Warriors of the King: Prairie Indians in World War I by L. James Dempsey (review)

692 The Canadian Historical Review The other disappointment is the diary itsel£ Although the editors claim that Edwards's daily entries make for compelling reading, many key issues related to the treaty process are never mentioned. Edwards says little, ifanything, about how the First Nations ofthe region regarded the treaty and what exactly was said on the questions oftaxation, schools, and military service. And although he was sent north with the treaty party to attend to the medical needs ofthe Aboriginal peoples, Edwards provides no detailed assessment ofthe general health ofthe Aboriginal population and the diseases and affiictions from which they suffered. This kind of information would have been instructive, given the widespread deprivation that local missionaries and Hudson's Bay Company employees had reported in the region in the 1880s. What is interesting, though, is how Edwards compares the northern Indians to his charges on the Prairies. He finds the Dene to be 'a repulsive lot ... bleary eyed course featured dirty lot ... nothing but the highest of aims would lead anyone to live and work among them.' He was equally critical and dismissive ofthe Metis ofthe region. Edwards travelled with a camera and took photographs at every opportunity along the route. There is a wonderful picture, for example, oftreaty commission head J.A. Macrae speaking through an interpreter to a small dutch oflndians at Fort Vermilion. Yet, surprisingly, less than halfthe pictures used to illustrate the text were taken by Edwards. Nor is there any attempt to analyze how the photographs supplement the text and what they have to say about the man behind the lens. Finally, someone should inform the editors how to spell Wilfrid Laurier - his friends did not call him Fred - and remind them that his government remained in office until 1911, not 1909. BILL WAISER University ofSaskatchewan Warriors ofthe King: Prairie Indians in World War I. L. JAMES DEMPSEY. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center 1999. Pp. 123, illus. $19.95 This modest book adds an interesting chapter to the burgeoning literature on Canada's involvement in the world wars of the last century. Dempsey's focus is on the four hundred or so Prairie Indians who enlisted in the armed forces during the 1914-18 war, three-quarters of whom served overseas. He examines the reasons for enlistment, the experience on the front, and the impact of this effort on Native society when peace returned. · The reasons for enlistment were threefold, according to Dempsey. First there was the survival of a warrior ethic among the Plains tribes which several decades of reserve life and schooling had failed to eradi- Book Reviews 693 cate. The war provided an outlet for this ethic; allowing young men to prove their worth as warriors. Second, the war offered an unprecedented opportunity for travel and adventure to a generation confined by the poverty and boredom ofreserve life and constrained by the routines of residential schooling. Indeed, many recruits came directly from the schools. Third was the curiously sentimental attachment to the British monarch on whose behalf the western treaties had been signed. King George needed his Indian allies and they answered his call to arms. The most significant part of this book deals with the recruitment process and the attitudes and policies surrounding it. Status Indians, deprived ofcitizenship, were not obliged to serve in the forces, even after conscription was imposed in 1917. Initially, the Department of Indian Affairs discouraged enlistment; after all, its officials had been trying to suppress the warrior ethic for generations. But with the slaughter on the Western Front and the growing need for more cannon fodder, such concerns quickly disappeared. By December 1915 Indian Affairs was actively supporting recruitment. Interestingly enough, Native Elders generally opposed the enlistment oftheir young men. They understood that the war had nothing to do with Canada and that the country was in no way endangered by the conflict. In this, they showed far more wisdom than the nation's political leaders. This is a military history and, inevitably, there is attention to tales of gallantry and heroism in the tradition of the Vimy Ridge school of mythology. We learn oflndians who equalled their non-Native companions in their prowess at...