By Glenn Hicks

Indigenous veterans leader to be remembered this week

Jan 7, 2019 | 4:00 PM

A highly-respected member of the James Smith Cree Nations (JSCN) and a long-standing veteran has died.

Ray Sanderson, a former Grand Chief of the Saskatchewan First Nations Veteran’s Association (SFNVA), passed away Sunday. He was 76.

One of the three chiefs at the JSCN, Calvin Sanderson, said Ray would always speak at Remembrance Day and advocated for the names of fallen veterans from the First and Second World Wars to be memorialized around Saskatchewan.

“He would always speak at the community level and what he experienced as a veteran,” Sanderson said. “He always said dearly we should not forget out veterans.”

He added Sanderson was instrumental as a pathfinder in pursuing land claims with the federal government on behalf of his people.

Missing pet

'She means the world to our family': Woman seeks help in finding missing pet parrot

4h ago

BE CAREFUL ON THE ROADS

Semi flips outside P.A.; one of dozens of incidents on Sask. roads due to winter weather

4h ago

NO GO FOR BUSES

School bus routes outside P.A. canceled due to spring snowstorm

9h ago

“He explored whether or not JSCN had land claims and he was doing that in the 1980s. From thereon there were other members who tried to pursue that and that’s why today we have our land claims negotiations with Canada,” Sanderson said.

In 2012, Ray Sanderson told paNOW “I am committed to working hard for my fellow veterans and widows. In these short few months we will focus our initial efforts on the grave marker program and a fund raising initiative for our members.”

Sanderson was born Jan. 23, 1942, and was from the Chakastaypaysin First Nation. He lived at a residential school from age seven to 17, involving himself with the army cadets and eventually leaving to join the armed forces.

On March 3, 1961, at the age of 19, he joined the regiment called The Black Watch of Canada, CAF (R). Right after basic training, Ray went overseas to complete a tour in Germany.  He was honorably released, April 24, 1964.

Ray returned home to the reservation for a few months before deciding he would re-enlist. Ray’s older brother Roy was stationed in Edmonton, Alta. with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), and Ray hoped to join his brother. On August 24, 1964, Ray enlisted once again and completed another tour to Germany with the PPCLI. Ray was honorably released from CAF, July 16, 1971. He was awarded six medals in his time with the military.

Ray’s niece, Marie Sanderson, who is a tutor at the Bernard Community School, said her uncle was a very close part of her family.

“I knew him since I was a little girl,” she said. “My mom and dad took him in when he was young and he was attending the Indian Residential School. He’d come home and he’d be our brother.”

The current Grand Chief of the SFNVA, Steven Ross said Sanderson will be remembered as a kind leader.

“He got things going for us, like long-term funding and various benefits for veterans,” Ross told paNOW. “He was a military man and so he understood the veterans’ problems; he just provided leadership and others followed.”

According to the SFNVA, Ray Sanderson will be remembered at a memorial service at St. George Anglican Church in South Saskatoon this evening from 7 p.m. until 12 p.m.

On Tuesday there will be wake services at the Bernard Community School at JSCN and Sanderson’s body will be brought into the gym at 3 p.m.

On Wednesday a funeral service will be held at the school at 11 a.m.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow