The duties were straightforward and dangerous. Snipers kept the enemy unnerved with their rifle fire by shooting at targets from concealed positions called nests. Scouts slipped behind the font lines in advance of an attached to determine the enemy's positions and capabilities. Throughout the war, the Department of Indian Affairs received scores of letters from the front commending Native marksmen and scouts. As well, at least 37 decorations were awarded to Canadian natives for their bravery while sniping and scouting and for performing other feats of valour during the war. Though the following individuals are few in number, they represent a larger group of unnamed Native soldiers who placed a greater cause before their own lives. A PEACEFUL MAN The most highly decorated Canadian Native to serve in the Great War was Francis Pegahmagabow. 26 An Ojibwa from the Parry Island Band in Ontario, he was awarded the Military Medal (MM) plus 2 bars for bravery in Belgium and Frantce.27 Soldiers who had been awarded the MM and later performed similarly heroic could receive bars to it denoting further awards. Pegahmagabow was one of only 39 members of the CEF who received 2 bars to the MM. Pegahmagabow enlisted with the 23rd regiment (Northern Pioneers) in August 1914 - almost immediately after the war was declared. Previously he had worked along the Great Lakes as a marine fireman for the Department of Marine and Fisheries. Within weeks of volunteering he became one of the original members of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion which along with the rest of the 200000 strong 1st Canadian division, landed in France in February 1915. Sniping was the specialty of the man his fellow soldiers called "Peggy". It has been written of him "his iron nerves, patience and superb marksmanship helped make him an outstanding sniper. 28 In addition, Pegahmagabow developed a reputation as a superior scout. The 1st Battalion experienced heavy action almost as soon as it arrived on the battle field. It fought at Ypres, where they introduced a new deadly weapon poison gas and on the Somme where Pegahamagbow was shot in the leg. He recovered and made it back in time to return with his unit to Belguim. In November 1917, the 1st Battalion joined the assault near the village of Passchendaele. Here roughly 20000 Allied soldiers crawled from shell crater to shell crater through water ad mud. With two British divisions, the Canadian Corps attached