And are they sacred? Ownership of artifacts questioned

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CALGARY - A Glenbow Museum exhibition scheduled for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic games is again in the spotlight as many local Native people are questioning the true ownership of the artifacts and whether the artifacts are sacred.

The artifacts in question will be loaned to the museum for the "Spirit Sings" exhibition of Native artifacts. Many of the objects are very old and are being loaned by museums in Europe and North America.

Currently, the Glenbow is being boycotted by the Lubicon Lake band in support of their land claim.

Glenbow staff have consistently stated that the artifacts in question are not sacred or religious but were given to new settlers as gifts.

However, according to a list of the objects, a copy of which has been obtained by "Windspeaker," several items, including medicine bundles and many other sacred artifacts, are to be loaned to the museum.

Tom Crane Bear, a Blackfoot band member and Indian cultural instructor at Calgary's Plains Indian Cultural Survival School (PICSS) analyzed the list for "Windspeaker" and pointed out that at least half of the items could be considered sacred.

"I can't be sure in some cases until I've seen the item, but certainly the pipes and the Natoas headdresss which is used by the sacred woman at the Sundance are all very sacred to us," he said.

Crane Bear points out that he is an expert in Blackfoot artifacts but other artifacts could be sacred to other bands.

"I can only give guidelines when an object has horns, elk teeth or the sacred colors of blue, which means air, red which means the beginning of life, yellow is the sun, and giver of life."

The list contains several war shirts, buffalo robes, several pipes, naval amulets and several headdresses made of eagle feathers.

Lloyd Ewenin, who is also a cultural instructor at PICSS, and is originally from the Poor Man Reserve in Saskatchewan, expressed concern that the headdress of Chief Poor Man is in the collection.

"This chief signed the treaty and his headdress is very special to us," he said.

Dennis Francis, the executive director of Calgary's Friendship Centre and a Salteaux from Manitoba, pointed out that most Indian people have no problem with museums collecting plain shirts or moccasins or items from everyday life.

"But I feel that the bundles and sacred items must be returned to the family or at least to the reserve," he said.

However, Crane Bear feels that many of the objects in question were sold once before and fears they might be again if returned.

"I like to think of them as being looked after. And I know of cases when these items have been sold for a bottle of wine," he said.

However, in an interview Tuesday Glenbow Director Duncan Cameron again denied that any of the artifacts are sacred.

"There are no sensitive objects. In fact, the Glenbow has a pretty good track record of returning bundles."