Indigenous veteran highlights link between residential school and military service
John Moses, a retired director of repatriation and Indigenous relations at the Canadian Museum of History, has spent a large part of his life collecting stories of Indigenous veterans — including his father.
Moses, a member of the Delaware and Upper Mohawk bands from Six Nations of the Grand River and a third-generation serviceman, is keen to highlight the link between residential school attendance and later military service — as was the case with his father, Russell Moses.
Russell attended the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., under “exceptionally severe wartime and post-wartime conditions” from 1942 to 1947.
By 1950, Russell was a member of the Canadian Navy en route to service in Korea. When he returned home, his battles were not over.
“Unfortunately, after having served abroad fighting for the liberty for other nations overseas, they came back to a situation here in Canada where they are still not afforded the same rights and benefits as other Canadian citizens,” Moses said.
Those incidents included being refused service at a bar in Hagersville, Ont., while home on leave because of his race, Moses said — adding to his father’s feeling that he was a “second-class citizen” in Canada.
