Biography

SENATOR ALLAN BIRD

"We need to be ready to meet God - anywhere, anyhow, anyplace"

1921 - 2006




Allan was born on September 21, 1921 in Montreal Lake, Saskatchewan and had passed away on March 15, 2006 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the age of 84 years. Allan's parents were Zacharias Halkett of Little Red and Miriam Turner of Montreal Lake. He was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Bell.

When he was 17, he married Sally Victoria Bird, age 16, on January 13, 1939. Two hours after he had gotten married, he had to go back to work for a forestry company, cutting wood in the Montreal Lake - Molanosa area. He had worked in Waskesui as a Towerman and he would take his family with him at times when he would go to work. Allan also had worked in Pelican Narrows at the Health Centre as the Maintenance Person. He was also a Driver Instructor for a few years. He worked hard to provide for his family. He had left the reserve to work for different employees to put food on the table.

Together, Allan and Sally, had 13 children who had all lived in the reserve. They are Alice LaVallee, Roy H. Bird, Richie Bird, Beverly Bird, Alphonse Bird, Marty Bird, Patti Bird, Allan N. Bird, Stewart Bird, and Burton Bird - David Bird, Bobby Bird and Elizabeth Bird are deceased. Allan also had 5 other children: Melinda Naytowhow, Leslie Bird, Freddy LaVallee, Roy Michel and Jean Bougie (deceased). Through the traditional way, he adopted: Al Ducharme, Shirley Henderson and Dutch Lerat into the Bird Family. Throughout the years, there have been a lot of people who considers him like a father, uncle, or grandfather. He leaves 69 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren to celebrate his life.

Allan had enlisted in the army around 1952 and was active in the Korean War. He was a paratrooper in the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). He was third in line of war veterans in his family. His father, Zacharias, had served in World War I and hsi brother Simeon Halkett was in World War II who landed at Normandy on D-Day. Allan passed on this legacy to his late grandson, Dale LaVallee, who had been involved in the Militia.

During his time in the trenches, he discovered God and carried his belief in God and spirituality throughout his life. He was always active with the local Anglican Church in his home community. In the earlier days, Allan would go to the church every Sunday morning where he would fire up the wood heater and clean up in preparation for the church services. He was still attending to his pre-Sunday service routine just before he died. On February 19, 2004, Allan Bird recieved the Order of Saskatchewan in recognition for years of exemplary service for the church.

Allan had stayed eleven months in Korea and returned to Canada shortly after an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. Upon returning to Montreal Lake shortly following the Korean War, he had seen the need for equality between the First Nations and the non-First Nations people. When he was at war, he fought side by side with non-First Nations and they all earned mutual respect as comrades. Once he returned to Canada, he was treated differently. He was told to go back to his reserve. Indian Affairs still controlled most aspects of the reserve life - there was an Indian Agent on the reserve. People had to receive permission from the agent in order to leave the reserve.

Allan started his political life when he returned from the Korean War. "He and many other veterans started changing the structures of the reserves. Instead of the Department [of Indian Affairs] and Canada itself handling totally everything, they brought back the will, the changes, that were required, to bring us to where we are today.

In the 1960s, Allan Bird, became Chief of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation and served several terms, off and on, along with political rival and friend Gilbert Bird. During his time as Chief, he was elected by his fellow Prince Albert District Chiefs, the forerunner of the Prince Albert Grand Council, to be the District Representative, which today would be the title of the Grand Chief. In 1980, both Allan and Gilbert Bird made an agreement that they would turn over the leadership to a new generation, and they would be relegated to advisors. In 1984, the Prince Albert District Chiefs passed a resolution for Allan Bird to become a Senator of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, and he was sworn in that year. He carried this title proudly. Allan was an advocator for our treaty rights. He would always speak up and fiercely defend the treaties and treaty rights of the people and the language and defended the cultural differences.

Korean War Story - Senator Allan Bird

I joined the army January 29, 1952. I was there for three years. My basic training was in Camp Petawawa, Ontario. After six months, I didn't come back once to Montreal Lake to visit my family. From there, I went to Wainwright, Alberta for the summer training. I stayed there for about two months. From there we went across the ocean on a ship. It took us about fourteen days. We got to Yokahama, Japan. In the meantime, on our way to Korea, I was outside on the ship standing on the rail just thinking about home and why I had to leave home. Yet, I was very glad I joined the army because my father was in the First World War. My brother was in World War 2 and I thought I might as well join the army too. While I was at the railing in the ship, just standing there and being very lonely, I saw another man there. He too was just looking. He looked like an Indian to me. I went to say hello to him. I asked him if he was lonesome and he said yes. "I wondered why I crossed the ocean. I was already overseas in WW2", he said. "While I was there in Germany, during the war, I won myself a George Cross, next to Victoria Cross for bravery." He told me how he won the cross. Then he told me, "I'm not coming back until I win the Victoria Cross in Korea." He told me lots of stories about the war. At the end, I asked for his name, "Tommy Prince", he said. That was the most decorated Indian in the Canadian Army. Sergeant Tommy Prince died in Winnipeg not too long ago. He died poor. He didn't want very much help. He said, "I came into the world poor and I'll leave the world poor."

While we were in Korea, we stopped at Japan for a week. Then we crossed Japan to Korea. While we were in Tokyo, Japan, the people there gave us a tour. I saw where the atomic bomb fell in 1945 by the Americans. It looked like a fire went I through there. Everything was burnt, even the steel buildings. The steel bars were bent from the heat of the bomb at Hiroshima.

After one week in Japan, we went to Korea. We have six submarine and aircraft escorts. When we landed, we stayed on the ship. At night we were put on a train in boxcars. We were being sent to the front lines. We were there for thirteen months. Sometimes we had fun, sometimes we were scared. We hauled food and ammunition. We did all this mostly after dark. No lights because the tail lights on the vehicle would show. We never could do anything during the day. The war was on at night mostly.

Back in Japan, Sergeant Prince was with the same outfit in the P.P.C.L.I., the same as me. We would do patrol. Sergeant Prince took five men with him to patrol at the enemy lines. While they were at the front lines, he got hit with shells. Prince got shell shock. From there, he left to get back to our line. Prince and one other fellow returned, leaving the other three behind. He didn't know that he had left the three behind. They had been killed. Sergeant Prince was sent home with shell shock.

One day I volunteered to go on patrol to find out what was going on at the other side. We had our English Corporal by the name of Webster from London, England to join the Canadian Army. It took us all night to get to the front lines. There was tall grass, so we crawled to see what was on the other side. In the meantime, while we were crawling, our Corporal told us to lay down quiet. Something was wrong and we knew it. Then I saw the enemy about three feet away. They were looking for us. They were not sure where we were but they knew we were there. We lay quiet for two hours, waiting to get orders from our leader. Then he told us we could sit up to stretch. He radioed to headquarters and we were told to return. While we were walking, the sky would light up from flares. It was like daylight. We would fall on the ground. When it grew dark would start running again. Finally we got back.

I remember after the war was over in Korea, July 29, 1953-54. There was a line there where sides were able to see each other. One morning I was called to go patrol that line. There was a tower there about 25 feet high. I didn't have any live ammo or rifle, nothing but my hands to fight with. About five in the morning I got up in the tower just to look around with binoculars. There was a big valley in that area. I saw people running from bush to bush. They were coming closer and closer. I didn't feel very good about what was happening. I was getting very suspicious so I radioed headquarters. They were coming towards me. The Military Police came. I heard the trucks rumbling over the hill. I was very glad to see five vehicles coming. The Commanding Officer asked me to come down off the tower, but I didn't want to, as I would lose sight of the enemy. The enemy stopped when they heard the vehicles. After capturing them, they brought them back. The CO told me to search them. He told me they were mine, all five of them. They had knives and machine guns. For food, all they had was rice.

I still have the picture of the Koreans and myself. They took a picture of me. This was a seven in the morning. I had done a days work before breakfast. I didn't even get a thank you or take a day off. I still stayed at the tower all day.

reflection...

Today was a day for reflection and the continuing journey towards healing. A year ago today on March 02, 2005, there was a tragedy on our reserve that had taken three of our youth way too early in their life. We had a Candlelight Vigil in our community tonight. It was the first of its kind here. We had walked from the site of where the killings had taken place up to the church for a prayer service. We had planned this all last minute. Two nights ago, the idea was brought up. By that night, I had went and talked to the family for permission to have this event that would hopefully involve the whole community. With their permission, I had went back to work to meet a couple friends there to start the planning and to do up the poster. The next day (yesterday), we had a meeting with the Chief and Council and we presented this idea to them and they gave us their support, so with that, the posters were photocopied and was distributed all over the community and we were off shopping for the candles and the food.

In the midst of all this, it was snowing, snowing and snowing some more and we had come upon our winter snowstorm of the year! Blah. It snowed like there was no tommorow! This morning, we woke up with a thick blanket of snow on the ground, but luckily, it was not very cold nor windy. With the help and support of a lot of the community members, we were able to pull off this Candlelight Healing Ceremony with a great success. Around 200 people had showed up tonight to show their support. I was just amazed with amount of people that had shown up because it was just yesterday morning that I was handing out the posters and with all the snow that had fallen it had caused some "not recommended to drive" situations, I was not sure on how it would turn out. I have never organized an event like this. I had never been to a candlelight vigil before tonight. I was stressed out and worried. What if no one showed up? What if everyone was snowed in? or What if we didn't have enough candles or food for the people? Everything turned out great though. Without the support of many people, it would not have been a success. Our community, once again, had pulled together to help us in our time of need. Thank You.

With that all said...I am very exhausted.

I miss Greg.