EDMONTON — After years of negotiations, the Alberta government signed an agreement Friday with a First Nations group committing to return an ancient meteorite…
Manitou Asiniy, also known as the Creator’s Stone or Manitou Stone, is a 145-kilogram iron meteorite that landed close to the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, near modern-day Hardisty, Alta., billions of years ago.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
The stone was taken in the late 1860s by Rev. George McDougall, who attempted to use it as a way to draw Indigenous people to Christianity. It was then sent to the Victoria Methodist College in Ontario. The Royal Ontario Museum displayed the stone until 1972 when it was placed on long-term loan with the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.Elder Leonard Bastien said the return of the stone is important to reawakening a sense of peace, prosperity, hope and healing for all people.Bastien is chair of the Manitou Asiniy-Iniskim-Tsa Xani Center, the group that engaged with several Indigenous communities and elders to build consensus around the future of the stone.
“It does not and should not belong to the government of Alberta,” said Kenney. “It does, and must belong, to the First Nations of these lands.”Bastien praised Kenney for his actions to repatriate the stone. “You moved mountains for us.”
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