Black Watch friends:

Regret to report the passing of Ray (Sandy) Sanderson last week in Saskatchewan.
Ray graduated from RHC Depot with 120 Squad in July 1961 and was posted to our 2nd Battalion. He deployed to Germany with the battalion where he served in ‘C’ Company. He took his release and returned to Canada in 1964 however a few months later he reenlisted in the PPCLI.

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A highly-respected member of the James Smith Cree Nations (JSCN) and a long-standing veteran has died.

Ray Sanderson, a former Grand Chief of the Saskatchewan First Nations Veteran’s Association (SFNVA), passed away Sunday. He was 76.

One of the three chiefs at the JSCN, Calvin Sanderson, said Ray would always speak at Remembrance Day and advocated for the names of fallen veterans from the First and Second World Wars to be memorialized around Saskatchewan.

“He would always speak at the community level and what he experienced as a veteran," Sanderson said. “He always said dearly we should not forget our veterans.”

He added Sanderson was instrumental as a pathfinder in pursuing land claims with the federal government on behalf of his people.

“He explored whether or not JSCN had land claims and he was doing that in the 1980s. From thereon there were other members who tried to pursue that and that’s why today we have our land claims negotiations with Canada,” Sanderson said.

In 2012, Ray Sanderson told pa NOW “I am committed to working hard for my fellow veterans and widows. In these short few months we will focus our initial efforts on the grave marker program and a fund raising initiative for our members.”

Sanderson was born Jan. 23, 1942, and was from the Chakastaypaysin First Nation. He lived at a residential school from age seven to 17, involving himself with the army cadets and eventually leaving to join the armed forces.

On March 3, 1961, at the age of 19, he joined the regiment called The Black Watch of Canada, CAF (R). Right after basic training, Ray went overseas to complete a tour in Germany. He was honorably released, April 24, 1964.

Ray returned home to the reservation for a few months before deciding he would re-enlist. Ray’s older brother Roy was stationed in Edmonton, Alta. with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), and Ray hoped to join his brother. On August 24, 1964, Ray enlisted once again and completed another tour to Germany with the PPCLI. Ray was honorably released from CAF, July 16, 1971. He was awarded six medals in his time with the military.

Ray’s niece, Marie Sanderson, who is a tutor at the Bernard Community School, said her uncle was a very close part of her family.

“I knew him since I was a little girl,” she said. "My mom and dad took him in when he was young and he was attending the Indian Residential School. He’d come home and he’d be our brother.”

The current Grand Chief of the SFNVA, Steven Ross said Sanderson will be remembered as a kind leader.

"He got things going for us, like long-term funding and various benefits for veterans," Ross told Prince Albert’s “paNOW”. "He was a military man and so he understood the veterans' problems; he just provided leadership and others followed."
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With thanks to Ron Owens, who served with Sandy in 2RHC/C Coy, for the foregoing.

R.I.P.
NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT

I remember Sandy very well....the guy stood out among our platoon. He was passionate about being an aboriginal person. Him and I would sit and talk about the natives and what he would like to see happen for the natives. I knew him in depot, I was with 123 Squad and when I went to battalion we were both trained and we joined up again in Support Platoon, C Company, 2nd. Battalion.

He certainly will be miss by his family and this native brothers.