Silver Surfer said:
OMG, the Indians can also claim Meteorites

? You got to be kidding me?!?!
How much you want to bet that if they were worthless, they wouldnt be claimed as "Religious Artifacts"?
Those tribal issues are probably the one biggest thing (BS) I dont miss about home...
Any meteorite I was lucky enough to find would be "found" on my own property, guaranteed...
Let us know what you find out!
Not "can". "Have". And the decision was from the US Supreme Court. Unlikely to be overturned.
In court documents, the stone was claimed to be their "tomawanassas", which, translated freely from the Chinook, means either "Sky Visitor" or "Messenger of the Gods", whichever seems more appropriate at the time. The Chinook during the reign of Chief Comconolly saw an unusual period of prosperity and peace. When asked about this, Comconolly pointed up the hillside to a large rock, and said "As long as that rock stands, my people will have peace." Apparently that rock was their "tomawanassas" as well. It struck the hillside during Comconolly's lifetime, and was reported in the book "Astoria" by Washington Irving. Interestingly, the stone stood until a week before Comconolly died of either Smallpox or possibly malaria about 1851. A week before he died, the neighboring Tillamook tribe rowed across the Columbia River in mass, climbed the hillside, and dug the rock out of where it fell, then toppled it down the hillside. It may well be as large or larger than the Willamette Meteorite, and certainly was an object of great veneration of the Chinookian people.