TOOELE COUNTY, Utah — It was a heartbreaking find for a Utah family who made wooden tikis meant to honor those who have been buried at Iosepa cemetery in remote Tooele County, only to see them destroyed earlier this month.
Coming to this small cemetery in Iosepa has been a tradition for the family for generations.
“You look out in the mountains, you feel the aloha spirit. It’s quite a place,” explained Nick Hoopiiaina.
The cemetery is in a town where Latter-day Saint Hawaiians coming to Utah once settled in the 1800s. According to the Iosepa Historical Association, the people who lived here left in 1917 to help build a temple in Hawaii. Now, the gravesite left behind is where generations of Pacific Islanders are buried.
“This is one of the things we treasure, you know?" said Nick Hoopiiaina. "When we come out and pay our respect to our loved ones.”
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When Cole Kaplar Haws’ grandfather passed away. He and his family decided to build two tikis to honor his grandfather and other family members buried at the site.
“The biggest meaning of these is to protect this land and look over the ancestors that lay here.” Haws said.
But in early May, Hoopiiaina, who looks after the cemetery, discovered the tikis in pieces next to an Imu pit, where traditionally a pig is roasted.
“I look over and see the tikis were there in a pile," he shared. "It was heartbreaking, it really was.”
The Tooele County Sheriff’s Office said the tikis were cut with a chainsaw and an investigation remains ongoing.
“It’s not meant to be a negative thing, it was all out of love and to watch over the land and the ancestors. For that to happen was a dagger in the heart,” Hoopiiaina added.
When the tikis were found, Haws and his family decided to rebuild them just in time for Memorial Day.
“They’re fixed," he said. "We’re not gonna let something like this change what we do.”
Haws is waiting to hear back from the Iosepa Historical Association on whether they can bring the tikis back permanently.
“This is open to everybody, but don’t take advantage of it.”
