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Native Americans and Meteorites - Part 3 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:

Other Indians besides the Hopewells buried meteorites in graves. The
Oktibbeha County meteorite was in an Indian tumulus near Columbus,
Mississippi. An Indian grave at Livingston, Montana, consisting of a
pile of rocks over the remains, yielded a 16-kg iron meteorite in
addition to stone tools, arrowheads, and pieces of pottery. The Camp
Verde 61.5-kg iron is a transported piece of the Canyon Diablo
meteorite. In 1915 G.A. Dawson opened a stone crypt in an ancient Indian
building and found the meteorite inside wrapped in a feather cloth.
Archaeologists have estimated the age of associated pottery at about 800
years. Similarly, maguey [Random House CD ROM: any of several plants of
the genus Agave, of the agave family, esp. the cantala] cloths enveloped
the 1,545-kg Casas Grandes meteoritic iron, which was found before 1867
in a multichambered tomb in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Other chambers
contained human remains, which were wrapped in the same way.
The Indians who buried these meteorites must have regarded them not only
with reverence but also as possessing supernatural powers. What legends
do exist support this view. The finder of the first mass of the Navajo,
Arizona, meteorite, which was buried under rocks, reported in 1921 that
the Navajo Indians had known about the piece for three centuries, but
because it was sacred they had covered it with rocks to conceal it from
white men and other tribes. Its weight of 1,500 kg probably prevented
its transport. The second 683-kg mass, found five years later just 48
meters from the first, was also hidden under rocks, above which was a
marker stone.


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