Sargeant Tommy Prince

"Tommy Prince - WWII & Korean War Native Veteran Sgt. Tommy Prince, from Brokenhead Band in Scanterbury, Manitoba, received the highest military decorations for bravery, the Silver Star and the Military Medal. An excellent marksman, Tommy was an army spotter in WWII in Europe and brought down heavy artillery fire on the enemy at the risk of his life. He served in the elite "Devil's Brigade" for the duration of the War, then reenlisted in the Korean War
years later. Tommy wore well the mantle of his grandfather, Peguis, the famous Saulteaux Chief."

Tommy Prince is another of my "relations"... sort of. My Mom's (and Rifleman Edward Smith's) sister Janice married Tommy's brother. In later life, Tommy married (by common-law) Verna Sinclair. Verna is the sister of my mothers first husband.

Back home was a small place, many surnames and families are very old Red River Settlement families....AND New Iceland families. Many never left the area.... communities concentrated mostly around the SE corner of Lake Winnipeg, but some across the lake. A lot of these folks, during WW2, were with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, (and PPCLI and I don't know what other regiments etc) Its mentioned that Tommy Prince (Thomas George Prince) was with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles for a while.

Geneology is an amazing... and very surprizing thing sometimes Heroes and skeletons... sometimes the skeletons are the heroes... and so on.

Its amazing how "forgotten" some of these amazing men were. Outta site...outta mind?

I'm glad we have sh*t-disturbers to make people pay attention because sometimes it actually works... eventually.

Ouch!

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

See story here...
http://users.uniserve.com/~echo2/prince.html

Originally posted by Alex Blair
See story here...
http://users.uniserve.com/~echo2/prince.html

Alex: Thank you for the link. I read through the story and was blown away about the story and coming auction for Tommy's medals. August 9th is coming up really fast... I wonder if tons of letters appealing to the "owner" of them to "give them back" would help at all? Inundate with appeals??? I'm going to pass along the link and the story to everyone I know.

I didn't see mention of the Royal Winnpieg Rifles... but did come across the info somewhere. Will try find that site and maybe get in touch with the RWR Museum to ask them directly too, if he indeed was with them briefly.

Carman

I hate to rain on anyones parade but I don't think that Tommy Prince is the most decorated native soldier who served in the Canadian Army. The Military Medal and the U.S. Silver Star are not the highest awards for bravery in their respective countries. One native soldier in WW I was awarded Two MMs, another was awarded the DCM and I am sure there are others. Sgt. Prince may have been the most decorated native soldier in the Canadian Army in WW II but don't forget there were other wars before WW II. Refer to the following web site:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...y/other/native

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Carman
Check the dates on the article again...
That acution was back in August of 2001....
I believe that they are back "Home" in Winnipeg and on display.

Originally posted by Alex Blair
Carman
Check the dates on the article again...
That acution was back in August of 2001....
I believe that they are back "Home" in Winnipeg and on display.

Oh Gawd... red-faced me...again. Thanks Alex.... am as observant as ever. Must be the Piscean in me too..."Space Cadet" oiy! I'm very glad tto hear the medals may be home, now I want to know the story about "how"

Originally posted by Art Johnson
I hate to rain on anyones parade but I don't think that Tommy Prince is the most decorated native soldier who served in the Canadian Army. The Military Medal and the U.S. Silver Star are not the highest awards for bravery in their respective countries. One native soldier in WW I was awarded Two MMs, another was awarded the DCM and I am sure there are others. Sgt. Prince may have been the most decorated native soldier in the Canadian Army in WW II but don't forget there were other wars before WW II. Refer to the following web site:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...y/other/native

Hi Art Thanks for the link and mentioning the other Native Soldiers I'll check out that link to learn more...thanks for "raining on the parade" ... if it should rain, it should rain! Glad you brought the "rain" Art! GRIN

Meanwhile... medals are great, but what stands out to me about these soldiers is not the medals, but the "Soldiers" themselves, decorated and un-decorated..... what happened for them, and to them, and didn't, after they came home. To be so awarded with medals etc... and so discarded almost, was somehow even worse. The powers that be certainly have had sh#tty priorities and dog-eat-dog ways for people that cover their asses and do the dirty work for them.

The poem posted in the "Warrior Passes" thread posted by Geoff says a lot of what I mean, much better than I could.

Meanwhile... its nice to be learning more about "Native" involvement in the wars. The group photo I have of the RWR's taken June 1943 in England has a lot of Native looking men in the group.

I still feel tho that "a soldier is a soldier is a soldier" PERIOD. SOLDIERING is the important thing. Not sex or race (says me

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/nativee.html

I found the above link when doing a little surfing. Very interesting

[Snowtractor]

Yup natives got the shit end of the stick on many occasions. And the vets that fought deserve the respect that all the vets received but not more. Their contribution was no more and no less . To build them up too much is to lessen other others contribution. What happend before and after the army tends to be brought in to benefit someones political ambitions and sullies the men, in my opinion. I would be surprised if they didn't agree, but you never know.
Sean

Originally posted by Snowtractor
Yup natives got the shit end of the stick on many occasions. And the vets that fought deserve the respect that all the vets received but not more. Their contribution was no more and no less . To build them up too much is to lessen other others contribution. What happend before and after the army tends to be brought in to benefit someones political ambitions and sullies the men, in my opinion. I would be surprised if they didn't agree, but you never know.
Sean

Hi Sean... I agree with just about EVERYTHING you said here!!! No more and no less. I like that folks fought for the same benefits for Natives as the rest of them got BECAUSE they didn't get them (BECAUSE they were Native?)... the main point for me being "they didn't get what they shoulda got" Native or otherwise, that ain't right.

I agree that using the "opportunity" (in other words..."using the soldiers") to fight a "racial issue" a sort of OPPORTUNISTIC abuse "to further ambitions/status etc". I wish people wouldn't do that It hurts and it doesn't help anyone or anything! The issue was equal benefits for equal involvement.

I personally find it "interesting" to know of the particular Native Soldiers because I was one of those horrible people who, because of racism and prejudice, HID my native ancestry and knowledge of my native relatives, because I didn't want to be a target of the racism anymore....(what kind of people were around me anyways???????...oiy) but there you go, I woke up and wised up a bit. I don't want to be treated "special or different/more than/less than" because of my native blood, or lack of it, etc.

Give me hell when I deserve it
Yappy

[Snowtractor]

I just have an aversion to special interst groups and if someone can't compete you start a whole new awards system, program ,whatever. Those who know me, know me to speak my mind, no candy coating here. I , of course, am wrong sometimes, whatever, I can take it. I would make a sorry politician, I really don't like the favour of ass.
Incidentally, I have a metis card an a certified history tracing our family to Louis Riel and even further to Louis Hebert, who received the first land grant in Canada from Champlain I believe. Makes my lineage the first landowners in Canada , about 350 years worth. Neat as that is I live in the now and refuse to say poor me for things that happened before my time. I mean most of Europe coulld be suing the Mongols for invading or the NOrsemen or the Romans or French or Germans, sigh where does it stop. And do we not accept immigrants if they have only been here 20 years. We're here , its a fact , we're not leaving, time to get past ...the past. Just remember it ,honor it, learn from it , and try not to repeat the mistakes.
Sean

Originally posted by Snowtractor
I just have an aversion to special interst groups and if someone can't compete you start a whole new awards system, program ,whatever. Those who know me, know me to speak my mind, no candy coating here. I , of course, am wrong sometimes, whatever, I can take it. I would make a sorry politician, I really don't like the favour of ass.
Incidentally, I have a metis card an a certified history tracing our family to Louis Riel and even further to Louis Hebert, who received the first land grant in Canada from Champlain I believe. Makes my lineage the first landowners in Canada , about 350 years worth. Neat as that is I live in the now and refuse to say poor me for things that happened before my time. I mean most of Europe coulld be suing the Mongols for invading or the NOrsemen or the Romans or French or Germans, sigh where does it stop. And do we not accept immigrants if they have only been here 20 years. We're here , its a fact , we're not leaving, time to get past ...the past. Just remember it ,honor it, learn from it , and try not to repeat the mistakes.
Sean

Hey TANSI Sean... I like yer attitude, dude!

By the way, I think we're all so Heinz-57-ish, most of us, that our race wars could only justifiably be fought "within" ...MPD LOOK-OUT... here she/they comes/goes agin...aaaargh!!! Who?

Yeah well... maybe your relatives had the first land grant but I'll bet mine lived here first!!!
EKOSI

Its amazing who you find when you start climbing your family tree.

I found out from my sister that Tommy Prince's wife Verna, is definately my sisters' Aunty. Whats neater is that I'll probably be meeting her soon.
Good to be learning about the Sinclair and other sides of the family. Amazing histories. (no, I don't have Sinclair blood in me ... my sisters do ... I'm researching the family tree for my sisters and their kids)

http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/Fall2002/HisPrince.htm

...

November 27, 2005
Vandals target mural of war hero
Just mischief, or hate crime?
By BOB HOLLIDAY, STAFF REPORTER

Don Mackey is wondering if paint tossed on a mural dedicated to one of Canada's best known war heroes is senseless vandalism or a hate crime.

Someone splattered paint on the Sgt. Tommy Prince mural on the side of a building at Selkirk Avenue and the street bearing the hero's name.

"It's so frustrating, especially with this being the Year of the Veteran," said Mackey, who spearheaded the movement behind several tributes to Prince.

"I can't understand why. There was nothing for three years and now it's two years in a row."

The mural was vandalized on Nov. 20, 2004. This past July, a vandal tagged graffiti on a mural on a nearby building.

The vandalism may or may not be considered a hate crime, said Sgt. John Burchill, head of the Winnipeg police hate crime unit.

"At this point, it's just mischief, a stupid act of vandalism," said Burchill.

Dirt Doctor will estimate the damage today to determine if the mural may be saved or have to be repainted, said Mackey.

Prince, from the Brokenhead Indian Reserve, earned a dozen medals -- including the Military Medal for bravery and the U.S. Silver Star for exploits during the Second World War and in Korea.

Prince, who died in Winnipeg in 1977 at the age of 63, served in Italy as well as in northwest Europe and Korea.

He was a member of the 1st Special Service Force, also known as the Devil's Brigade.

DEVIL'S BRIGADE

He was recommended for the French Croix de Guerre but a courier bearing that dispatch was killed.

The Devil's Brigade was a joint Canadian-American commando unit trained near Helena, Mont., in the 1940s.

Modern American and Canadian special forces units trace their heritage to the Devil's Brigade, which was immortalized in a 1968 movie starring William Holden.

Hi Folks,

Someone posted this story link in another forum ... a biography of Tommy Prince. It's quite long and I haven't read through the whole thing yet. One thing I enjoy of what I've read so far is the quotes of things Tommy said. I don't know enough about the history, or Tommy, to know how "good and factual about things said and done" are. There is a lot of focus on Indian ... or to be politically correct, Aboriginal (but whenever I hear the word aboriginal, I think of Native Australians!!!)

http://www.ucfv.ca/__shared/assets/JHBVol19709.pdf

I guess Tommy is still sending us smoke signals when others tell his stories ... ... here's one from me for you Tommy

Karmen