or drum and heard about the Second World War and Korea – some of it was funny and – some of it was tragic. The whole point is this: I don’t like wars any better for my relatives’ stories, but I do like my relatives. And whenever I see the flag carried into the circle by a veteran, behind our eagle staff Indian flag, I’m proud of our people. And as for those of our people who were soldiers and remembered here, I wish they had all come back home. “STAR.SOLDiER” A love song to her sweetheart or husband who is leaving. It could be 1890 or 1990. Her soldier might carry a lance, or a “coup-stick”* or a briefcase full of legal documents, or simply an Eagle Feather and Medicine Bundle; his enemy is the greed of the human heart, and the prize is a living sacred peace that comes from within the culture, envelops and neutralizes the spiritual enemy, and returns to the circle of loved ones. You hear my heart is calling, calling, Calls you, calls you. Come to the one who needs you Sice