Five found and three to go.

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development was doing some dumpster diving Friday to recover treaty medals that were accidentally tossed out during the department’s move.

Three of the medals were found in a garbage bin behind the First Nations University in Regina by Wascana Centre workers who were doing some clean-up work in the area.

Aboriginal Affairs spokesperson Rod Desnomie says crews were out searching Friday morning and two more medals were recovered.

He says the department wants to find all eight.

“We will keep the medals and we will keep them in a secure location as we had at the First Nations institution,” he says.

The medals are commemorative and not the originals.

However, they are still an important part of Canadian treaty history.

The medals were stored in the department’s rented space at the First Nations University but got lost in the shuffle when the department moved to a new headquarters in downtown Regina.

“Well, in all the chaos of the move, obviously things got misplaced and the medals some how got thrown out, I mean that was certainly not our intention,” Desnomie says.

He adds the whole situation is a little embarrassing and the sooner all the medals are recovered, the more at ease the department will be.