Published Date: 2009/2/23 0:00:00
Article ID : 6224
Version 1.00.01
By Keven Drews
TOFINO — For the first time in more than 64 years a hereditary chief associated with the Ahousaht First Nation is heading to war.
About five months ago, Pte. James Swan, a 44-year-old Manhousaht hereditary chief named Uu-Kwa-Qum and member of Vancouver Island’s Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s), volunteered for active duty.
He is now attached to C Company, 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in Edmonton and will deploy as a rifleman to Afghanistan later this year.
“I wanted to do something a little bit more than being in the reserves,” said Swan, adding he hopes to put the skills he’s learned to use. “I had a good discussion with my wife first.”
Swan arrived at the Edmonton Garrison in early February. For the past three weeks, said Swan, he and his colleagues have been learning about Afghani culture, upgrading skills and strengthening their bonds as a team.
Swan said he told nobody in Edmonton and only his best friend at Victoria’s Bay Street Armoury that he was a hereditary chief.
The first time his superiors learned about his hereditary title was when the Westcoaster.ca called a media operations officer and asked for an interview.
“I didn’t want to be treated any different than anybody else,” he said.
The Manhousaht are one of three former tribes that make up the Ahousaht First Nation, located on the central West Coast of Vancouver Island, just northwest of Tofino. Each tribe still retains its hereditary chiefs.
Raised in Victoria, Swan returned to Ahousat with his family at the age of 12 and spent a year in residential school. He was hunting and fishing by 14, and spent three and one-half years at Ucluelet secondary school. He graduated from Alberni District secondary school in 1985 and enrolled in Malaspina University-College, now Vancouver Island University.
Swan assumed his title and name Uu-Kwa-Qum, which means “sitting up straight in a canoe” like royalty and in a position of service, in his mid-20s.
A father of two, Swan is now a University of Victoria student who is working towards his bachelor of fine arts degree. He recently completed a major university carving project and is still completing coursework in Edmonton. He plans to become a teacher.
Swan said he enlisted in the Canadian Forces Feb. 15, 2007 because he had no way of using the skills he’d learned while a member of the Ahousaht Volunteer Fire Department and Emergency First Response Team.
When given the chance to volunteer for active service – following basic and infantry training – Swan said his “arm automatically went up.”
Lewis George, a Tofino businessman who is the Ahousaht tyee or the head-ranked hereditary chief, said he knows of no other Ahousaht hereditary chief who has volunteered for active service since his own father, Earl George, volunteered during the Second World War.
However, George said one Ahousaht family moved to the U.S. decades ago and its members volunteered for the U.S. Navy.
George said his father was never sent to Europe because his grandfather Mcpherson George informed military officials of his father’s age before deployment.
George said he’s praying for Swan’s safety.
“I pray nothing happens to him when he’s there and he returns safely,” said George.
Whitey Bernard, president of the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Tofino, said he, too, knows of no other hereditary chief who has volunteered for active service since the Second World War.
The subject of a famous Second World War photo by Claude Detloff showing a little boy chasing after his soldier-father down New Westminster’s Columbia Street, Bernard said the area’s been removed from a major military presence since the air force base at Long Beach closed decades ago.
During the First and Second World Wars, though, many English settlers and members of local First Nations volunteered for active duty, said Bernard.
David Griffiths, executive director of Tofino’s Tonquin Foundation, said the Ahousaht have their own military history.
Griffiths recently wrote of one clash between the Ahousaht, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in Clayoquot Sound in 1864.
While the Ahousaht suffered dozens of dead and saw nine villages razed, the British failed to capture their chief, wrote Griffiths.
Swan said he doesn’t know what to expect when he gets to Afghanistan, but he has a lot of support from his family and has made military friends across Canada – especially those who helped him get into shape and made no reference to his age.
He also has a message for Ahousaht youth.
“You’re never too old to do the things you want to do.”
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