How did Native peoples use meteorites?
Many Indigenous peoples valued meteorites: the Inuit made tools from Cape York iron, and peoples in North America and elsewhere treated meteorites as sacred objects.
Long before modern science, Indigenous peoples in many parts of the world knew and used meteorites.
Cape York, Greenland. For centuries, the Inughuit of north-western Greenland used iron from the Cape York meteorites, a group of large iron masses, to make tools. They chipped small flakes from the masses, hammered them into blades and set them in bone or ivory handles to make knives and harpoon tips. This was the only significant source of metal in the region. In 1897, the American explorer Robert Peary removed the largest masses, including Ahnighito, about 31 tonnes, and took them to New York, an act now widely viewed as disrespectful to Inuit heritage.
North America. The Hopewell culture, which flourished in eastern North America around 2,000 years ago, made beads and ornaments from meteoritic iron, some found in burial mounds. The Willamette meteorite in Oregon is sacred to the Clackamas people, who call it Tomanowos. Since 2000, the museum that holds it has an agreement allowing tribal members to perform ceremonies with it.
Australia. Aboriginal Australians have oral traditions associated with impact craters such as Gosses Bluff and Wolfe Creek, and with fireballs.
Other regions. In parts of Africa, Asia and South America, meteorites were kept as sacred objects or used for tools.
Respect. Today, museums and scientists increasingly consult Indigenous communities about meteorites of cultural significance, recognising their importance and history.
These uses show that people have long recognised meteorites as special, even before understanding where they came from.