Rota Latte Stone returns after 75 years

After 75 years, a latte stone from Rota purchased in the 1950s by a private collector has returned to the Northern Mariana Islands. The latte stone, weighing more than 10,000 pounds, was transported from the Port of Saipan to the NMI Museum grounds in shipping crates and will later be unveiled in a public ceremony next month, where community members will be able to pay their respects and officially welcome it home.

NMI Museum Executive Director Leni Leon told Marianas Press that the latte stone was taken to the Honolulu Academy of Arts several decades ago, until it was transferred to the Bishop Museum in 1970 and remained there until a group of visiting Chamorros from the Marianas noticed the latte stone at the Bishop Museum and began the effort to return it home in 2021. The NMI Museum and Bishop Museum signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to repatriate the latte stone and several other artifacts.

“The reason why they are brought over to the NMI Museum is because by law...the NMI Museum serves as the official repository and the official custodian of all ancient artifacts and other cultural materials of the CNMI,” Leon said. He said they are still working to identify the specific site they were taken from in Rota, but the long-term plan is to return them there.

Indigenous Affairs Office Resident Executive Luella Marciano was there when the latte stone was offloaded at the port. “It is a connection for us when we receive it from another place. Not only does it connect our history with our people, it also reminds us of what happened to us…A lot of our Pacific Islands here were colonized so this is again another form of peace for us,” she said. “This tells us that we are working together for the restoration of the peace for our people.”

Traditional healer Donald Mendiola welcomed the latte stone with a blessing at the NMI Museum yesterday. “I am proud that it is here. It is back at home,” he said.

CNMI Governor’s Chief of Staff Henry Hofschneider was in Hawai’i in August for a public ceremony to mark the start of the repatriation of artifacts taken from the Marianas. He said this event marks the first wave of many artifacts coming home.

The NMI Museum and its partners hope to hold a public ceremony in the coming weeks, where the latte stone will touch NMI soil for the first time in more than seven decades.