Jonatana Napela
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Jonatana Napela or Jonathan Hawaii Napela (first name also spelled Iohatana) (1813–1879) was one of the earliest Latter-day Saint converts in Hawai'i. He was one of the main men responsible for translating the Book of Mormon into Hawai'ian, doing so with George Q. Cannon.
He was trained as a lawyer and served as a local judge when he met Cannon. After his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he was removed from his judgeship.
On one occasion Cannon and other American elders had prayed for good weather, but decided the weather would be poor and were on their way to hold the meeting in a building. Napela, who had been present when they prayed for good weather, was surprised at their lack of faith, and they followed his lead and held the meeting in a grove of trees.[1]
Napela was a vigorous preacher of Mormonism in the islands, and was one of the men responsible for sending word to church headquarters that Walter M. Gibson was leading the church astray. This led to Ezra T. Benson, Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith traveling to Hawaii to excommunicate Gibson and put the church in order.
In 1873, Napela's wife Kitty contracted leprosy and he went with her to live at the Kalaupapa Leper Colony on Molokai. His wife was the only female of mixed Hawaiian and European descent admitted to the colony that year. Napela was appointed superintendent of the leper colony but soon ran into trouble with the board of health because of his unwillingness to enforce a rigid segregation of lepers and non-lepers.[2] For the rest of his life he presided over the Latter-day Saints at that location. He died of leprosy on August 6, 1879.
The Hawai'ian Studies Center at Brigham Young University Hawaii is named after Napela.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Woods, Fred E. "An Islanders View of A Desert Kingdom" p. 25
- ^ Moblo, OPennie. "Ethnic Intercession: Leadership at the Kalaupapa Leprosy Colony" in Pacific Studies Vol. 22, no. 2, 1999 p. 34
[edit] References
- "Jonathana Napela", article in Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History
- Woods, Fred E. "An Islanders View of A Desert Kingdom: Jonthan Napela Recounts his 1869 Visit to Salt Lake City" BYU Studies, 2006.
[edit] External links
- The Story of the Hawaiian Studies Center on the Brigham Young University-Hawai‘i Campus by Maenette K. P. Benham, Journal of American Indian Education, Volume 41 Number 2 (Special Issue 2002)
- Ethnic Intercession: Leadership at Kalaupa Leprosy Colony, 1871-1887 by Pennie Moblo of University of Hawaii, Pacific Studies, Volume 22 Number 2 (June 1999)
