Thousands of artifacts to be returned to First Nations after years boxed away in an Ottawa building

Words by: The Globe and Mails’ Staff Reporter Marie Woolf

Photos by: Spencer Colby for The Globe and Mail

Ian Badgley, the Manager of the Archaeology program at the National Capital Commission (NCC) Capital Planning Division, holds a pair of Meadowood cache blades, made on Onondaga chert which are estimated to be between 2,500 to 3,000 years old, Ottawa, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Manager of the Archaeology program at the National Capital Commission (NCC) Capital Planning Division, Ian Badgley, holds a collection of artifacts made from Hudson’s Bay Lowland chert which include projectile point styles and a scraper, Ottawa, Monday Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Monica Maika, an Archaeologist for the National Capital Commission (NCC) holds a ‘Pseudo-scallop shell’ found in the region of Leamy Lake Park, Que., within the Hull sector of Gatineau and was estimated to have been made 1900 years ago. The shell is held together using a soluble wood glue product which can be dissolved if pieces are place in the wrong order or new ones are discovered, in Ottawa, on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Drew Tenasso, left, Emma Logan, centre, and Jennifer Tenasso showcase some of their archaeological expedition finds to a reporter from The Globe and Mail at a National Capital Commission (NCC) office in Ottawa, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

When Jennifer Tenasco, a 23-year old from the Kitigan Zibi community in Quebec, hung a polished slate pendant round her neck on Monday, her friends remarked just how elegant the ornament looked.

The heavy black pendant, which she had threaded on a gold ribbon, was shaped from black slate and had a sixties retro look.

It was retro all right. The pendant had not been worn for 2,000 years.

It is one of hundreds of thousands of precontact Indigenous artifacts found near Ottawa that are only now being sorted and catalogued. The aim is to return many of them to the Algonquin First Nations whose ancestors made them, or acquired them through trade.

For years, around 300,000 finds – ranging from arrow heads to pots, pipe bowls and tools to make canoes – have been stashed in boxes in an office suite in a National Capital Commission building steps from Parliament.

Word of the cache’s existence had circulated among Indigenous people, including Algonquin and Mohawk living in Ottawa. But few, except a coterie of archeologists and representatives of Algonquin First Nations agitating for access to their ancestors’ artifacts, have actually seen them.

That is about to change, thanks to a small team of archeologists and a group of Indigenous young people from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation located north of Gatineau and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan, about 150 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, who have been resolutely cleaning, sorting and cataloguing the ancient finds.

The surge in activity has in part been helped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought archeological digs to a halt, and afforded the time to sift through stacks of boxes containing a wealth of artifacts dating back up to 6,000 years.

Bryton Beaudoin poses for a portrait in an National Capital Commission (NCC) office in Ottawa, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, that is used to catalogue thousands of pre-contact Indigenous artefacts found throughout regions of what is known today as Ontario. Beaudoin who is from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and works as a public relations team member informing members of the public about the archeological digs occurring around them and throughout the city. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

A field notes memo book, written in both English and Anishinaabemowin, belonging to Indigenous archeological assistant Dakota Commanda of Pikwakanagan First Nation is seen at an National Capital Commission (NCC) office in Ottawa used to catalogue thousands of pre-contact Indigenous artefacts found throughout regions what is known today as Ontario, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Emma Logan, a first-year Carleton University Indigenous and Anthropology studies student, holds a drawing of a flower beret made on birch and a microlith tool in Ottawa, on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Manager of the Archaeology program at the National Capital Commission (NCC) Capital Planning Division, Ian Badgley, points to a NCC Pre-Contact Communications and Trade Network map in Ottawa, on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail

Story continues here