Following their successful repatriation in May 2022 of Chief Crowfoot’s regalia to the Siksika Nation in Canada, Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) has taken another welcome step to protect the continuity of Siksika culture by returning a further sacred object two years later.

The sacred ceremonial headdress returned at a handover ceremony at the RAMM last month (June 2024) was traditionally worn by a holy woman of the Blackfoot Holy Buffalo Woman Society, known as Motokiks. Its repatriation to the Blackfoot tribe of Siksika Nation will ensure it is returned to use by today's holy women of the Motokiks.

Exactly how it was acquired is undocumented, but it was gifted to the Museum in 1920 by Edgar Dewdney, a former Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories in Canada. It’s likely he acquired the headdress while enforcing the harsh assimilation policies of Treaty 7 and the Indian Act, colonial acts that after the mid-19^th century prescribed methods of forced assimilation and displacement of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples.

The repatriation of Chief Crowfoot’s regalia together with other personal belongings came about after five years of sensitive negotiation. However, during these negotiations the RAMM and the Siksika Nation succeeded in cultivating what the Museum now describes as a ‘meaningful partnership’. It also established a precedent for the return of other Siksika items.



Joset Melting Tallow prepares the bundle during the ceremony. Photo: Jim Wileman

Last month’s repatriation of the ceremonial bird bundle in the form of a Buffalo Woman’s Headdress is another result of this burgeoning partnership. Crafted with buffalo horns, sacred bird feathers, porcupine quills and adorned with red cloth and brass bells, the formal request for its repatriation was made by the Blackfoot (Siksika) Nation in September 2022, just four months after the return of the Crowfoot regalia.

According to Joset Melting Tallow, one of several Siksika delegates who travelled to Exeter for the handover event, the headdress holds immense sacred significance for the Blackfoot people:

“Its return to Siksika Nation symbolizes not only the preservation of our cultural heritage, but also the recognition of our history and traditions, and is a profound testament to our ancestors’ spiritual and cultural practices.”

Julien Parsons, RAMM’s Collections & Content Manager, expressed the RAMM’s pleasure that the headdress will once again be used for its original purpose. The handover event, “was a moving experience for all of us lucky enough to be present,” he explained. “The elders performed a short ceremony and then painstakingly bundled and wrapped the headdress in coloured cloth. It will travel back to Canada where it will return to its sacred use by the Siksika people.”

Today, the Siksika Nation population in southern Alberta numbers approximately 8,000+ members and is part of the Siksikaitsitapi-Blackfoot Confederacy. The Siksikaitsitapi refers to four Indigenous Nations which make up the Blackfoot people: the Siksika (Blackfoot), the Kainai (Many Chiefs), the Apatohsipiikani (Northern Peigan) and Amsskapipiikani (Southern Peigan).

Photo: Joset Melting Tallow with the sacred bundle at RAMM

Courtesy of Siksika Nation and Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery 2024. Photo: Jim Wileman