Manitoba museum repatriates sacred headdress to Long Plain First Nation

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE – A sacred headdress that belonged to generations of leaders of a First Nation in southern Manitoba is being returned.

The headdress first worn by the former chief of Long Plain First Nation, Frank Merrick, and passed down to other chiefs, including his son Angus Merrick, had been stored at a heritage centre.

Former chief Dennis Meeches transferred the headdress to the Fort la Reine Museum in Portage la Prairie, Man., as a way to preserve it.

This past summer, a band councillor and grandson of Angus Merrick and an executive at the National Indigenous Residential School Museum of Canada began the repatriation process.

The headdress will now be held at the residential school museum at the former site of the Portage la Prairie Indian Residential School.

The Fort la Reine Museum says institutions have a responsibility in caring for belongings that were separated from Indigenous families and nations, and that includes returning the items so they can continue their spiritual and cultural purpose.

“Across the world, we are seeing sacred items finally returning to the Indigenous Nations they were taken from. These returns are not merely symbolic — they restore a responsibility that only our people can carry,” Long Plain Chief David Meeches said in a press release Tuesday.

“Repatriation is not the end of a story — it is the beginning of healing and of restoring what was always meant to be in our hands.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2025.