Native Americans on warpath over Earl's art treasures

GRAHAM OGILVY AND KURT BAYER

BEAUTIFULLY preserved and fabulously valuable, they lay in a trunk in the attic of a Scottish castle for 150 years. The collection of American Indian art, amassed by an aristocratic Scots explorer in the Rockies, included beaded clothing and bags, knives, moccasins and mittens.

Next month, Sotheby's in New York will sell off the 9th Earl of Southesk's collection, which it describes as "the most historically significant group of American Indian art ever to be offered at auction". The earl's descendants, who still live in Angus, are expecting a massive payday.

But the bloody history of white exploration of North America continues to cast a long shadow. Native American activists have pledged to do everything in their power to stop the auction and return the 39 lots to the descendants of the tribes who created them.

The powerful American Indian Movement last night compared the auction with selling gold teeth from Auschwitz. Sotheby's insist the sale will go ahead, saying the items were personal rather than ceremonial, and were legitimately acquired by trade, rather than force.

The Earl certainly had a fine eye for art and appreciated both the beauty and rarity of the items he collected. He explored the Rocky Mountain range, traversing the American-Canadian border, accompanied by a vast retinue who even carried an India rubber bath for him to soak in.

His collection includes a stunning Blackfoot beaded hide man's shirt with an auction estimate of £300,000, and a magnificent Northern Plains beaded hide woman's dress estimated at £125,000. The Earl admitted this was acquired from an Indian man who stripped his wife on the spot after being offered a bottle of rum in exchange.

Other items include an early pair of beaded Blackfoot leggings with an estimate of £38,000, two beaded Cree octopus bags at over £11,000, a Great Lakes Cree wood doll cradle at £11,000, an Assinboine knife and sheath valued at £22,000, a Huron quilled knife sheath with an estimate of £19,000, a Cree saddle pad at £6,600, and numerous pairs of moccasins and mittens valued at up to £800.

For the past 150 years, they have lain in a trunk in Kinnaird Castle, near Brechin, and are in pristine condition. It is not clear how they came to be rediscovered.

Sotheby's believes the Blackfoot shirt is "the finest... of its type to appear at auction". David Roche, the auctioneer's Native American art specialist, said: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime sale. To have so many objects of such quality and beauty from such an early period and in such an excellent condition is very rare. There has never been a shirt of this early date, quality and beauty at auction.

"The merit of the collection is twofold. The quality of the objects comprising the collection is superb with examples, which are rare, early and beautiful."

He added: "The Earl was a very early pioneer, one of the first Europeans to venture into the Rockies where there are still some places named after him. His journal was published in 1875 and provides a wonderful context for the collection. Some of the items, like the dress, are specifically mentioned and he records how it was traded for rum with an Indian who stripped his wife on the spot to hand the garment over."

But the sale has incensed the American Indian Movement (AIM), which has pledged to use the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act to force the return of the items to the tribes who created them, or to the Museum of American Indians at Washington's Smithsonian institute.

AIM spokesman Vernon Bellecourt said: "If the Earl of Southesk's family and Sotheby's had any scruples they would not sell these items like this. To us, it is the equivalent of gold teeth from Auschwitz being put up for auction. All decent people would be horrified by such a sale, but this is just the same.

"During those times, many collectors would follow in the wake of the cavalry who massacred old people, woman and children. They committed genocide and there was a brisk trade in Indian art by the collectors who followed and swarmed over the corpses."

He added: "Believe me, our movement will do everything it can to stop this sale and have these items returned to the tribes they came from. The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act exists to compel the return of such items, either to the tribes or to the Indian museum at the Smithsonian."

James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk, travelled to Canada in 1859, aged 32, after being advised that it would improve his health that had deteriorated following the death of his wife.

Although dressed in the buckskin of the frontiersman, he travelled in style, accompanied by a gamekeeper from his Angus estate and an Iroquois cook. He had a complex attitude towards the Indians, dismissing some as "bloated, disgusting savages" while praising the Metis of the plains as "tall, straight and well proportioned".

One journal entry features the rubber bath: "I was in the act of washing myself in my India rubber bath, when suddenly the door flew open, and two splendidly dressed Indians walked into the room as if the whole place belonged to them, but on seeing me they stopped, and stared with all their might. We stared at one another for a moment, then a radiant smile came over their faces, and there was a general laugh after which I continued my sponging, to their evident wonder and amazement."

The current Earl of Southesk, the Eton and Cambridge-educated David Carnegie, 45, owns a 5,800-acre estate near Brechin and runs a trout farm as well as an arable farming business.

No one was available to comment on his behalf. It is understood the proceeds from the sale will go to the family trust, set up in 1951.

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Last updated: 30-Apr-06 01:13 BST

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