Lheidli T’enneh artifacts return home after nearly a century, inspire Grade 4 curriculum

Cultural artifacts connected to a Lheidli T’enneh ancestor have returned to Prince George after spending close to 100 years in the collection of the Royal BC Museum, and are now helping shape a new classroom learning program focused on local Indigenous history.

Joshua Seymour says the repatriation effort began through family knowledge shared during treaty discussions in the 1990s, when his great-aunt Violet spoke about a pair of traditional snowshoes and other belongings taken from the community.

“And I sat with my great auntie Violet and she told me about these artifacts and how how much it would mean to the nation and the family to bring those artifacts back home.”

Over the past year, Seymour began searching museum records and was able to locate the items, which include traditional snowshoes and stone tools belonging to his great-great-great-uncle, Frank Seymour.

With support from family members, Lheidli T’enneh leadership, Exploration Place and the Royal BC Museum, the artifacts were successfully returned to the community.

Seymour credits the process moving quickly to strong relationships between all partners involved in the repatriation.

The return has since grown into an education initiative aimed at bringing more local Indigenous history into schools, particularly at the Grade 4 level where students first begin learning about First Peoples in social studies.

“So I wanted to use this as an opportunity to educate some students because I see that there’s not a lot of local curriculum within school district fifty seven. So I wanted to use this as a process to to share what I can on my family’s behalf with artifacts that kind of bridge that the ancestral to modern day generation through these tools.”

Seymour says the goal is to help bridge gaps in how Indigenous history is taught by using local stories and tangible cultural items to connect students to the land and people they are learning about.

The Grade 4 curriculum is currently in draft form and has been reviewed by educators, with early feedback described as very positive. It is expected to be shared more broadly once final revisions are complete.