In 1866, an ancient meteorite and spiritual artifact of the Indigenous peoples of the northern Plains was stolen by Christian settlers. It was known as manito asinî, or the Creator’s Stone in English, and, within 10 years of its theft, dark prophesies linking the Stone to the fate of its followers came true: a cataclysmic small pox epidemic swept the Plains, famine became rampant, and the buffalo were virtually wiped out.

Over the next century-and-half, manito asinî would be shuttled around Canada, first in the hands of missionaries in Alberta, then to a Methodist college in Cobourg, Ontario. Next it was packed off to the Royal Ontario Museum, finally ending up in Edmonton’s Royal Alberta Museum in 1972. But even as it came back to Alberta, it has still yet to be returned to its original stewards.