Inuit soldier

[paul guthrie]

This man's picture in a kilt is in Memoirs of a Blue Puttee and I can't find my copy or find him searching the site. Can someone tell me his name & town? Thanks!

[nshighlander]

Hi Paul

I think the guy you are looking for is John Shiwak of Labrador.Page 46

Cheers

Dave

[Broznitsky]

A journalist named Lacey Amy wrote the following excerpt about John Shiwak of Rigolet, LB. If you would like to read more from this article, you can refer to "Them Days-Stories of Early Labrador", Volume 17, No. 1, Oct. 1991.

July, 1918

In a couple of letters he had mentioned his desire to be a soldier, but I had dismissed it as one of his ambitions unattainable owing to his race. In the one that was to be forwarded to me he announced that he had enlisted and was going to England immediately to train.

I ask you to consider that. An Eskimo, a thousand miles from the nearest newspaper - no outside life but that of the Newfoundland fisherman for eight weeks of the year, no industry but hunting and fishing, eight months in the snowbound silences of the most desolate country in the world! And John Shiwak, of another race, untutored, a student only of nature, was going out to fight for his country! Hundreds of thousands of young Canadians could scarcely read it without blushing. Within the little Eskimo was burning that which put conscription beyond the pale.