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Native Americans and Meteorites - Part 5 of 6

Jeanne wrote:

> I was also wondering if your book mentions anything about Native
> American usage of Canyon Diablo irons for tools, amulets or other
> spiritual items.

BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris - Meteorites in History, pp. 223-225:

Various North American Indian tribes, inhabiting an area well over a
million square miles, appear to have had strikingly similar beliefs
about meteorites and to have carried out similar rites or practices.
Despite antagonism or enmity between tribes, it seems that they
communicated tales and legends about these strange objects, so that a
common folklore developed around meteorites. Given this circumstance,
knowledge of any observed fall and a description of the physical
condition of the resulting object would have been rapidly broadcast.
Peary was convinced that the Eskimos of Melville Bay observed the fall
of the Cape York meteorite, "else how could these rude natives have
obtained any idea of their heavenly origin, and why should not the brown
masses have been to them simply weeaksue (rocks) like all the others in
their country?" But such is not necessarily the case. The Plains Indians
of the North American West and Southwest knew their terrain, and heavy
metal masses or even blackened stones are not common features of the
countryside. Indians might well have attributed a heavenly origin to
such rare objects when they came upon them.


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