Juan Tepano Rano ʻa Veri ʻAmo (4 March 1867 – 8 November 1947) was a
Rapa Nui
Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly ...
leader of
Easter Island
Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...
. He served as an informant for Euro-American scholars on the culture and history of the island.
Family
He was born on 4 March 1867 and was of full-blood Rapa Nui descent. His father was Iovani Rano. He was raised by his grandmother (sometimes referred to as his mother) Veri ʻAmo (or Veriamo), who was born in 1830 and died in 1936 and still remembered when the islanders were able to recite the
Rongorongo
Rongorongo (Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that appears to be writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, with none being successful. Although some c ...
script.
Originally named Tepano Rano, he later adopted Juan (what he was called while he was in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
) as a first name and used his baptismal name Tepano (Stephen) as his surname. He was from the Tupahotu clan while his grandmother was of the Ureohei clan.
Tepano married María ‘Aifiti Engepito Ika Tetono, daughter of King
Enrique Ika
Enrique Ika a Tuʻu Hati ( – after 1900) was elected ''‘ariki'' (king) of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1900 and led a failed rebellion. He was one of the last Rapa Nui to claim the traditional kingship in the early 20th-century. However, he is ...
(r. 1900) and a member of the Miru clan.
In Chile
Tepano accompanied the last
Rapa Nui King Simeon Riro Kāinga to
Valparaíso
Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
in late 1898 or early 1899 to air his grievances against the Enrique Merlet company which owned much of the land with the Chilean government who had annexed Easter Island. He and two other Rapa Nui soldiers were traveling to Chile to join the Maipo Regiment of the Chilean Army. The delegation was hosted by Merlet's men Jeffries and Alfredo Rodríguez at a local tavern where the king was induced to drink heavily. The king was invited to lodge with Rodríguez while the soldiers went to their barracks. On the following day, they were informed that the king had been sent to a hospital and died of alcohol poisoning. Merlet claimed that the young king drank himself to death while Rapa Nui oral tradition asserts that he was poisoned on the orders of Merlet while he was at the hospital.
American anthropologist Grant McCall cast doubt on his military service, noting: "There is a nonsense story that he served in the Maipo regiment of the Chilean army in the
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
."
Later life
By 1901, Tepano had returned to Easter Island after serving in the Chilean Army. He was appointed by Henry Percy Edmunds, the company's manager and Chile's colonial ''subdelegado marítimo'', as
cacique
A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...
, or village head in 1902. He would become the mediator for the indigenous community at
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa (; rap, Haŋa Roa, Rapa Nui pronunciation: ha.ŋa ˈɾo.a (Spanish: ''Bahía Larga'') is the main town, harbour and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in th ...
and the company's base at Mataveri. Officers of the Chilean Naval corvette ''
Baquedano'' later attempted to proclaim him "king" in April 1911, but none of the islanders – including Tepano himself – took the ceremony seriously.
Tepano served as one of the informants and translator for the English anthropologist
Katherine Routledge
Katherine Maria Routledge (), née Pease (11 August 1866 – 13 December 1935), was an English archaeologist and anthropologist who, in 1914, initiated and carried out much of the first true survey of Easter Island.
She was the second child o ...
during her 1914–1915
Mana Expedition to Easter Island
The Mana Expedition to Easter Island ( Polynesian: ''mana'' means "good luck") occurred between March 1913 and August 1915. It was the first archaeological expedition to Rapa Nui which was privately organized and funded, preceding the Norwegian ...
. He had a grasp of pidgin English and spoke a mixture of
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Tahitian, and
Rapa Nui
Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly ...
. Routledge tried to learn
Rongorongo
Rongorongo (Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that appears to be writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, with none being successful. Although some c ...
from Tepano and the older islanders, but Tepano later admitted he had no knowledge of it while most of the other older residents had only secondhand knowledge of the mysterious script. It was noted that he had difficulty understanding Old Rapa Nui (the uncontaminated language spoken by the older generation) as well.
He also served as one of the informants for the Swiss anthropologist
Alfred Métraux
Alfred Métraux (5 November 1902 – 12 April 1963) was a Swiss and Argentine anthropologist, ethnologist and human rights leader.
Early life
Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Métraux spent much of his childhood in Argentina where his father was a ...
, who visited the island between 1934 and 1935.
Tepano died on 8 November 1947, at the age of 80.
See also
*
History of Easter Island
Geologically one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, Easter Island, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean, was, for most of its history, one of the most isolated. Its inhabitants, the Rapa Nui, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tepano, Juan
Rapanui people
History of Easter Island
1867 births
1947 deaths
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Chilean Army personnel