The Second World War became a total war for Canada, drawing in virtually every person in virtually every region of the country in diverse ways, including Canada’s First Nations population. As wards of the state, this was not Status Indians’ war to fight, and yet more than 4,000 enlisted, and extensive patriotic gestures, voluntarism, and war employment on the Homefront suggest that First Nations people mostly did see this as their war. Why was this so? And what implications did this have for First Nations’ place and status in Canadian society?