Honouring ‘courageous warriors’

Book lauds heroic Indigenous soldiers

It took nearly six years and a team of 10 to produce a book that forever immortalizes the dedication and sacrifice of war heroes from Saskatchewan’s Kahkewistahaw First Nation.

Courageous Warriors of Kahkewistahaw First Nation tells the stories of the 28 residents who left the safety of home to serve with the Canadian Armed Forces in conflicts spanning from the First World War to Afghanistan.

Ted Whitecalf, a producer and photographer for the book’s publisher, Sweet Grass Records, said getting everything together for the 70-page book was a tough process.

Alongside his team, Whitecalf spent hours combing Facebook to find leads, organized interviews with veterans and their families, and visited the national archives in Ottawa in search of information and photographs.

But even with a strong team behind him, Whitecalf was unable to find everything he was hoping for.

His search at the national archives for photographs wasn’t as fruitful as he had hoped, and while most of the veterans were still alive, or still had living family members, to provide stories and photographs, he was unable to locate information on a few of the veterans who served in the First and Second World Wars — leaving only the option to publish their names or enlistment papers.

“Because of that, the biggest thing was making sure we’re still honouring them by having their name in the book as well as on the plaque,” he said.