1/27/12

By Christine Hitt

I’ve received requests over the years asking for information about Hawaiians who joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and settled in the Pacific Northwest. Many people are still not aware that there is a large community of Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest, who descended from ancestors who traveled there in the early to mid-19th century during the fur trade. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for them to make a family connection back to Hawaii, unless the information was passed down orally from generation to generation.

Many Hawaiians in the region were referred by the same singular Hawaiian name: “kanaka,” or a variance of it, ie. kanak, canack, etc.  If the person’s actual  Hawaiian name was documented, it was usually spelled differently on different documents, and sometimes names changed completely for various reasons. This makes it very difficult to track people from document to document.

Another difficulty in tracing family origins back to Hawaii: Hawaii’s passenger manifests dating back to 1843 only make references to Hawaiians traveling to the Columbia River as numbers, without names. “Eight Kanakas” is what I read on one manifest, today. On another document dated February 11, 1840, Hawaii Governor Kekuanaoa agreed to let George Pelly (of the Hudson’s Bay Company) take “60 Hawaiians for 3 years.” There are no names. As you can see now, it is also difficult to find useful genealogical records in the mid-19th century in Hawaii.

While it is difficult for Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest to trace their origins back to Hawaii, they hold a proud history and many continued to  uphold the culture as they could. It is a story to be shared.

For more on this topic, I recommend reading New Land, New Lives: Hawaiian Settlement in British Columbia, (which will also have info on the photos in this blog post). For more on the Hudson’s Bay Company, visit the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. You may also visit my other page: NW Coast Hawaiians.

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12/5/11

By Christine Hitt

“Pre-contact Hawaii had 350-450 fishponds. Today, there are only 50 in the state that are still useable,” explained Kelii Kotubetey coordinator of Paepae o Heeia.

As I was browsing the archives for historic fishpond photos, you can see first-hand how fishponds were filled in. The first photo, taken in 1930s over Kaneohe Bay. The second in 1950s. See more fishpond photos in the gallery.

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12/3/11

By Christine Hitt

I helped put together this video for http://www.honolulumagazine.com. It was great to learn first-hand the Hawaiian traditional practices of building a Hawaiian fishpond. In ancient Hawaii, the entire community (thousands of people) lined up and worked together to build these by handing rocks person-to-person, as we did in the video. It provided self-sustaining food for each ahupuaa.

I dug up the old fishpond photos (from the Hawaii State Archives) shown in the video, and will have more to share soon. Join in the efforts to restore this fishpond on second Saturdays. Visit paepaeoheeia.org for details.

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Kahoolawe and Lanai: Tiny Isles, Were Homes of Exiles

Kings banished men to one inhospitable spot, and women to the other, but lonely males crossed the water and rescued or captured the ladies, so they all became one settlement.

From THRUM’S HAWAIIAN ANNUAL of 1903

Among the events and conditions of dawning Hawaiian civilization that has been overlooked by historians and voyagers, with but two exceptions so far discovered is that of the island of Kahoolawe as a penal settlement.

Many of the older residents recall the common rumor in their early days here of that barren island having been a convict station, but, like the writer, are at a loss to define either the time of its designation as such, or its date of termination.

Notwithstanding the unsavoryness of the subject the fact that a chapter of Hawaiian history, illustrating the development toward civilization has been missed, is of sufficient interest to demand equiry and investigation, hence this effort to embody such factsas can now be ascertained for future reference, or additions if discovered.

Looking for the commencement of banishment for offences in these islands, the “blue book” of first published laws, of 1842, reveals the existence of its practice at that time but defining no locality, for chapter XLIV, entitled “A law respecting banished persons” refers to their treatment, while penalities of banishment are prescribed in the laws on forgery, counterfeiting, perjury, lewdness, assault, theft, burglary and degrees of murder. Its origin, therefore, antidates the first written laws.

It seems evident that in framing these first written laws they were made to embody what had been promulgated by royal edict. In their emergence from heathen darkness the king and chiefs were led to observe grades of punishment according to the depth of crime, instead of many alike being punishable by death, according to their former custom.

Is is thought by some that this law of banishment shows evidence of Kaahumanu’s hand. If so, it would date back to about 1830, or earlier, her death occurring in June, 1832. “Alexander’s Brief History,” under the subject of “Persecution of Catholics,” (page 206) has the following fact confirming its early existence:

“Louisa, a native woman who had been baptized in California, *** remaining firm in her belief, was treated with severity. Kaahumanu even intended to send her to Kahoolawe (which was then used as a place of banishment) but was dissuaded from doing so by Mr. Richards.”

In its origin, doubtless the fact that not a few escaped convicts from Botany Bay, who had made their presence felt on these shores in early days had familiarized the king and chiefs with the subject of banishment, was an influence toward its recognition and adoption here as a penalty for crime. While the time and circumstance of its origin is clouded with uncertainty, it appears to have been a working factor at the time of the visit at these islands of Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, in 1840-41. The account therein given is the only one published by an early writer, so far met with, and though somewhat contradictory gives important data to work upon. We extract from the record (Vol. IV, pp. 244-5) as follows:

“Kahoolawe *** is fourteen miles long by five miles wide. It is uninhabited except by a few fisherman, and is used as a place of exile; at this time there was one state prisoner confined on it. Lieut. Budd *** set out in search of the town. *** After wandering over the rugged face of this barren island for many miles he discovered, to his great joy, from the top of a ridge, a cluster of huts near the water, which they soon reached. They proved to be inhabited by Kenemoneha, the exile above spoken of, who for the crime of forgery had been condemned to spend five years in exile upon this island. This was effected in a singular manner, and the punishment of the offender will serve to show the mode in which the laws are carried into execution.

“The chief Kenemoneha treated Lieut. Budd with great kindness, supplied him with dry clothing and gave him of his scanty fare. The village is a collection of eight huts and an unfurnished adobe church. The chief has three large canoes for his use. **

“The only article produced on the island is the sweet potato, and but a small quantity of these. All the inhabitants of the island are convicts, and receive their food from Maui; their present number is about fifteen. Besides this cluster of convicts’ huts there are one or two houses on the north end inhabited by old women. Some of the convicts are allowed to visit the other islands, but not to remain.”

The time of this visit was in March, 1841. In the census both of 1832 and 1836 Kahoolawe is credited with a population of eighty, but it has not figured in the census tables of any later period.

In the early part of 1858 it was first leased for a sheep station, which was the occasion of a communication in the Polynesian of April 10th, of that year, in which the following reminiscence relating to the island is given:

“It used to be a penal settlement, and no doubt the convicts enjoyed there as much ease and freedom from both surveillance and labor as their hearts could wish. I have heard that the late Kinimaka had a fine time of it. He was a native of some little rank and had his own dependants who used to swim from the shores of Maui and take him what he wanted to make his banishment entirely agreeable.

“I have also heard that one George Morgan was the last convict placed there, and that one or two females used to render passable that utter solitude which is never so well enjoyed as in agreeable company. George used to hunt the wild hogs and cultivate a little patch of land. I believe he used, also, to back down his drinking water from some considerable distance. He was a shoemaker by trade, and if, as many followers of Crispin have been, he was of a poetical turn of mind, he must have had a fine opportunity for the indulgence of his fancies.”

Enquiring among Hawaiians upon this subject we have an account from a venerable native writer of this city, formerly of Honouaula, Maui who testifies of his own knowledge not only of the existence of the penal settlement of Kahoolawe about the year 1840, but one also at Lae-o-kaena, Lanai; the former island being designated for the men, and the women being banished to the latter place. He states he know whereof he spoke, for his own mother was among the parties sent there. In the narrative he furnishes we gather some particulars of the daring escapade of the Kahoolawe convicts, vaguely touched upon in the foregoing extract from the Polynesian.

According to this statement the new law was by decree in a council of the kings and chiefs, before legislative enactments, and was promulgated by Kaukeaouli. The crime of murder was punishable by death; theft and adultery by exile, the men being sent to Kahoolawe and the women to Lanai. The narrator claims to have been born in 1832 at a place on Maui that had much to do with Kahoolawe, being right opposite it, and these things were freely talked of among the people. There was much sadness and wailing at the arrests made under the new law on the parties being locked up at Lahaina for a subsequent trial, before the governor, and sentenced to one island or another.

The women were conveyed across to Lae-o-kaena by the schooner Hooikaika, afterwards the men were sent to Kahoolawe, among whom was the Maui chief Kinimaka, who was designated as superintendent of the exiles. The work he assigned to them was the erection of houses of stone and dirt (adobe) at a place called Kaulana, a small bay, where with some residents they numbered 80 or more. After its designation as a convict station the former settlers left and returned to Honuaula, whence most of them had come.

In those days much trouble existed among the exiles for want of food; they even eat of the kupala in their distress. This was found of good size; usually it is fed to the hogs. It somewhat resembles a sweet potato, but on a steady diet dysentery and its attendant conditions would result. At this critical time they considered what course to pursue and decided to swim over to Maui, for life or death. Fifteen of the number, good swimmers, were chosen for the venturesome trip, and their return was to be looked for with a food supply in six days, or be considered drowned, or captured.

These deliverers prepared for their errand in the month of February, 1841. Before starting they procured a wiliwili log to which they fastened a rope and with a stone anchored it out at a depth of fifteen fathoms where the tide ran swiftly, as a buoy, that on its indication of the tide running towards Maui would be the time to start. Meanwhile they held old-time devotions at an altar called Aikupau, then set out to swim across. And as they swam vigorously it was not long before they reached Molokini, the cluster of rock in mid-channel, where they rested awhile. Toward nightfall, they resumed their swimming till they landed at Puuolai, near Makena, not so much tired as they were hungry. They therefore quickly sought out a grove of cocoa-nut trees from which they obtained a food supply. Six of their number were familiar with the locality and guided the party inland to a cave where they remained till morning, when they set out for the potato patches and gathered a quantity in bundles, making three trips nightly for three nights. They then appropriated several canoes for their needs and loading them returned to Kahoolawe according to the time agreed upon.

Subsequently they returned for further supplies and commited like depredations. From Kalepolepo and Maalae they stole five canoes then proceeded along the shore to Ukumehame and Olowalu, where they took others. They pulled all the taro of these two places, and also of Waikapu, which they loaded into the canoes and set out for Kahoolawe. With these canoes they afterward went over to Lae-o-kaena, Lanai, and brought all the women to Kahoolawe to share their solitude. By these acts of the convicts a fear of them prevailed so that they were not molested by the government, but they lived peacably together until in 1843, during Lord George’s rule when, it is said, he put an end to the ridiculous law and sent the exiles to their respective localities to work upon the roads.

The acts of Lord George’s admistration are all matters of record, but they reveal nothing which confirms this story of his abrogating the law or laws of penal servitude as above stated, though he did release a number of persons that were confined in the fort for certain offences. It is possible, however, that in the “Act of Grace” of Kamehameha III, in commemoration of the restoration of the flag by Admiral Thomas July 31st of that year, whereby “all prisoners of every description” committed for offenses during the period of cession “from Hawaii to Niihau be immediately discharged,” royal clemency was extended to include prisoners of earlier conviction, since which time the laws on banishment appear to have been a dead letter long before, dropped from the statutes, apparently without special repeal.

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November 20, 2011BY Christine Hitt

While interviewing Bill Kaiheekai Maioho (see previous post), he shared this painting depicting Hoapili and Hoolulu taking Kamehameha’s iwi to its final destination.

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May 4, 2010
BY Christine Hitt

I wrote this story for HONOLULU Magazine’s May 2010 issue… you can view it here.

A Family’s Kuleana

Caring for the bones at the Royal Mausoleum is a responsibility passed down through generations.

I have some extra notes I’m going to post for this story in a future blog… He had some amazing stories to share and I feel very privileged to have met him.

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BY Christine Hitt
May 2, 2010

Princess Kaiulani’s parents were Princess Likelike, younger sister to King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani, and Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn. In the Hawaiian Gazette of 1907, A.S. Cleghorn, then Governor of Oahu Island under the Hawaiian Monarchy, recalled old times.  Here are some quotes from the piece:

“I came to Honolulu in June, 1851,” he said, “from Auckland, by way of Tahiti, in the brig ‘Sisters,’ commanded by Captain Clark.” There were no conveniences for docking, of course, in that early day, and the reefs were dangerous, then as now, to those who did not know them…

“There was a fine market, even then, where the business house of Brewer & Co. now stands, at which all sorts of supplies could be bought very cheaply, fruits, vegetables, fowls and general produce… Grass houses constituted by far the greater part of the dwellings, and they were occupied by white people as well as natives…

“Times were very prosperous; there was plenty of money and it was freely spent. Honolulu was an important port, at the time, in the whaling trade. Between 200 and 500 vessels arrived here in the months of October and December… There were then no sugar plantations. The men were paid off here and spent their money freely.” Exports were “Flour and potatoes. Wheat and potatoes were both raised on Maui then, on lands now given over to cane culture, and there was a good mill…

“Honolulu was very bare of vegetation, there being little beside the cocoa palms, algaroba and tamarind trees. From Kawaiahao Church out to Punahou it was a treeless plain. Along Wilder avenue, as late as the time of Kamehameha V, horse racing was a common amusement.”

And, Cleghorn commented on the smallpox epidemic of 1853: “The dead cart went the rounds twice a day,” he said, “night and morning, and it was loaded. The dead were not put into coffins, but merely wrapped up and buried in a trench behind Kawaiahao Church.”

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"Prince Kuhio's casket is lowered into the Kalakaua crypt at Mauna'ala. His wife, Princess Elizabeth Kalanianaole, is center supported by former Mayor John C. Lane at her right, and the young Princess Kapiolani to her left."

BY Christine Hitt
April 8, 2010

Last month, on March 26, Kuhio Day was observed as a State holiday. Coincidentally, a few days before that, I ran across the February 1922 issue of Paradise of the Pacific in which writer, George Mellen, talked of Prince Kuhio’s death, funeral and fond memories.

“On the handsome gold and silver shield which marks the casket in which his body was laid to rest is inscribed the legend ‘Ke Alii Makaainana,’ which means ‘A Prince of the People.’ He was just that, and the love that his people bore him could not have been so deep and sincere had he been less, even though of the revered alii.”

Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Piikoi was his full name, brother to Prince David Kawananakoa Piikoi, and descendents of the Kalakaua line and the kings of the Island of Kauai. “In course of time the brothers dropped the family name, each taking his middle name as his surname,” wrote Mellen. Though it is not clear to me why that was done.  In addition to being called ‘Kuhio’ and ‘Prince,’ he also had the nickname, ‘Cupid.’ It was a name given to him in grade school that was used for him by his oldest friends up until his death.

The fact that he was attached to the royal court during the overthrow of the monarchy, it is no wonder that he had been a Hawaiian Royalist. Years later, he accepted the new order and was elected as a delegate to the US Congress, where he served for 20 consecutive years. While in Congress, he found ways to help the Hawaiian people and perpetuating the culture, including being apart of setting up what is now the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.  Writes Mellen, “The last great work of Prince Kalanianaole was for his people. He labored ceaselessly for more than a year on a scheme of rehabilitation through which it is hoped the Hawaiian may be returned to the land of his ancestors, to live as fisherman and farmer. Against formidable and aggresively active opposition the Prince managed to consummate his plans, and the ‘Rehabilitation Bill’ is now a law. Through its operation large tracts of land on the Island of Molokai will be allotted to those of Hawaiian blood who desire to return to husbandry. Each will receive a sizeable farm and a sum in cash sufficient to put it under cultivation and sustain a family until the crops begin to yield…”

The story of the funeral which Mellen goes on to tell about for pages describes the love that the people had for the Prince and the elaborate ceremonial funeral that was given to him–though, Prince Kuhio had requested a simple funeral for himself. As you can see from the pictures within this post, “not even the power of a wish expressed by their beloved Prince could influence the Hawaiian people against a state funeral.”

"Members of the Chiefs of Hawaii: Standing at the extreme right of the picture is Judge A.G.M Robertson, wearing a cape of peacock feathers. Looking over the judge's shoulder is William Ahia, and at his right is Duke Kahanamoku."

"Three hundred men of the poolas, uniformed in white with purple sashes, drew the catafalque from the palace to the royal mausoleum in Nuuanu Valley. These men are stevedores and their society is the oldest workmen's benevolent order in the Islands. The women in black holokus at the extreme left of the picture were at one time or another members of the Prince's household."

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By Christine Hitt
March 8, 2010

I found this photo in the 1921 Paradise of the Pacific pages.  It is not dated or does it explain where it was taken, but I assume that it was taken within the same year.  Although many westerners were moving in during this time, it was still common to see Hawaiian communities living as they had centuries before. And many Hawaiians before and during this time are being moved to locations outside of Waikiki into rural areas. One of my favorite photos yet.

Photo: Courtesy Paradise of the Pacific

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By Christine Hitt
February 25, 2010

While looking through the 1921 archives of Paradise of the Pacific, I ran across an article by George Mellen titled “Deserted, Nameless and Forgotten.”  It was about a deserted village that he had run across by foot between Makapuu and Waimanalo—there was no automobile access through this area at the time.

The picture shows ruined walls of dwellings and compounds and two parallel lines of the sole remaining section of the “ancient King’s Highway,” as it was called in Mellen’s time.  He also mentions finding a graveyard and heiau. Can you figure out where this is at? Answer: It’s the parcel of land where Sea Life Park now resides and has been since 1964.

Many of the old walls are overgrown with vines and bushes.

Mellen wrote a follow-up article to his 1921 story in 1922 after he found out more information about the land in an article titled “It Was Called Kaupo.” Below are some excerpts of what he learned of the land from a Hawaiian man named A. D. Toomey, a keeper of the “Diamond Head Light”:

“’That old village has a wonderful history,’ Toomey began. ‘I got it from a very old Hawaiian man—he’s dead now—who was born there more than a hundred years ago.  He was the last survivor of the once populous community which included Awawawawamalu on the Koko Head side, where the old man lived in one of the ruined huts on which he had patched a roof of drift wood and old tin as the original grass thatch yielded to the tooth of time and disappeared. He told me of the lively, but reasonably peaceful, times at Kaupo—which was the name of the village on the Waimanalo side which you mention—and at Awawawawamalu when he was a youngster; its history prior to that as it came to him from his elders.

“‘You may perhaps wonder why a village ever existed at Kaupo. There is no land there for taro, and no water except what may be caught from the infrequent rains. Yet Kaupo was a busy and important town because it was the port at which all canoes coming from Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Hawaii landed. They never came to Honolulu, but discharged their freight and passengers at Kaupo. Transportation from there to Honolulu was over land. It was for that purpose the wide, paved road was built, some portions of which remain in good repair today. You surmise it was built by Kamehameha. It was repaired by him, but built many years before his time—how long ago none may say.

Where this great cliff meets the sea marks the end of the automobile road to Kaupo.

Mellen goes on to explain the meaning of the name Kaupo by Toomey:

“’He [Toomey] couldn’t put it into one word, but he said it signified ‘the unknown.’ Kau, in this sense means a shelf or recess, and po means night. So Kaupo literally means the ‘Shelf of Night.’ It was by no means certain, he said, that when a party left Maui for Oahu—which was then known as Kakuhihiwa—he might ever return to the bosom of his family. Landing at Kaupo usually meant battle, principally with bands of robbers who laid in wait along the road to Honolulu, and no citizen of another island was foolish to attempt a landing on these shores without plenty of company.’”

And, Mellen continues in the article to tell Toomey’s story about the day Kamehameha’s army came to Oahu, in the words of the old Hawaiian man before him:

“..on one of those crystal clear mornings which bring Molokai so close that one can make out the white line of its surf, the lookout on Makapuu saw a great brown patch detach itself from the headlands [of Molokai] and float slowly towards Oahu… In due time, he found out. The patch was composed of canoes…. Maui was apparently moving to Oahu lock, stock and barrel. Racing down the trail from the station, the lookout reported that all the canoes in the world were approaching. The mayor of Kaupo thought the lookout was exaggerating, and told him so, but lost no time in appointing a reception committee in case its services were required…

According to our centenarian’s report, which came to him from one who officiated at the reception and lived to tell the tale because a stone from a Maui sling put him sufficiently out of business to be not included in the mopping up proceedings, the battle was neither long nor elaborate, albeit quite thorough. He came to, in time to view the hordes of the conqueror swarming over the trail toward Honolulu. But not till after the warriors of Oahu had been driven up the Nuuanu Valley and over the knife edge cliff of the Pali… This all happened 126 years ago.”

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