Lieutenant Cameron Brant
Pictured above is Lieutenant Cameron D. Brant, a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Present-day Vaughan is seated on the treaty lands and traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, on the Treaty 13 lands and traditional territory. Cameron Brant was born in 1887 and was a descendant of Joseph Brant (also known as Thayendanegea), the Mohawk war chief of Six Nations. Brant grew up among the Mississaugas of the Credit and attended the New Credit Day School and then high school in nearby Hagersville. He was a member of the militia for six years, attended military college in London, Ontario and participated in military training camps in the Niagara Region. In 1911, he married and moved away from the New Credit Reserve to Hamilton to work as a sheet metal worker. He then enlisted in the war effort in 1914, as a member of the Fourth Battalion (Central Ontario) Canadian Expeditionary Force, becoming one of the first Indigenous soldiers to go overseas. Brant died during the Second Battle of Ypres, shortly after the battle started. This battle was one of the first instances where poisonous mustard gas was used, taking the lives of more than 2,000 Canadians.
Photograph Courtesy of the Simcoe County Archives (www.simcoe.ca/dpt/arc)
Lieutenant Cameron Brant
Pictured above is Lieutenant Cameron D. Brant, a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Present-day Vaughan is seated on the treaty lands and traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, on the Treaty 13 lands and traditional territory. Cameron Brant was born in 1887 and was a descendant of Joseph Brant (also known as Thayendanegea), the Mohawk war chief of Six Nations. Brant grew up among the Mississaugas of the Credit and attended the New Credit Day School and then high school in nearby Hagersville. He was a member of the militia for six years, attended military college in London, Ontario and participated in military training camps in the Niagara Region. In 1911, he married and moved away from the New Credit Reserve to Hamilton to work as a sheet metal worker. He then enlisted in the war effort in 1914, as a member of the Fourth Battalion (Central Ontario) Canadian Expeditionary Force, becoming one of the first Indigenous soldiers to go overseas. Brant died during the Second Battle of Ypres, shortly after the battle started. This battle was one of the first instances where poisonous mustard gas was used, taking the lives of more than 2,000 Canadians.
Photograph Courtesy of the Simcoe County Archives (www.simcoe.ca/dpt/arc)