Deerskin moccasins, embroidered with porcupine quills and glass beads, identified as originating from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the mid-18th century. The moccasins are one of a vast collection of North American Indigenous artifacts at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.Supplied
Most visitors at the Musée du Quai Branly walk past the 10-metre display case devoted to northeastern North America without stopping long. The Parisian institution, one of the world’s largest devoted to ethnography, holds artifacts from Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
And yet, the small case contains part of a vast collection of North American Indigenous artifacts, one of the most valuable in the world.
It includes red and beige leather moccasins, adorned with porcupine quills, made in the 18th century by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It also holds a wampum made of purple and white shell beads, depicting four bowmen, likely offered to King Louis XV in 1725 by emissaries of the Illinois Confederacy. And there’s a pouch embroidered with red and black moosehair, dating from the 17th century, around the period the Huron-Wendat were pushed away from the Great Lakes by diseases and war.
A wampum identified as the one presented by a delegation from the Illinois Confederacy to King Louis XV in 1725. In northeastern North America, these necklaces, made from thousands of beads, were used to tie and maintain alliances.Supplied
The collection is older than those found in Canadian museums, as well as those in the Indigenous communities from which the objects originated. While some are calling for the artifacts to be returned, the public collection is considered state property under French law and thus can’t legally be sold or given away.
Still, artifacts of Indigenous origin held in Europe’s museums may come under increased scrutiny after the Vatican last month repatriated 62 objects to Indigenous communities in Canada, including a rare Inuvialuit kayak.
As a whole, the Musée du Quai Branly holds more than 300,000 artifacts. The royal collection, as it has been called by curators, is made up of 250 objects that arrived in France between 1600 and 1830.
‘Not a simple journey’: a rare Inuvialuit kayak has come home from the Vatican Museums
“At that time, France had a huge empire in North America, stretching from the St. Lawrence Valley to Louisiana,” said Paz Núñez-Regueiro, director of the museum’s collections from the Americas. “Many objects arrived from New France as diplomatic gifts, or were brought back to be displayed in the first curiosity cabinets.”
In vogue in the 18th century, curiosity cabinets were a kind of museum where high figures in French society collected arrays of objects perceived as exotic, often acquired by officials, merchants or missionaries in the colonies. They were later confiscated and placed in national museums after the French Revolution.
In 2019, the French museum launched a research project to better document and publicize its collection, in partnership with Indigenous experts, called “CROYAN” – a French acronym for “Royal collections of North America.”
“The exact origin of most of the objects remains unknown, because they were not properly documented at the time,” Ms. Núñez-Regueiro said.
Around 5 per cent of the collection is on display. The rest lies in the museum’s storerooms, in optimal conditions for preservation. To protect the exposed relics, the entire museum is kept in subdued light.
A woven bag identified as having been made in the 17th century by the Huron-Wendat or Haudenosaunee.Supplied
“Indigenous objects as ancient as those are very rare in Canada,” said Jonathan Lainey, a curator of the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal and a specialist in Indigenous collections who participated in the CROYAN project. “In Canadian museums, most objects date from the 19th or 20th century, when the first anthropologists began to show interest in Indigenous peoples.”
“Even in the communities, there are few or no objects as ancient as this, because people replaced them or have continued to use them, and therefore they gradually wore out,” said Mr. Lainey, a member of the Huron-Wendat nation.
“For me, the fact that these objects ended up in France is both a blessing and a curse,” said Nicole O’Bomsawin, a member of the Abenaki First Nation who also participated in the research project, and whose nation has several objects in the Quai Branly museum.
“It’s a blessing because it allowed them to reach us intact, but a curse because they are not with the community at a time when they could help us revive our culture.”
In Odanak, the community near the St. Lawrence River where she is from, she previously served as the long-time director of a museum dedicated to the nation’s history. “We have only one object as old as what is in Paris, a belt embroidered with moosehair from around 1700,” she said.
Yet, Ms. O’Bomsawin said she doesn’t believe that the Abenakis should insist on reclaiming these objects. “These are presents that our ancestors chose to give to the King, to remain in the good graces of the French,” she said. “But even though I wouldn’t demand it, I wouldn’t be against getting them back one day.”
The K’ëgit totem pole, originally erected by the Wet’suwet’en Nation in the late 19th century. The totem pole was donated to the museum by the widow of a painter, Kurt Seligmann, but some members of the First Nation believe it was acquired under duress.Supplied
To date, no requests for repatriation have been made for any objects in the royal collection. But in other, later collections of the museum – which also contain numerous Canadian Indigenous artifacts – at least one item is at the centre of a continuing dispute.
In the museum’s entrance hall, beside the information desk, stands a 14-metre-high totem pole, its cedar wood carved with human faces. Dating from the early 20th century, it was donated to the museum by the widow of a painter, Kurt Seligmann, who had purchased it in British Columbia.
In October, 2024, a delegation from the Likhsilyu clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation came to see the K’ëgit totem pole, which they consider their property.
“In the archives we were able to consult, we saw that my great-grandfather was very old when he sold the totem for $100 – a negligible sum given the significance this object holds within our nation,” said Birdy Markert, one of the clan’s hereditary chiefs.
“According to our laws, the entire family should have been consulted, which was not the case,” she said. At the time, the Wet’suwet’en and Indigenous nations across Canada were under pressure from authorities to adopt a Western way of life. “For us, the transaction was made under duress.”
For now, the Likhsilyu clan have not officially requested the pole’s return to their territory, but Ms. Markert said they are in the process of consulting the rest of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. Ms. Núñez-Regueiro said the museum is open to the Wet’suwet’en requests, but added that the decision to restitute is not up to the institution.
“Even if it were the museum’s wish, we wouldn’t have the right to do it,” she said.
In France, all objects in public collections belong to the state and are inalienable, meaning they can never be sold or given away, said Marie Cornu, a law professor specializing in cultural heritage.
A maple wood war club, identified as having been made by the Wendat Nation between 1680 and 1720. Due to the wampum bead inlays on its handle, historians at Quai Branly assume it was probably intended for a high-ranking individual.Supplied
Originally, this rule was set to prevent museums from selling off their collections. But today, as France faces more and more requests to restitute artifacts taken from its former African colonies, it is being called into question.
“For the moment, the French parliament has to pass a specific law for each restitution, but we’re waiting for a framework law that would speed up the process,” Prof. Cornu said.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati unveiled a draft law on July 29, but it needs to be approved by French parliamentarians – who are currently focused on passing a budget.
Right now, the draft law only focuses on objects that can be proven to have been stolen or acquired under duress, and would not apply to most objects of the royal collection, Prof. Cornu explained.
“Even with the collections here, we try to make the nations of origin benefit from them as much as possible,” Ms. Núñez-Regueiro said. “Whenever we can, we bring delegations or associate researchers to Paris.”
From time to time, the collection also travels outside the city, for temporary loans or exhibitions. “It’s important to bring the objects closer to the communities,” the curator said, warning that every time the collection is moved, objects can be broken or damaged.
In 2021, the Musée du Quai Branly worked with Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum to organize an exhibition devoted to wampum. The Parisian museum loaned many wampum, made of thousands of purple and white shells and beads and used by the Indigenous peoples of the Northeast to form and maintain alliances. Its teams also worked to bring together wampum from other French museums.
“Never before have so many wampums been brought together in the same room: There were 40, whereas there are less than 300 worldwide,” said Mr. Lainey, who co-organized the exhibition.
On that occasion, a bus set off from Odanak, full of members of the Abenaki Nation. They wished to see the wampum their community had gifted to Chartres Cathedral in 1699, with inscriptions in Latin to honour the Virgin Mary.
Ms. O’Bomsawin, who was part of the expedition, said, “It gave us an opportunity to talk about our history and traditions, which many of ours don’t know much about today.”