By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

On this Memorial Day, in memory of Edith Alapa Tuia of La'ie, who died recently at 87, we will tell the incredible story of Iosepa, a Hawaiian settlement in Utah where the hula flourished in the desert at lu'au amid the sagebrush.

Tuia was the last person born in this improbable town, the gathering place this Memorial Day for hundreds of Polynesians from around the nation. They will honor the 28 graves that still have tombstones, all that's left of Iosepa. Here's the story:

After Mormon missionaries arrived in Hawai'i in the 1880s, a group of about 40 Hawaiian converts — Alapas, Kalamas, Broads, Nawahines, Ho'opiiainas —decided they should live near the Temple in Salt Lake City. But they weren't happy there. They encountered prejudice and suspicions that they carried leprosy. They could get only Êmenial jobs.

Church fathers decided to set them apart in their own colony in the desert of Skull Valley, about 75 miles from Salt Lake City. Their neighbors were Ute Indians. ÊHawaiians named the place Iosepa, or Joseph, after Mormon leader Joseph Smith.

The church provided cattle, sheep and pigs for a ranch, and a sawmill to cut lumber so the people could build houses. They planted food crops and vegetable gardens.

"They became very self-sufficient," said Nell Ava, an ÊAlapa descendent. "The people of Iosepa held lu'aus and invited the Indians. They shared music and dances. They made poi from flour and cornstarch, laulaus from carp wrapped in corn husk, baked in the imu. They held boxing matches and organized their own band of musical troubadours. They turned the desert into a garden. Iosepa was Ênoted for its yellow roses."

Ava said her grandmother was Samoan Mormon. She came to Salt Lake City for an education. After she heard about Iosepa, she moved there to be among other Polynesians, fell in love and married. Iosepa grew from 48 residents to 228 in 1911 as other Polynesians joined the colony.

But life in the desert was hard. When the Mormons built a temple in La'ie, the people of Iosepa moved back to Hawai'i in 1916. Edith Tuia was a baby when her parents took her to La'ie. She died on May 12.

The buildings of Iosepa fell to ruin and disappeared. Only gravestones remained, choked by weeds. Cattle trampled over the graves. In 1980, one of the descendants attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, started cleaning the graves on Memorial Day. Other students came along to help.

The ritual led to the formation of the Iosepa Historical Association. The members put up a fence around the graves. They erected a marble slab with the head of Kamehameha on top as a monument and built a big pavilion.

More and more people come every Memorial Day. It's become a three-day event. Polynesians from all over the country come in house trailers. They put up tents. Hula halau perform. There's a lu'au. Families are holding their own reunions.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.