Easter Island Traditional Cache

Easter Island

Easter Island (Rapa Nui in the Rapa Nui language, Isla de Pascua in Spanish), is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is an overseas territory of Chile. Easter Island is famous for its monumental statues, called moai pronounced (Mow-eye), created by the Rapanui people. It is a world heritage site with much of the island protected within the Rapa Nui National Park.

The history of Easter Island is incredibly rich and highly controversial. Its inhabitants have endured famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids and colonialism, and the crash of their ecosystem; their population has declined precipitously more than once. They have left a cultural legacy that has brought them fame out of all proportion to their numbers.

There are many theories about the cultural composition and history of Easter Island. No two seem to agree. Most scholars consider the island's culture Polynesian. But local traditions say the original culture consisted of two different races: the Hanau epe, or long-ears, the original settlers of the island with red hair and fair skin, and the Hanau momoko, or short ears, the Polynesian peoples generally associated with the Pacific.

Pedro Atan, an eleventh generation descendant of Ororoina told Thor Heyerdahl in 1955: "There were handsome people among our ancestors. There were two kinds of people on this island: some were dark (Polynesian) and some were quite fair skinned like you from the mainland, and with light hair. Real white people. But they were genuine Easter Islanderes, quite genuine. In our family there were many of the fair type, who were called oho-tea, or the light-haired. My own mother and aunt had red hair. ... There were many of that type in our family, all the way back. We brothers are not like that. But my daughter who was drowned had milk-white skin and completely red hair, and so has my grown up son, Juan. He makes the twelfth generation after Ororoina."

That the population consisted of two distinct races was also noted by the first European to visit the island, Jacob Roggeveen, on Easter Sunday, 1722:

"Among the first who came aboard was a white man. He was ornamented with a crown of feathers on his head, which was close shaven." The islander was presented with several gifts including "two strings of blue pearls, a small mirror, and a pair of scissors." Particularly striking were the man's artificially lengthened ears which contained "round white pegs as large as his fist." The lobes hung down to his shoulders. Roggeveen later noted that "masses of the islanders had their ears lengthened in this [same] manner." If their long ears got in the way when working, they removed the pegs and lifted the long flap up and over the upper edge of the ear.

"They are a tall, well built people," he continues, "who, so far as can be judged, are fair skinned [Polynesains] such as we know them in Tahiti, Hawaii and other eastern islands of the south seas. But the population is mixed, some are conspicuous by their darker skins, while others are quite white, like Europeans. A few are also of a reddish tint as if somewhat severely tanned by the sun. Many had beards."

"Many islanders went about stark naked, but with their entire body artistically tattooed in one continuous pattern of birds and strange figures. Others ware cloaks of bark cloth colored red and yellow. Some have waving crowns of feathers on their heads, and others [ware] queer reed hats. All are friendly, and we saw no weapons of any kind. Curiously there were hardly women to be seen, although the place was swarming with men. But the few women who showed themselves are more than cordial to us, without the men showing the slightest sign of jealousy."

According to tradition, the first oho-tea, (light-skinned) Hotu Matua, landed on the island's North-Eastern shore at Anakena Bay sometime around 300 CE. (The remains of his stone house and fireplace are still in evidence there with carbon 14 dating of the ashes providing the date.) The two vessels in Hotu Matua's party were so large they carried several hundred men, and Oroi, Matua's worst enemy made passage as a stowaway.

A single moai or statue (representing Hotu Matua?) stands on the platform, or ahu, at the beach. It was the first of the ancient stone sculptures to be re-erected under the urging of Thor Heyerdahl during his 1955 expedition to the island.

MOGA MMVIII (2008)

Welcome to Mark Twain Lake - John F. Spalding Recreation Area.

John F. Spalding Recreation area is located on the North side of Mark Twain Lake. This area has many different attractions and a quiet, remote location. There are many opportunities for hunting, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, or bird watching.