Fred Loft

Frederick Ogilvie Loft (February 3, 1861 – 1934, Mohawk name Onondeyoh, also known as F. O. Loft or Fred O. Loft) was a Mohawk nation activist who founded the League of Indians of Canada. He has been counted among "the great Indian activists of the first half of the twentieth century."

He was also a World War I veteran and was active in encouraging recruitment. He stood nearly 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).

Loft (Also known as Onondeyoh, which means "Beautiful Mountain" in Mohawk) was born in Six Nations of the Grand River to Christian Mohawk parents. Both parents spoke fluently in English and Mohawk, and was strongly encouraged by his parents to seek an education at an early age. His education included high school and completing the training necessary to be a bookkeeper. However, unable to find work within his trained field, he instead worked numerous jobs but was most well known as a reporter for the Brantford Expositor. While only working for less than six months with the paper, Loft became greatly interested in Indian Affairs and greatly expressed a strong liberal attitude to the subject. He brought this view with him to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which, unlike Montreal and Vancouver, had no neighbouring reserves and had less dealings with the subject. Pushing for stronger, more autonomous First Nations groups in Toronto, he proposed unions between the Ojibwa and Iroquois people to the Toronto Globe but saw nothing for his efforts. This did not deter Loft from actively working in politics, and in Toronto he sat in a unique position of being educated, fluent in English and coming from a well-off family; he could continue to assert himself, and gain valued friends. Prior to the First World War, Loft did not achieve a political position of high ranking, but acquired many friends, and met his wife Affa Geara and become well known to many Indian relations groups and Indian Reserves.

At the outbreak of the First World War Loft, who had become a great believer in supporting the British Empire, and more particularly Canada, strongly encouraged recruitment amongst the Indigenous population. Having served in the Canadian Militia for seven years himself, he was greatly fond of the concept of bringing more Indian Canadians to the war, especially in its Forestry Corps. Loft himself re-enlisted as a lieutenant, and lied about his age to be accepted, claiming he was forty-five instead of his actual age at fifty-six. It was during the First World War that Loft began to draw up the plans for his future League of Indians, where Indians serving would continue to suffer from difficulties of service. Issues with the Government of Canada claiming that serving men could vote in the upcoming federal election, but serving Indians were excluded from this. This was further problematic with the inclusion of the draft in 1917, where the inclusion of the draft would harm treaties previously signed for Canadian Indians. Loft, like other serving Indians such as Francis Pegahmagabow, sought to push for better rights for Indians who were serving at the time.

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