A group of First Nations leaders and advocates in Manitoba is seeking help to return thousands of indigenous artifacts from a privately owned museum in Switzerland.
The group says the collector wants to sell the collection, which includes sacred pipes, cradle boards and guns believed to date back to the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
The items are stored in a private museum near Zurich, which closed late last year after the collector decided he wanted to retire.
A delegation will visit the museum before it closes, and is now calling on tribal, First Nations and tribal governments in Canada and the United States to step in and help bring these artifacts back to North America.
“We have to do whatever it takes to reconnect our ancestral, sacred bundles to our communities,” said Karl Stone, a councilor at Dakota Tipi First Nation, Man., referring to a group of sacred, cultural objects.
“By bringing them home, that will connect our new generation with the history of our people and restore our identity.”
Stone was part of a group that visited the museum last year after learning of possible artifacts from Dakota communities in Manitoba.
Based on records kept by a private collector, the group was told that many of the items are believed to come from First Nation communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario, as well as the Lakota tribes in the United States.
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The group said the owner amassed a collection of 10,000 items, 70 percent of which are indigenous, over several decades. It is not clear how he got these goods and how much they cost, said the group.
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There has been a push in recent years for cultural institutions and religious groups to give back to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
The Vatican returned several items to indigenous groups earlier this year after a delegation visited its museum and stressed the importance of returning these artifacts.
National museums and universities across the country were also accepting their role in managing sacred objects and working with communities to return them to traditional custodians.
“One of the biggest fears is that if we don’t raise the money and get all these things back, (the collector) can put them on private auction sites and they could end up in Dubai or New York or somewhere in a billionaire’s office under glass as an exhibit,” said Coleen Rajotte, a Cree attorney.
The group said it needs to raise about $20 million – this includes the estimated cost of the artefacts and additional money to hire experts to authenticate the items.
One of those items is the bandolier, or shoulder strap. It stretches about 20 centimeters in diameter and contains thousands of beads that create the floral design often seen in Ojibwa and Cree designs.
Other artifacts include large, feathered heads and stitched, leather moccasins believed to have come from the Sioux tribes.
Gerald Neufeld was part of the team that went to Switzerland and has been helping to push for the collection to be returned.
The non-Aboriginal, retired engineer grew up on a Manitoba First Nation and has worked with communities in efforts to trace their ancestry.
“We need to get them verified. We need prices, and we need to bring them home,” he said.
Neufeld is still in contact with the seller and said he seems to sympathize with the group’s desire for these items to be returned to the indigenous communities.
He said the seller hopes things will be fixed in months, not years, or things will be put on the market.
The private collector did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The Canadian Press reached out to the governments of Manitoba and Canada, as well as the Assembly of First Nations, and did not immediately receive responses.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
