National Register of Historic Place Registration Form: Tui Manu'a Graves Monument

Clark, Jeffrey; Motu, Nolita

A National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Tui Manu'a Graves Monument. Narrative Description summary paragraph: "The Tui Manu'a Graves is a burial monument for four, possibly five, Tui Manu'a that is located in Ta'u Village, Ta'u Island, Manu'a County (020), U.S. Territory of American Samoa (AS), which is part of the Samoan Archipelago. Tui Manu'a is the highest chiefly title that existed in Manu'a and throughout Samoa. The structure is a raised, rectangular platform, 37.3 by 13.8 ft (513.17 sq. ft.). The height is typically 3 ft, but it is a little taller at the north end and lower at the south. The platform is in two sections with the primary platform and a smaller rectangular extension at the south end. It is constructed of stacked, waterworn basalt boulders with a fill of basalt cobbles and pebbles together with pieces of coral; the fill in the smaller extension is sand. The platform contains four graves, and the small extension may contain a fifth burial. Three of the graves are marked by rectangular outlines of waterworn basalt boulders, while the fourth has a large marble tombstone. A marble column on a square block, the tombstone is the only marker with an inscription, and that inscription identifies the grave as that of Tui Manu'a Metelita. Also buried at the monument are Tui Manu'a Elisara, and probably Tui Manu'a Tauveve, but there are also conflicting identifications of the name of the interred individuals in the other one or two burials. The monument was constructed in increments: the last burial dates to 1909 (Elisara), the burial before that to 1895 (Matelita) and the other 2-3 burials from unknown dates but prior to 1895 and most probably during the 19th century. The structure retains its historic integrity." Statement of Significance summary paragraph: "The significance of the burial monument that encompasses four or five graves of past Tui Manu'a, or 'Kings of Manu'a,' is based on four considerations. 1) The Tui Manu'a title is the most important social and political position in the local culture and history of Manu'a County. According to oral history and legend, the first Tui Manu'a was descended from the high god Tagaloa and was therefore a sacred personage who was surrounding by elaborate rules and customs of deference and reverence. 2) The importance of the Tui Manu'a extended beyond his home islands to the entire Samoan Archipelago and even to other island cultures in the central Pacific. He was divinely ordained by the creator god Tagaloa and therefore sacred. Whatever the actual power and authority may have been beyond Samoa, his ceremonial status and prestige in the central Pacific is firmly established in myths, legends, and history. 3) The importance of the Tui Manu'a title for anthropological, sociological, and historical understanding is notable. The burial monument of muliple Tui Manu'a is an extremely important symbol of the development of cultural complexity. 4) The importance of the last Tui Manu'a, Elisara, in American history is illustrated most clearly by the fact that he was the key signatory to the treaty giving the United States political hegemony over Manu'a, thereby ending independence of the Manu'a islands and cementing American colonial control in the central Pacific." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, Executive Offices of the Governor, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior (grant number 60-14-61958).

National Register of Historic Place Registration Form: Tui Manu'a Graves Monument

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