CROWFOOT COMES HOME Repatriating a First Nation leader’s regalia from a British museum to the prairies

By DOUG HORNER

ERMAN YELLOW OLD Woman Alberta and Montana—Kainai, Siksika, Piikani was asleep in his home on the and South Peigan—that comprise the Blackfoot Siksika reserve east of Calgary Confederacy. The group was part of a research on April 7, 2020, when the phone project called The Blackfoot Collections in UK started ringing at 5:30 a.m. Museums Network, which also included academics It was Alison Brown, a professor and staff from the University of Aberdeen, the Hof anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) Scotland. She told Yellow Old Woman that Exeter at Cambridge and the RAMM. The idea for the trip City Council, the local government officials of a was inspired by another project, where five Blackfoot small city in southern England, had just voted buckskin shirts from the Pitt Rivers Museum at to repatriate a collection of artifacts known as Oxford University had been loaned for exhibitions Crowfoot’s regalia. at the Glenbow and Galt museums in Alberta. The “News like that will get you out of bed fast,” said exhibitions included opportunities for First Nations Yellow Old Woman. He was aware that the vote people to handle and try on the shirts in what were was coming, but had not held out much hope that much more intimate experiences than your typical the dozen personal items that once belonged to the everything-behind-glass visit to a museum. Herman Yellow Old revered Blackfoot leader would ever make it back The goal of these collaborations between First home. Half an hour later Tony Eccles, the curator Nations and museums was twofold. Blackfoot elders Woman had not held of ethnography at the Royal Albert Memorial and ceremonialists provided cultural information out much hope that Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, the place where about the artifacts that dramatically improved how Crowfoot’s regalia has been for the last 142 years, they were curated, described and cared for by the the dozen personal also called to share the news. museums. And Indigenous people got access to items that once That vote marked a pivotal step in a journey invaluable cultural material that had long since that had begun in a storeroom at the RAMM in vanished from their communities. The projects belonged to revered November of 2013. The sad thing, Yellow Old were an attempt to bridge disparate worldviews of Woman explained, was that some of the people the purpose, nature and provenance of the same set Blackfoot leader he set out with on the journey have since died. of historic objects. Crowfoot would ever “The ceremonial men and women who attended Museums legally own their collections or, as in the negotiating of that time, more than half have the case of the RAMM, steward them on behalf make it back home. passed away. So that’s how long it’s been.” of governments. These institutions have extensive expertise and resources to preserve and protect the IN THE FALL OF 2013, YELLOW OLD Woman, integrity of artifacts in perpetuity. And museums a ceremonial elder and the head of repatriation for such as the MAA, RAMM and Pitt Rivers welcome Above: Herman Yellow Old Woman is head of repatriation Siksika, travelled to England as part of an eight- hundreds of thousands of visitors every year with a for Siksika. Below: Blackfoot Crossing, near Cluny, is

person delegation from the four First Nations in mandate to showcase the world. described as a story woven into the shape of a building. CBC; EYEEYE/FLICKR TOP: BOTTOM:

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YELLOW OLD WOMAN REMEMBERS the exact “ T WILL BE AN HONOUR TO SEE moment back in 2013 in the RAMM’s storage room [the regalia],” said Linda Many Guns, The British museums when the conservation-grade cabinet drawer slid a professor of Indigenous studies at the had concerns open to reveal the regalia. “It was really emotional,” University of Lethbridge and ceremonial he said. The group sang a ceremonial song to honour elder with the Siksika. “I can hardly wait.” about Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot and smoked a pipe. “The songs that Once travel restrictions for COVID-19 are we sing to honour chiefs all of a sudden became very Ilifted, a group of Blackfoot leaders will go to Exeter Crossing. “They powerful and brought tears to our elders.” for an official ceremony to receive the regalia. were very focused The artifacts include a buckskin shirt with scalp Many Guns explained that Crowfoot earned hair, leggings with red feathers and fringes, beaded the respect and leadership of his people because on ensuring that if pouches, a steel hunting knife lashed with the front of his remarkable physical courage (he once killed they do repatriate part of a bear’s jaw, a bundle of feathers and a deer- a grizzly bear with a spear) and his keen instincts hide necklace strung with grizzly bear claws, beads, for diplomacy and peacemaking. He was the something, it gets animal teeth and brass studs. Chief Crowfoot’s primary negotiator for the Blackfoot Confederacy bow is in the RAMM’s permanent gallery as part when establishing the terms of Treaty 7 with the appropriate of the Americas display, but the rest of the regalia representatives of the British Crown. The chief museum care.” is in storage. The museum undertook a major of each of the five participating First Nations— conservation project in the late 1990s to restore Kainai, Siksika, Piikani, Nakoda and Tsuut’ina—all —Daryl Betenia and protect the artifacts. The shirt and leggings signed the treaty, but it was Crowfoot who laid the were last displayed in 2012 as part of an exhibition groundwork for the consensus. called “Warriors of the Plains” that was created and “He was able to understand the bigger, really bigger, toured by the British Museum. long-term picture,” Many Guns said. “We ended up Yellow Old Woman said Chief Crowfoot could with even more constraints and more difficulties, but have worn many of the items when he signed Treaty 7 I believe if he had taken another way, there’s a good on behalf of the Siksika Nation in September of 1877. possibility we wouldn’t even exist today.” He described how the Blackfoot elders quickly Above and beyond his prowess in battle and realized that some of the material had been proclivity for peacemaking, Crowfoot is a significant misidentified. But they decided against revealing figure for the Blackfoot because he exemplified an some of that information to museum staff. “We were important cultural value. Many Guns explained reluctant to share too much,” Yellow Old Woman that the wavy line in Blackfoot imagery symbolizes A conservation-grade cabinet drawer slides open to reveal Crowfoot’s regalia in Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial said. “Some stuff we [didn’t] expose because of the how change is an ineluctable part of life. Learning Museum storage room. An eight-person delegation from the Blackfoot Confederacy witnessed this in 2013. sacredness. It has ties to the land, to the spirit of the to navigate change is considered an invaluable skill. animal, and we believe those are living things and “Let’s say you get diagnosed with diabetes; it’s being they give us power.” able to pick up that disease and walk with it with For First Nations peoples, however, many of the kinds of things,” said Brown. “But when you take Given the spiritual importance of the regalia, pride,” she said. “Let’s say you were going through artifacts in question are not inanimate objects. that away and confront people with items that are Yellow Old Woman wonders why Chief Crowfoot changes, you’ve lost your family; it’s picking up that Some are sacred and essential for carrying out related to their heritage, particularly if they’ve would have given it to Cecil Denny, an officer with disaster and walking with pride so that you can spiritual ceremonies. They have immense potential experienced colonial forces… these things can the North West Mounted Police who befriended the show your children how to deal with change.” for revitalizing cultural practices that strengthen become triggers for all kinds of stories in history chief and was staying in his camp during the time Crowfoot was born in 1830 and grew up when identity and empower communities. Also, many of and memory, and reminders of what’s not been of the signing of the treaty. Denny’s sister loaned the Blackfoot tribes controlled a vast area of the these artifacts were stolen or sold under extreme passed on as well as what could still be.” the artifacts to the RAMM in 1878 and the museum northwestern plains from the Rocky Mountains in duress. They’re the spoils of colonialism. Some The vote by Exeter councillors in early April to purchased them in 1904 for £10. The Blackfoot have a the west into what is now east-central Saskatchewan of the oldest artifacts from North American return Crowfoot’s regalia occurred at a time of strong tradition of hospitality and giving gifts, which to the east, the North Saskatchewan River to the Indigenous nations are in museums overseas. Items active debate across England and Europe about Yellow Old Woman said probably played a role in north and the Yellowstone River in the south. from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were sent whether and how museums should decolonize the exchange. Also, Crowfoot had lost many of his He emerged as an influential leader as European far away to wealthy patrons and private collections their collections. Arts Council England had children to disease and often took others under his settlers brought catastrophe—smallpox epidemics, that then ended up in museums. Laura Peers, commissioned the Institute of Art and Law wing. “He adopted a lot, and that’s basically what he the whisky trade and the indiscriminate slaughter an anthropologist who co-created the Blackfoot in February to develop new guidance for UK did with this individual,” Yellow Old Woman said. of the buffalo—undermining a way of life that had Shirts Project with Alison Brown, estimates that museums on repatriation. The report is scheduled The day after the visit to the RAMM storage room flourished for thousands of years. thousands of Blackfoot artifacts live in English and for release in the fall of 2020 and will outline the in November 2013, the Blackfoot delegation met “Everything in their world was gone or missing European museums. ethical and legal considerations, as well as best- with museum and city officials for a public panel or no longer existed,” Many Guns said of the “If you think about the history of museum- practice examples, involved in making decisions on discussion. “They all agreed that the material they circumstances for the Blackfoot leading up to the collecting practices and what museums try to do, how and when to return objects to their originating had should be returned to the Blackfoot,” Yellow Treaty 7 negotiations. She described how the Kainai there’s been this idea of museums as places where communities. The report follows on the heels of Old Woman said. But museum staff also cautioned and their chief, Red Crow, were late getting to the knowledge is created and to a degree… controlled, new policies in France, Germany and Holland that that it would take time and further discussions negotiations at Blackfoot Crossing in the fall of 1877.

with cataloging and classification and all those guide the repatriation of colonial-era artifacts. CBC before Crowfoot’s regalia could be repatriated. continued on page 46

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For First Nations peoples these artifacts are not inanimate objects. Some are sacred. Many were stolen or sold under extreme duress. They’re the spoils of colonialism.

Top: Buckskin shirt with scalp hair. Bottom: Steel hunting knife From top left: Beaded pouch containing a divination kit that was either purchased by Crowfoot or gifted to him; leggings; quirt/ lashed with the front part of a bear’s jaw. horsewhip; bow; bow case and quiver; feather bundle; deer-hide necklace with grizzly claws, beads, animal teeth and brass studs. CECIL DENNY ALBERT MEMORIAL COLLECTION, ROYAL MUSEUM, EXETER

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network of trails through the river valley. HE RETURN OF CROWFOOT’S “Crowfoot brought It seemed like everything was in place after the regalia is by no means a first for us through one of visit, but then Royal started to get a series of emails an English museum, but Betenia from Eccles at RAMM. Questions about storage said Canadian and US institutions the most horrific capacity, insurance and environmental controls. by comparison are veterans of periods in our “We would send him an email and he wouldn’t repatriation. They are much more respond for two or three months at a time,” Royal Tused to the idea of giving things back without history, and his said. And when Royal would finally get a response strings attached. “If something is sacred and being it would include another question that would start repatriated, everybody knows it’s going to be used memory is really the cycle again. Blackfoot Crossing submitted a in ceremonies rather than sitting in a museum,” important.” formal repatriation request in 2015 and secured a she said. Betenia has been at the Glenbow since grant from the Alberta government to fund the costs 1982, when she worked part time while completing —Linda Many Guns of safely transporting the artifacts. But as months a history degree at the University of Calgary. By turned into years, Royal said he encountered what 2000, when the Glenbow repatriated 251 ceremonial felt like one arbitrary roadblock after another. When bundles to Blackfoot communities in Alberta, he left the organization in 2017, he was doubtful the Betenia had worked her way up to senior registrar, regalia would ever return. “Obviously I am happy the person who oversees acquisitions and loans of these things are finally coming home,” he said. “It’s artifacts in the collections. The tribe had gone south into the US to try and find a been a long time coming.” Robert Janes, the director of the Glenbow at the herd of buffalo to hunt. They ended up having to kill Camilla Hampshire, the museum manager at time, and Gerald Conaty, the curator of Indigenous their horses and eat them, so they walked into camp. the RAMM, explained in an email that all those Studies, worked closely with Blackfoot leaders for “That’s when they knew there was no future, the questions were part of their standard due diligence over a decade before the release of that material. buffalo were gone,” she said. “Crowfoot brought for all repatriation requests. Organizations are asked It was a decisive and ground-breaking decision us through one of the most horrific periods in to provide information about governance, financial that precipitated the creation of Alberta’s First our history, and every part of his memory is really position, business plans and what they intend to do Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects Act in 2000, important. It reminds us of our resilience. It reminds with the repatriated material. “It helps us compile a which is still the only Canadian law on the books us of our ability to change and adapt.” report and make a recommendation to councillors,” that deals with repatriation. The Blackfoot First Hampshire wrote. “Blackfoot Crossing provided Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects Repatriation IN JULY 2014, AS PART OF THE Blackfoot RAMM with a business plan for 2015–16 that Regulation followed in 2004 as the means for Collections in UK Museums Project, Alison suggested it was in an uncertain financial position, applying the legislation. Brown, Tony Eccles and Anita Herle, a curator at but none of the other documentation requested.” Betenia said that at first she worried how the the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Daryl Betenia, director of collections for the release of all those artifacts would affect the future at the University of Cambridge, visited Alberta Glenbow, has been helping out behind the scenes and mission of the Glenbow. The museum was and Montana. They spent two days at Blackfoot since 2014. She provided advice to Blackfoot founded in 1966 by Eric Harvie, an oilman and Crossing Historical Park, which is on the Siksika Crossing about various professional museum philanthropist, who wanted to present the world reserve an hour east of Calgary. The museum itself standards and technical details such as the right to Alberta. “He was building these collections, is built into a ridge overlooking the river valley environmental conditions for exhibit cases. Betenia and particularly international collections, as a way where the treaty was signed. The building took 20 and Joanne Schmidt, the Indigenous Studies curator to offer an opportunity to Albertans to see things years and $30-million to construct. The architect, at the Glenbow, had a meeting at Blackfoot Crossing they would not otherwise see.” Releasing items Ron Goodfellow, worked closely with Blackfoot in May of 2019 to see where they were planning to out of the museum, and perhaps initiating a chain elders to incorporate 17 cultural symbols into every display Crowfoot’s regalia. reaction that would hollow out the collection, facet of the design. Many Guns described Blackfoot “We were all incredibly impressed by what they could contradict that vision. But 20 years later no Crossing as a story woven into the shape of a had done. I think they could probably sell that flood of repatriation requests has ever materialized. building. The architectural approach reflected the model to other museums,” Betenia said. “Within a Betenia estimates they receive six requests every way Blackfoot stories and culture are imbricated larger gallery, they created a separate space, which year and said they’ve proven to be a thoughtful with the landscape. they were able to seal off and engineer so it’s able and respectful experience for everyone involved. Jack Royal is the chief executive officer of the to maintain the appropriate humidity and they can However, the regulation only covers Blackfoot items Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council, but was the control light levels.” and has yet to be expanded to include First Nations president and general manager of Blackfoot Crossing She too has been in contact with staff from the from other parts of Alberta and Canada. Historical Park from when it opened in 2007 until the RAMM about the repatriation. “There appeared to be Betenia’s experience with repatriation trans- fall of 2017. He was there in the summer of 2014 and a great deal of concern on the part of the museum and formed her perception of the role of museums and helped tour the guests from England. They explored Exeter about Blackfoot Crossing,” she said, particularly their relationship to the communities they serve. the museum, its displays, on-site storage and research about appropriate museum standards and a lack of “We are stewards of a lot of this material rather Top: Chief Crowfoot was the primary negotiator of Treaty 7 for the facilities. They also walked to Cannon Hill, where accreditation. “They were very focused on ensuring than owners,” Betenia said. “These pieces are seen Blackfoot Confederacy in 1877. Bottom: Chief Ouray Crowfoot— the treaty was signed, and visited Chief Crowfoot’s that if they do repatriate something, it goes to another as living things that need to go home. I don’t think the former leader’s great-great-great grandson—has an MBA and a

last tipi site and grave, which are all connected by a museum and it gets appropriate museum care.” MIKEBOTTOM: SYMINGTON/CBC; ALAMY TOP: it’s our place to argue with that.” master’s in accounting and has spent his career in the financial industry.

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MET CHIEF OURAY CROWFOOT at October of 2019, a month before the nomination day the Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Office in for the election of the new chief and council. southeast Calgary at the end of May. He had “We’re going to do a lot of great things with just wrapped up a biweekly meeting with his Siksika, and I can say one of the big things already is counterparts from the Kainai, Piikani and bringing this shirt back home,” he said. I asked him South Peigan nations. We settled into chairs on if he thought the letters that Premier Jason Kenney Iopposite sides of a large boardroom on the third floor. sent to various British officials, including the mayor Bottles of hand sanitizer were spaced evenly around of Exeter and the director of Arts Council England, the horseshoe-shaped arrangement of tables. in late 2019 and on behalf of Blackfoot Crossing “It’s been a whirlwind,” Ouray said. “I’ve only been had tipped the balance for the vote to repatriate chief six months, and three of that’s COVID months.” the regalia. “Jason Kenney more or less pissed them His father is from the Lumbee Tribe of North off,” Ouray said. “I think he might have hurt it more Carolina; Ouray speaks with a strong southern accent, than helped it.” as though each sentence is gently easing back in a In early 2020 Ouray started having regular recliner chair until it finds the position of maximum phone conversations with Camilla Hampshire, the comfort. His mother was Amelia Crowfoot Clark. manager of the RAMM. He often received calls Her father was Cecil Crowfoot. Cecil’s father was Joe from Hampshire first thing in the morning because Crowfoot. Joe’s father was Bear Ghost. Bear Ghost’s of the seven-hour time difference. “Every question father was Chief Crowfoot. she had, every concern she had, I addressed it.” “Actually, [his name] is Isapo-Muxika, which means The chief and the museum manager first developed Crow Indian’s Big Foot,” said Ouray. He explained a rapport and then a solution. The RAMM would that his great-great-great grandfather’s name was repatriate the regalia to the Siksika Nation, which truncated during the treaty signing by an official who would then release it to Blackfoot Crossing. “I decreed it too long and cumbersome. The same goes think [it helped] that I was a chief and a Crowfoot for many of his forebears, who were given biblical descendant and gave them the rationale and let names because the Indian agent couldn’t be bothered them know who I am,” he said. “I want it to be to learn or translate their original Blackfoot names. mutually beneficial. So when we go over there, we’re Ouray, who turned 45 the day after our interview, going to take a big crew. We’re going to have a big was wearing a pink dress shirt. He looked the part of delegation. We’ll give them a gift.” an energetic young politician. He has an MBA and a Ouray mentioned he had his eye on another master’s degree in accounting and has spent most of personal item that belonged to his great-great- his career in the financial industry, working for global great grandfather. But it’s not at the RAMM. Most corporations such as Ernst&Young and KPMG. “Five pictures of Crowfoot show a knot of some kind years ago, four years ago even, I had no desire, no tied into his hair at the top of his head. It’s an owl’s plans to move to Canada or no plans or desires to head, and Ouray’s uncle, Strater Crowfoot, has be chief.” Ouray returned to Siksika to help his mom it. “My uncle Strater was chief when they started after she was diagnosed with cancer. She died in doing those repatriations through the Glenbow and he got that,” he said. The historian Hugh Dempsey wrote a biography of Crowfoot that includes a description of the owl’s head. Three Suns, Crowfoot’s predecessor as chief, gave it to “We’re going to do him when he was a young warrior. Three Suns told him it would be his protection and he would become a lot of great things a great leader if he always carried it. After Crowfoot died in April of 1890 at Blackfoot Crossing, people with Siksika, and I sang mourning songs to the owl’s head in the hope it can say one of the could bring him back to life. And then somehow, at some point, it ended up behind glass or in a drawer in big things already a storage room at a museum. is bringing this shirt Ouray hasn’t asked his uncle yet for Chief Crowfoot’s owl’s head. He’s waiting for the right back home.” moment. “I want to be able to feel like I earned it,” he —Chief said. “Respect is a gift earned, not given.”# Ouray Crowfoot Doug Horner is a Calgary-based writer and editor. He won the 2019 Alberta Magazine Award for best essay.