Peter T Young

June 27, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keolewa Heiau

Keolewa Heiau is situated along the Hā‘upu ridge line on the peak of Hāʻupu on Kauai.

According to chants, Keolewa can only be seen as a bird in the sky (above the clouds). “Me he manu la Keolewa i ka laʻi,” “Like a bird is Keolewa in the calm.”

Hā‘upu in the Hawaiian language means a sudden recollection; the mountain is known for its ability to jolt a memory, or alternatively, open a view to the future.

The phrase Hā‘upu mauna kilohana i ka la‘i (Hā‘upu, a mountain outstanding in the calm) honors the mountain itself, and is also a description for someone who achieves outstanding things.

The small heiau atop Mt. Hā‘upu is dedicated to Laka, the goddess of the forest and patron of hula, whose kinolau (embodied form) lives in the wild and sacred plants of the upland forest that are used by hula practitioners.

Both the heiau and the wooded area at Hā‘upu’s summit are known by the place name Keolewa, which appears in a variety of prayers, chants and oral traditions.

Beckwith calls her “the goddess of love.” The name laka means “gentle, docile, attracted to, fond of,” and there are old chants asking Laka to attract not only love, but wealth.

Of very different origin, she was nevertheless incorporated into the Pele religion. Due to her associations with the forest she represents the element of plants.

“Laka is the child of Kapo (Pele’s sister,) ‘not in the ordinary sense but rather as a breath or emanation.”’ The two as ‘one in spirit though their names are two.’”

“Laka and Kapo therefore must be thought of as different forms of the reproductive energy, possible Kapo in its passive, Laka in its active form, and their mother Haumea as the great source of female fertility.” (Beckwith)

Hā‘upu Ridge is also revered as a dividing line between and meeting place where the powerful fire-goddess Pele made passionate love with the demi-god Kamapua‘a.

The Kōloa region south of the ridge was controlled by Pele; its dry and rocky landscape reflects her harsh, impatient and dominant personality.

The lusher Līhu‘e side of the ridge was home to the pig god Kamapua‘a, who is associated with “taro, fertility and the creation of fertile springs necessary to sustain life,” and who is known to excel as a lover.

According to tradition, “Pele and Kamapua‘a are believed to have been involved in a tumultuous love affair with each other in the vicinity of Hā‘upu and the topography of the area is believed to have been shaped by the fury of their love-making.”

“Hā‘upu Ridge is the dividing line between the two areas controlled by Pele and Kamapua‘a and Hawaiian religious practitioners believe these gods continue to dwell there.”

“In times of drought, the fertile and lush domain of Kamapua‘a is said to be inhabited by Pele, whereas in times of heavy rains the dry and arid domain of Pele is said to be inhabited by Kamapua‘a. It is at these times that their love affairs are believed to continue.” (NPS – OHA)

The image shows the summit of the Hā‘upu Mountains, site of Keolewa Heiau.

June 26, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was first made famous by Judy Garland for the 1938 movie The Wizard of Oz.

Then, Louis Armstrong first recorded and released What a Wonderful World in 1967.

Then, there was Iz, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole; his classic medley of “Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” was added to the National Recording Registry on March 24, 2021.

That registry has recordings “worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” (HPR)

The Library of Congress, which oversees the registry, called the medley “melancholic and joyous at once” and praised Kamakawiwo‘ole’s vision of “contemporary Hawaiian music that fused reggae, jazz and traditional Hawaiian sound.” (Star Advertiser)

Watch/listen to the “Official” rendition (you will be joining over 1.23-billion who have listened before you)”

Iz’s redition appeared on his 1993 album ‘Facing Future,’ released by Mountain Apple Co. It remains one of the company’s most beloved releases, said Mountain Apple founder Jon de Mello.

The medley has appeared in several television and film productions, such as TV’s “Charmed” and “ER” and the movie “50 First Dates.” De Mello said that someone from Sony Music, which licenses the commercial use of “Over the Rainbow,” once told him the song is requested nearly 500 times a week, and the vast majority are for Kamakawiwo‘ole’s version. (Star Advertiser)

Apparently, the recording by Iz was impromptu and brief (one take). Milan Bertosa, who was at the end of a long day in his Honolulu recording studio got a call from a client connected to Iz; he told the caller he was shutting down, call tomorrow. (NPR)

But the client insisted on putting Kamakawiwo‘ole on the phone. “And he’s this really sweet man, well-mannered, kind. ‘Please, can I come in? I have an idea,’“ Bertosa remembers Kamakawiwo‘ole saying. He arrived in the next 15 minutes. That was in 1988.

“I put up some microphones, do a quick soundcheck, roll tape, and the first thing he does is ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow.’ He played and sang, one take, and it was over,” Bertosa said. (NPR)

“(Kamakawiwo‘ole) went into a studio and sat down and did one take — ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful World’ and walked out about 20 minutes later,” de Mello said. “It was a moment in time, and it was a perfect moment in time for Israel.”

The next day, Bertosa made a copy and filed the original recording away. Then in 1993, Bertosa wound up working as an engineer for Mountain Apple Company, a long-established recording house, where Kamakawiwo‘ole was making what would become the best-selling Hawaiian album of all time. (HPR)

Though released in 1993, the recording was actually made a few years earlier. A digital recording made at the time then sat in a drawer before Bertosa brought it to de Mello. Bertosa said, “You should listen to this, this is pretty good,” de Mello recalled.

Kamakawiwo’ole actually was reluctant to put it on “Facing Future,” since it had been recorded so many years earlier, but it was added to the album almost as an afterthought, appearing as the 14th of 15 tracks on the album. (Star Advertiser)

According to Billboard, His famous cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has spent a record 541 weeks on the World Digital Song Sales chart, including 332 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 starting in 2011.

Google paid tribute to Iz in May 2020 during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with an animated Doodle of him playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on his iconic ukulele in a reimagined clip of the viral video.

Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole was born in Honolulu on May 20, 1959. Toward the end of his life, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s weight became unsustainable. He was unable to perform and carried an oxygen tank with him. On June 26, 1997, Iz died at the age of 38. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s cause of death was respiratory failure.

On the day of his funeral, the flag flew at half-mast. About 10,000 people gathered in the ocean to watch his ashes be paddled to Makua Beach. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s death made for a day of mourning for what seemed like all of Hawaii.

Hundreds paddled alongside his ashes, as the respectful air horns from trucks on land echoed across waters, and Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s ashes were scattered. (Margaritoff)

June 25, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bird’s Nest

Robert Wilcox defeated Prince Kuhio’s brother David to become the first Hawaiian Delegate in the US Congress. Kuhio later joined Wilcox’s Home Rule Party. In July 1902, the Home Rule Party tapped Kuhio to lead a reorganization committee.

Kuhio’s proposals prioritized attracting younger moderates, but Wilcox preferred the status quo. On July 14, Kuhio and his followers left the Home Rule party and formed the Independent Party, or Hui Kokoa. Hui Kokoa’s platform read as a rebuke of Home Rulers’ racial politics.

Kuhio later joined the Republican party; ultimately, Republicans swept both the legislature and the delegacy and Kuhio was elected as Hawaii’s delegate to congress. Kuhio’s victory fatally weakened the Home Rule Party. For a few elections, they split votes with Democrats, who eventually absorbed the remaining Home Rulers.

In early years serving in Congress, Kuhio became aware that neither congressional colleagues nor federal bureaucrats knew much about Hawaii. So he dedicated himself to educating American administrators about the islands. Much of this process happened off the House Floor, and Kuhio reveled in these extracurricular venues.

Much of his time was spent in committee rooms hosting card games, playing golf, and attending various functions to expand his social circle and influence. Sometime after 1904, Kuhio set up a luxurious getaway for guests, dubbing it the Bird’s Nest. (GPO)

The house, which no longer exists, was built by a famous naturalist, ornithologist Spencer F Baird, who owned a remarkable collection of 3,696 stuffed birds, including many specimens he kept in his home. (Civil Beat)

Baird was Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution during the 1870s and 80s and he was also the curator of the US National Museum. (Adolf-Cluss) (The bird collection eventually was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.) (Civil Beat)

The house was in a block of row houses set back from Massachusetts Avenue on a slight elevation. A service road called Highland Terrace ran in front of the houses, creating the effect of a boulevard with shaded trees separating the residences from the busy street. (Adolf-Cluss)

The large three-story brick townhouse, built during 1878-1880 at 1445 Massachusetts Avenue, featured sandstone lintels, a decorative Mansard roof and stairs which led to an elevated entrance. (Adolf-Cluss)

The property was apparently left vacant after Baird’s death while his daughter prepared a biography of him. It makes sense that “Bird’s Nest” might have been a play on the name Baird, and where some of the preserved bird collection may have lingered in the house at the time Kuhio lived there, but it is hard to know for sure. (Civil Beat)

Furnished with a bar, poker tables, pool tables, and his African hunting trophies, it became a getaway for officials where Kuhio would hold forth on Hawaii’s beauty, fertility, and strategic position in the Pacific.

When Princess Kahanu made the trip to the capital, the couple hosted dinner parties for Members featuring the guest of honor from the islands. Kuhio even arranged for an exhibit on Hawaii in the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition of 1909 in Seattle, Washington. (US House)

Kuhio didn’t remain at that house very long. After 1906, city records show him living variously at the luxurious Dewey Hotel and the original Shoreham hotel at 15th Street and H Street NW.

He rented houses at other times, including possibly during long visits from Queen Liliuokalani, who he was helping as she sought restitution from the federal government for the loss of the crown lands. (Civil Beat)

However, starting in May 1907, Kuhio’s preferred method was to host colleagues on extended tours of Hawaii. The territorial legislature even chipped in for the three-week tour of Hawaii that spring.

These excursions became more popular over time. The 1915 entourage included 27 Representatives, 10 Senators, congressional family members, staff, and a gaggle of press.

Hawaiians sailed out to greet the congressional visitors before they reached land, presenting leis and playing Hawaiian music from an accompanying tugboat. The firsthand experience often helped grease the skids for legislative action afterward.

“I have a few things to take up with the prince about the merchant marine and transportation facilities that come within the jurisdiction of my committee,” wrote Representative William Wilson of Illinois after one tour, “and I intend to help rectify those unreasonable sailing conditions when we get together.” (GPO)

June 24, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

History Books Could Have Been Different

Manuel paused, said in a confidential voice: “If today I wrote all that I overheard and saw in those years, the complexion of many an incident would be changed in our history books.” (Manuel Reis)

Manuel Gil dos Reis was born in Oporto, Portugal. When he was a whippersnapper, his father took him to Cape Verde islands, down in the Atlantic, west of Africa. Father Reis was port-master there. His father gave Manuel thimblefuls of deep red wine, told him sagas of the sea.

Transatlantic clippers, stately and wondrous ships of trade, opening new worlds in the Americas, called for provisioning at Cape Verde. One day young Manuel could not resist the temptation. He signed on one, made his way to New Bedford, MA and later transferred to an American whaler, the bark Atlantic, as lookout and steerer.

The Atlantic rounded the stormy Horn, beat across the south Pacific to the great whaling grounds near New Zealand. At the Chatham Islands the Atlantic met another whaler, the Napoleon. Together the two ships sought the rich harvest from the sea. It was reckless work but with the reward that the harder you worked the more cash there was at the voyage’s end, when the

One day on these grounds the ships collided. The Atlantic’s masts and rigging were badly smashed. The closest refitting port was Honolulu, nearly 4,000 miles away. He came to the Islands.

Manuel’s practical life at sea has made him resourceful. He became a coachman and yardman to a Mrs. Hillebrand for $3 a week, yet soon bettered it for another position with the U.S. Minister, General James W. Comly, at $25 a month.

While driving about town he yarned with independent coachmen who, by publicly hiring their vehicles, made as much as $20 a day. Manuel thought: Why don’t I do that?

But he kept on with the U.S. minister, religiously saved his dollars, some of the only gold in the thriving town which used mostly silver Mexican dollars, until he had sufficient capital to launch out in his own business.

He bought wagonettes and California bred horses. His stand was at the corner of Fort and King streets. He could drive you to Waikiki, via King and Kalakaua, in 12 minutes. There were no traffic stop signs.

The drives to Waikiki and up the Nu‘uanu valley to the Pali were about as far as you could go in those years. In his days off, Manuel often took a ride on horseback with friends.

Manuel’s business flourished. He lived on the job. His stables and home were together on Queen St, opposite the federal building, where today the [Melim Building] stands. Three drivers worked for him. They had a hack each. Pay: 25c of every dollar they took.

The first telephone service in Honolulu – December 30, 1880 – was a boon for Manuel’s business. It was much easier for patrons to telephone, have him send a hack any hour of the day or night. Alexander Graham Bell, the hello business inventor, formed a firm friendship with Manuel.

Personally, Manuel drove King Kalakaua, whose favorite spot on the island was a private boathouse on the harbor front near Pier 5. There the merry monarch made whoopee with haoles like Claus Spreckels. One day at poker Spreckels held four aces, Kalakaua four kings. Kalakaua claimed the pot because he said, “I make five kings – that’s better than 4 aces.”

At the beginning of the hard working, gay eighties, Manuel on his cab seat began to hear murmurings of unrest and discontent. His passengers hatched plots and counter plots.

But Manuel remained neutral. [However, in a story on Reis Wray Jose notes “Manuel Reis was a royalist. … Manuel Reis often chauffeured such royal notables as Kalakaua, Kapiolani, Liliuokalani and others, as part of his business.” And his hackstand “was often called the ‘Royalist Hackstand’ because of the number of known royalists it served.”]

Up in the lonely, storm tossed lookout of the whaling ship, young Manuel had learned to hold his tongue, to think rather than talk. It was a good habit, too, while he waited by the hour, for King Kalakaua.

Monarchs and the anti-monarchists used the hacks. Manuel overheard many a conspiracy, could have won favors if he had passed on the information.

So when the unrest finally culminated in the revolution of 1887 and the consequent uprisings, Manuel was not surprised. He drove about his business, unperturbed by the rifle fire or the passions of his hot-headed passengers.

Government disturbances, after all, meant brisk business for Manuel, who was called upon to rush messengers: post haste from side to side with history making dispatches.

Because he had married Eugenia Keoho‘okalani Kahaule, fine daughter of an old Kona family, Manuel knew that inevitably he would be regarded with suspicion by the anti-monarchists. On the third day of the 1895 uprising, Manuel was driving Miss Helen Wilder (sister of Gerrit P Wilder) out at Waikiki.

Jim Quinn, “a tricky Irishman” who worked with Manuel, drove post haste to Waikiki, warned Manuel that Marshal Hitchcock sought him, Manuel told Miss Wilder and she was content to be dropped off at the foot of Nuʻuanu Street.

Manuel knew what was coming. He told his wife to carry on the business, hid 1,000 silver dollars in the bureau drawer for her to use. Then he went along to the prison house, knew that because he had a Hawaiian wife, drove so many of the monarchy, he would be probed.

But probed he was not. Marshal Hitchcock boomed from the office: “Take him down below.” And quickly Manuel found himself with 12 other “political prisoners” in the dark, overcrowded cells. There were nine Britishers, two Greeks, (one of them George Lycurgus), and one Dane.

For 35 days and nights they were kept in the hot, close cells. They were never questioned as they expected to be, but they were irritated and scared blue by the threatening, bullying guards.

Two and three times every night the prisoners would be awakened rudely and moved from cell to cell. There were two men to each cell, six by eight feet. The only real fresh air and daylight they enjoyed was two hours of exercise in the yard every morning.

The guards delighted in scaring the prisoners. They polished their bayonets, rattled their rifles, talking loudly about death at dawn. They stretched new ropes, guffawed about the hangman’s noose. One of the prisoners became hysterical.

He considered he could save his neck if he told all, which was that Queen Liliuokalani’s supporters had hidden rifles under Washington Place, he claimed.

Manuel contracted a fever in the unsanitary cells. He was at the point of death, so he was released. They wanted him to sign a declaration of guilt, that he had conspired against the republic. But independent Manuel, weak in body but strong in spirit, refused. He went to Kona’s hospitable coast for a month and recuperated slowly.

Manuel’s funniest story about that attempted insurrection is of a well-known Hawaiian who, panic stricken by the bullets that whirred in the civic square between the palace and the judiciary building, flung himself at the foot of the Kamehameha statue and feigned death for many hours.

All here is from an interview/article on Manuel Reis published in the Star Bulletin, September 7, 1935.

June 23, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tonquin

“In December, 1777, Captain James Cook, who had been sent into the Pacific on a voyage of exploration by the King of England, discovered several islands which he named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, He later sailed northward and in March of the next year sighted the American coast in the neighborhood of the present Yaquina Bay.”

“He thus became the first to make a contact between the Oregon country and Hawaii. Cook was followed within a few years by vessels that engaged in trading furs from the Indians along the northwest coast of America which they sold in China.”

“The captains of such ships were quick to learn the value of the Hawaiian Islands as a resting place and provisioning station. Their custom was to stop there on the northward voyage, spend a season in trade, return to the islands for the winter, and afterwards sail back to the American coast to complete their cargo of furs before going to Canton.” (Clark)

“On June 23, 1810, Pacific Fur Company partners sign articles of agreement in New York City. This new enterprise aims to monopolize the American fur trade from coast to coast.”

“The wealthy New York merchant John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) is president, prime mover, and principal stockholder of the fledgling organization, and he will soon dispatch two expeditions to found a transcontinental trading network headquartered on the Columbia River, ‘the first American commercial undertaking west of the mountains.’” (Nisbet)

“To serve as his chief agent, Astor approached Wilson Price Hunt (1783-1842), a St. Louis merchant who hired several Missouri River traders and frontiersmen of his acquaintance as assistants. Because no American furmen possessed the expertise needed to organize a new trading network in the Far West, Astor recruited experienced Canadian traders for his remaining leadership.”

“The first party would sail from New York on the ship Tonquin with the supplies and equipment necessary ‘to establish a fur trading post at, or in the vicinity of the Columbia River’. Partners Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougall, David Stuart (1765-1853) and Robert Stuart (1785-1848) would superintend the establishment of the trade in the Columbia region upon their arrival.”

“The second group, commanded by Wilson Price Hunt and Donald Mackenzie, would depart St. Louis in late October and travel west along Lewis and Clark’s route, selecting appropriate locations for trading posts and establishing friendly rapport with Indian tribes along the way.”

“Astor, who watched the Tonquin set sail on September 8, 1810, would later muse, ‘Was there ever an undertaking of more merit, of more hazard, and more enterprising?’” (Nisbet)

“Commanded by Captain Jonathan Thorn (1779-1811), a 32-year-old lieutenant on leave from the US Navy, the Tonqin was 94 feet long with a burden of 269 tons, and was known as a ‘first-rate ship’”.

“[W]hile planning a post on the Columbia River [Astor] also had in mind to establish friendly relations with the Hawaiian Islands in the hope of securing special commercial privileges there.”

“When the Tonquin which carried his men and goods to the Columbia stopped at those islands, its captain endeavored without success to make a commercial treaty with King Kamehameha.”

“He did, however, succeed in securing needed supplies of food and in enlisting 24 Hawaiians for service as sailors and as laborers at the prospective post [twelve for the crew and twelve for the new settlement]. The agreement was that they were to receive food, clothing and $100 in merchandise for three years service.” (Nisbet) Then they sailed to the Northwest coast.

“When the crew sighted land about three miles away on the morning of March 22, [1811] the captain felt certain they had reached the Columbia. With a fresh gale blowing from the northwest, Thorn thought it would be prudent to examine the notoriously treacherous bar before venturing any closer in the Tonquin.”

“In the early afternoon he ordered his first mate, JC Fox (d. 1811), and four of his crewmen to launch a longboat and sound the channel. According to three eyewitness accounts, the first mate objected to setting out in such stormy weather and rough seas, to which Captain Thorn replied, ‘Mr. Fox, if you are afraid of water, you should have remained at Boston’”.

“Mr. Fox had been well-liked aboard the Tonquin, and his friends watched anxiously from deck as his little boat was tossed about by the boisterous sea, but they soon lost sight of it among the expanse of breaking waves.”

“The following day the Tonquin stood off and on the bar all day ‘with anxious solicitude’, but there was no sign of the longboat. As evening approached, the crew of necessity steered the ship a safe distance from shore, ‘all with long faces, even the Captain looking worried’”.

“The morning of March 24 proved clear, and the Tonquin anchored in a calm area to the north of Cape Disappointment. … Soon thereafter, a fine breeze sprung up, and Captain Thorn decided to weigh anchor and stand in for the entrance to the river.”

“According to his charts, the deepest and most reliable channel lay close in to Cape Disappointment, on the north edge of the shifting sandbars that rendered the river’s mouth so perilous.”

“This channel was narrow, intricate, and constantly changing, and Thorn ‘became so alarmed at the appearance of the breakers that he hove to’. He ordered second mate Mumford to re-launch the pinnace and sound the waters ahead. Mumford succeeded in locating five fathoms of water, but with the surf breaking all around him, he retreated to the ship.”

“Captain Thorn again weighed anchor and stood in for the channel under an easy sail. … ‘We came within pistol range of the long-boat and made a signal to them to come aboard, which they were unable to do, the suction of the ebbing tide carrying them away with incredible speed’”.

“Tonquin began to drift fast to the southward … ‘the mind of the captain was so absorbed in apprehension, and perplexed with anxiety at the danger which stared him in the face, and which he was about to encounter, that he could not be brought to give a thought to anything else but the safety of the ship.’”

“Indeed, the safety of the Tonquin was soon imperiled, for as she made her way across the bar in the face of the outgoing tide, she struck repeatedly on reefs and shoals. Waves broke over the deck. ‘Everyone who could, sprang aloft, and clung for life to the rigging … she struck again and again, and, regardless of her helm, was tossed and whirled in every direction’”.

“The wind suddenly died, leaving the ship at the mercy of the surf, in danger of being dashed against the rocks at the foot of Cape Disappointment. Thorn threw out two anchors to counter the pull of the tide. But ‘darkness soon fell to add to the horrors of our predicament’”.

“When the tide eventually turned, the ship was still intact, and an ocean breeze sprang up to usher her away from the cape’s rocky shore, across the rest of the bar, and into the shelter of Baker’s Bay in the lee of the Cape, where the weary sailors dropped anchor just before midnight.”

“Despite extensive searches over the next several days, Stephen Weeks and Harry [one of the Hawaiians] were the only survivors of either of the small boats ever found. ‘The loss of eight of us [including one Hawaiian] within two days was deeply felt,’ wrote Franchere.”

“‘In the course of such a long voyage, among men who see one another every day, live in the same quarters, share the same dangers, ties form which make such a sudden and unforeseen separation doubly painful.’” (Nisbet) Some of the Hawaiians remained at the Columbia River to build the trading post.

After a few days, fur company officials found a site for the trading post and named it Astoria. This was the base of operations for Astor’s northwest fur trade. (Kittelson)

“The 12 Hawaiians who remained on board were murdered with the other members of the crew when the Tonquin was surprised by Indians while in Clayoquot Sound [at Vancouver Island] a few weeks later.” (Clark)