100 years later, stolen tipi returned to Kawacatoose First Nation
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After a 3,000 kilometre journey, a stolen tipi has been returned to Kawacatoose First Nation.
On Friday August 28, Chief (Okimow) Cory Dustyhorn of Kawacatoose First Nation, drove into his community and delivered a 100 year-old tipi cover, which was being held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
“When we finally got our hands on it, it was amazing. Very emotional. I did shed a few tears,” said Dustyhorn.
“Right away, as soon as I put my hands on it, it felt like a reconnection.”
The long journey to have the stolen tipi returned to Kawacatoose First Nation started two-and-a-half years ago when Andrew Miller, professor of Indigenous Studies at the First Nations University of Canada, began reaching out to the Smithsonian to inquire about the tipi.
The Smithsonian were very open to it, said Miller, but needed a reconstructed genealogy of the Dustyhorn family to verify that they were in line to receive the tipi cover. Fortunately, Dustyhorn was in possession of an old medallion that had an image of the exact tipi held at the American museum.
“We had to go back and forth with them quite a bit. The process takes a long time,” said Miller. “But we kept at it, kept poking the bear and making sure they don’t forget about us.”
The tipi was taken from the First Nation in 1926 during a celebration of the Treaty 4 signing in Fort Qu’Appelle, where a well-known freelance buyer acquired the tipi and eventually sold it to the Smithsonian.
“These collectors had reputations of inappropriately acquiring items,” said Miller. “First Nations communities were being criminalized for their spirituality, controlled economically, and encouraged by the church and state to divest themselves of anything that stood in the way of them assimilating. It was all very oppressive.”
