The military training program where Indigenous youth learn to lead

Five young participants of the Canadian Armed Forces Bold Eagle program gather around a map laid out on a grassy knoll. For the past four hours, the Indigenous youth, in full military gear, have been tasked with finding hidden dinner-plate-sized markers in the rolling hills and forests of Central Alberta, without GPS. Though they’re exhausted – physically and mentally – the previous five weeks of training has prepared them well.

The team is part of a wider group of applicants to the Bold Eagle program, which selects 100 Indigenous youth from Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario to take part in the competitive program every summer for the past 34 years.

In partnership with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, the six-week-long program based in the Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, Central Alberta, is one of five regional programs across Canada that are made exclusively for Indigenous youth. It is first and foremost a youth development program that seeks to cultivate leadership, fitness, teamwork and resiliency.

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The program follows the CAF’s Primary Reserve Basic Military Qualifications format but weaves in cultural teachings and considerations for participants.

The first week is dedicated to teachings from Indigenous elders on self-discipline and teamwork. For the rest of the program, participants are put through standard military training, which involves weapon handling, drills, first aid, navigation, fieldcraft and survival skills.

There is no obligation to join the military afterward. Bold Eagle’s focus is on building skills and capacity in Indigenous youth at home and in their future careers, rather than recruitment.

“When these young people come back to their communities, they very quickly become leaders,” said commanding officer Major Ward Lenz.

Through Bold Eagle, the CAF has built an ever-adapting model of collaboration with their Indigenous partners and cultural advisers in the FISN, Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association and the Alberta Métis Veterans Association.