This linked article from Michigan Advance was originally published in Indian Country Today – r-credit-where-credit’s-due-r

Elders and members of the Bay Mills Indian Community welcomed home the set of four scrolls — used by Ojibwe peoples to record historical and religious information – on Tuesday with ceremony and dignity, and at least a few tears. […] “In Western culture, they say a picture says a thousand words. But for Ojibwe, a picture has thousands of years of meaning,” [organizer Jerry] Jondreau told ICT.

The scrolls had been set for auction at Cottone Auctions based in New York on behalf of a private collector. Jondreau helped organize an effort via social media to purchase the scrolls at a public internet auction, raising about $5,000. The Bay Mills Community quickly joined Jondreau’s efforts, contributing the final $2,500 to make up the $7,500 purchase price to ensure the precious artifacts could be returned to the extended Ojibwe community around the Great Lakes.

In recent years, however, the general public has come to question the practice of ignoring the Indigenous worldview and connection to their patrimony. In 2021, Skinner Auctioneers agreed to remove an Ojibwe scroll offered for sale on their website and permitted Sean Blanchet, co-owner of Revere Auctions in St. Paul, Minnesota, to purchase the scroll at its top assessed value of $2,500. Blanchet then returned the scroll to the White Earth Nation.