09/30/2026
He was one of the deadliest snipers of WWI. When he came home, a government agent controlled his pension.
His name was Binaaswi, also known as Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwe man from the Parry Sound area of Ontario. 🇨🇦
In August 1914, just days after war was declared, he volunteered. He served almost the entire war on the Western Front with the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, fighting at Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele and the Scarpe.
As a sniper he was credited with 378 kills. As a scout he crossed open ground under artillery fire to carry messages and gather intelligence.
He was awarded the Military Medal three times. Only 39 soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force earned that honour. He came home as the most highly decorated Indigenous soldier in Canadian history.
Then came the part most Canadians were never taught. 👇
Under the Indian Act, he was treated as a ward of the government. A government-appointed Indian Agent controlled his pension and had power over his community’s affairs. His people’s ceremonies were banned. From 1927, First Nations were even barred from raising money to pursue land claims.
The man who risked his life for Canada came home without the freedoms he had fought for.
So he kept fighting, this time for his people. 💪
In 1921, he was elected chief at Wasauksing (Parry Island). In 1943, he became Supreme Chief of the Native Independent Government, one of the first national Indigenous political organizations in Canada. He spent decades pushing Ottawa for rights and self-government.
His lungs never recovered from the war. He died in 1952, one year after some of the Indian Act’s harshest restrictions were finally lifted.
Today a statue of him stands in Parry Sound, and in 2020 he was shortlisted to appear on Canada’s new $5 bill.
A war hero overseas. A fighter for justice at home. 🧡
