'We know it’s lonely': Manitou Asinîy Stone to be returned to Indigenous stewardship
CTV
A meteorite with special significance is being returned to Indigenous people after more than 100 years.
Manitou Asinîy, also known as the Creator's Stone or Manitou Stone, will be reclaimed by Indigenous communities and returned to its original location.
The Stone is a 145-kilogram iron meteorite that landed billions of years ago near Iron Creek, Alta., close tor the Saskatchewan border.
A new co-stewardship was announced Friday, between the Alberta government and the Manitou Asinîy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Center, an Indigneous-led not-for-profit organization, outlining a plan to build a new prayer centre to house the stone where Indigenous communities can better access it.
Indigenous People consider the Stone to be a sacred living being and that protected the buffalo herds of the prairies. It also served as a gathering place for prayer and healing by many Indigneous communities.
"It was prophesied that the rock, if it was moved, that we would suffer," said Elder Leonard Bastien, Manitou Asinîy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Center chair.
The Stone was first taken in 1866, by a Methodist missionary. Basiten said smallpox followed, and soon the buffalo herds would disappear.
"Since then, a lot of things have continued to keep us down," Bastien said.
