Jumping Ahead to 1944,
In 2005 I went to Normandy and Juno Beach were very early on a Autumn morning I met some Television people from the Indigenous circle in Canada. Including the then presentor Nelson bird from the Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
Can you tell us more about the involvement of the First Nations ( sometimes misnamed Indians by somewhat clueless Europeans 
).
Remembering Indigenous peoples who served on D-Day, despite freedom from conscription | CTV News
Wow Chewie, I will closely monitor this topic because of the human interest and, particularly, the Canadian aspect of it.
Last year, during my time in the recovery centre, due to my severe lungdesease, I met a Canadian man that has our mutual passion and interest in ww2 so I lend him some books and he followed me until recently. Unfortunately he is stopping treatment, alasđ„
On a positive note:
I myself went along the whole D-Day beaches and Carentan, Ouisterham, and some very interesting musea in 2002, in Caen, âLe Memorialâ is an absolute must to visit!..Driving a very old Peugeot that even got the French to turn their heads 
We also went to Point du Hoc that was in the fogg, I kidd you not
Sad to hear about him and your situation but great memories and an old Peugeot is the most appropriate transport to go there :-). For happens at the coast. The last time I was in Normandy was 2019 at the 75th Anniversary. Actually I went to Duxford in the UK on the 4th June were 37 WW2 Dakotas were getting ready to drop paratroopers in Germany. I did do an âEscort flight lesson in a 1942 Harvard/T-6 Texanâ which was used by the Portuguese Air Force after the ward. Everything was in Portuguese. Afterwards I took the night boat to Calais-Normandy to see the actually Parachutist and met an old acquantance from California who was guiding Stephen Ambrose tours and is an LTC and historian(Small World). I spent a few days in Normandy but felt is was WAY too crowded so I left again. When I returned to Duxford the month after for my Supercub training (actually ex-Dutch Airforce) everyone was still talking about THAT day.
Very nice pictures and I really appreciate your compassionate response 
It must have been a very special experience for you, I can imagine 
Thank you, brother in arms!
Canada ran, or attempted to have, a volunteer army, in particular for service overseas until 1944. Beggars canât be choosers and so the Armed Services were not in the habit of turning down fit, able-bodied recruits.
This doesnât mean the Canadian armed services were free from racism or were unblemished examples of enlightenment, but in general the racism was muted and for many indigenous soldiers the Army was a breath of fresh air, respect and relative equality, usually better than what civilian life at the time offered.
Here is a picture of my local reserve. I would later go to school with the granddaughters and grandsons of the people in this picture:
Curve Lake, ON Return of Veterans
32 people from the reserve served, 23 of whom returned home.
This same group of people would later be the first Indigenous Canadians to vote in a federal election in 1960.
Related,
not Canadian but American: Charles Norman Shay
Charles Norman Shay gave a conference in July 2019 in Bonnieres sur Seine (France),
as closing words on the âAway from Homeâ exhibit.
This is how I got to see and listen to him in person.
