February 1990 - Volume 1 No. 5

Elders & Veterans / Knowledge & History

Editorial by Don Mainville

My first contact with the Naive Veterans of Northwestern Ontario was Remembrance Day 1988, when a Pow-Wow and Feast was held. Before that time I was aware of Native enlistment in the military during the war, but no the extent of it. I was also unaware that a good many people I had met in the community were veterans.

The majority of Native Veterans are Elders, to be valued by the community as role models and guidance for the youth. And of course as veterans they are a wealth of historical information.

Traditionally, the history of the Aboriginal People in North America has been oral rather than written. It's important to now gather as much of the knowledge and history as possible by seeing that it is written down.

Information and historical data are available in books. But to listen to actual experience and understand the hope, fear and loneliness associated with wartime it is best to hear from someone who lived it. So if one wants more than facts from a book, a veteran should be approached. Elders, meanwhile offer guidance and knowledge essential to everyday life.

Our Native Veterans have assumed dual roles, then. As veterans they impart history to us. They tell us what it was like to live the wartime experience. As elders they give us the knowledge of how to live respecting others and all Creation.

When you know something, you have to share it. That is how knowledge and history will live on.