Fourth View - History Lost
This robe is currently on display in the British Museum. It does not have the name of its creator attached to it, nor does it have the name of the specific community it came from within the Blackfoot Confederacy. In 1856, it was taken by British banker Henry Christy and displayed in his home in London, and was then given to the British Museum in 1865, a museum that previously faced criticism from the Siksika Nation for refusing to return important historical artifacts (Dormer).
It shows clear signs of wear and tear, including a crease where it was folded in half, and some of the paintings near the edges of the robe have worn away. At the same time that parts of the robe have been lost and damaged, the loss of this robe from the community it originated from is also clear. According to the website the 3D model is displayed on, “story robes are passed from one person to the next as a form of knowledge renewal within families and societies” and this knowledge was “maintained as long as there was someone to care for the knowledge, and understood the significance of each particular symbol used” (Blackfoot Digital). The fact that this robe was taken and stripped of its meaning and displayed in a museum incapable of recognizing its historical and personal significance also meant that the Native community that lost the robe lost a historical record of someone who lived hundreds of years ago, and a story that needed to be told.