He Fought for Canada, But Was Never Given the Same Freedom at Home: Remembering Corporal Alexander Brass
November 8 – Indigenous Veterans Day
November 8 – Indigenous Veterans Day
By Joshua Brass Fraser | IndigPoli
There is a photograph I keep coming back to.
It is a photograph of Cree men from the File Hills community in Saskatchewan, some in military uniform, others gathered alongside them. Among the men identified in the photograph is my great-grandfather, Corporal Alexander Brass.
He is there. His name is there.
Alexander Brass 3rd Row, L-R: Fourth Position
For generations, Indigenous people have contributed to Canada's military history. Many volunteered to serve in wars overseas, fought alongside Canadians and made extraordinary sacrifices. Yet their stories have often been overlooked, and the treatment they received when they returned home is a chapter of Canadian history that deserves far more attention.
For me, this isn't simply a historical discussion.
It's family.
On Indigenous Veterans Day, I want to tell the story of my great-grandfather, Alexander Brass. His life connects the First World War, Peepeekisis Cree Nation, the File Hills Colony Experiment and the policies that continued to restrict First Nations people long after the war ended.
His story is about courage and service. It is also about promises, lost opportunities and the contradiction of fighting for a country that did not recognize you as an equal.
Indigenous people answered the call
Indigenous people have served in Canada's military for generations.
During the First World War, thousands of First Nations men volunteered for military service. Estimates indicate that more than 4,000 Indigenous people enlisted, with approximately one-third of First Nations men of military age volunteering.
They served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and participated in some of the most difficult battles of the war.They were soldiers, scouts, snipers, interpreters and members of support units.
They brought their skills, knowledge and courage to the battlefield.
But there was a contradiction that followed many of these men.
They were prepared to defend Canada, even while their own communities were subjected to government control, discrimination and restrictions under the Indian Act.
That contradiction would become particularly apparent when they returned home.
PHOTO: Alexander Brass Attestation. Military Record: (Canadian War Project)Corporal Alexander Brass: A farmer, an interpreter and a soldier
My great-grandfather, Alexander Brass, was connected to the File Hills community in Saskatchewan and Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
According to our family's oral history, Alexander was brought into the community to serve as an interpreter. Through the government's process, he became one of the men associated with the File Hills Colony Experiment.
He became a farmer.
And by what has been passed down through our family, he was a very good one.
To understand Alexander's life, we need to understand what the File Hills Colony actually was.
Established under Indian Agent William Morris Graham beginning in 1898, the File Hills Scheme brought graduates of government industrial schools to Peepeekisis to establish farms. The stated objective was to extend their agricultural training and encourage assimilation into non-Indigenous society.
PHOTO: WILLIAM MORRIS GRAHAM, INDIAN AGENT
The government viewed the colony as an experiment in Indigenous agricultural development.But there was another side to that story.
The colony was established on Peepeekisis reserve land without the informed consent of the original Band. Agricultural lots were allocated to people who originally belonged to other First Nations, and the population and membership of the community were fundamentally changed.
Its 2004 report documented how the Department of Indian Affairs supported Graham's scheme and how the original members gradually lost control over their own reserve.
This was not simply a farming initiative.
It changed the land, membership, governance and identity of Peepeekisis.
And Alexander's story unfolded within that environment.
From the File Hills to the battlefields of Europe
Alexander eventually enlisted in the Canadian military.
Historical accounts connect him to the 68th Battalion Band Corps before his transfer to the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, known as the Fighting Fifth.
He served in Belgium and France during the First World War.
In 1917, during the fighting at Passchendaele, he was wounded.
Accounts of his service describe him remaining wounded in the trenches for four days before being transported for medical treatment. His injuries affected him for the rest of his life.
He eventually returned to Canada in 1919.
Alexander was a decorated soldier.
There is something important about the experience of Indigenous men who served overseas that deserves more attention. For many, military service provided an environment where their abilities, courage and contributions were recognized alongside those of other Canadians.
They were soldiers.
They were comrades.
They were trusted with responsibilities that demanded extraordinary courage.
Our family oral history tells us that Alexander was promised land of his own outside the reserve in recognition of his military service and decorations.
Think about what that would have meant to a young farmer.
Land represented independence, economic opportunity and the ability to determine his own future.
It was something he had worked hard for.
Yet returning home would reveal that the equality he experienced in uniform did not necessarily follow him back to Canada.
The Indian pass system: A veteran who needed permission to travel
One of the most difficult parts of this history is understanding the Indian pass system.
After the 1885 North-West Resistance, federal Indian Affairs officials began enforcing restrictions on First Nations people's movement on and off reserves.
The pass system required First Nations people to obtain written permission from an Indian Agent before leaving their reserve.
There was no legislation formally establishing this system. It was an administrative practice enforced by government officials and, in some circumstances, police.
But the absence of legislation did not mean the absence of control.
An Indian Agent could exercise considerable authority over a person's ability to travel, visit family, seek employment, attend gatherings or conduct business outside the reserve.
The system was designed to restrict movement and maintain government control over First Nations communities.
According to our family history, Alexander experienced the contradiction of returning from military service having been treated as an equal among his fellow soldiers, only to return to a country where his freedom of movement remained restricted because he was First Nations.
Imagine that.
You can travel across an ocean to fight in a world war, but when you return home, you may need written permission from a government official to leave your own community.
That is not equality.
And it is an important part of the story of Indigenous veterans that Canada needs to confront.
William Morris Graham and the File Hills Colony
We also need to talk about William Morris Graham.
His name appears repeatedly in the history of Peepeekisis.
He was the Indian Agent responsible for establishing the File Hills Colony, and the 2004 Indian Claims Commission report documents his extensive authority over the lives and affairs of the community.
The farming colony was presented as a successful government experiment. Its agricultural production and the achievements of its farmers were used to demonstrate the supposed success of the government's assimilation policies.
But what did that success look like for the original Peepeekisis families?
The historical record tells us that reserve land was subdivided and allocated to newcomers, that the original members were increasingly marginalized, and that the government's actions fundamentally changed the community.
Family accounts also describe an Indian Agent who treated First Nations people poorly in their everyday lives, yet presented the community differently when royalty or other important visitors came to the area.
There is a distinction worth remembering between what government officials wanted visitors to see and what community members experienced.
A successful farming operation could be displayed as evidence of government progress, while the people living within that system continued to experience restrictions on their independence and rights.
That is an important part of understanding the File Hills Colony.
The land question: Who benefited when Indigenous soldiers returned?
There is another historical issue that makes Alexander's experience particularly important.
It concerns the treatment of returning Indigenous veterans and the transfer of First Nations reserve lands for non-Indigenous soldier settlement.
A June 1988 article published in Saskatchewan Indian, titled "Indian Land Was Lost for Non-Indian Soldier Settlement," documents how reserve lands across Western Canada were surrendered or acquired for the settlement of non-Indigenous veterans following the First World War.
Historian Sarah Carter examined this policy in her research, "An Infamous Proposal: Prairie Indian Reserve Land and Soldier Settlement after World War I."
Her research documents how the federal government actively pursued the acquisition of reserve land for non-Indigenous returning soldiers.
More than 85,000 acres of Indian reserve land across Western Canada were acquired for non-Indigenous soldier settlement in the years following the war.
The contradiction is difficult to ignore.
First Nations men had volunteered to fight for Canada. Yet Indigenous veterans did not enjoy equivalent access to the land settlement opportunities available to many other returning soldiers.
Some received limited assistance through Indian Affairs, while others faced restrictions that made accessing the same opportunities extremely difficult.
The government was prepared to facilitate access to reserve lands for non-Indigenous veterans, while Indigenous veterans continued to face a system that restricted their economic independence.
For Alexander, this issue is particularly meaningful.
Our family history tells us he had been promised land of his own outside the reserve in recognition of his military service.
We should be careful not to assume that the broader soldier settlement policy explains exactly what happened to his individual land promise. His personal circumstances require their own documentation.
But the wider policy tells us something important about the environment into which he returned.
He had served.
He had been wounded.
He had earned recognition.
And he still faced a system that did not offer First Nations veterans the same opportunities as other Canadians.
The children of File Hills: Another part of the same history
There is another part of the File Hills history that cannot be separated from the broader experience of Peepeekisis and neighbouring communities.
The File Hills Indian Residential School operated from 1889 until 1949.
Children from Peepeekisis, Okanese, Star Blanket and other neighbouring communities attended the institution.
The school was part of the residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families, languages, cultures and communities.
The children were subjected to institutional discipline and forced assimilation. Historical accounts also document inadequate food, illness, unsafe conditions and the use of student labour.
Research published through the University of Regina's Shattering the Silence project helps document this history.
I also want to recognize the work of members of our own community who have researched and written about the File Hills experience.
These are not simply academic subjects.
They are our families.
They are our Elders.
They are the experiences that shaped the community generations before us.
The Colony Experiment, the residential school system and the pass system were distinct policies and institutions, but they operated within the same broader colonial framework.
Understanding one helps us understand the environment in which the others operated.
The photograph that brings this history home
I keep coming back to that photograph.
The historical image of the File Hills Colony soldiers and their families, dating to approximately 1916–1917, identifies Alexander Brass by name.
He is listed in the third row, among the men who served.
Seeing his name in that historical record means something to me.
For many Indigenous families, historical photographs have been passed down without complete identification. Names and stories can disappear over time.
But here we have an archival record connecting Alexander to his community and his military service.
He was not just another soldier in a photograph.
He was my great-grandfather.
And his story deserves to be told.
Remembering Corporal Alexander Brass
When I think about Alexander, I think about more than his military service.
I think about the interpreter who came to Peepeekisis.
I think about the farmer who worked the land.
I think about the soldier who crossed the ocean and fought in Europe.
I think about the injuries he carried home.
And I think about the promises of opportunity and independence that our family remembers, set against the reality of the government restrictions he continued to face.
His life is connected to a much larger history of Indigenous people who served Canada while their own rights and freedoms remained restricted.
That is why Indigenous Veterans Day matters.
It gives us an opportunity to recognize the First Nations, Inuit and Métis veterans who served in the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, peacekeeping missions and military operations around the world.
It also reminds us that military service does not end when a soldier comes home.
Families and communities carry those experiences forward. They remember the sacrifices, the injuries, the losses and the challenges of rebuilding a life.
We owe those veterans more than a ceremonial thank-you.
We owe them the truth about their history.
Today, I honour my great-grandfather, Corporal Alexander Brass.
I honour Peepeekisis Cree Nation and the generations of families who have carried these stories forward.
I honour all Indigenous veterans who served this country, and those who
___________________________________________________
There is much more to this story.
I have much more to share about my great-grandfather, Corporal Alexander Brass, the File Hills Colony Experiment, the Indian Agent, the Canadian government and the policies that shaped the lives of our families and communities.
This is also a personal journey for me. It is about understanding where my family came from, what our ancestors experienced, what was taken from our communities, and how that history continues to shape who we are today.
These stories deserve to be told. Not just through government records and historical documents, but through the voices, memories and experiences of the families who lived them.
This is only the beginning.
Stay tuned. There is much more of this history to uncover, share and remember.
