> I do not want to upset anyone here but I am confused on this Willamette > issue. > > "The American Museum of Natural History bought it in 1906." I assume from > the Indians.
Here's some background information on the Willamette meteorite. There was a lawsuit in 1903-1904 on the ownership of the meteorite between Ellis Hughes and Oregon Iron and Steel Company. Hughes had apparently found the meteorite on the property of the Steel Company in 1902, moved it to his property, and then claimed ownership. During the trial, the Clackamas Indians testified on Hughes' behalf that they had used the meteorite as a sacred stone 30 year prior, but it was now an abandoned Indian relic. It would be interesting to get the court transcript from this trial to see exactly what the Indians said. The meteorite was awarded by the court to the steel company. The meteorite was then sold to a Mrs. William Dodge from New York for $26,000. Mrs. Dodge then donated the meteorite to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. There was a stipluation in the donation that the meteorite was to remain intact as a single body. The meteorite has been on display at the museum since 1906, and things were quiet for over 90 years. Then the late 1990's, the museum went through a major upgrade including the construction of the $210 million Rose Center, with the Willamette meteorite as the main centerpiece. This received a lot of publicity. When the Indians in Oregon head about it, and also found out the meteorite was worth a lot of money, they then claimed the meteorite was a sacred object to their tribe, and that it should be returned to them. The Indians filed a lawsuit in 2000, and filed the claim under a federal law known at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, also known as NAGPRA. NAGPRA was passed around 1990 and was to protect and preserve Indian artifacts. There was some debate whether this law applied to the meteorite, and whether it could be applied retroactively. The lawsuit was eventually dropped and the matter settled out-of-court. As part of the settlement, the Indians were allowed access to the meteorite in New York for annual ceremonial visits. There the matter rested, until the recent Tuscon auction, where the Indians objected to the sale of pieces from the Willamette meteorite. Ron Baalke ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
