The First Nations Who Saved a Nation

Discriminated and confined to reserves, thousands of North American Indigenous people enlisted as volunteers in the Canadian and US military to fight Nazi-Fascism in Europe. They fought for rights and freedom that they did not have themselves. Of these, two Métis brothers who also left for Europe were the sons of a gold prospector from Palermo. Canadian troops landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943, battle after battle, from Agira to Salerno, from Ortona to Anzio, from Cassino to the breaching of the eastern Gothic Line in Emilia Romagna, hundreds of Indigenous soldiers contributed to free Italy from Fascism. Of these forgotten heroes, at least fifty were killed in action and are buried in Italian war cemeteries. Those who returned from the front and often became elders, artists, sportsmen, even actors, continued to fight for those civil rights they had already given to others, defending their sacred land from shocking environmental devastation. This is their story. A modern-day story of war and peace never told before.