The Namgis nation, a group of 1,400 native Canadians living on the Pacific coast, is trying to retrieve cultural artifacts and heirlooms that were confiscated by outsiders in the early 1900’s. The British Museum is holding fast to a sacred wooden mask saying that it knows best how to preserve this treasure. A Namgis representative noted that the repatriation would be an important part of the effort “to reverse a cultural theft by Christian missionaries and a series of Canadian governments.”
