Museum to return tribal chief’s 100-year-old regalia to Canada’s Siksika people

FOR MORE than 100 years it has lain incongruously in an English west country museum, but the 19th century regalia of a tribal leader, replete with grizzly bear claws, is to be finally returned to his North American descendants.

The Crowfoot regalia, which belonged to Chief Crowfoot of the

Blackfoot nation, has been in the collection of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. It includes his deer-hide necklace of claws and animal teeth – a symbol of bravery and status – as well as his hardwood bow and colourful buckskin shirt and leggings.

Councillors at Exeter

City

Council, which owns the museum, have agreed to return them to the indigenous Siksika Nation in Alberta, Canada. They will go on display at the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park, which is built on the site of the signing of Treaty 7 in 1877 between the Crown and several tribes at Bow River.

The area is of spiritual importance to the Siksika people, one of Canada’s so-called “first nations”, and it is also where Chief Crowfoot died.

It remains unclear how the regalia ended up in Devon. The museum purchased it from the family of a British policeman, Sir Cecil

Denny, in 1904 for £10. He was a friend of the chief but no-one is sure how he came to own it.

In 2015, the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park made a formal request to repatriate the regalia, which will now be owned by the Siksika Tribal Council.

Coun Rachel Sutton, of Exeter

City Council, said: “When considering the claim for repatriation, the council recognised that the original injustices still reverberate today with First Nation Canadians.

“Giving back Crowfoot’s regalia returns control to the Siksika Nation over their cultural identity, dignity and authority and is the right thing to do.”

Chief Crowfoot, who will visit Exeter later for an official ceremony, said: “The returning of this regalia will contribute to healing and reconciliation and the Great Chief’s spirit can rest easy once all his belongings are gathered.”