Robert Nahanee: Keeping the Memory of Indigenous Veterans Alive

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Every November 8, Indigenous veterans and their families gather in Vancouver to remember those who served. Robert Nahanee helped make that gathering happen. A Squamish Nation Elder and Canadian Forces veteran, he has spent two decades as his Nation’s Veterans Knowledge Keeper, holding the stories of Indigenous men and women who served and making sure their sacrifice is not forgotten.

Fourteen years in uniform

Nahanee served with the Canadian Forces from 1963 to 1977. His postings took him far from the North Shore: to NATO forces in Germany, to United Nations service, to the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force in Norway, and to bases across Canada. He has described why so many Indigenous people stepped forward over the generations in simple terms. “We heard there was a need,” he told The Langara Voice. Speaking to Global News in 2025, he put it this way: “That’s why many of us served … to protect and to help the people.”

Picking up the torch

In 2005, Nahanee took over the role of Squamish Nation Veterans Knowledge Keeper from his uncle, a Second World War veteran. It was that uncle who urged him to carry the work forward. Nahanee recalled being told to “pick up the torch and start remembering what our past veterans did.”

Part of what he carries is a hard history. Indigenous veterans who came home from the Second World War were denied rights and benefits that other veterans received, and many were sent back to the reserve. Nahanee keeps that history in view. “They wanted freedom of choice and recognition of who we are as a people. That’s what our veterans gave us,” he told the North Shore News.

A ceremony of their own

Nahanee co-founded Vancouver’s Indigenous Veterans Day ceremony and has taken part since the first one. In 2020, even with COVID precautions keeping it small, the gathering in downtown Vancouver brought together members of the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Tsawwassen nations. He has described its purpose plainly: to “thank and appreciate what our Indigenous veterans have done for us.”

For Nahanee, the day is also about culture coming back to life. “We come to celebrate this way of life that we’re reviving, recovering, reclaiming, reusing,” he told CBC News.

One mind, one heart

Remembrance, for Nahanee, is not about glory. “We don’t glorify war,” he has said. The lesson he draws from it is peace: “to keep the peace. World peace. We’re human beings, we’ve got to live like that. We can do it.”

He has worked to pass on his elders’ teachings, and he sums up his own in four words: “one mind, one heart.” In 2025, Global News described him as the only living veteran from the Squamish Nation and reported that he continues to work with veterans through healing and cultural programs in his community.

Where to learn more

Read his story in the North Shore News profile and in CBC’s coverage of the Vancouver ceremony. If you are in Vancouver, Indigenous Veterans Day on November 8 is a chance to stand with the veterans and families he has spent his life honouring.

• Squamish Nation

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