{"id":107185,"date":"2026-07-23T12:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=107185"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:02:53","slug":"indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous veterans fought for country, but were mistreated after service new book recounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter\u00a0 Lynn Gehl was in her thirties when she finally started to learn the story of her great-grandfather Joseph Gagnon from Golden Lake Reserve (now known as Pikwakanagan First Nation) in Ontario. In Joseph Gagnon: An Algonquin World War 1 Veteran, Gehl outlines the way her great-grandfather suffered from discrimination when it came to Canada\u2019s implementation of policies for Indigenous veterans. \u201cI reconnected with my grandmother and her brother Gordon, and they told me where (Joseph) was buried and they told me that he didn&#8217;t have a gravestone,\u201d said Gehl. In accordance with the Last Post Fund, which has been in place since 1909, no veteran is to be denied a \u201cdignified funeral and burial, as well as a military gravestone, due to insufficient&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F07%2F23%2Findigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter\u00a0 Lynn Gehl was in her thirties when she finally started to learn the story of her great-grandfather Joseph Gagnon from Golden Lake Reserve (now known as Pikwakanagan First Nation) in Ontario. In Joseph Gagnon: An Algonquin World War 1 Veteran, Gehl outlines the way her great-grandfather suffered from discrimination when it came to Canada\u2019s implementation of policies for Indigenous veterans. \u201cI reconnected with my grandmother and her brother Gordon, and they told me where (Joseph) was buried and they told me that he didn&#8217;t have a gravestone,\u201d said Gehl. In accordance with the Last Post Fund, which has been in place since 1909, no veteran is to be denied a \u201cdignified funeral and burial, as well as a military gravestone, due to insufficient... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F07%2F23%2Findigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Indigenous veterans fought for country, but were mistreated after service new book recounts - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indigenous veterans fought for country, but were mistreated after service new book recounts - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter\u00a0 Lynn Gehl was in her thirties when she finally started to learn the story of her great-grandfather Joseph Gagnon from Golden Lake Reserve (now known as Pikwakanagan First Nation) in Ontario. In Joseph Gagnon: An Algonquin World War 1 Veteran, Gehl outlines the way her great-grandfather suffered from discrimination when it came to Canada\u2019s implementation of policies for Indigenous veterans. \u201cI reconnected with my grandmother and her brother Gordon, and they told me where (Joseph) was buried and they told me that he didn&#8217;t have a gravestone,\u201d said Gehl. In accordance with the Last Post Fund, which has been in place since 1909, no veteran is to be denied a \u201cdignified funeral and burial, as well as a military gravestone, due to insufficient\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T16:02:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/23\\\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/23\\\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Indigenous veterans fought for country, but were mistreated after service new book recounts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-23T16:02:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/23\\\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":746,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/23\\\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/23\\\/indigenous-veterans-fought-for-country-but-were-mistreated-after-service-new-book-recounts\\\/\",\"name\":\"Indigenous veterans fought for country, but were mistreated after service new book recounts - 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