Francis Pegahmagabow
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Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow (March 9, 1899-August 5, 1952) was the most highly decorated aboriginal soldier in Canadian military history and the most effective sniper of World War I. Three times awarded the Military Medal and twice seriously wounded, he was an expert marksman and scout, credited with killing up to 378 Germans and capturing 300 more. Later in life, he served as chief and a councillor for his band, and as an activist and leader in several First Nations organizations. He corresponded with and met other noted aboriginal figures including Fred Loft, Jules Sioui, Andrew Paull and John Tootoosis.
An Ojibwa from the Parry Island Band (now the Wasauksing First Nation) near Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada prior to the war, Pegahmagabow worked as a marine fireman for the Department of Marine and Fisheries on the Great Lakes. He signed up immediately after the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, joining the 23rd Regiment (Northern Pioneers) and sailing overseas in February 1915 with the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion of the 1st Canadian Division—the first contingent of Canadian troops sent to fight in Europe.
He saw action at the Second Battle of Ypres where the Germans used chlorine gas for the first time on the Western Front, and was wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme but willingly returned to his unit on recovery. He may have earned his Military Medal at Ypres or the June 1916 Battle of Mount Sorrel, and his second bar at Amiens in August 1918. Historical records covering this are currently not available.
However, what is known is that Corporal Pegahmagabow earned his first bar to the Military Medal at the bloody battle of Passchendaele. His citation reads as follows:
"At Passchendaele Nov. 6th/7th, 1917, this NCO did excellent work. Before and after the attack he kept in touch with the flanks, advising the units he had seen, this information proving the success of the attack and saving valuable time in consolidating. He also guided the relief to its proper place after it had become mixed up".
In 1919 after the end of the war, he returned to Canada and continued to serve in the Algonquin Militia Regiment. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, he became chief of the Parry Island Band from 1921 until 1925, and a councillor from 1933 to 1936. In 1943, he became the Supreme Chief of The Native Independent Government, an early First Nations organization.
A married father of six children, Francis Pegahmagabow died on the Parry Island reserve in 1952 at the age of 63. He is a member of the Indian Hall of Fame at the Woodland Centre in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his memory is also commemorated on a plaque honouring him and his regiment on the Rotary and Algonquin Regiment Fitness Trail in Parry Sound. A biography by Adrian Hayes was recently published under the title Pegahmagabow: Legendary Warrior, Forgotten Hero.
Quotes
"When I was at Rossport, on Lake Superior, in 1914, some of us landed from our vessel to gather blueberries near an Ojibwa camp. An old Indian recognized me, and gave me a tiny medicine-bag to protect me, saying that I would shortly go into great danger. The bag was of skin, tightly bound with a leather thong. Sometimes it seemed to be as hard as rock, at other times it appeared to contain nothing. What really was inside it I do not know. I wore it in the trenches, but lost it when I was wounded and taken to a hospital." —Francis Pegahmagabow
"My mother [Eva] told me he used to go behind enemy lines, rub shoulders with the enemy forces and never get caught. ... He was always saying how we have to live in harmony with all living things in this world." —Duncan Pegahmagabow (son)
External Links
- Pegahmagabow: Legendary Warrior, Forgotten Hero (http://www.foxmeadowbooks.com/pegah.html)
- Francis Pegahmagabow's Medals (http://www.civilization.ca/tresors/treasure/280eng.html)