Royal Alberta Museum

The home of the Manitou Stone, an iron meteorite sacred to the peoples of the northern plains.

Key facts

Where

Edmonton, Canada

Kind

Museum

Visiting

Public galleries

The Iron Creek meteorite, also known as the Manitou Stone, is an iron of roughly 150 kilograms that lay on a hilltop in what is now east-central Alberta. For the Cree, Blackfoot and other plains peoples it was a sacred object, visited for prayers and offerings. In 1866 a Methodist missionary had it taken away by cart to his mission, and it was later sent east to Ontario.

The stone came back to Alberta in the 1970s and is held by the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, where it is displayed in a way that recognises its spiritual meaning. Indigenous communities have asked for it to be returned to their care, and its story is often told as an example of how museums are rethinking objects taken from sacred places.

Scientifically, Iron Creek is a IIIAB iron, the most common group of iron meteorites.

Highlights

• Iron Creek the Manitou Stone Iron, IIIAB

Related pages

Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.