www.militarysupport.ca 151 14 15 16 17 18 The GreatWar When Britain declared war onAugust 4th 1914, Canada, eager to defend the mother country, found itself drawn into the conflict. Many First Nation communities and leaders openly declared their loyalty and sought avenues to exemplify their allegiance to Canada and the Crown. At the time the Indigenous population was around 103,774 people. It is estimated that around 4,000, or one in three able bodied men, volunteered to fight; of that number, approximately 300 died. Indigenous soldiers faced much resistance from the government. The prejudices they faced ranged from a thought that they would not be able to fight in a modern war, that the German Kaiser would complain, to fears of training and arming Indigenous people. Still many young men were not deterred and joined the military. Indigenous troops encountered a double cultural barrier in the military: the racial prejudice, and a military hierarchy that worked almost exclusively in English, a language many Indigenous recruits did not speak. At the outbreak of the GreatWar First Nation individuals were exempt from conscription First Nation SoldiersBy Markus Fahrner
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