For forty years, Yukon elder Emma Alfred has wondered what happened to a small purse that she had helped her mother to sew.

On a visit to the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, she unexpectedly discovered it among other Northern Tutchone objects in the collection.

"I noticed it right away. I walked right over to it. This big lump came on my throat and I was so happy it was in a safe place."

Alfred last saw the purse when she was about 14 years old.

"I remember how she stitched a beaver hand onto the purse. I helped her stitching it all together. She was teaching me at the same time."

Northern Tutchone elders form a circle around objects held at the Museum of History in Ottawa. (Canadian Museum of History )

Alfred and a group of other Yukon elders were at the museum to help identify Northern Tutchone objects kept in the vaults. She also discovered a photograph of herself as a teenager holding her mother's purse.

"For forty years I thought it was taken away to the other side of the world, maybe Russia or China or somewhere. I didn't know where it was."

The purse is among many objects made by the Northern Tutchone that were lost over the years. Some were given away or sold, and some were taken without permission.

Alfred says she'd like to see some of the museum's Northern Tutchone objects returned to her community in the Yukon.

"Right now we're researching our artifacts and trying to revive our culture. Our young people need to know."