Lt. Governor leads effort to return Latte Stones to Guam

Efforts to establish partnerships between the Government of Guam and the Bishop Museum in Hawai’i is spearheaded by Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio. This partnership seeks to return latte stones and thousands of CHamoru artifacts taken from Guam over a hundred years ago.

Tenorio met with the Bishop Museum CEO Dee Jay Mailer to address the artifacts given to the Bishop Museum as part of the Hornbostel Collection.

The collection consists of latte stones and approximately 10,000 items, making it one of the largest ethnological collections at the Bishop Museum.

In the early 1920s, Hans Hornbostel, an amateur archaeologist, collected thousands of artifacts, including human remains and latte stones, which were then transported to the Bishop Museum with the assistance of the United States military. Though the human remains were repatriated to Guam in 2000, the remaining artifacts at the Bishop Museum represent one-eighth of their entire ethnological collection.

Tenorio viewed part of the collection while in Hawai’i for the Festival of Pacific Arts along with Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Curator of the Guam Museum.

The Department of CHamoru Affairs, the Guam Museum, and the State Historic Preservation Office have been actively engaged with Bishop Museum staff to resolve this century-old injustice.

Tenorio has continued the effort virtually with a goal of establishing a long term formal cooperative agreement with Bishop Museum Trustees.

“I am encouraged by the Bishop Museum’s willingness to work with Guam. We have agreed to pursue a long term cooperative agreement that will prioritize the return of the latte stones and develop a strategy to address the remaining artifacts. The Bishop Museum and the Guam Museum are jointly working to properly curate the entire collection and I am grateful for their commitment to complete the necessary archeological reports,” said Tenorio.