November 8 marks Indigenous Veterans Day, a memorial day for Indigenous contributions to Canadian military service.
Veterans, Elders and community members from the shíshálh Nation gathered to remember those who sacrificed their lives and reflected on the historical challenges faced by Indigenous veterans.
The ceremony began with a burning, Alfonso (Sito) Salinas welcomed the crowd and sang and drummed while Frank and Beverly Dixon prepared plates of food and placed them on the pyre.
After the flames went out and the coals were raked the ceremony moved inside where hiwus and veteran, Warren Paull, said their veterans “saw a need that transcended race.”
“The sacrifice must always be remembered. What they fought for and what they believed in was everybody in this group, everybody outside in the greater community,” Paull said. “Because they realized that if they didn't step in, A, we would be speaking a different language, and B, we would be preaching our prayer to a different god.”
Paull laid a wreath at the base of the pole outside the Nation’s CMS building, which Sito explained was created by master carver, Jamie Jeffries.
Once the wreath was placed, a moment of silence was recognized.
shíshálh Nation’s cultural ambassador kway?imin Andy Johnson led a group of youth singers who performed a song to remember their soldiers.
lhe hiwus yalxwemult (Chief Lenora Joe) said, “It's such an honour to be here with everybody to celebrate our Indigenous veterans … We've heard lots of different stories that have been shared specifically around our languages, from not being able to speak our language to winning the war because of our language.
“They sacrificed a huge part of who they were and their lives, and we will always be grateful, and we want to make sure that we're always honouring them in every way that we can not just today, every day,” she said.
hehiwus (councillor) Ch’elkwilwet Raquel Joe highlighted the sacrifice Indigenous people made to even be able to join the army.
“In order for them to go, they had to strip their status number away, strip it away because they weren't allowed to fight for Canada being First Nations, and when they came back, they couldn't get their status card number back, they couldn't get their First Nation status back,” Ch’elkwilwet said. “Some First Nations were in the middle. They weren't Canadian, they weren't First Nations because they didn't have that number, some First Nations were banned from their community for abandoning their status to go fight for Canada.
“I put my hands up to the ones that fought for Canada, fought for us, and their bravery, their strength, their resiliency to come back. Some of them were prisoners of war. Some of them died over there, and they're still over there, so we have to think of those ones that didn't come back,” she said.
shíshálh Nation also posted a video on their Facebook page, sharing stories and insights from the community.
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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