A locally carved ifit walking cane, once presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during a historic 1930s visit by CHamoru political pioneers Francisco Baza Leon Guerrero and B.J. Bordallo, has returned to Guam.
The Department of CHamoru Affairs, the Guam Museum, and the Guam Commission on Decolonization held a press conference on Tuesday at the Guam Cultural Repository in Mangilao to officially welcome the historic artifact.
The cane was discovered by John and Connie Upp, a couple from West Jordan, Utah, who found it in a Colorado storage unit they owned. After seeing the inscription of Roosevelt’s name and the year 1936 on it, the couple contacted the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library to try and donate the walking cane. After the Library declined, their search led them to Guam Museum curator Michael Bevacqua, who confirmed its connection to the 1936 political mission to Washington, D.C.
During the press conference, John Upp shared why he and his wife decided to return the item to the island.
“It’s priceless. But I said, ‘It doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the people of Guam, and I want to get it to them, or, if nothing else, I’d like to get it to the Franklin Roosevelt museum. And I was really shocked that they wanted nothing to do with it.”
The ifit cane, featuring a silver inlay of the Guam seal, will be part of an upcoming exhibit by the Guam Museum and the Commission on Decolonization, scheduled to open in 2026. The exhibit will highlight Guam’s early political advocacy and efforts of CHamoru leaders to secure greater political rights for the island.
