world war 1

1914-1918

21,104 Engaged

1,329 Deaths in service

Let's start by debunking myths. It is said and admitted everywhere that an estimated 20 to 30% of the adult Indian male population served the army, compared to 15% for the rest of the population. It is also said that Native Americans suffered more casualties, 5% compared to 1% for the US Expeditionary Force.

This table below will give you the true values, with concrete figures, showing that the official data and / or copied everywhere are not necessarily accurate! Overall, the data is substantially the same. It must be remembered that more than half of the Aboriginal people who died in service died of disease.

Take note, that concerning the male population, the totality of the men was taken into account since it is impossible to know the number of adult men by race in the censuses.

The data on the Native American soldiers come from my research and are those identified to date.

Civilian population censuses are derived from the official censuses of 1910 for the United States, and 1911 for Canada.

Censuses for soldiers are based on official data from the Veterans' Ministries of Canada and the United States.

Canada figures include Newfoundland and the United States includes Alaska.

The problem with the theory of the Amerindians having had more losses, are the figures advanced. The 1% reported is from Russel L Barsh's work, but without accurate data. Did he only include those who died as a result of the enemy action? (dead wounds, killed in action, missing), or 53,402 soldiers for the American Corps? we are talking about 1.12% here, but we must therefore include the same data for the Amerindians, ie 210 soldiers (1.44%).

In the same vein, the 5% of Amerindian losses announced should include total losses for the US Corps, ie 320,518 soldiers dead and wounded (6.76%)

In summary, we can not rely on the data from Barsh, since they do not compare with the same bases and provide no precise figure.

June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are murdered in Sarajevo. It follows a game of alliance that leads Europe to kill each other. In August 1914, the United Kingdom and its empire entered the war; de facto, Canada is involved; but this one is not ready for a modern war. Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia, declared in July 1914, however, that the Dominion was able to send 20,000 to 25,000 men overseas from the outset.

On October 3, 1914, 32 ships set off for Europe. 33,000 men and 7,000 horses make up the largest armed force ever to cross the Atlantic. A 33rd ship joined the flotilla two days later, carrying the men of Newfoundland, then independent of Canada.

They enter the English soil from 14 October 1914 and continue to undergo military training there.

On February 7, 1915, the Canadian Division left Salisbury camp in the direction of the front and landed at St Nazaire. Arrived February 14, 1915 in the region of Hazebrouck, the first soldiers receive their baptism of fire from February 18, 1915.

For these first fights, the Canadian division has 17,873 men and 4,943 horses. How many of them are Native Americans? The exact figure is unknown but the number of medals "star of 1914" received gives us already a hint: 92!

From the beginning of the war, in August 1914, in spite of the close relations which united his country to the United Kingdom member of the Entente, the president of the United States, the democrat Wilson, proclaimed the American neutrality.

At the beginning of 1917, two events finally tipped the United States into the war alongside the Entente: Germany's declaration of "underwater warfare", which extended the submarine warfare to neutral ships trading with the Entente and completing the compromise of the liberty of the seas; and the interception by the British Intelligence Service of a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Zimmermann to his ambassador in Mexico City, asking him to negotiate an alliance with Mexico against the United States.

In the absence of military service, the US military had only 200,000 volunteer soldiers, not at all prepared to be engaged in the war raging in Europe since 1914.

They had to order conscription, recruit, equip, train in combat, transport and supply an increasingly important expeditionary force in Europe.

The prospect of "Red Skin" participation automatically referred to torture and scalp custom - all practices that were completely unacceptable under the rules of war set out in the Geneva Convention that the major European powers had ratified in 1906. Ottawa therefore decided, as a result, not to accept aboriginal volunteers, on the grounds that "even if British soldiers would be proud to be associated with their fellow subjects of the Crown, the Germans could refuse to grant them the privileges of civil war. By the time Ottawa developed this wording, however, many Aboriginal people had already enlisted and many recruiting militia units either ignored the ban or decided not to consider it.

The craze for war will be quite fast among the first nations. The Mohawks of Ontario already form a complete regiment within the Canadian militia, the 37th Haldimand Rifles Regiment and many others serve the militia across Canada, not to mention the veterans of the Boer War.

Select Draft Act and Conscription:

The Selective Service Act of 1917 or the Selective Draft Act authorized the United States Federal Government to raise a national army to serve in the First World War through conscription. It was considered in December 1916 and brought to the attention of President Woodrow Wilson shortly after the break in relations with Germany in February 1917. 
At the time of the First World War, the US military was small compared to the mobilized armies of the European powers. In 1914, the regular army numbered less than 100,000 men, while the National Guard had about 115,000 men. By 1916, it had become clear that any US involvement in the conflict in Europe would require a much larger army. While President Wilson first wanted to use only volunteer troops, it soon became clear that it would be impossible. When the war was declared, Wilson asked the army to increase to one million soldiers. But six weeks after the declaration of war, only 73,000 men volunteered for the service.

According to the guidelines established by the Selective Service Act, all men between the ages of 21 and 30 had to register and eventually be selected for military service. At the request of the War Department, Congress amended the law in August 1918 to extend the age range to all men aged 18 to 45 years. At the end of the First World War, some two million men volunteered for various branches of the armed forces and some 2.8 million men had been conscripted. This means that more than half of the 4.8 million Americans who served in the armed forces were conscripted. A total of 24.8 million men were enrolled in the Select Service Act at the end of the war.

Similarly, a total of 37,550 Amerindians were registered for the Select Service Act. The figure of 17,313 is also advanced, derived from the work of Jennings C Wise, but they would include only those with American citizenship. In reality, 6,009 of them were conscripted.

If there was no doubt about the status of an Indian, he should be classified as a non-citizen. As a result, when several young people on Pala reserve wish to register, the Superintendent informs the band council of their exemption from registration. The council responded that the youth were eager to register and train and did not care about being exempted.

As the war dragged on, the superintendents told the Indians that they could give up their non-citizen status. They also had to be assured that the registration of an Indian did not involve him in military service and that only those without dependents would be called.

Judging by the records of Indian affairs after the war, many soldiers had dependents and failed physical tests. Nearly two-thirds of the conscripts on the Seger Indian Reserve failed the physical test, as did three-quarters of the Winnebagos, who nonetheless overwhelmingly volunteered for the 6th Nebraska Infantry.

The exemption rules did not apply to Indians living off-reserve and there was no simple legal test to determine the status of citizenship for Indians. It took several guidelines from the Indian Affairs Bureau. The language also played an important role and it was only after the MID9lg8 directive and several cases of desertions, due to a lack of understanding, that the Indian Affairs Office began to recruit interpreters for registration and pensions.

There was also a serious incident against conscription in the last days of the war. In June 1917, efforts to register the Navajo and Utes were suspended after many Indians began a war dance and promised to burn the town of Ignacio in Colorado. The following year, some 200 Creeks, unhappy that their sons were conscripted, Armed and killed 3 farmers, before engaging a skirmish with the local militia.

The most controversial issue among Aboriginal peoples in Canada during the two world wars was conscription, and they felt that military service should not be imposed on them. In 1917, after the vivid Canadian Corps victory at Vimy Ridge, the federal government, which was desperately short of troops overseas, decided that conscription had become necessary. When the Military Service Act is originally drafted, the government authorities do not provide anything for the particular case of the Indians.

Indian communities are quick to respond, and the avalanche of letters from Indians and Indian agents demanding that registered Indians be exempted from conscription takes the Department of Indian Affairs by surprise. "I do not know of any general motive for removing or exempting Indians from military service," said DC Scott at first, which means that Indians, just like anyone else in Canada, will be conscripted.

Finally, the sustained pressure of Aboriginal people to the government is bearing fruit. The Cabinet, by a decree (CP 111) which it promulgated on January 17, 1918, exempts the Indians to the application of the Law of the Military Service . Indians may, however, be called upon to play a non-combatant role in Canada, but this decree will make it easier for them to apply for service, industry, or agriculture. Registered Indians will eventually be conscripted and sent to Europe in support units, medical, forestry or railway. Some people like Amickons Vincent, from the Golden Lake Band in Ontario, will even be sent to the front line and injured.

In all, nearly 1,000 aboriginal Canadians will be conscripted.

Most Native Americans enlisted for the same reasons as other Canadians and Americans - patriotism, a taste for adventure, or simply for a steady income - but the "warrior spirit" still existed among some tribes, particularly in those of the most remote regions.

The elders took care to get the young people to join the empire and the motherland In Ontario, Chief FM Jacobs of Sarnia, told Duncan Campbell, Deputy Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, that his people were willing to bring assistance to the mother country in the struggle it is waging in Europe. The Indian race is, in principle, loyal to England; this loyalty was created by the most noble Queen who ever lived, Queen Victoria. "

It is a fact, Amerindians took part in the First World War to a degree as big as whites, and this had a significant impact on their place within nations.

Recruits from isolated communities face language barriers from the moment they begin training in larger centers. Some, such as Anishnaabe William Semia from Northern Ontario - who travel more than 400 kilometers to enlist - still have the chance to meet other Aboriginal recruits who are undergoing basic training and who are able to help them. Semia finally mastered English and he will fight in the muddy trenches of Passchendaele.

Community support was not unanimous; some band councils refused to help the allied war effort unless Britain recognized it as an independent nation.

SERVICE OVERSEAS:

All the engaged soldiers did not serve outside the American continent. Of the 5.3 million North Americans who served the armed forces, just over 2.4 million served overseas.

Of the 21,104 Indians, just under 7,000 will serve overseas.

The front being mainly in Europe, it is logical to find the Amerindian soldiers in France and Belgium. Some graves are found in the UK and Canada due to injury and illness, but why are there graves in Turkey and Egypt? David Arthur Bernard, a member of the Oweekayno Reserve Band, British Columbia, ordered a transport vessel on the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. Sapper Bolduc Joseph Telesphore, Cree from Quebec, enlisted on June 21, 1916 in a construction battalion and was sent to France until June 1918. In September 1918, his unit was transferred to the Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia and sent to to Palestine. He will not go to his destination, Sapper Bolduc will die of malaria on October 25, 1918 at the age of 34 years. He is buried in Alexandria, Egypt.

The case of Sergeant Michelin Joseph, Inuit of Newfoundland is also heroic. Enlisted in December 1914 in the Newfoundland regiment, he fought in Gallipoli, Turkey, where he was wounded for the first time. His unit was transferred to the French front, and found himself wounded a second time during the Battle of Gueudecourt. Demobilizing for medical reasons in April 1917 and returning to Canada, he joined again in December 1917 in the Canadian Forestry Corps and served until the end of the war.

Mcmaster William Donald, Colville, was one of the US Marines sent to Haiti to fight an insurgency.

Alex Graham, Santee Sioux, was one of those thousands of Indians who served in the navy to help with the convoy effort and the destruction of German submarines. First class firefighter Clarence W Bizer, Lummi, served on three different ships and fought submarines five times. Third Class Officer Juan Devilla, Mission Indian, reports that his convoy was attacked twice by a submarine on his trip from Cuba to Virginia.

To the surprise of many commanders, Indian soldiers easily adapt to complex equipment and learning other languages ??and are brave soldiers, here are some examples:

Joe Young Hawk, who is the son of one of the Arikara scouts who served Custer, was wounded and taken prisoner. He escaped after killing three of his guards and captured two others. Despite his bullet wounds on both knees, he managed to bring the 2 German prisoners back to the American lines.

In August 1917, during the Battle of Hill 70, north of Lens, Private Andrew Anderson, Indian Cree of Punnichy, Saskatchewan, won the Military Medal. On August 15, 1917, Private Anderson accompanied Major Warren through No Man's Land, under unusually heavy fire. He helped lay out the trenches of communications that were to be dug and carried out this task despite the shells that were bursting all around him. His absolute disregard for danger was a magnificent example of coolness and determination. Later, during the same mission, he transported casualties from the area of ??fire and, throughout the engagement, provided invaluable assistance to the mission group and the wounded.

Dan Pearson of the Metlakatla Band (British Columbia) was awarded the Military Medal, and Edwin Victor Cook of Alert Bay was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. None of them, unfortunately, survived the war: Pearson succumbed to pneumonia and Cook was killed in action.

A Mi'kmaq from Quebec, Jerome Frank Narcisse, received his first military medal for his action from 27 to 30 November 1917 near Avion, where he repelled 2 enemy attacks while he was wounded. He will be one of two Aboriginal Canadians to receive three times the Military Medal, honor received by only 39 Canadians!

Alexander and Charles Smith, two brothers from the Cayuga Band of the Six Nations of Ontario, enlisted three months after the outbreak of the war. They both served in the militia, and they were appointed officers. In September 1916, Alexander earned the military cross during the Battle of the Somme. He helped capture an enemy trench and 50 prisoners, even though he had been buried twice under the earth raised by bomb explosions. Charles obtained the military cross in France on November 9, 1918. His platoon was he arrested enemy sappers who were preparing to blow up a mine, and they captured a machine gun position later in the day.

20 Distinguished Conduct Medal

7 Military Cross

124 Military Medal

1 Royal Red Cross 2nd Class

5 Mention in Dispatches

26 Distinguished Service Cross

1 Navy Cross

7 Silver Star

14 Purple Heart

3 Russian Cross of St. George 4th Class 

3 French Legion of Honor

1 French Military Medal

24 French War Cross

3 Belgian War Cross

1 Order of the Black Star of Poland

The record of other Indians in the Canadian Army also credits their outstanding skills as a sniper. Ojibway Spear Corporal Johnson Paudash, Hiawatha of Ontario, had 88 casualties and won the Military Medal. Lance corporal John Ballendine, a Cree from Battleford, Saskatchewan, ended the war with fifty-eight dead. Private Philip Mcdonald, a Mohawk of Akwesasne, was credited with forty deaths, before being killed on January 3, 1916. Finally, Private Patrick Riel, grandson of Louis Riel, accumulated thirty-eight notches. He was killed eleven days after Mcdonald. Other notable snipers were Ojibwa brothers Pete and Sampson Comego, Ojibwa Roderick Cameron, and George Stonefish, a Delaware from Moraviantown, Ontario. Sampson Comego was killed on November 10, 1915, but in his short period of service he counted twenty-eight killings.

Métis Henry Norwest will also stand out as a sniper. "He sometimes had to wait two days because two enemy gunmen had heard the sound of his weapon, and to act as if he was one of them, knowing that the enemy suspected his presence," he recalled. one of his comrades after the war. "Finally, he'll take them both by surprise, 15 minutes apart. Lance Corporal Norwest will officially carry 115 deadly blows and be awarded the Military Medal before falling into enemy fire in August 1918.

CWGC and ABMC: Bury the dead ...

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Fabian Ware, a South African educational leader and a member of the Rio Tinto Group, found himself too old to join the British Army. He was 45 years old. He used his influence with his friend Alfred Milner to take command of a mobile Red Cross unit. He arrived in France in September 1914. He was struck by the absence of any directive concerning the identification of graves of fallen soldiers. He set himself the goal of remedying this by creating an organization within the Red Cross. This organization was incorporated into the British Army in 1915. By October 1915, the new Graves Registration Commission had registered more than 31,000 graves and 50,000 in May 1916.

The organization was not content to register information about the graves, but responded to numerous requests for information or requests for photographs of graves. In 1917, approximately 12,000 photos had been sent. As the war continued its course, Ware was concerned about what would become of these graves after the conflict. He then appealed to King Edward VII with the help of which he submitted a memoir on this subject to the Imperial War Conference. On May 21, 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission was created by Royal Charter with the Prince of Wales as President and Ware as Vice President, a role he held until 1948.

A committee under the direction of Frederic Kenyon, director of the British Museum, presented a report in November 1918 on how cemeteries should be developed. The key decisions of this report were:

- the bodies were not to be repatriated;

- the memorials should not present any class distinction between the soldiers.

After a debate in Parliament on May 4, 1920, Kenyon's conclusions are accepted.

Three of the greatest architects of the moment, Herbert Baker, Reginald Blomfield and Edwin Lutyens were commissioned to imagine cemeteries and memorials. Cemetery trials were built in France (Le Tréport, Forceville and Louvencourt). All three were finished in 1920. Forceville Cemetery was then considered the most successful with uniform gravestones, Blomfield's Cross of Sacrifice and Lutyens Remembrance Stone. Thus was established the model of all other cemeteries.

By the end of 1919, the commission had spent £ 7,500. This increased to £ 250,000 in 1920 when the construction of cemeteries and memorials increased. In 1923, 4000 headstones a week were sent to France. By 1927, most of the buildings were completed - more than 500 cemeteries had been built with 400,000 tombstones and 1,000 crosses of the Sacrifice.

In some cases, the small cemeteries were closed and the graves transferred to larger cemeteries that were enlarged when battlefield investigations were initiated. In early 1916, Ware made contact with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to flourish the cemeteries. The cemeteries construction program was completed in 1938.

Founded by the United States Congress in 1923, The American Battle Monuments Commission is an autonomous branch of the executive branch of the US government. Its mission is to preserve the memory of the sacrifices and exploits of the American military forces where they served since April 6, 1917, date of the entry of the United States in the First World War. The Commission is responsible for the study, construction and ongoing maintenance of US military cemeteries and monuments outside the United States, as well as the supervision of monuments erected abroad by citizens or public and private American associations, and encourage them to maintain them in good condition.

Unlike the British system, the United States accepted the return of the corps of soldiers during the 1920s.

It is for this reason that there are 732 tombs of Amerindian soldiers in Europe, most of them in northern France and Belgium.

The same system will be applied during World War II.

All-Indian units were created during the war, including the well-known 142nd Infantry E Company. Even though they were in an immense white unit, the Indians fought and worked together. 20 soldiers from South Dakota formed their own scout unit called "The Border Patrol", students from Carson Indian School enlisted together in the 283rd Air Squadron in San Diego, and 6 volunteers from Pierre Indian School served in the same artillery battery.

Unlike the 114th Canadian Battalion which was linked to the half-Amerindian militia unit of the 37th Haldimand, the 107th did not benefit from such a relationship. Complete with a band of pipe and drum and regimental march, more than 500 of these soldiers were Indian. However, unlike the 114th, all officers of the 107th, except one, were white. Many Indian soldiers of the 107th did not speak, or spoke very little, English, and they came from a variety of nations, mainly the Blackfoot, Cree, and Ojibwa confederacy. To remedy this situation, Campbell, the founder of the battalion, often gave training courses and conducted administrative and disciplinary matters, in Indian languages, as he was fluent in Cree and Objiwa dialects. English instruction was also given to Indian soldiers in the battalion. The 107th had a cap badge that embodied its Indian configuration. It consisted of a crown bearing the number of the battalion, reinforced by a background of a dragging wolf.

The 114th was broken in November 1916, to strengthen other units, including the 107th. Shortly after arriving in England on February 1, 1917, the 107th, containing more than five hundred Indians, was officially converted into a pioneer battalion. At that time, all newly formed Canadian battalions were decomposing into reinforcements. On May 28, 1918, after one year of service, the 107th was disbanded and its members dispersed into the 1st Canadian Engineers Brigade.

A number of other battalions recovered after December 1915 also had a high percentage of Indians, although none rivals the 114th and 107th.

Their relationship with the white soldiers was good enough, with a good stereotype set. "I must be the only Indian officer in the camp. People want to meet me out of curiosity, "a pupil from Carlisle said.

With all the publicity around Amerindian heroism in Europe, an Indian Service doctor was surprised to find a stoic victim in the face of chaos. For him, this refutes all theories of weak nervous system or cowardice as being the cause of this stress.

Some successes of the Indians were credited by the fear that the Germans had. This fear was created by the European tour of the Wild West Show, very popular in the early 1900s; and by the books of Karl May, German writer. The author wrote a book series on the American West. One of the heroes of these books was an apache named Winnetou. Although described as noble and brave, he was also known as a cruel man to his enemies, including scalping and torture. He also described the Indian as brandishing a tomahawk and cutting his fingers for pleasure.

The image perceived by the Germans was so frightening that the American command, in order to demoralize the enemy, advocated sending the soldiers patrolling the night to dress like Indians.

45 Women served as nurses in the Red Cross, the Canadian Medical Corps and the Army Nurse Corps. 12 of them served in Europe in the US army nurse corps.

The most well known and appreciated aspect of Native American service during World War I is probably the use of Indian languages ??to send coded messages. The first known use of the tanker code system, under enemy fire, was the Cherokees within the 105th Field Signal Battalion, 30th Infantry Division, serving alongside the British in the Somme, early October 1918 (see section on code talkers on this site) . This unit was temporarily placed under British command . A German officer captured confessed that his intelligence staff was completely confused by Indian language and did not allow any benefit for the battle.

At least 11 different nations provided more than 105 Code Talkers during World War I, mainly during the Meuse Argonne offensive in the last 2 months of the war.

Amerindian soldiers stand out in other military roles and are found in pioneer battalions, foresters and laborers, as well as in the railroad, Veterinary Service, Military Stewardship and Engineering. Because of their limited education, few Native Americans can aspire to the rank of officer, but many become non-commissioned officers: corporals, acting corporals and sergeants. In the leadership roles entrusted to them, they build trust and demonstrate as much skill and intelligence as their white classmates. Some earn the title of officer, often because of their combat value.

In rank order of rank, there are many officers among the Native Americans:

1 Major General

2 Colonel

3 Lieutenant Colonel

10 Major

40 Captain

72 Lieutenant

William Newell, a Mohawk from Syracuse, was the French interpreter for General Pershing. Pablo Herrera, Pueblo, commanded an observation balloon squadron. 1/3 of Oglala Sioux served in the cavalry, then in armored vehicles; most of the Red Cliff volunteers in Wisconsin served the military police.

We even count on the case of Leo Maguire, an osage, who was captain ... in the French army!

Although there is no consistent pattern in the choice of service branches, it can be noted that a large proportion of Indians volunteered for aviation, and Oklahoma Indian Flowbert Richester , was ace of the Lafayette Escadrille with 7 victories. 5 Osage served in a squadron, including Lieutenant Clarence Soldani. Roy Lewis, Cherokee of Oklahoma, was a mechanic for French aviation. James David Moses and Oliver Milton Martin, of Grand River, and John Randolph Stacey of Kahnawake served with the Royal Flying Corps and are probably the only ones to have been certified as officers in the British Air Force in 1914 -1918

In use:

5 in the French army

162 in the Newfoundland Regiment

17 in the Royal Flying Corps and 102 in the United States Air Corps.

243 in the navy forces.

The Indians were impressed by the strangeness and poverty of other countries. Fletcher Farley wrote about the density and smallness of French farms:

'' you should see them cut hay here. They cut this hay and alfalfa with a scythe in their hands, and carry it with a horse tied to a wagon and hauling as much hay as Bill Sharp could deliver with one shovel during our harvest. You never see a weed in the fields, because there is no chance for them to grow in the way they work at destroying them. Most farms are as big as your home garden. ''

The war affected everyone on the Indian reserves, not just the men who served. More than five thousand Indian adults and some thirty thousand Indian students have registered for the Red Cross, and women's clubs have knitted socks and sweaters for the Red Cross. War gardens and savings campaigns were encouraged by the Office of Indian Affairs. Indian high school students were recruited to assemble military vehicles at the Ford Motor Company's Detroit plant, which had begun an Indian apprenticeship program in 1915, or worked at the Hog Island shipyards. Many Aboriginal communities in Canada are eager to contribute in every way possible. Their donations to the Patriotic Fund become propaganda material; Posters argue that aboriginal peoples are so generous that other Canadians should follow suit.

Cato Sells often boasted of the enthusiastic purchase of Liberty Bonds by the Indians, which would have exceeded $ 25 million at the end of the war, or nearly $ 100 per capita.

Representatives of the Canadian government, such as DC Scott, provide proof, with statistics, that while they are often poor, Aboriginal people contribute generously to the war effort. The amounts vary greatly; They range from $ 7.35 donated by children on the John Smith reserve to over $ 8,000 from the File Hills agency. Even the most modest gifts are delivered from the heart. The Oak River Sioux send their $ 101 donation directly to the King and say, "Nobody asked us; we do it of our own free will; this is little ; but we offer this gift wholeheartedly. "

During the ceremony of the grave of the unknown American soldier, November 11, 1921, the chief of the chiefs, Plenty Coups was invited to represent the Amerindians. In his Indian uniform, he put a baton and a war cap in the grave.

Raising his hands to heaven, he addressed a crowd of 100,000 people present:

'' I feel honored that the red man

participate in this great event, because it shows that the thousands of Indians who fought in the great war are appreciated by the white man. I am happy to represent all the Indians of the United States to place on the grave of this noble warrior this stick and this war cap, each eagle feather of this cap represents an act of bravery of my life. I hope that the great spirit will grant that these noble warriors have not renounced their life in vain and that there will be peace for all men present. It's the hope of the Indians and my prayer. "