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http://www.newsindex.com/cgi-bin/result.cgi?http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/mete29.shtml

N.Y. museum argues its claim to the Willamette Meteorite
Tuesday, February 29, 2000
By JUDIE GLAVE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A confederation of Oregon Indian tribes has no claim to a 15 1/2-ton
meteorite that has been owned by the American Museum of Natural History in
New York for 94 years, attorneys for the museum said yesterday.

The attorneys asked Judge John Koeltl in court papers filed in Manhattan's
U.S. District court to deny the tribes' claim and "remove the cloud" of who
owns the Willamette Meteorite once and for all.

The rare, metallic iron specimen crashed to earth some 10,000 years ago and
was moved by a glacier to a hillside in West Linn, Ore. Iron meteorites are
rare. Of the 25,000 meteorites discovered, only 600 are iron, court papers
said.

The Willamette Meteorite is also the largest meteorite ever found in the
United States and the sixth largest in the world. Scientists believe it was
once part of the core of a planet that was shattered during the early
history of our solar system.

A museum benefactor purchased the meteorite from the Oregon Iron and Steel
Company in 1906 for $20,600 and then donated it to the museum.

It is the centerpiece of the museum's new $210 million Rose Center for Earth
and Space. The building had to be constructed around the massive meteorite.

The Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde Community of Oregon filed a
claim for the meteorite last September under the federal Native American
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, saying it was a sacred object to the
Clackamas tribe.

Clackamas elders sent youths on vigils to the meteorite to await messages
from the spirit world, and the rain water collected in its craters was
considered holy, said Ryan Heavy Head, a consultant to the tribes.

Attorney Evan Davis said the museum objects to the claim on grounds that,
among other things, the meteorite does not meet the definition of a sacred
object under federal repatriation laws, the tribe never "owned or
controlled" the meteorite and the tribe did not prove that the museum does
not have "a right of possession."

To qualify as sacred, an object must be a specific ceremonial object needed
for present-day American Indians to practice their traditional religions. It
is not sufficient to claim that an object is "imbued with sacredness," court
papers said.

The papers also said the tribe never owned or controlled the object, another
stipulation of repatriation laws. "Everybody could stop and use the water
that collected in the meteorite," Davis said.

"There were no markings on it claiming they owned it," he said.

He also cited a 1905 Oregon Supreme Court ruling that said the meteorite was
part of the landscape and was owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company.
Davis said that ownership shifted to the museum after the iron company sold
it.

"We think we have a very strong legal case and await the judge's decision,"
Davis said.

Tracy Dugan, a spokeswoman for the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, said
tribal leaders were "shocked" that the museum "insists upon illegally
keeping this important sacred object which belongs to the history and
culture of the Grande Ronde Tribes.

"The museum should do the right thing and resolve this dispute now, directly
with our tribe, instead of marching off to court behind a squadron of
attorneys," she said.
 

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