“The American Museum of Natural History

yesterday bluntly refused to give back a

10,000-year-old, 15-ton meteorite to the Oregon

Indian tribes who say their ancestors once treated the

behemoth as a sacred object.

In papers filed in Manhattan federal court to block

the Indians’ claim to the “Willamette Meteorite” —

one of the museum’s oldest treasures and a

centerpiece of its renovated planetarium — the

museum argued the extraterrestrial isn’t covered by

federal law that allows Indians to “repatriate” some

cultural items.” [New York Post]