Ancestors exhibit opens at Galt in Lethbridge

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The usual question Louis Soop asks when he visits museums resulted in an unusual answer when he went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto in 1998.

The request to view Kainai artifacts in the possession of the ROM led to the viewing of Kainai artifacts housed by the British Museum in London, England. And that led to the current exhibit of Akatapiiwa/Ancestors showing at the Galt Museum in Lethbridge until Sept. 15.

The exhibit, which opened in May, is one of the largest of its kind in Canadian history.

"When I was introduced to the Deane-Freeman collection (at the ROM), I knew it was going to come here," said Soop, a member of the Kainai First Nations and an instructor at Red Crow College on the Blood reserve.

The collection was unearthed in 1985 by Arni Brownstone, lead curator at the ROM. Brownstone found a list of 150 artifacts matched to 61 names of owners. Brownstone went through the artifacts in storage and tied the items in with the list. However, the unusually well-itemized list did not note the name of the collector. In 1991, Brownstone was checking out Kainai artifacts with Jonathan King, curator for North American collections for the British Museum, when King sent Brownstone a photocopy of a section of the British Museum's catalogue. Brownstone recognized the writing of the British Museum's Kainai collection as the same author who composed the list the ROM had. The collection belonged to Frederick and Maude Deane-Freeman.

Research indicated that Deane-Freeman was the issuer of rations on the Blood reserve from 1884 until 1901 and his wife Maude had started the collection, paying the Blood people for the artifacts. Her meager finances limited the number of items she could buy, but Maude managed to purchase 268 artifacts belonging to 91 people. When Maude died giving birth in 1902, Lord Minto purchased the artifacts, in accordance with an earlier verbal agreement struck with her for the collection.

Minto then sold the collection to the British Museum. A portion of that collection ended up with Victoria University, part of the University of Toronto, and was transferred to the ROM in 1912.

"These kinds of collections are very rare," said Brownstone. "Often Blackfoot material is not identified as to which division of the Blackfoot they belong to."

The Blackfoot Confederacy is comprised of the Peigan, the Blood, and Siksika, all in Alberta, and the Blackfeet in Montana. Maude kept a list of all her purchases and notations of who the items were purchased from.

When Brownstone and King realized the depth of the collection, they started discussing the possibility of exhibiting it.

"But I didn't have a hook yet for the exhibit. I felt we needed some kind of connection with the Blood to make this work," said Brownstone.

That connection came with Soop's visit.

"It was the enthusiasm of Louis Soop that really made this project take off," said King.

When Soop returned to Alberta after his visit to Toronto, he discussed the possibility of mounting the exhibit with the Blood Elders and council.

"These were items over 100 years old that had not been seen by the Blood people," said Soop. "Why not have our people view these beautiful items, see the existence of the art work and the ceremonial pieces?"

The perfect place to exhibit the artifacts was the Galt Museum, said the museum's former executive director Wilma Wood, who even after retiring stayed on as project manager.

The mandate of the Galt Museum and Archives is to serve the people of southern Alberta and, noted Wood, there are 10,000 First Nations people who live on land that borders the city of Lethbridge.

In 2000, Soop, Wood and Blood Elder Rufus Good Striker traveled to London to view the Deane-Freeman collection at the British Museum.

There was no difficulty, said Soop, in convincing the curators to exhibit their joint collection at the Galt Museum.

"They were very co-operative about having (First Ntions people) involved in the exhibt," said Soop.

The ROM artifacts arrived at the Galt Museum a year before the exhibit opened, as did photographs of the British Museum's artifacts. Brownstone and Wood worked with 20 Blood Elders to identify the artifacts and tie the owners of the items to today's descendents. The British Museum artifacts arrived in April 2002.

Wood and Brownstone also worked with the Elders to determine the best way to display the objects and tell the story.

"We needed to make a vehicle that connected the names and organized the artifacts in some coherent form," said Brownstone.

That form was inspired by the Sundance ceremony. The Galt's main exhibit room was set up in the Sundance circle, with the clans' information and artifacts positioned in tipi-shaped glass cases in a circle, claiming the same positions they would in the Sundance circle. Display cases also include quotations from descendents of the artifacts' owners.

Not only does the display contain the items from the ROM and British Museum, it also contains photographs from a variety of archives such as the Manitoba, Glenbow, United Church, and American Museum of Natural History archives.

It took three years to put the exhibit together; an ambitious three years at that, said Wood. Initially Brownstone and King balked at the time frame, saying that such exhibits usually took five years to thoroughly research and display.

"I told them 'we're from the West and once we decide on something, we do it,'" said Wood, who worked tirelessly with Soop to raise $500,000 in funding for the exhibit. Money came from various levels of government, including the Blood Band Council, as well as corporate sponsorships.

Betty Easterbrook, the granddaughter of Maude and Frederick Deane-Freeman, was on hand for the Lethbridge mayor's reception on May 3, which allowed a special preview of the Akaitapiiwa exhibit to about 100 invited guests.

While Easterbrook was aware that her grandmoter had collected Blood artifacts, she admitted she hd no idea the collection was of such a large quantity and significance.

She recalled getting a phone call from Brownstone about two years ago.

"He started talking to me about this collection in Toronto, which I knew nothing about. He was very enthused about it," she said. "I thought she had collected a few beaded mocassins. I had no idea about the importance of it."

Also at the reception, King received an Indian name. The ceremony was carried out by Blood Elder Harold Healy, whom King had met in London almost a decade ago when Healy had attended a trade show to promote Canadian tourism. King was given the name Prairie Antelope Runner (Soikiawaakasomahka).

In a naming ceremony held last year, Wood received the Indian name of Friendly Woman

(Otawap'aki), while Brownstone received the name Big Wolf Singer (Omahkokoinaihki).

The names were bestowed on the three because "they're friends of ours," said Soop. "When you have friends who make contributions, you honor them with Indian names."