Murder and Memory in Territorial Hawai‘i: A Moloka‘i Microhistory

The murder of Elmer Conant on the tiny island of Moloka‘i in June, 1923, was an act of local resistance to a wave of social and economic change. The hunt for Conant’s murderer, and the subsequent prosecution of a Native Hawaiian man local authorities believed was responsible for it, reveal the power territorial elites could exercise over life in rural Hawai‘i, the ambiguous nature of indigenous response to that rule, and the way colonial power could shape memories of the era. This microhistory reverses the conventional lens used to examine Hawaiian history by concentrating on rural events and ordinary people far removed from the capital city who confronted the forces of colonialism and whose struggles helped shape island history.