Powerful medcine from the guardian of the herds

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It came from the sky, from the hand of the great Manitou himself. A gift, a sign and very powerful medicine for the original inhabitants of the Plains. No one knows for sure exactly when the great meteorite landed, but it must have coincided with the early arrival of humans on this continent.

The sacred Manitou Stone, Pi-wa-pisk-oo, ironstone in Cree, stood like a sentinel where it landed on the side of a hill, it's fate closely tied to the people who revered it.

The disappearance of the stone god, the Manitou Stone, would fulfill the prophesies of doom, as foretold by Elders like Big Bear; that war, famine, disease, loss of ancestral lands and the near extinction of the great bison herds, would sweep across the prairies like a wildfire, resulting in the almost total destruction of a culture and foreshadowing it's long and difficult struggle for rebirth and affirmation in the modern era.

But where did this great iron meteorite come from and how did it come to take it's place in the spirits of the minds of the Cree and Blackfoot who revered it as 'the face of the gods and guardians of the herd?

Imagine for a moment, a time lost to memory, many thousands of years ago...The people are hungry, the old men are praying, when suddenly a great fire ball rips across the night sky, landing on a hill overlooking the river, a powerful omen and sacred blessing.

The Manitou has sent a message, and an old women has a vision. In her dream, strange-horned creatures thunder across the Plains. The animals would become everything the people prayed for, food, shelter, fuel, and an eternal connection with their Mother, the Earth.

The people journey to where the stone landed, sweetgrass, leave prayers, tobacco and offerings. Stories and legends are told around campfires that the Great Manitou has not abandoned his children. And as a sign he left his face on the craggy profile of the stone, with distinctive markings that would later be carved onto the holy ribstones, small monuments set on the tops of hills that would become strong hunting medicine and spirits connecting points between the hunters, the bison and the Great Manitou.

When it comes right down to talking about cultural and facts like the Manitou Stone it must be remembered that myth and fact are two wings on the same bird, wings that can send the spirit soaring.

As a phenomenon of nature and a supernatural blessing, the Manitou Stone had been known through legends and campfire lore, as long as stories had been told, say the Elders, and it stood "Out on the hill ever since the place was first visited by Na-ne-boo-shoo after the flood had retired," according to early sources.

It was recognized in historical times (1866) by Alexander Henry who lived at Paint Creek Post, as the largest single meteorite ever to be found in Canada, and who described it as being situated on a hill near Iron Creek, a tributary of the Battle River.

Another early report by Baptiste Supernat, a Metis guide for W.B. Cheadle, told of "a piece of iron" which had been found many years ago on top of a hill, a stone which had grown, according to legend, in size and weight since that time.

Other possible locations and hills have been cited as the possible landing place of the stone, including Manitou Lake and Strawstack Hill.

The mystery of where the original site actually was, also includes the sticky problem of which province, Alberta or Saskatchewan, could actually 'claim' ownership in a geographic and political sense. This is because, in 1866, the year that the Manitou Stone was surreptitiously taken from it's original site by David McDougall, "at the urging of his father, the Rev. George McDougall," the possible sites, rivers, lakes and hills lay within an unmapped area prior to the provincial boundaries being set.

And to compound these mysteries, there is also a question of the second iron-stone, one that may have been hidden from sight in a nearby lake, to prevent it from being removed by themissionaries.

What is no mystery, however, is why the Manitou Stone was taken in the first place.

The missionaries who were trying to convert the people of the Cree and Blackfoot tribes, realized that the presence of this powerful talisman would interfere, and "get in the way of the word of the Christian God."

A medicine stone that was the object of such intense veneration by the original people of the Plains could only be a threat and a hindrance to those trying to wipe out the ancient traditional and spiritual beliefs of a whole culture.

After being lost to them for more than a hundred years, the Manitou Stone has finally been returned to Aboriginal people, and is currently 'on exhibit' in the new Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture at the Provincial Museum of Alberta.

Having been 'returned' to the West, from the Methodist Victoria College in Toronto, it has found it's way back into safe keeping, within the museum context, under the direction of a large Aboriginal advisory committee.

Many Native people who have forgotten or never knew about the existence of the Manitou Stone have now become aware of it's existence, and as some say, the awesome power radiating from within its warm metallic surfaces.

Others have come aware of the cultural appropriation of a sacred object, ripped out of its natural context and cultural setting.

There are as many questions as there are mysteries surrounding the Manitou Stone.

Was it just an 'accident' of timing and geology, that after journeying millions of miles through outer space, that it landed on a particular hillside on the Plains to be venerated as a gift from the God?

Should it remain where it is as an artifact, in the 'safe-keeping' of a museum context, or should it be returned to it's original home, perhaps within an interpretive site and sanctuary, and back into the hands of those from whom it was taken?

And finally, should it become, not only a special place to give thanks and leave offerings, but also a ralling point of the new emergence of Aboriginal self determination and solidarity?