Original subtitles

nothing happened by accident.

This was orchestrated.

this is a story about power.

our people weren't allowed to leave.

the power, to take...

everything is disappearing,

So the calamity is still happening.

the spirit of the warriors

Are waiting for those things to come back.

and the power to take something back.

if items were taken, if items were given,

I don't know.

My concern is, how can we get them

Back to their proper home?

in the days of the british empire,

Things were taken.

They usually ended up in museums and galleries

With polite plaques.

My name is marc fennell,

And this is the not-so-polite story

Of how they really got there.

hello.

-Oh, hi there. -How are you?

-I'm not too bad. Yourself? -Nice to meet you, I'm marc.

Hi, marc. Jani.

Welcome to our camp.

This is amazing, I've never seen one before.

You've never seen a tipi before?

No.

jani red gun is from siksika,

One of the nations of the blackfoot people,

Who have lived in this part of canada for centuries.

But it was really only in the last few years

That jani and his family decided to build this.

I was actually raised in the downtown area,

Inner core of the city.

But ultimately, when I was a kid,

I've always been more connected to my family,

My grandparents, my ancestral roots.

Especially this culture

-That is disappearing. -Yeah.

There's very few people who'll do it.

camps like jani's used to be everywhere here.

The lands of the blackfoot people

Once spanned across a huge area of western canada,

And down into the united states.

They moved seasonally, following herds of

Their most important resource, the buffalo.

Speaking of which...

Go ahead and stretch it out anyway you wish.

The fur's going to be on the outside,

Or at the bottom, the bottom, sorry.

-You want fur on the bottom? -Yeah.

Jani has decided to put me to work.

He is teaching me how to tan a hide.

Traditionally, the hide was also used for clothing.

Some of that clothing would be used for ceremonies,

In which case, it would be called "regalia,"

And that is why I'm here.

The regalia of one of the most important leaders

Of the blackfoot people,

Chief crowfoot.

Um, I wanted to ask you about crowfoot.

He was a very special chief.

Chief crowfoot was

A really great leader to the people.

He helped us at a very special

And unique time in our history.

but, when it comes to

The regalia of chief crowfoot,

There is a problem.

Some say it was stolen.

all I know

Is chief crowfoot's regalia

Is in a place it does not belong.

that place is here.

For almost 150 years,

Chief crowfoot's regalia has been held

By the royal albert memorial museum

In exeter.

His bow, a blade,

A sacred war shirt,

Somehow ended up

Thousands of kilometres away

From blackfoot lands.

And their journey is shrouded in mystery.

So who actually was crowfoot?

Why is he considered so important?

And most importantly,

Why would somebody want his stuff?

I'm on my way to meet someone

Who has dedicated his life

To blackfoot history and knowledge.

I'm marc, by the way. It's nice to meet you.

-Marc. Kent. -Kent.

kent ayoungman sits on the council

Of siksika nation.

One of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is,

I'm trying to understand who crowfoot was.

He was the leader of the moccasin clan.

There was a whole governance system amongst each clan

Amongst the blackfoot people,

And people were put there

On how they had the ability to protect their people

And to bring fortune, to bring good things.

Crowfoot isapo-muxika,

He had a relationship with the newcomers,

The early white people.

And due to that relationship,

They trusted him to be,

Kind of that main spokesman for the blackfoot people.

so, crowfoot is a leader, is a diplomat,

And has some kind of relationship

With the white settlers.

But would he give them something like a war shirt?

Just how important were these items to crowfoot?

- hello. - oh, hello.

-How are you? -Yeah, good to see you.

that is why I'm here.

Siksika elder clarence wolfleg

Believes that there is something

About crowfoot's clothing

That's been overlooked.

You have to attain the respect

And qualify to wear a shirt like that.

When warriors go into battle,

When people do honourable and brave things,

It's, you really equate it to the military.

The military gets a very plain uniform,

And as they go on,

They started to put

Citations and medals,

Insignias, and ranks.

clarence was a warrior himself

Who served with the canadian army and the un.

And he's brought me here to siksika's own museum

To show me that each regalia is unique,

And it's loaded with meaning.

so the basic warrior shirt

Has hair fringes, special designs,

Some of the powers of the thunder, the sun,

They carry all those into battle.

So, for example, on crowfoot's regalia

Is actually the tail of a weasel.

So the weasel is a very cunning

And courageous animal.

So they use the weasel tail

To take the spirit of the animal

To the battlefield to have courage.

So that's why that shirt's very important.

so for years, the museum in britain

Refused to return crowfoot's regalia.

But, they did invite a blackfoot delegation

To view chief crowfoot's belongings,

And kent ayoungman was there.

So, they had everything ready for the group to view,

And they had that cloth over those items.

So when we all walked in,

We stood there, and then...

It was quiet.

And when they unrolled that cloth,

There was emotion.

Some of the older folks, they got emotional.

And to think about these items

Being worn by crowfoot at one point in time.

I kind of start to get goose bumps, eh?

I felt honoured, really.

How did crowfoot's items, his war shirt,

How did they get over to the uk?

Well, as far as I know,

Nobody really knows.

Would he have given up something so sacred?

I don't think so. I don't think so.

crowfoot's regalia somehow

Made its way from here in canada

All the way to a museum in the uk.

But that museum itself does offer some clues

As to how this all happened.

When you go into the records

Of the royal albert memorial museum,

The place which has housed crowfoot's regalia

For well over a hundred years,

There's actually a report back from 1878

Of a woman loaning them

What we now know to be crowfoot's regalia.

But the interesting part is this.

She reckons it came from her brother.

A guy who has a very interesting history

Here in canada.

A guy by the name of cecil denny.

So, who was this cecil denny guy, and how did he end up

In what is now modern-day alberta, canada?

Well, to find out, I've come to fort calgary,

Not far from siksika,

To meet allison graham.

Hey, welcome to fort calgary.

-Thank you for having me. -Yeah.

allison is a historian and programme manager

Here at fort calgary.

Fort calgary is a museum right now.

But historically,

It was north-west mounted police fort,

Founded in 1875 on this site.

and the north-west mounted police

Are instrumental to this story.

So at this point,

Canada was a dominion,

This jigsaw piece

Within the global british empire.

But it's also a huge jigsaw piece,

Millions of kilometres.

The north-west mounted police were sent by the government

To establish law and order for the new settlers.

And that is where cecil denny comes in.

he was born in England,

And once he was here,

He was a fairly high-level person

For the north-west mounted police.

he came on the March west

Where the government started doing treaties

With the indigenous people for access to land,

And in blackfoot territory it was called treaty no. 7.

Now, that document features signatures

Of both cecil denny and chief crowfoot.

So could it be

That crowfoot somehow gave his regalia

To cecil denny at this point?

it is a bit of a mystery.

I don't have such a clear understanding,

But it's possible that he received crowfoot's regalia

At the signing of the treaty or shortly thereafter.

There's ideas that crowfoot and denny

Were best friends.

You know, really close.

Where do we get that idea from?

We get that idea from

The north-west mounted police themselves.

-Right. Okay.

Cecil denny himself wrote a lot about himself.

And so his memoirs share a lot of information,

But we have to take that with some caution, right?

They were diplomats,

They were negotiating different sides.

So, it could have been technically a "gift,"

But it's hard to know what that gift

Actually would've meant to crowfoot and to denny.

so we know that the regalia gets to the uk

Via this guy named cecil denny.

The question is how?

Well, it seems like it happens in the midst

Of a major event,

An event that has drastically reshaped this land.

So, where are we?

Well, we're overlooking the area

Where the blackfoot people signed treaty 7.

dr gabrielle lindstrom

Is a researcher and member of the kainaiwa nation,

Which is another of the blackfoot nations.

so imagine, we've got camps

Of hundreds of people,

And so there was lots of ceremony that was happening.

Lots of praying.

You know, lots of dialogue.

This is serious business.

Very sacred times.

Because the future of our people was at stake.

What was leading up to the signing of that treaty?

What were the circumstances that led to it?

The events leading up to the signing of the treaty

Really coincide with,

With the opening up of the west.

New settlers are encroaching more and more

On these territories,

And contact initially brought disease,

Particularly smallpox.

The dead were so numerous

That people didn't even have time to mourn.

Another thing that hit us hard

Was the intentional slaughter of buffalo

To ensure that first nations didn't have access to food.

It's literally impossible

To carry on the previous way of life.

Like, you can't.

this was the situation facing chief crowfoot

And all the other indigenous leaders

Here in this valley

As they weighed up the prospect

Of a treaty with the crown.

when our people were camped here

Along this valley,

The government had their military

Camped up on the hill,

And they had cannons,

And they were shooting off those cannons

Every so often

Just to kind of demonstrate

Their military might to, to our people, I guess.

You have our leaders who are wanting to ensure

The survival of our people.

And so you enter into a treaty with the canadian government,

Or our people continue to die.

So that was what was happening

At the time of the signing of treaty 7.

sign, and the blackfoot become british subjects,

With the queen, no less,

Promising annual payments and education.

No one knows exactly how

Crowfoot's regalia is handed over,

But less than a year after this treaty 7 is signed,

It is in the uk.

And it's possible that denny

Purchased it from crowfoot,

But really,

It's kind of a matter of opinion here.

Well, from my understanding of the history,

Sir cecil denny,

He was gifted it by crowfoot himself.

I guess I got to just take that one with a grain of salt.

You know, we don't really know,

But that's just according to their records,

That's what they say.

My reaction to that is,

That's just an absolute load of horse shit.

That's my reaction.

That just completely angers me.

But that's the settler colonial narrative.

But, the thing about our people,

-We're generous. -Mm.

If people admire something that somebody's wearing,

Well, they'll take it off them and give it to that person

Who admires these.

To call that a gift is,

It's infuriating to me

Because that belongs to the blackfoot people.

That belongs to siksika.

That belongs in the community.

so, at the core of this

-Is a question for me, right? -Mm.

We have crowfoot's regalia

That at the very moment sits in the uk,

And there's at least three

Different possibilities that are put to me.

One is that it's a gift.

One is that it was stolen.

And the other, that it was purchased.

What's the most plausible to you?

Can it be a combination of all three?

Yeah, I mean, I guess so.

I mean, I think even if we go

With the gift theory,

It was a gift to seal something

That ended up being dishonest

On the part of the canadian government.

So, even if it was a gift,

There's that coercive element there as well.

and that's really the thing.

Whatever happened with the exchange

Of crowfoot's regalia,

It sits in the shadow

Of a far darker handover.

For blackfoot people, treaty 7 was not what it seemed.

in terms of what the british,

What the canadian government are trying to do,

Is it's basically for them

Wanting to get indigenous people

To surrender their land.

It was all about negotiating a treaty

That was not meant to really benefit

Indigenous people at all.

And cecil denny and the north-west mounted police

Would've known that.

when you're standing here on this ground,

It's impossible not to put yourselves

In the shoes of the people that were here.

When they signed that treaty,

Could they possibly have known

Everything that would flow from this moment?

With agreements like treaty 7 and other government policies,

What flows is a profound and devastating shift

In blackfoot lives.

shortly after the signing of that treaty,

Our people were pretty much corralled

On this strip of land here.

Our people weren't allowed to leave.

Indigenous people didn't drive themselves

Into states of poverty that we find ourselves now in.

You know, this was orchestrated,

The orchestrated destruction of a culture,

Beginning with the disease

And culminating in the treaties

And then the implementation

Of the indian residential schools

And those policies of genocide.

And that is something that is still ongoing today.

residential schools for indigenous children

Have left incredible scars on this land.

I was put in a residential school

When I was three years old.

we talked about physical abuse,

Psychological abuse,

Of course, sexual abuse.

we have hit

751 unmarked graves.

Too many children did not make it home.

Today, answers still are needed.

Some of the buildings where this took place

Still stand today.

this is the old sun indian residential school.

Today, it's the old sun community college.

My mother went to this school.

My aunties and uncles

All went to this place here.

They were taken from their homes

And put into these types of places

To "educate" our people.

my grandparents,

They went through residential school.

They were abused severely and oppressed

Where their culture was viewed down upon.

it stopped

Our ceremonial way of life, our language,

Everything what it is to be a blackfoot indian.

'cause they were trying to assimilate our people.

they literally went against

Everything that we identified,

Everything that we belonged to.

Because of that, I think a lot of the elders

And a lot of the people are ashamed

And kind of shunned away from it.

That's why I'm trying my best

To preserve that culture

Because it is disappearing.

we're still healing.

There's been slow recoveries, but there's...

I think we still have a long ways to go.

Mm.

The way I look at it is,

Any ceremonial items we bring back to our community,

We're bringing more of who we are

Back to the siksika people.

when so much has been taken,

The fight to get crowfoot's regalia

Back to siksika

Is part of a healing process for a community.

well, marc, welcome to siksika nation.

This is our council chambers.

If items were stolen, if items were taken,

If items were given, if items were sold,

I don't know.

I don't know how they got over there.

I'm not concerned how they got over there.

My concern is, how can we get them back

To their proper home?

ever since he took up the position of blackfoot chief,

Ouray crowfoot has made the return of the regalia

One of his goals.

I sit in this chief's chair right here,

And right behind me is, over my left shoulder,

Is my great-great-great grandfather,

Issapoomahksika, which is crow indian bigfoot,

Translates to crowfoot.

We're here because of the decisions

That were made from our previous chiefs,

Our previous leaders,

And we got to keep that in mind

For the future generations.

So when we make these decisions,

How does it not just impact siksika today,

But how's it going to impact siksika

For generations to come?

when he took the role,

Years of negotiations

Between that uk museum

And people here in siksika

Had ground to a halt.

But then...

I had a phone call with exeter.

And I told them, "give it back to siksika.

It's our items. You know,

That's my great-great-great grandfather's items.

We need those things back at siksika."

Negotiations culminated in a historic moment today

When an exeter museum handed back

Parts of its collection

To a delegation from canada.

After ouray's call,

Exeter city council, who own the uk museum,

Actually had to vote

On whether to return the items.

After a unanimous vote, chaired,

And the resolution has been carried.

and today,

For the first time in over 140 years,

Crowfoot's regalia is coming home.

what does it mean, to have those gifts back here?

I believe, you know, the spirit of the warriors,

The spirit of the gifts that came,

Even though their home has been placed someplace,

The spirits are waiting for those things to come back.

now, it's up to us

To bring this way back to our family,

Our way of life.

To raise our children with... .

Our songs, our sun dance,

And our ceremonies throughout the year.

what makes you proud?

Being blackfoot makes me proud.

And the fact that we're still here.

These regalia, these items,

They're so deeply connected to blackfoot identity.

They need to be back

Because they give our people our strength,

And they allow us to be connected

With those long-time knowledges and protocols

That shape who we are today as niitsitapi people.

Being blackfoot, it's an honour,

An absolute honour, and a gift.