More than a million spent to acquire artifacts

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After 150 years of being stored in a trunk in Scotland, 29 of the 39 Aboriginal artifacts collected by the 9th Earl of Southesk have returned home to Canada. The items, collected in the mid-1800s during the earl's visit to Alberta and Saskatchewan, were purchased at auction by the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM). The artefacts had been stored in the attic of Kinnaird Castle in Scotland.

The earl, James Carnegie, who died in 1905, travelled across the West in an effort to improve his health, which had diminished after the death of his wife. Led by a team of Aboriginal guides, Carnegie travelled through southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

In 1859, the earl spent a week at Fort Edmonton, where he bought a dag with a bone handle and beaded hide sheath. Descriptions of these items and how he obtained them, along with other details about the collection and his whole experience can be found in the earl's journal, published in 1875, called Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains.

"It's neat that there are these personal insights and personal stories that are connected with a lot of the artifacts," said Susan Berry, the curator of ethnology.

Through an over the phone bid in early May, RAM obtained the dag and beaded sheath and the other historically significant items for about $1.1 million from the auction house Sotheby's in New York.

During a personal tour of the collection at the RAM, Berry, let Sweetgrass get up close to the items where we could view the elaborate beadwork, and see the animal fur that was still left on most of the fringes.

According to Berry, Carnegie followed the Metis guides and interpreters up towards the McLeod River where one of the Iroquois hunters wife made a hide rifle case for him.

This gun-cover of moose leather decorated with fringes is one of the item purchased and will be on exhibit in March next year.

Some of the other items include men's beaded hide leggings, a small beaded hide pouch and four children's embroidered hide moccasins, two of which have pink silk ribbon trim and the other two have blue ribbon trim.

"The earl had four children so we're pretty sure that these were for him to take back home to his children as gifts," said Berry.

Although every item has its own significance and should be researched fully, these four items made by Mary Monkman Tait at Fort Carlton are amoung those that Berry said she would love to learn more about.

"I love the fact that we know the name of the woman who made the four pairs of child moccasins," said Berry.

In his book, the earl talks about Tait doing the sewing for him. He talks about how the floral designs are lovely, but a too feminine for his taste.

"I think it's kind of a really nice vignette that you picture the two of them kind of getting together and talking about what would be appropriate for her to make for his children," said Berry. "It's just very neat."

RAM intends to provide the public the opportunity to view the intricate and well-preserved items, but it also hopes to venture out and invite First Nations in to help dissemble information about the details of symbols and colors on some of the items.

"That's one of the fantastic things about the collection is that so many First Nation and Metis communities are represented in this," Berry said.

The fact that most of the items have a personal story or a bit of information outlined in the earl's book is quite amazing and priceless, according to Berry.

"At one point in his journal he talks about that he's in the Rocky Mountains and they're all travelling single file and he's in the lead and he stops to look back at the rest of his party," said Berry.

"He talks a bit about what they're wearing and says that a lot of them have caps or mittens or pouches that were decorated with brightly colored silk ribbon that he says is a characteristic of Saskatchewan land. He said that it was really quite different from the more sober aesthetic of Red River, and I had never heard that. So it' interesting and nice to have these items and the information that have worked together to create an even bigger picture."

The RAM had the support of the Movable Cultural Property Grants Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation, the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, First Nations and Metis representatives and leaders in securing the artifacts.

Visit the RAM's website at royalalbertamuseum.ca to learn more about the other Aboriginal artifacts currently on display.