Manitou Stone

There is a meteor at the Royal Alberta Museum called Manitou Stone. It fell a long time ago and marked the peace between two warring Nations, the Blackfoot and the Cree. It sat for hundreds of years between their territories, and the Elders said if it was ever removed, war would begin again. There would be famine and disease and the buffalo would disappear from the land.

In the mid 1800's a missionary did remove the stone from the hill on which it had rested for so long. It was carted off to Ottawa, then across Canada again to west coast.

If you know Canadian history, then you know what happened. Famine, war, disease, the First Nations people and the buffalo dwindling until they both faced extinction.

The Stone, also known as Old Man Buffalo, is now on loan back in Alberta, so close to it's resting place, but held by iron shackles, a small placard instructing people to not leave offerings in front of it.

The meteor is approximately 50cm (20 inches) wide and a little more than half that tall, and half that again deep.

One side of it looks exactly like a human face in profile, the rest of it like a buffalo, with a thick, curly hide.

There are pleas for it to be returned, but who knows if it will ever happen?

I decided to create this painting based on the stone, but here it is just falling, it is a tear in the eye of the Creator as he looks down upon the beautiful Earth, so in love. Never touching, never apart, the earth and the sky, and a promise.