A mammoth story: How the FBI helped Canada get back a pair of tusks

OTTAWA – A national museum will soon start to analyze a pair of mammoth tusks which were taken from Canada more than 50 years ago and only came home with the help of the FBI.

The path the tusks took to land at the Canadian Museum of Nature weeks ago started more than three years ago and involves a massive FBI investigation, a infamous American collector and diplomats on both sides of the border.

Kieran Shepherd, a curator at the museum, says the story is the most unusual he has been involved in during his three decades at the institution.

He says the tusks are fairly well preserved, which many might not have expected, given they were in the hands of an amateur collector for decades.

The FBI recovered the tusks in 2014 from the Indiana home of Don Miller, who told investigators before his death that he brought the tusks home from a trip he took between Calgary and the Yukon-Alaska border in 1960.

The museum plans to run chemical tests on the tusks to determine if they are from Alberta or Yukon.

The process to bring the ivory home started last summer and ended in December, when the tusks arrived at the museum.

Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, says American officials saw the tusks as an important link to this country's cultural heritage and wanted to see the specimens been returned to their rightful country of origin.