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| Depiction of Aboriginal, Canadian Patriotic Fund Poster, 1916 Credit: web.vui.ca/davies |
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| First Contingent Sailing from Canada, Oct 1914 Credit: Library and Archives Canada |
By October 1914 the fleet that was carrying the first of the Canadian Expeditionary Force reached Plymouth Hoe, England. Residents from the English towns and villages that surround the port city of Plymouth came out to the harbour to greet the soldiers from the distant cold colony that had come to the aid in the fight against ‘Prussian Barbarism.’
Civilians were surprised at what greeted them.
According to one Canadian officer, R.F. Haig of Fort Garry Horse Regiment, English residents were disappointed that the Canadians were not wearing feathers and
pelts, or wearing traditional headdresses. English citizens expected the Canadians of popular
literature. A country with a untamed
wild frontier, filled with proud native warriors wearing war-paint mounted on
horse back, living alongside hardworking farmers. Imagery of Canada
and the ‘noble savage’ aside; the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) sent
thousands of Aboriginal soldiers overseas during the First World War.
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| Depiction of Aboriginal, Canadian Patriotic Fund Poster, 1916 Credit: web.vui.ca/davies |
Aboriginal men had every reason not to want to fight for
Canada. In the decades leading up to 1914, officials acting on behalf of
the Crown and the Government enacted numerous laws and policies that oppressed Aboriginal
people. Similar to the Indigenous population of Australia, contact with
Europeans brought misery and hardship upon the native population. The once
proud warrior nations that hunted buffalo in the Great Plains or traversed the Great
Lakes of Ontario were brought to the brink of extinction by disease, war, and
euro-centric policies that placed First Nations people into a system of
reserves often located on unsuitable destitute land. European colonizers attempted
to take all native children away from their families and place them into
residential schools, where the children would be beaten, and in some cases
sexually assaulted by predatory clergymen; all in an effort to have the ‘Indian’
taken out of them.
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| Minister Sam Hughes Touring Arras, 1916. Credit: IWM |
Despite the systematic oppression and societal exclusion,
many Aboriginal men made the decision to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary
Force. As wards of the crown, natives
were not granted the rights of citizenship, and therefore were legally excluded
from fighting overseas. The Minister of the Militia, Sam Hughes, a xenophobic
Orangemen, tried to further discourage the recruitment of natives by stating:
“While British troops would be proud to be associated with their fellow
subjects, yet Germans might refuse to extend to them the privileges of
civilized warfare.” Many local battalion officers overlooked the Minister’s
concerns and allowed Aboriginals to enlist.
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| Map of First Nations, Central Ontario Credit: Ontario Aboriginal Affairs |
“The fighting spirit of my tribe was not quelched through reservation life. When duty called, we were there and when we were called forth to fight for the cause of civilization, our people showed all the bravery of our warriors of old.”
In Central Ontario there is several First Nations that near
Peterborough and the Kawarthas, Northumberland, and Quinte Region. Aboriginal
men from: Alderville, Curve Lake, Hiawatha, Chippewas of Rama and Georgina
Island, and Mississauga of Scuggog, and the Tyendinaga Mohawks were all eligible
to enlist in Peterborough in the No. 3 Military District.
George Paudash
George Paudash
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| George Paudash, Nov. 1914. Credit: http://21stbattalion.ca |
In the November 1914, two brothers from the Hiawatha reserve
located outside of Peterborough enlisted in the 21st Battalion
(Eastern Ontario). George Paudash, age 24; and
Johnson Paudash, age 39; were trained and quickly sent overseas. The brothers
arrived in France in the Autumn 1915, and spent several months in the M and N
trenches south of Ypres in Belgium. The men of the 21st Battalion learned to snipe, scout, and exist under shell fire at the M and N trenches.
Months later the first rotations in the lines, the 21st Battalion would be pushed into their first actual pitched fight with the enemy, at the St. Eloi Craters. After the battle of the craters, the
youngest brother, Corporal George Paudash, developed numerous abdominal pains
and was sent to hospitals in England before returning home.
George’s older brother, Johnson Paudash, would find fame as one of
Canada’s greatest snipers.
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