ABSTRACT
Duran and Duran have written about the stages of post-traumatic stress disorder that occurs within Indigenous families, and men in particular, due to the effects of colonization and the residential school experience. Mails notes that there were no armies during pre-colonial times and most Indigenous conflict was confined to small clashes of men. Women were involved in the defense and political decision making of the communities. Missionaries often misunderstood this role as they came from societies where women were not considered persons militarily or politically. During conflicts between Indigenous societies, hand-to-hand combat prevailed as the primary means of defense. Indigenous leadership in both the east and west was often divided between civil and war chiefs. During World War I, Indigenous men in both the US and Canada, many of whom had attended residential boarding schools, were enlisting or being conscripted into the Canadian or American militaries, and were no longer fighting solely on behalf of their families and communities.
