The Final Run: Alex Decoteau's Extraordinary Journey from Red Pheasant First Nation to World War I Hero
How Canada's first Indigenous police officer became an Olympic Runner and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele
October 23, 1917: The mud clung to Alex Decoteau's boots like desperate hands, each step seemed like a battle against the earth itself. Rain pelted his face as he crouched low, lungs burning, legs pumping with the same methodical rhythm that had carried him to victory on racetracks across Canada and even at the Olympic Games in Stockholm. But this was no race for medals.
The whistling shriek of shells tore through the Belgian sky, transforming the once-peaceful farmland of Passchendaele into a hellscape of craters and broken men.
Alex clutched the vital message against his chest, his gold pocket watch, awarded to him by the King of England, pressed against his heart beneath his uniform. He had run countless miles in his 29 years: across the plains of Saskatchewan as a boy, through the streets of Edmonton as the city's first Indigenous police officer, and on tracks where crowds chanted his name.
But this run, zigzagging through No Man's Land with death in the air, would test him like no other. The same legs that had made him famous now served a different purpose—not for glory, but for duty.
For a moment, he paused in the shelter of a shattered tree stump. Ahead lay exposed ground, a gauntlet of mud and barbed wire. Behind him stretched the legacy of his father, a warrior who had fought at Cut Knife during the North-West Resistance. Alex's fingers brushed against the watch as he readied himself for the final sprint. The message had to get through.
In the distance, machine guns clattered their deadly rhythm, a sound altogether different from the starting pistols he'd once listened for. And then, like a flash, he was off.
November 19, 1887, on the Red Pheasant First Nation in what is now Saskatchewan, a child named Alexander (Alex) Wuttunee Decoteau was born. He was one of five children. His father, Peter, was Métis and had once fought alongside Chief Poundmaker at the Battle of Cut Knife in 1885.
The Battle of Cut Knife took place during the North-West Resistance, a conflict between Métis and First Nations people and the Canadian government over land and treaty issues.
In this particular skirmish, Cree and Assiniboine forces, led by Chief Poundmaker and war chief Fine Day, defeated a force composed of North-West Mounted Police, Canadian militia, and Canadian regulars commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Otter. The victory forced the Canadian militia to retreat to Battleford and was a significant victory for the Cree and Assiniboine.
Three weeks later, Chief Poundmaker surrendered after receiving word that the Métis had been defeated at Batoche, which ended the resistance. Two years later, Alex’s father was creating a family while trying to navigate the complexities of post-resistance life.
Life in those days was full of struggle. Alex’s family was poor and finding food and resources was getting more difficult by the day as land was being swallowed up by settlers. Things became even harder when Peter was murdered in 1891. Alex was only three years old.
That loss meant Alex’s mother, Marie, had no way to support all her children while also tending to the difficult task of trying to raise them all. So, in order to keep them fed and sheltered, she made a difficult choice: the children would attend the Battleford Industrial School, a residential school near North Battleford.
The Battleford Industrial School was the first residential school in Canada, established in 1883. The school aimed to assimilate Indigenous children into European-Canadian culture by eliminating Indigenous customs and practices. It was part of a broader system designed to assimilate Indigenous children through education and forced cultural change.
Conditions at the school were harsh, with reports of physical punishment, poor living conditions, and high mortality rates. Despite the challenging environment, and the heartbreaking separation from his family and home community, Alex found ways to persevere.
It was here that Alex got his first taste of athletic competition. He excelled at boxing, cricket, soccer, and running. Sports gave him an outlet for his energy and helped him discover he could push himself in ways he never thought possible. Decoteau was also a good student, demonstrating academic ability alongside his athletic prowess. Whatever he set his mind to working on, he gave it everything he had.
Once he aged out of the school, Alex spent time working on farms in Saskatchewan. But he wanted to pursue other opportunities afforded by living in the big city. In 1909, he moved to Edmonton to live with his sister Emily and work as a blacksmith for his brother-in-law, David Latta.
But even though school had ended, Alex still craved the competition of sports. In particular, he wanted to keep running and knew he was good at it. Working as a blacksmith in David’s shop allowed Alex to earn a living while he continued sharpening his skills as a runner. Running was where he seemed to feel most like himself and it was something that brought him peace, pride, and purpose.
On May 24, 1909, Decoteau entered his first organized race—a one-mile run in Fort Saskatchewan—and took second place. That taste of professional competition changed everything.
Over the next few weeks, he competed in longer races. In June, he won a five-mile race at the Edmonton Exhibition, crossing the line in 28 minutes 41 seconds. Six days later, he set a Western Canadian record in Lloydminster by running five miles in 27 minutes 45 seconds. That was a blazing-fast time for that era.
By 1910, Alex was collecting wins left and right. On Dominion Day that year, he raced in multiple events in Lethbridge and ended up winning the half-mile, one-mile, two-mile, and five-mile races—all in the same day. It seemed he had stamina and grit to spare. That winter he also won the Calgary Herald’s Christmas Day Road Race that was more than six miles long.
As Decoteau ran in races around the region, he became aware that back home in Edmonton, the city was looking to modernize its police force and was on the hunt for new recruits. Alex was intrigued by the opportunity to try something new and make a positive impact, and applied.
In January 1911, Alex was hired by the Edmonton Police Service, becoming Canada’s first Indigenous municipal police officer. He was 23 at the time. Soon, he was patrolling on one of the city’s earliest motorcycle units. It was a big responsibility, and Alex took it seriously.
Working as a police officer was challenging enough for most people. But while he worked full-time as a cop, he never stopped training for races when he was off the clock. On weekends, you could often find him lining up at starting lines around the region, as he kept pushing himself to see how fast he could really go.
As Alex’s reputation in the running community grew, he began to attract attention from sports officials. His best times in distance racing kept improving, and he seemed unstoppable in any races of up to ten miles. That potential earned him a place on Canada’s team for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, he was the only athlete from Alberta named to the national Olympic squad.
That summer, he travelled to Stockholm and competed in the 5,000-metre race. Although he did well in the heats, he got leg cramps in the final and ended up finishing sixth. He was disappointed, but he later said it was still an amazing experience to run against the best distance runners in the world.
When he returned to Edmonton, there was a parade down Jasper Avenue in his honour. People from Edmonton and the surrounding area filled the streets cheering for the young man from Red Pheasant who had proven himself on the Olympic stage and earned his place amongst running’s elite athletes.
During 1913, Alex continued running, faster and faster and farther and farther. He set records in provincial track events, and it was beginning to look like nothing could stop him.
Decoteau’s exemplary service as a police officer continued as well. Within a few short years of becoming a constable, his commanding officers saw how reliable he was and promoted him to sergeant in 1914. But later that year, World War I broke out, which would eventually lead to Alex’s journey taking a different direction.
Alex didn’t enlist right away though. He was still working as a police sergeant, committed to protecting and serving his city, and the initial policy toward Indigenous recruits was complicated. Some Indigenous volunteers were turned away, and others discouraged.
But by 1916, the Canadian military needed more volunteers, and restrictions and prejudice recruitment policies were relaxed. That April, Alex answered his country’s call by joining the 202nd Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the “Edmonton Sportsmen’s Battalion.” People said it suited him, given his athletic fame.
One reason he enlisted had to do with his father’s legacy as a warrior. Serving in the war in Europe gave Alex a chance to earn the kind of warrior’s respect that his father once held. So he left his role as a police officer and prepared to cross the Atlantic.
Before shipping out, Alex trained at the Sarcee camp near Calgary, honing his marksmanship skills and learning about the unique physical fitness required for wartime trench conditions. By November 24, 1916, he was on the RMS Mauretania headed to England.
As he had done back home in Edmonton, Decoteau continued to make time for running when he wasn’t working. Even overseas, he never stopped competing and found himself competing in military athletic competitions. In one event at Salisbury, he won a 5-mile race, and King George V himself presented Alex with a gold pocket watch.
If you can picture Alex standing there, sweaty from a run completed in his “downtime” from military training, shaking hands with the King of England like it was no big deal, that’s how remarkable he was.
When the final phase of his military training ended, Alex was sent to France in May 1917 to join the 49th Battalion. They were stationed along the Western Front, which stretched through France and Belgium. By this point in the war, fighting was well established as and constrained to trench warfare.
On the front lines, shellfire never let up. It was physically and mentally exhausting. The death toll continued to rise and neither side seemed to be making any headway. In July, as the body count piled up, the Allies needed every available soldier they could deploy to help with the Battle of Passchendaele. The 49th Battalion were soon called upon to join the fight in Belgium.
By fall, the Canadian Corps found themselves in the middle of one of the most brutal battles of the war: the drive to take Passchendaele Ridge. The weather turned rainy, turning the ground into a swamp. Soldiers sometimes drowned in flooded trenches.
The conditions seemed to mirror the chaos and destructive forces that humans unleashed on each other here during the first few years of the war. The mud made it nearly impossible to move. It was cold, wet, and extremely dangerous. To say it was hell, would be to be putting it lightly.
Although allied leaders had strategized that this push was essential to victory, the Canadian commander, General Arthur Currie, thought the plan might cost too many lives. However his, superiors insisted, the men had to move forward, no matter what.
On October 30, 1917, Alex Decoteau was acting as a runner, delivering messages through the chaos. It was an important role that often fell squarely onto his shoulders given his speed and endurance.
Soldiers called these assignments “suicide runs,” because the open ground between trenches was exposed to enemy snipers. Never being one to shy away from pushing himself, Decoteau had been vital in keeping communication lines open for weeks as he zigzagged back and forth between foxholes, trenches, craters and mudslides.
After dodging countless bullets and bombs in Belgium, while running to deliver a message that morning, Alex was shot and killed. He was only 29 years old.
There’s a popular story that the sniper who killed Decoteau looted his body and took his prized gold watch. Soon afterward, Alex’s friends located that same sniper, shot him, and recovered the watch. They shipped it home to Alex’s mother in Edmonton, in a final act to honour their dear friend, and fearless fellow soldier.
Alex Decoteau was buried at the Passchendaele New British Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium, along with many other Canadian soldiers who lost their lives in the same battle. By the time the Canadians finally took Passchendaele Ridge, thousands were killed or wounded, including many Indigenous men who had volunteered to serve a country that often denied them full rights.
Back in Alberta, people grieved the loss of their Olympic hero, fellow police officer, brother, and friend. But time sometimes has a way of making even heroes fade from public memory. For decades, Alex’s legacy was mostly kept alive by family stories or old newspaper clippings.
Then in 1966, an Edmonton police officer named Sergeant Sam Donaghey discovered a yellowed clipping about Alex. Fascinated, Donaghey began digging up every fact he could find. He uncovered Alex’s athletic feats, Olympic performance, police service, and war record. His research led to Alex being inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 1967.
Another remarkable tribute happened in 1985. Members of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation, along with veterans, the Edmonton Police Service, and representatives of the Canadian Armed Forces, held a ceremony in Edmonton to “bring his spirit home.”
Because Alex never had a traditional Cree funeral, according to Cree beliefs, his spirit was still wandering. Drummers from the Red Pheasant Band performed a burial song, and an Edmonton police piper followed with “Amazing Grace.” Even though it was 68 years after his death, people felt that Alex was finally brought home in a spiritual sense.
Gradually, more groups recognized him too. He joined the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
He was also placed in the Edmonton City Police Hall of Fame, and there’s a special section devoted to him in the Edmonton Police Museum, where his medals, trophies, and records are on display.
Today, Alex’s name continues to surface in many places. In 2014, Edmonton named a park and a residential area “Decoteau” in his honour. There’s also a new memorial in Flanders, Belgium—a blue plaque near the fields where he died—unveiled on Indigenous Veterans’ Day, November 8, 2024.
Local groups hope visitors will learn not only about Alex but also about the many Indigenous soldiers who served Canada.
If you walk through Alex Decoteau Park in downtown Edmonton, you’ll see the community’s pride in his story. A statue of him reminds us that he wasn’t just a Canadian soldier—he was a runner, an Olympian, and the first Indigenous police officer in Canada.
More than anything, he carried the warrior spirit of his ancestors. A legacy passed down from his father. He was a man of honour, running full tilt toward his goals, and when it mattered most, toward danger. As a police officer and a soldier, he dedicated his life to serving, protecting, and fighting for freedom.
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Sources used to research this story:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/alex-decoteau
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Decoteau
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/66016
https://citymuseumedmonton.ca/2015/01/20/alex-decoteaus-inspiring-run-at-life/
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/decoteau_alexander_14E.html
https://armyrun.ca/2021/05/11/alex-decoteau-a-runner-and-a-soldier/
https://vimyfoundation.ca/news/alex-decoteau-celebrating-an-indigenous-pioneer-in-sport-and-service
https://windspeaker.com/news/alex-decoteau-difficult-beginnings-life-of-achievement
https://legionmagazine.com/indigenous-soldier-to-be-commemorated-with-plaque-in-flanders/
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What an incredible life he led!! So many challenges, but so much potential and drive!! A winner in so many ways in his too-short life.