[meteorite-list] Cree Want 'Spirtual' Meteorite Returned

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:45 2004
Message-ID: <200305262010.NAA08099_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id=41717EE6-FA01-446E-856B-C348B43A5D8F

Cree want 'spiritual' meteorite returned
Kathy Walker
The Edmonton Journal
May 26, 2003

EDMONTON - Cree people call it Papamihaw Asiniy or flying rock, and revere
it as a sacred being with immeasurable spiritual worth.

It's a 145-kilogram, iron meteorite that sits on display beside an old
buffalo head in a gallery at the Provincial Museum in Edmonton. Some
visitors see the profile of a native face in its pitted, reddish-hued
surface.

When Stuart Steinhauer visits the museum, all he sees are the iron clamps
around the rock. He wants them removed.

Steinhauer, spokesman for Blue Quills First Nation College on the Saddle
Lake reserve, says native people want the rock returned to its original
landing place, a mound overlooking Iron Creek, near Hardisty, about 240
kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

"It's a spiritual being, it's not a dead object," he says. The college
regards the artifact as a vital aspect of its community life because Cree
people traditionally travelled to pay homage to the rock.

"It has a duty to help Cree people and other indigenous people with their
entire livelihood," Steinhauer says.

Narcisse Blood, chair of the Mookakin Foundation, which oversees the
repatriation of sacred objects on the Blood reserve, supports the college's
efforts.

"I'm glad there's an organization like Blue Quills," Blood says. If it gets
the rock back, "it's good for everybody."

Ron Mussieux, curator of geology at the Provincial Museum, thinks the
asteroid fragment should remain at the museum.

The meteorite, the third largest in Canada, is "probably the best meteorite
in Canada to show its scientific features," Mussieux says. "I like to think
there's other value to it besides the native, spiritual aspect."

History shows that the spiritual aspect of the rock was paramount to Plains
people.

"From a religious standpoint of the Cree people, it was very significant,"
says Hugh Dempsey, historian and author of Big Bear: The Man and His People.
"They left offerings for it in hope of a good buffalo hunt."

Lt.-Gen. Sir William F. Butler, a British officer commissioned to study the
Canadian northwest, noted that "no tribe or portion of a tribe would pass in
the vicinity without paying a visit to the great medicine" rock.

"The old medicine men declared that its removal would lead to great
misfortunes, and that war, disease and death of buffalo would afflict the
tribes."

Despite the warnings, local missionaries loaded the rock onto the back of a
cart and shipped it to a mission near Smoky Lake, about 135 kilometres
northeast of Edmonton, in 1866.

Dempsey says taking the rock would be akin to snatching the Declaration of
Independence from Americans.

"There would be a tremendous sense of loss," says Dempsey. "They saw it as
their protector of evils in the world."

By 1886, the meteorite was being studied at Victoria University in Cobourg,
Ont. It eventually landed in an obscure corner of the Royal Ontario Museum
in Toronto, where it stayed until 1973, when it was returned to Alberta.

All three evils did befall the native people occupying the land in and
around where the rock had rested: In 1869, war between the Plains Cree and
Blackfoot escalated, with more than 400 people dying; the ravages of
smallpox claimed the lives of 3,500 native people the following year; and
that winter, hundreds died of starvation when the buffalo failed to come
north.

"The interesting thing is that the prediction did come true, which makes one
wonder," Dempsey says.

Steinhauer believes returning the rock to its original landing place will
bring about an economic revival for native people.

"Imagine a strong, self-supporting Cree economy without welfare," said
Steinhauer. "I think getting the rock back into the spiritual cycle, as long
as it's in our hands operating with us, for us, it'll be a huge step
forward."

Although not as optimistic about what the rock could accomplish if returned,
Gerry Conaty, senior curator of ethnology at the Glenbow Museum, said,
"Basically, if sacred ceremonial objects can be used in ceremony, they
should be returned."

Conaty says the provincial First Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects
Repatriation Act passed in 2000 stipulates as much.

The Glenbow has already repatriated a number of sacred objects.

While the Provincial Museum has yet to repatriate any items, it has sacred
bundles on long-term loan to Blackfoot communities, and has been consulting
with First Nations about the rock since last fall, says Dr. Bruce
McGillivray, museum director.

"The elders are sharing with us their perspectives on the manitou stone's
history, significance, and how best to care for it."

Dempsey worries that with no individual owner, security may be an issue if
the rock is returned to its original location.

"It would be too much temptation," says Dempsey. "Collectors would likely
steal it, break it up, and sell the parts."

Conaty, who has negotiated the repatriation of numerous sacred artifacts,
says he's never heard of any one of them being stolen or sold.

"These aren't normal things we're talking about," says Conaty. "People don't
take these things on lightly."

Steinhauer says the rock, although it doesn't belong to anyone, would be
treated with the utmost respect by native people, because: "We belong to
it."

kwalker_at_thejournal.canwest.com
Received on Mon 26 May 2003 04:10:21 PM PDT