11/08/2022
We honour all who served this land.
Flags are at half mast today in their honour.
Good morning, and welcome back to school and work, everyone.
Today is National Indigenous Veterans Day, a day when we pause to remember the many young Indigenous men and women who in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and other conflicts around the world.
This is Lt. David Greyeyes Steele. Born on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan in 1914, he attended the Lebret Industrial Residential School and became a farmer. He enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1940, joining his two brothers and sister Mary - the first Indigenous woman to join the Canadian Forces when she enlisted in the Canadian Army Women's Corps - in serving overseas.
His knowledge of weapons handling made Sgt. Greyeyes-Steele and ideal instructor in machine gun reinforcement on the ground in Britain, instructing Canadians arriving from Canada so they could prepare for battle.
He spent two years overseas and returned to Canada for officers' training at the Western Officers' Training Centre, before returning to Britain as a Lieutenant as part of the Saskatoon Light Infantry.
He also served in Greece and was awarded the Greek War Cross, and returned to the Muskeg Lake Cree First Nation after the war to resume farming. He was made Chief in 1958, and had a long career in the federal government, eventually leading the Alberta, Maritime, and Saskatchewan regions of the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. He died in 1996.
You can read more about David Greyeyes-Steele's remarkable life at canadianencyclopedia.ca.
Photo of Lt. David Greyeyes-Steele from the Department of National Defence.