In This Issue

In a consideration of the past, three questions often help focus our research into the lives of individuals and groups: why did they come; why did they stay or leave;and what was important to them? The articles in our 2008 Fall issue take up these questions and in so doing help enhance our understanding of the Utah experience.

Our first article recalls why a small group of native Hawaiians chose to leave their beautiful and lush homeland in the Pacific and travel thousands of miles to a stark desert in Utah’s Skull Valley where the community of Iosepa became their new home. In many ways they were like the millions of other immigrants to the United States from all parts of the world. They came in search of a better life and to take advantage of opportunities not available in their homeland. Yet in coming, these immigrants also sought to preserve valued customs and traditions in their adopted land. The Iosepa Hawaiians came and left for religious reasons, though some observers would claim that the harsh environment was the primary factor for the end of what was a successful community. Though uninhabited today, Iosepa is remembered and cherished by UtahPolynesians.

It is a well-known dictum that the strength of a society can be judged by the care of the most vulnerable—the aged, the poor, and, especially the children. Two private Salt Lake City hospitals, LDS Primary Children’s Hospital founded in 1911, and Shriners Hospital for Children Intermountain Unit established in 1925, are worthy examples of the importance Utahns gave to the health and well being of their children as both institutions became regional and national leaders in promoting separate health care facilities for children. The hospitals have treated thousands of children and they remain a vital part of Utah’s health care system. As our second article reveals, dedicated and forward-looking women led the way in promoting the establishment and fostering the growth of these two hospitals. May Anderson, Louie B. Felt, LaVern Parmley, Anna Rosenkilde, and others are remembered for their dedication to Utah’s children.

The two concluding articles for 2008 deal with one of Utah’s most important and unusual archaeological finds. In 1926 Ephraim and Dorothy Pectol discovered three shields and other items in a shallow cave underneath an overhanging ledge near what would become part of Capitol Reef National Park in 1937. Their discovery, as our third article discusses, stimulated much discussion and speculation as to their origin, purpose, and meaning.The artifacts were first exhibited in Pectol’s private museum in Torrey, Wayne County, then in the LDS Church Museum on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and finally at the Capitol Reef Park’s visitor center after its completion in 1965. After the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990 providing for the return to Native American care of cultural items and objects as well as human remains, the National Park Service began a lengthy process to determine to which Native American Tribe the artifacts would be returned. That process was completed under the direction of Lee Kreutzer, park archaeologist at Capitol Reef National Park from 1993 to 2003. Her account of that process, our final article, raisesvital questions about the role of oral tradition in establishing authenticity, significance, and ownership. The story of the Pectol shields and their final disposition,as told in our last two articles,offers all the elements of a good mystery—intrigue, conflict, speculation, and a surprise resolution.

ON THE COVER: Bust of a Hawaiian warrior on the Iosepa Monument. UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ABOVE: View looking to the west of the Iosepa Monument, cemetery and Skull Valley. UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.