[meteorite-list] Looking for Iron Creek

From: Rob Wesel <*Nakhladog_at_meteoritecentral.com*> Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:45 2004 Message-ID: <008c01c323cf$c0ccde40$629fe70c_at_GOLIATH> · Nakhladog_at_meteoritecentral.com

--
Rob Wesel
------------------
We are the music makers...and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
Willy Wonka, 1971
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Cree Want 'Spirtual' Meteorite Returned
>
>
>
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id=41717EE6-FA01-44
6E-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
>
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