The deadliest sniper of WWI was Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwa soldier

Watch Francis in action in Episode 6 of Canada: The Story of Us

In the bloodshed and chaos that is the battlefields of the First World War,hundreds ofthousands of young Canadian men sign up to fight for their country overseas but there's one who sticks out from the crowd. His bravery and fearlessness are legendary. His fellow soldiers call him Peggy.

Early years

Francis Pegahmagabowwasborn in 1889 on the Parry Island Indian Reserve (now theWasauksing First Nation), an Ojibwacommunity near Parry Sound, Ontario. When he is three, his father dies and his mother returns to her home in the HenveyInletFirst Nation.

In the care of elder Noah Nebimanyquod who had also raisedPegahmagabow's own orphaned father young Francis spends his childhood steeped in the customs of the Anishnaabe. Nebimanyquod teaches him to fish and hunt, while his foster mother educates him about traditional medicine. He grows up practicing both traditional Anishnaabe spirituality and Roman Catholicism.

Pegahmagabow leaves school at the age of 12 and begins working at lumber camps and fishing stations, eventually working as a marine fireman. When he's 25, war is declared in Europe. Heenlists intheCanadian Expeditionary Forceon August 13, 1914.

Surviving the war's deadliest jobs

Pegahmagabow is assigned to two of the war's deadliest jobs: working as a scout, running messages from headquarters to the frontlines, and as a sniper.

After spendingso much of his youth hunting, Pegahmagabow turns out to be a uniquely skilled sniper. He sneaks into No Man's Land underdarkness, buries himself in coverand waits patiently until a German helmet fills his scope. It's this mix of patience andunerring aimthat makeshim the deadliest sniper on either side of the war, with 378 confirmed kills.

It's this mix of patience andunerring aimthat makeshim the deadliest sniper on either side of the war, with 378 confirmed kills.

He'll also survive the first chlorine gas attack atthe Second Battle ofYpres although the gasexposurecausesirreparable damage to his lungs and fightsatthe Somme,PasschendaeleandAmiens.

By the time he is discharged in 1919, Pegahmagabowis the most decorated First Nationssoldier in Canadian history.Heis awardedthe Military Medal in 1916and earnstwo bars, becoming one of just 37 Canadiansto win the Military Medal with two bars. Heisalso awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medaland the Victory Medal.

Butunlike his fellow soldiers,Pegahmagabow's fightdoes notend with thearmistice. He's a decoratedveteran, but when he returns to Canada, heremains an Indian:a "ward of the state," deniedthe rights of a Canadian citizen. He can't vote, and as is the case with all First Nations people at the time almost every aspect of his life, from his ability to leave the reserve to his military pension, is controlled by an Indian Agent, a powerful white bureaucrat assigned to oversee all Indigenous people inhisjurisdiction.

Fighting for Indigenous rights

In 1921,Pegahmagabowbegins to advocate for change, first as a leader of his people. He's elected chief ofwhat is todaythe Wasauksing First Nation and hasfrequent clashes with the area's Indian Agent, John Daly. He and his fellow band councillors embark on a letter-writing campaignseekingto increase the power of elected band leaders, butOttawainsists they communicate only through Daly.

In 1945, Pegahmagabow is electedSupremeChief of the Native Independent Government, an early Indigenous Civil Rights organization,and a precursor tothe Assembly of First Nations.

By the 1950s, Pegahmagabow's war injuries are catching up to him. His lungs are so weakened from gasexposurethathe sleeps sitting upright to keep them from filling with fluid. He dies of a heart attack in 1952.

Pegahmagabow's legacy lives on as an exampleofa life of service and determination,renownedforbothhis bravery as a soldier in the First World War and his ceaselessstrugglefor his people's rights.