Armed with needle, thread, tweezers, magnifying glass and shish kebab sticks, two expert Mi'kmaw beaders have been tasked with preparing some century-old artifacts for their eventual return to Nova Scotia.

Just a few miles from the White House, around 500 rare Mi'kmaw artifacts have sat in the Smithsonian's collection for decades. They were gathered by anthropologists who toured Atlantic Canada during their studies of Indigenous communities in the early 1900s.

Nik Phillips of Millbrook First Nati…