'A Flag that Knows No Colour Line': Aboriginal Veteranship in Canada, 1914-1939

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dc.contributor.advisorWicken, William Craig
dc.creatorMacdowall, Brian Robert
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-01T13:50:00Z
dc.date.available2018-03-01T13:50:00Z
dc.date.copyright2017-06-08
dc.date.issued2018-03-01
dc.date.updated2018-03-01T13:50:00Z
dc.degree.disciplineHistory
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractHistorians have rightly considered the period from 1914 to 1939 as the time when Canadian Indigenous soldiers and veterans of the First World War faced unique challenges because of their legal status as Indians. But their acceptance of the idea that Indigenous veterans were victims of discrimination has led them to overlook the unique nature of these Indigenous peoples identities as Indians and veterans. The prevailing assumption is that Indigenous veterans were not an influential group politically, socially, or culturally and Indigenous veterans political awakening occurred only in the mid-1940s. This study contends that Indigenous veterans relationship with the state in the interwar period was more complicated than previously thought. Their war service created a fundamentally different and important legal relationship with the state from other soldiers or Indigenous peoples. Military service suspended soldiers Indian status temporarily, and this experience created a new set of expectations for Indigenous men upon their return home. As veterans, they expected material benefit and recognition for their sacrifices, and support for killed or wounded soldiers and their families. These expectations did not fit with government officials understanding that Indigenous men returning from the war would re-integrate into their communities as Indians and wards of the state. The dissertation offers an overview of Indigenous war service in the context of debates over status and citizenship, and then sketches how these debates informed developments in soldiers demobilization, re-establishment, re-integration, and restoration. Through the examination of Indigenous soldiers service records, pension and Soldier Settlement case files, and government records, this work argues that Indigenous soldiers and veterans experience from 1914 through 1939 should not be seen primarily as victims of the state, but rather as a group whose complicated identity of Indian and veteran, and as citizens, began to coalesce.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/34281
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous
dc.subject.keywordsIndigeneity
dc.subject.keywordsAboriginal
dc.subject.keywordsIndian
dc.subject.keywordsFirst Nation
dc.subject.keywordsWar
dc.subject.keywordsMilitary
dc.subject.keywordsService
dc.subject.keywordsCitizenship
dc.subject.keywordsSoldiers
dc.subject.keywordsSoldiering
dc.subject.keywordsMobilization
dc.subject.keywordsDemobilization
dc.subject.keywordsConscription
dc.subject.keywordsMilitary Service Act
dc.subject.keywordsVeterans
dc.subject.keywordsVeteranship
dc.subject.keywordsCanada
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian
dc.subject.keywordsFirst World War
dc.subject.keywordsWorld War One
dc.subject.keywordsWW1
dc.subject.keywordsSoldier Settlement
dc.subject.keywordsPension
dc.subject.keywordsLast Post Fund
dc.subject.keywordsWar Veterans Allowance
dc.subject.keywordsGWVA
dc.subject.keywordsLegion
dc.subject.keywordsDepartment of Indian Affairs
dc.subject.keywordsDIA
dc.subject.keywordsDuncan Campbell Scott
dc.subject.keywordsDeskaheh
dc.subject.keywordsF.O. Loft
dc.subject.keywordsSix Nations
dc.subject.keywordsEnfranchisement
dc.subject.keywordsDisenfranchisement
dc.subject.keywordsTreaties
dc.title'A Flag that Knows No Colour Line': Aboriginal Veteranship in Canada, 1914-1939
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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