Aboriginal Soldiers In Canada

Canada, who was under the British Empire, was automatically involved in the world 's first greatest war from 1914 to 1918. It was a bloody time period not only for our fellow Canadian soldiers but for all of the men who courageously fought to make their country proud. Over 600,000 men and women bravely enlisted. Among these numbers, over 4,000 Aboriginal Peoples, between the ages of 18-45, voluntarily enlisted, served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, and tremendously contributed to the war effort. Many of the non-Aboriginal soldiers understood and treated Aboriginals as equals during the time they spent together in the battlefield. However, this did not mean receiving full equality. Many Aboriginal soldiers were still severely discriminated against in the army and their treatment got worse after the war ended despite their contributions. Due to their status as a "second class," the lives of Aboriginal veterans negatively changed because of the prejudiced treatment they received.

This was formed by a veteran named Frederick Ogilvie Loft from the Six Nations River reserve, who could not stand his fellow Aboriginal comrades to continuously be looked down upon by the government and the people. He was able to share his frustration and difficulties he faced with other Aboriginal veterans such as bad conditions living on the reserves, limited hunting rights and property. He wanted to know why they were still being treated this way and why the government put restrictions on them. This all eventually led to his founding of the League of Indians of Canada to maintain rights of Aboriginal veterans, improve conditions on their reserves and to get rid of the Indian Act that was put upon the Aboriginals across Canada. Unfortunately, the league failed to accomplish its goals because of problems that arose during the interwar