Winnipeg group seeking millions to buy Swiss collection of Indigenous artifacts

Every binder had a photograph. This is one of thousands of photos of artifact catalog pages. They're from what this group says is a massive privately owned collection of indigenous belongings in Switzerland. This is a very, very rare and sacred medicine bundle from the Siksika First Nation in southern Alberta. Colleen Rajat and Gerald Neufeld with Return the Sacred photographed the catalogs with help from the collection's Swiss owner. They say most items are in storage right now after the museum they were being displayed in near Zurich closed. Rajat says they're now trying to buy and bring more than 3,000 items back to the US and Canada. The fact that they are far far away And all alone, away from their people, is really, really sad. Many have been separated from their communities for more than a century. The group's spiritual advisor, Carl Stone, says the artifacts should be returned. And it's important that nationally that our people come together to try to bring these home to our nations. The owner, Vincent Escriba, has previously said he wants his collection to go to the people they belong to, but the group has to act fast. They say he wants to sell soon, and there's still lots of work to do. We first have to go through the process of validating, authenticating, and evaluating the pricing for these items. Most urgently of all, they need to come up with more than $14 million to buy the collection and repatriate the artifacts. And of course there's lots of opinions about that, that sacred items should be just given back. And then there's still the question of what to do with the artifacts if they're repatriated, displaying them in one museum. Or, splitting them up across multiple museums in areas they originated, are among the possibilities. Josh Crabb, CBC News, Winnipeg.