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~ Ottawa ~

The traditional sacred knowledge of Native peoples honours the existence of unseen powers. These powers are often personified or accentuated by the Great Mystery. Native peoples, in fact, see life itself as power, a mysterious mix of non-material energy, energy which manifests in different densities for each manifestation. Energy then can be found in objects such as thunderstones, charred wood, volcanic stone, feathers, rattles, masks, bones, and medicine bundles. Each plant has a special power and personality, and medicine people learn to communicate with these things for healing and ceremony.

A Teton Sioux man once stated, “It is hard to explain what we believe about this. It is the general belief of the Native peoples that after a man dies his spirit is somewhere on the earth or in the sky. We do not know exactly where, but we believe that his spirit lives … so it is with Wakan’tanka. We believe that he is everywhere.” This mysterious power known to the Native peoples has manifested on occasion in the Canadian Museum of Nature. Spirits have returned to protect and guard their scared objects — their medicine! It is a story about honour and respect.

This story began in 1905 in the City of Ottawa. In a field just south of the downtown district a massive new building was constructed to mark Canada’s coming of age as a modern, scientific nation. They called the building The Victoria Memorial Museum, now home to the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The Museum was founded on the work of Montreal-born geologist William Logan, the first Director of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1842. During his lengthy career he was responsible for sending parties across Canada, collecting plants, rocks, minerals, and Native artifacts. No one at the time expressed much understanding or concern for the sacredness of these objects and the life force they carried. Few believed in these powers and they did not understand how to honour them. It was all done for the field of scientific enquiry.

Logan’s growing collection was originally housed in Montreal and after his death in 1881 the 2,000 boxes and barrels of specimens were crated and sent to Ottawa. For several years they were housed in a squalid old hotel in the By Ward Market. The Victoria Memorial Museum Building gave the collection a new home, or so it was believed.

David Ewart, the Dominion’s Chief Architect and designer of the building, was drawn to European architectural history and created a structure that was characterized as “free Gothic,” “Tudor Gothic” or “Scottish baronial.” Ewart commenced to create a fantasy of towers, crenellations, arched windows, trefoils, and false buttresses using local sandstone. The building was completed by 1910 at a cost of $950,000.

Geologists scrambled to fill the empty halls and exhibits were prepared. By 1912 the museum was stocked with minerals, bird and fossil specimens, and Native artifacts.

One tourist at the time described the museum as “an impressive pile of masonry.” The building weighed 30,000 tonnes (65,000 tons). Soon this weight presented a problem, as the structure had been erected on unstable clay. The ground began to sink beneath the building, the ceilings and walls cracked, floors heaved, and the great tower began to tilt. In 1915 the problem was solved by removing the upper three storeys of the tower.

In 1927 the name changed to The National Museum of Canada. Over the years the museum was divided into Natural History, Human History, and Science and Technology. By 1968 many of these branches became separate institutions housed in their own buildings. In 1988 the Victoria Memorial Museum Building became the exclusive home of the National Museum of Natural Sciences — now the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The museum building also shared quarters for a time with the government of Canada. After the burning of the Parliament buildings on the night of February 3, 1916, the House of Commons and the Senate assembled in this building until November 1, 1919.

When Sir Wilfrid Laurier died in 1919 his body lay in state in the Museum’s Auditorium for three days. His was the only body ever to be laid out here — did his spirit stay behind?

No one is sure how long the museum has been haunted. Perhaps it began when the artifacts were first disturbed or after they were put on display in the museum. Certainly a mysterious energy did and does exist in various parts of the building. This mysterious force is seen and witnessed by the individuals working in the building. It follows people down halls, shadows them, and oppresses them. Sometimes it takes shape and can be seen.

For the sake of privacy and at her request for anonymity, we will call our source “Mary.”

Mary has worked at the museum since 1981. In her early years there she heard other employees talk about the hauntings. They would speak of lights going on and off, of doors opening and closing on their own, and of fire alarms sounding on the fourth floor. It was all just nonsense to her.

The museum, at that time, was divided into two different themes. The west side of the building was used for an exhibit of Native artifacts with historical displays on floors one, two, and three, and a folklore exhibit located on the fourth floor. The east side of the building was for science exhibits. Mary told me that most of the unexplained activity was experienced on the west side of the building at that time. At night the cleaners working in the building would find that their vacuum cleaners had been mysteriously unplugged. The elevators in the building would travel from floor to floor on their own. A person entering the elevator would press the button for the floor they wanted and find that the elevator simply ignored this command and continued on its own up to another floor. Employees would experience varying degrees of temperature in certain areas of the building; they would find the atmosphere to be either too hot or too cold. Yet the climatic controls showed the temperature to be at a normal setting. Others would smell an odd odour, like rubber burning, in the west end of the third floor.

Mary’s own experience of alarms sounding, of disembodied conversations and eerie energy started in 1983. There were no logical explanations to be had.

She described the first floor exhibits as ones pertaining to the beginnings of life. They explained and illustrated the work of archeologists, the “dig.” Methods of artifact recovery were presented as well as many different relics.

The second floor displayed the history and life of the Inuit and many other Native nations. She recalled displays including a teepee, ceremonial masks behind glass, hunting tools, medicine bags, rattles, bearclaw necklaces, pipes, and sticks with bird heads on the ends of them. Mary always felt uncomfortable when she walked past these exhibits. Something didn’t feel right! Could it be this non-material energy — the power of life that is in each object — is that what she felt? Spirits were here, still connected to their medicines — medicines locked up and on display. Totem poles and beaded clothing once worn by Native peoples were located on the third floor. A folklore display was located at the far west end of the fourth floor, which was a split-level floor. Some of the articles were described by Mary, “We had an old Ouija board, books, candles, ladders, suitcases, and an open umbrella on display. One section of the display looked like an attic.” She never liked spending time alone in this exhibit. It made her feel very uneasy.

Mary had an extraordinary experience in 1984. “It was five minutes to ten in the morning. I was on the fourth floor in the folklore exhibition area. The museum opens at ten o’clock. After having heard alarms go off in the building and seeing other strange events, I was getting a little paranoid. I said to myself, ‘It’s okay; the museum is not really haunted.’

“Suddenly I felt someone following me, someone trying to scare me! This feeling grew and grew and I decided to stop in front of a mirror. I thought I might be able to catch a glimpse of the ‘spirit.’ There was no one else in this part of the building at the time. There I was standing about four feet away from the mirror when a human figure appeared between me and the mirror. I could see the outline of the head, shoulders, and arms that seemed to be part of the same body. The shape was that of a large, tall man. He was enshrouded in greyish fog and was therefore quite fuzzy. My body went cold. Then the spirit approached me. I was rendered completely immobile; not to mention the terror that passed through me when the figure moved right through me. As soon as the ‘spirit’ entered my body I felt extremely hot. I just watched this form walk through the right side of my body. I remember moving my head around and watching it move a couple of feet beyond me before it disappeared. I just stood there in shock! I didn’t know where to go. I eventually ran down the ramp and out of the room. I found a security guard and asked if he had seen anyone leave the floor. He hadn’t.”

Who was this spirit? Maybe the spirit was in some way connected to an object on display in the folklore exhibit. The Ouija board was the first thing to come to my mind. Had someone used this board improperly? Were they unable to create closure? Do people know how to use these things appropriately?

Mary is not the only employee who has seen a ghostly form appear in the building. She recalled another worker who has since passed away. “She would talk to me about a spirit who appeared on the third floor in the west wing, by the Native exhibits. She used to say he was a young Native person. He was quite clear when he appeared. She said he had large cheekbones and long hair. She could look right into his eyes. He was very friendly and appeared most nights, according to her. She thought he was trying to communicate with her.”

In 1989, the museum acknowledged the fact that unexplained activity was occurring in the building. They called in a medium to exorcise the spirits. According to Mary, “The medium went up to the fourth floor of the museum and said a spirit was indeed in the area. She then went down to the third floor to begin her work. In a trance-like state she soon communicated with the Native spirit who always appeared in the Native exhibit area. The medium said his name was Swift Eagle, a Native person who once lived out West. He had died a slow death in the forest after eating some poisonous plants. According to the medium he had arrived at the museum in order to accompany his clothing!”

For some reason Swift Eagle remained there with his clothing. Was it sacred to him? Mary described his outfit on display, “It was a long coat with fringes and pants. A hat was also part of this exhibit. It had feathers and lots of coloured beads on it. The medium then said a prayer and asked him to leave. She began to cry after this. That’s all I was told.”

Did the hauntings end after the exorcism? No. Swift Eagle was never seen again as far as we know, but what about the spirit Mary had seen in the folklore exhibit? Could there be more spirits roaming the exhibits?

Mary continued, “After the medium had left, we still heard stories of unexplained activity in the museum. I still have days when I feel awkward about entering some parts of the building. Since 1990, the security people have seen a shadow on the second floor and are often touched on the shoulder by an invisible hand.

“We have had some unexplained activity in the Mineral Gallery. It was during the construction of an exhibit that contained a radioactive machine; that we had some experiences. At that time the machine was blocked off from public use. I would be standing in front of the machine when the exhibit alarm would just go off. No one was there using the machine. We also had problems with the exit doors on this floor. The doors would shake or seem to move as if someone was pushing on them, when no one was there.”

We were nearing the end of our interview, but I sensed that Mary had something else to tell me. Call it a hunch or a gut feeling, but I knew there was another story about this museum. And so I asked her — and I was right!

Mary took me to the first floor on the east side of the building to show me something. As we entered the Dinosaur Hall I was immediately drawn to the exhibits. There in front of me were several dinosaurs looming over my head. Live plants are used to highlight the various settings in this gallery. Mary walked over to an open space at the far right-hand side of the hall. She looked at me and said, “I have seen a dark, black shadow on the floor in this area. I watched it travel across the floor in a wave-like motion. It was so eerie!”

I shivered just thinking about seeing this “shadow” travelling across the floor in front of me. This was certainly a different experience to have. But Mary wasn’t finished! “One time when the contractors were working in this area, a tall plant suddenly bent right over and then flipped back into an upright position on its own.” The interview was over but I’m sure strange occurrences in this museum are not.

I clearly saw, here, the existence of unseen powers. Swift Eagle had remained as a result of some connection to the sacred. Perhaps his headdress designated his status or his gifts and some energy around them needed to travel with him to the other side. We know very little about “personal medicine” and how and what goes with a soul to the other side.

As for the museum, we do know forms of spirit activity continue. What is really happening in the Mineral Gallery? Who pushes on the exit doors; who touches the security personnel on the second floor; what creates the shadow that moves across the room in the Dinosaur Hall?

The spirit activity continues, as I learned during a visit in 2007. Security guards now report seeing a dark cloaked figure on the fourth floor of the building.

The Canadian Museum of Nature is indeed a place of unseen power surrounding sacred natural objects and life forms that have been removed from their burial places and put on display. The very essence of evolution binds the living world to the spiritual world. What better place than a museum, to observe and experience both worlds.