A bunch of First Nations leaders and advocates in Manitoba want help repatriating hundreds of Indigenous artifacts from a privately run museum in Switzerland.
The group says the collector desires to sell the gathering, which incorporates sacred pipes, cradle boards and firearms believed to be related to the period of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
The items have been housed at a privately owned museum near Zurich, which closed its doors late last 12 months after the collector decided he desired to retire.
A delegation travelled to the country to go to the museum before it closed, and is now urging federal, First Nations and tribal governments in Canada and america to intervene and help bring these artifacts back to North America.
“We’ve got to do whatever it takes to reconnect our ancestral, sacred bundles back into our communities,” said Karl Stone, a councillor in Dakota Tipi First Nation, Man., referring to a gaggle of sacred, cultural items.
“By bringing them home, that might reconnect our younger generation to the history of our people and it’ll bring back identity to who we’re.”
Stone was a part of the group that visited the museum a 12 months ago after learning there might be belongings from Dakota communities in Manitoba.
Based on documentation the private collector has kept, the group has been told most of the items are believed to originate from First Nation communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario, in addition to Lakota nations in america.
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The group said the owner amassed a set of 10,000 items, with 70 per cent being Indigenous artifacts, over several many years. It’s unclear how he obtained the items and the way much they cost, the group said.
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There was a push lately for cultural institutes and spiritual groups to repatriate items back to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
The Vatican returned several items to Indigenous groups earlier this 12 months after a delegation visited its museum and stressed the importance of returning these artifacts.
National museums and universities across the country have also been coming to terms with their roles in holding sacred items and have been working with communities to repatriate them to traditional caretakers.
“Considered one of our biggest fears is that if we don’t raise the cash and produce all of these things back, (the collector) could put these on private auction sites they usually could find yourself in Dubai or in Recent York or elsewhere in some billionaire’s office under glass as a showpiece,” said Coleen Rajotte, a Cree advocate.
The group said it needs to lift roughly $20 million – this includes the estimated cost of the artifacts and extra funds to rent experts to authenticate the items.
Considered one of those items is a bandolier, or a belt worn across the shoulders. It stretches about 20 centimetres wide and consists of hundreds of beads that create a floral design typically seen in Ojibwa and Cree designs.
Other artifacts include large, feathered headdresses and sewn, leather moccasins believed to come back from Sioux tribes.
Gerald Neufeld was a part of the delegation that travelled to Switzerland and has been helping advocate for the return of the gathering.
The non-Indigenous, retired engineer grew up on a Manitoba First Nation and has worked with communities on efforts to trace their genealogy.
“We want to get them authenticated. We want them priced, and we want to bring them home,” he said.
Neufeld stays involved with the vendor and said he appears to be empathetic to the group’s desire to have the items returned to Indigenous communities.
He said the vendor is hoping to get things settled in months, not years, or the items can be put in the marketplace.
The private collector didn’t reply to a right away request for comment.
The Canadian Press reached out to the governments of Manitoba and Canada, in addition to the Assembly of First Nations, and in addition didn’t receive immediate responses.
© 2026 The Canadian Press