[meteorite-list] Willamette Withdrawn from Butterfields' Auction

From: MacovichCo_at_aol.com <MacovichCo_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:42:02 2004
Message-ID: <64.a82799d.279bc51c_at_aol.com>

Hi Folks:

As a result of the requests I received from Oregon's Confederated Tribes of
the Grand Ronde and the American Museum of Natural History, I have withdrawn
the 96 gram partial slice of Willamette from tomorrow's (Sunday, January
21st) "Butterfields Natural History Auction."

I regret any disappointment that the withdrawal of the specimen may have
created for those of you who were interested in this offering. While I'm not
at all certain what the future holds as it regards this--or other
specimens--of Willamette, I promise to keep the list apprised of developments.

This specimen can still be seen at:

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=531078167

In the event that this link does not work, you can go to the Macovich
Collection home page:

http://www.macovich.com

In light of the current circumstance, I thought it might be interesting to
re-post an article on the Willamette meteorite that appeared in the
Washington Post on June 23rd, 2000.

 
The Washington Post
 
June 23, 2000, Friday, Final Edition
 
LENGTH: 694 words
 
HEADLINE: Oregon Tribe Snags a Piece of the Rock; With Spiritual Claim
 Recognized, Revered Meteorite to Stay in N.Y. Museum
 
BYLINE: Lynne Duke , Washington Post Staff Writer
 
DATELINE: NEW YORK, June 22
 
BODY:
 
   The legal battle over ownership of the nation's largest and most important
 meteorite ended today when the American Museum of Natural History and
Oregon's
 Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde agreed to combine science and
 spiritualism by keeping the meteorite here in New York but also respecting
the
 tribe's ancestral claim to the stone.
 
   The agreement on the Willamette meteorite is part of a raft of settlements
 being negotiated between Native Americans and museums all over the country
under
 the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. What makes
this
 case different, though, is that experts cannot recall a case in which a
Native
 American group has laid claim to a celestial artifact--certainly not one so
 famous and so prominent as the 15 1/2-ton Willamette meteorite that
scientists
 believe provides a chemical road map of stellar history.
 
   The meteorite had a different kind of significance to the Grand Ronde, a
 collection of 22 tribes and bands. For them, it is called "Tomanowos," a
revered
 spirit that has looked after them since the beginning of time.
 
   The science says the meteorite crashed in western Oregon's Willamette
Valley
 thousands of years ago. The Clackamas, a Grand Ronde tribe, say their people
 have lived in that valley for 8,000 years. Clackamas songs and dances of
today
 still tell of hunters dipping their arrowheads in the meteorite's
water-filled
 basins for extra power and of maladies healed from those same waters.
 
   The Grand Ronde is a relatively obscure tribal grouping that once was
 "terminated" under U.S. law. Its collaboration with the museum gives new
 legitimacy to its long trail back from near-obliteration, said Kathryn
Harrison,
 chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council.
 
   "This is another milestone for us, for our people," she said. It is "the
 greatest undertaking our tribe has done next to the restoration and
regathering
 of our people."
 
   Though the tribes did not succeed in gaining ownership of the meteorite, as
 they originally had sought, the 4,500-member Grand Ronde did succeed in
gaining
 a platform for their beliefs.
 
   Along with a plaque bearing astronomical descriptions of the meteorite's
 origins, the museum has also installed one describing the importance of the
 meteorite in the cosmology of the Grand Ronde. Under today's agreement, the
 Grand Ronde also are allowed exclusive annual access to the meteorite for the
 purpose of tribal rituals and worship. And the museum said it will establish
an
 internship program for Native American youth, in which Grand Rondes will be
the
 first participants.
 
   "The museum is pleased to recognize the Grand Ronde's important and deeply
 meaningful relationship with the Willamette meteorite," said Ellen V. Futter,
 president of the museum. "We see our agreement as the beginning of a
 collaboration that will lead to a better understanding of cultural and
 scientific perspectives on the world."
 
   The museum has owned the meteorite since 1906, when it was purchased from
the
 Oregon Iron and Steel Co. It is about the size of a car and is the largest
 meteorite ever found in this country.
 
   Scientists believe it is the iron-nickel core of a planet that was
shattered
 in a space collision billions of years ago. After orbiting the sun for eons
and
 crashing over and over into other planetary fragments, the meteorite was
plunged
 into a collision course with earth, traveling about 40,000 mph by the time it
 hit what is known today as Oregon.
 
   Because iron meteorites are relatively rare and telegraph a tremendously
 complex process of nuclear fusion of the kind that shatters stars far more
 gigantic than the sun, the study of the Willamette meteorite has provided a
 treasure trove of knowledge about the universe.
 
   The claim that the Grand Ronde group made on the meteorite was the latest
in
 a long series of actions that have put the small tribe back on the map after
 literally being wiped off it. The tribal group was a trustee of the
government
 until 1954, when Congress terminated that tribal status and severed the Grand
 Ronde's relationship with the federal government. Congress restored the
tribal
 trust in 1983.
 

 END-
Received on Sat 20 Jan 2001 11:52:44 PM PST