Peter T Young

January 31, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Martin Pence

“It has always been my theory that naturally, ‘As the Twig is bent, so the tree is inclined,’ but in nearly every person’s life, if they’ve lived a full life and moved around and changed, that it’s divided up into the childhood and whatever those influences were–and that includes the education they got.”

“And then, all of a sudden, school is all finished and that was just preparation. And the next thing is–what do you do with what you have? What do you do with what you are?”

“And from there on, the developments which take place may come from you, but oh, how they’re influenced by the slings and arrows of outrageous and wonderful fortune. And luck, luck, luck – if you don’t have that, no matter how good you are, you can go down into failure.”

“On the other hand, as Iacocca showed, if you have the luck with you, all of a sudden you’re the greatest person in the world.”

“But you must have, as you know – you’ve seen it in your own life – you must have the ability to be able to utilize whatever your capacities are and to help that luck.”

“The tide taken at full, and so forth, you can go out to sea and your ship goes right ahead. So that you have to have all of the aspects; ability, integrity and luck in order to succeed in any area.” (Martin Pence; Watumull Foundation)

“My father was a farmer in Kansas. His father came from Indiana in the 1860s to Kansas to homestead 160 acres. At that time a person who had 160 acres could live and raise a family on it”.

“I remember reading, ‘If you only go through high school, your increased pay will be so much, and if you go through college, you’ll be able to earn so much more.’ Imagine. I remember seeing that tacked up in the old post office in the little old town of Sterling, Kansas – population then 2,000; population today 2,200.”

As a young farm boy in Kansas Martin Pence decided he would be an attorney. “I always went down that road. And then – so through with school – take the bar in 1928 in California – passed the bar and I’m a lawyer.” He started working in San Francisco.

“And just because luck – I had a friend in one of the insurance company’s claims departments that the Home Insurance Company reinsured their insurance through, and he calls me up there in June, 1930 and says, ‘Do you want to go to Hawaii?’ And I said, ‘Oh sure, when do we start?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘seriously, the president of this company’s down looking for someone. Come on over and meet him.’”

“About three weeks later, my friend there called me up and said that Clark wanted to see me again. This time he said, ‘I’ve interviewed fifty-four other persons, and here I make you this offer.’ Well, this offer was $225 a month plus a one-year contract and a round trip ticket to Hawaii.”

“[T]hat was an offer you couldn’t refuse … I hesitated though … because in San Francisco I had a lot of contacts. But then what’s a year in the life of a young man aged twenty-five? So I accepted.”

“I got off the Malolo (August 6, 1930) and we were going out this old road … I remember looking up at the greenery of these hills in August – there was something about the blue of the sky and the white fleecy clouds, the air and all – and saying, ‘I’m never going to leave here.’ And that was final. I knew that I was never going to leave here. So it came to pass.”

“It was during 1931 that I met my first wife. She was a student at the University of Hawaii. At that time I think she was a senior. I remember her well because the first time I met her I said, ‘This girl’s dangerous – she’s too damn marriageable.’”

“She was the one woman I knew who was smarter than I was. And she was. But we dated off and on for eight years. Lucy Elizabeth Powell. An only child. … I married Lucy [Lu] Elizabeth Powell, in 1938, November 19.”

“I found that I did have an aptitude for trial work and I found that a lot of people on the [Big] Island over there heard about me as a lawyer, but I wanted more exposure. The reason I went over there was because, very frankly, they had such wonderful hunting, one of the reasons.”

“But I wanted more exposure as a lawyer. So I decided in 1938 that I would run for office. I debated at first as to what office I would run for. House of Representatives? No, it would have to be county attorney because that was my field.”

“I won. … it paid $4,400 a year, but you were allowed to take private practice. And so one always has to have breaks and I got some breaks – publicity. I used to say my business was the Woolworth Five and Ten – meaning it was of the ordinary people with low income”.

“The people had problems. I had the knack that I could talk to any race, on any problem, and so forth, and they didn’t go broke when they came in to see me. And the result was that I steadily built up a practice of little people. That’s really what it was.”

Later, “Judge Metzger immediately told me that I ought to become the circuit judge of the Third Circuit over there. It paid, I think, about $9,000 a year and with private practice I was making more than that as county attorney. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a circuit judge.”

“ I really didn’t feel that I wanted to become a circuit judge, but Metzger knew me and knew where to touch and he said, ‘Martin, you have to take it. It would make your father so proud.’ My father back there in Kansas, in his seventies, and I knew it would. So I said, ‘All right.’”

“[I]t came to pass that in October of 1945 I received a certificate from Washington, DC that said, ‘In view of and so forth, relying upon the honesty, et cetera, I have here appointed Martin Pence a United States Circuit Judge, Third Circuit, Territory of Hawaii.’ Now in one sense I was a United States circuit judge, but actually it should have been just simply circuit judge”.

Unfortunately, the pay of the circuit judge didn’t move an inch, $9,000. And as time went on I grew poorer and poorer because prices went higher and higher. At that time the appointment was for four years, but my four years came along and there was no action out of Washington, so I decided I was through.”

“So I wrote to the president saying that I wished to resign as soon as someone was appointed to take over. That was in March and I heard nothing, not even an answer back. So in April I wrote that I’m resigning on June 30, 1950. And so I resigned and went into private practice back in Hilo.”

“And then John Ushijima … came back from Georgetown and I took him in as an associate first, and eventually made him a partner. Then Roy Nakamoto came back from Harvard and I made him an associate because business was just booming all the time. I wound up with six secretaries instead of one or two”.

Then, “Hawaii had become a state … So it happened that on June 13, 1961, I got a call from Washington, DC, an attorney friend of mine there, saying, ‘Penny, your friend McLaughlin has just been notified this morning that he is not going to be appointed to be United States district judge.’”

“’He’s out. There are only three names now being considered by the Department of Justice; John Wiig; Bert Kobayashi, then attorney general of Hawaii; and Martin Pence.’”

“It wasn’t until the following March when I was at the school for judges at Monterey – the second school that they had for federal judges – now every year when a new batch of judges comes in they have a school for them- but that was the second time it was tried – educating you on the problems of handling federal cases the best way”.

“So I [became] a United States district judge. I had then to shift to Honolulu. Lu and I had built a house in 1955. It cost us a heck of a lot more than that first house and here it was 1961 and we had to give it up. We’d built it especially for us.”

“I hated to leave Hilo. I had twenty-five years – my roots – I could say in all sincerity that there was no one on the Island of any mature age who didn’t know me.”

Pence, “married [Eleanor Talcott Fisher, “Her mother had been a Wilcox, a niece of George Wilcox, famous of Kauai”] on April 12, 1975, not quite a year and a half after Lu died.”

Judge Pence was a hunter. “I loved, always having loved, still do love, not only sheep hunting, but bird hunting in the fall, and Parker Ranch had great areas over there”.

Several decades ago, I had the opportunity to go bird hunting with Judge Pence on Parker Ranch land in Kohala, with the Parker Ranch Business Manager. Martin Pence died May 29, 2000. (All here is from an oral history interview with Martin Pence through the Watumull Foundation.)

January 30, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bathing Suit Law

“Shades of Stephen Desha! It seems that the bluest of blue laws, that nefarious ‘cover your knees’ bathing suit law is going to be inforced even on our own little island.”

“Haint you never heard of Stephen Desha? Don’t you know of the bathing suit law? Don’t you know that you are not supposed to have knees, or if you must have them that, you’ve got to keep ‘em covered.” (The Garden Island, April 25, 1922)

Stephen Langhern Desha Sr “was a colorful personality and was an outstanding leader of his people. Tracing back to New England and Kentucky as well as Polynesia, he combined the best qualities of both races in perpetuating their traditions and exemplifying traits that distinguish both the Polynesian and the Anglo-Saxon.”

“Mr Desha was born in Lahaina, Maui, on July 11, 1859, and spend the first years of his boyhood on the Island of Lanai. He later moved to Honolulu and in his adolescent years was an employee of the firm of C. Brewer & Company.”

“Being filled with the desire to preach the Gospel, he entered the North Pacific Missionary Institute and graduated in 1885. He became pastor of the Kealakekua Church in Nāpoʻopoʻo in that year and served in this, his first charge, for four years.”

“In 1889 he received a call to become pastor of the Haili Church in Hilo, and for forty-five years labored in the one parish which was to feel the strong influence of this great preacher and forceful personality.”

“Mr Desha was no ordinary preacher of the word. He had a remarkable gift of oratory in his native tongue, in which he was a master. He was saturated with the spirit of ancient mele, folklore, traditions and stories of the Hawaiian people, and this gave him considerable influence among his own people.”

“It was easy for him to make his point known by introducing some apt story or telling illustrations from Hawaiian history or mythology.”

“First and foremost. Mr. Desha will be remembered as a Christian minister. His work in the pulpit was outstanding and he was often called upon to make addresses and to give sermons not only in his own parish, but in various parts of the territory.”

“His intimate knowledge of the Scriptures increased his ability in proclaiming the Word. Mr. Desha was also a good pastor and vitally interested in the welfare of his flock as a good shepherd should be.”

“In his relationships with his fellow ministers, ‘Kiwini,’ as he was generally known by his associates, was always regarded as a friendly counsellor and loyal coworker. His interest in the island and territorial associations was genuine, and he was always present except when ill-health prevented his being with his associates.”

“We must not forget that Mr. Desha was also a journalist and for many years was editor of “Ka Hoku o Hawaii” (The Star of Hawaii), a weekly newspaper published in Hilo. This contained a good deal of church news as well as translations of stories from the English language and general items of interest to Hawaiian readers.”

“Stephen Desha was not only a Christian, but also a loyal patriot, and the Hawaiian people have never had a more zealous champion for their rights and privileges than ‘Kiwini.’ In association with the late Prince Kūhiō, Mr. Desha was a great advocate of the Hawaiian rehabilitation plan and did all within his power to preserve and perpetuate the Hawaiian race.”

“Mr. Desha fulfilled the definition of the true patriot – one who loves his country and zealously supports its authority and interests. He accepted the change from the monarchy to the provisional government, and later to that of the Republic of Hawaii and the subsequent transfer of authority to the United States of America.”

“It was most natural for him to become interested in politics, for he was not a mere theorist in matters of government. After serving a term as supervisor of the County of Hawaii, he became a senator and served five terms, with the total record of twenty years as a member of the senate of Hawaii.” (The Friend, August 1, 1934)

One year, when Desha “came to Honolulu for the biennial session of the territorial legislation after a considerable period of hibernation in his native habitat, the sights that he saw a the beach at Waikiki resulted in the enactment of a new law. And this is what he says:” (Washington Herald, May 30, 1921)

“Section I—No person over 14 years of age shall be or appear on any road or highway within the Honolulu District, City and County of Honolulu, in a bathing suit unless covered suitably by an outer garment reaching at least to the knees.”

Section 2. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $50.00.

“The Desha law was designed to give pause to young and older mermaids who had been in the habit of dashing through the streets of the Waikiki district clad in bathing suits which made Mack Sennett’s girls look all dressed up. But it didn’t give them much pause.”

“The Waikiki beach beauties still fly along the highways and byways, en route to the surf, wearing suitable outer garments, but hardly covered by them, save around the neck, the rest of said garments fluttering in the breeze like the tail of a comet in a hurry to go somewhere, with most everything Senator Desha wanted to cover up still available for optical appraisal.”

“The spirit, not the letter of the law is observed, but thus far no arrests have been made in an effort to make the word ‘covered’ in the law mean something. The sight at Waikiki still exercises a strange fascination for elderly tourists.” (Washington Herald, May 30, 1921)

“Honolulu policemen are reported to have taken the Desha Law onto the beach at Waikiki. The general impression has been that it applied only to streets and alleys and that the bather could discard the superfluous covering after reaching the beach. If sun baths are to be taken only in robes and mackintoshes, the remaining popularity of the much sung of strand will still further wane.” (Maui News. April 21, 1922)

The law met with opposition, across the Islands, “Honolulu’s Bathing Suit law is still regarded as a joke where it is regarded at all, is the word coming from the capital city. The Desha Bill was a joke when introduced and has never been able to outgrow it.” (Maui News, July 15, 1921)

The Maui News cynically followed up with, “Honolulu has a curfew law and a Desha bathing suit law that appear to be enforced to an equal extent.” (Maui News, March 7, 1922)

“(T)he Desha Bathing Suit Law so unpopular in Honolulu that it can be repealed at the next legislative session.” (Maui News, April 21, 1922)

Not regularly enforced, and ignored by many, it wasn’t until 1949 that the law was eventually repealed. “I don’t think many Hawaiians know about the law. The only reason I learned about it is that someone dug it out of the mothballs the other day and is working the territorial legislature to repeal it.”

“The repealer passed the senate and is now before the lower house. If it passes there, as seems absolutely certain, we can all go around the way we’ve been going – but legally, yet. … But it’s nice to know it’s going to be repealed. As a law-abiding citizen it goes against the grain for me to leer illegally.” (Dixon, The Independent, April 15, 1949)

Bathing_Suit_Law-Andre de la Varre with Waldron Sisters at the Outrigger Canoe Club Waikiki Beach, 1923

January 29, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sherwood Forest

“Far-famed Waikiki is vastly inferior to Waimanalo as a pleasure ground in every feature save surf riding … those who have tried the water on the windward side, and completion of the Waimanalo road will render this beach almost as accessable, as Waikiki.” (SB Jan 1, 1921)

“Different areas of Oahu differ widely in flavor and atmosphere. No part of the island is any more individualistic than the Waimanalo section on the windward side. Verdant, rolling fields stretch from a rugged coastline up to the sheer wall of the Koolau mountains.”

“Waimanalo lies between Makapuu point at the northeast tip of the island and the Kailua-Lanikai district. The highway runs close to the shore for several miles, at one point passing under a huge arch of stately ironwood trees.” (Advertiser, August 12, 1956)

It’s not clear who planted or when the ironwoods were planted at Waimanalo. But in the late-1800s and early-1900s Ironwood was one of the favored trees for windbreaks, shade and buffers because of its fast growth and resistance to adverse environmental conditions. (Iwashita)

As examples, Kapiolani Park was dedicated in 1876; Archibald Cleghorn, Governor of Oʻahu and father of Princess Kaʻiulani, was the park’s designer. Cleghorn planned the park’s landscaping, including the ironwood trees along Kalākaua Avenue.

On the windward side in 1906, many rows of ironwood trees were planted in Kailua as a windbreak and a fence had to be built to keep cattle out of the ‘Coconut Grove’.

“Ironwood trees dominate the shoreline. Here is a whole forest of them on and around Bellows Air Force Station, a small air base that cuts off much of the town’s beach frontage. The trees grow so thickly that the area outside the base has been used for a while as a hiding place for a den of young thieves and was nicknamed, not surprisingly, Sherwood Forest.” (Advertiser, April 21, 1968)

Immediately following statehood, the State was looking to provide more beach access … “The State emphasizes: Residents outnumber servicemen and their dependents four to one. Yet the public is confined to four miles of beach while 11 are open to servicemen.”

“Seven miles out of a total 11 miles of beach deemed ‘safe and sandy’ on Oahu are military-controlled. This is one of the key points in a State document loaded with statistical evidence to demonstrate that residents aren’t getting a fair share of Island recreational space.”

“The report is aimed at getting back from the Federal Government two of three miles of choice beach at Bellows Field and a 1.66-acre piece in front of Fort DeRussy.” (SB Feb 25, 1962)

“The Federal Government has held Bellows since 1900 when it was ceded by the Republic of Hawaii. The State has long agitated for its return.” (SB March 4, 1965)

“At Bellows, the Department of the Air Force has admitted that 77 acres will no long be needed after relocation of certain facilities. (Adv August 5. 1961)

“The State began moving 32 old buildings this week off the 77 acres of Bellows Air Station it expects to obtain from the Air Force later this year. The 77 acres includes 2,650 feet of beach frontage already open for public use. … The old Non-Commissioned Officers Club will be left where it is for public use”. (SB March 4, 1965)

“The Federal government is returning 77 acres of valuable Bellows Field land to the State of Hawaii, including about a half mile of precious Windward Oahu beach frontage.

“Signing of the fee simple deed by the Federal government climaxes seven years of negotiations between the Federal and State governments for the return of the Waimanalo area land … no longer needed by the Federal Government.”

“‘The 77 acres of Department of Defense land which will be transferred to the State will provide much needed land for development on the Windward side of Oahu.’” (Inouye) (SB, July 26, 1966)

Shortly after the transfer, “The area has been described as a ‘Sherwood’s Forest’ – a hang-out for hoodlums.” (Adv, June 14, 1967)

“There are several versions of the Robin Hood story. … Legend has it that Robin Hood was an outlaw living in Sherwood Forest with his ‘Merry Men’. … One certain fact is that he was a North Country man, with his traditional haunts as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest and a coastal refuge at Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire.”

“Robin became a popular folk hero because of his generosity to the poor and down-trodden peasants, and his hatred of the Sheriff and his verderers who enforced the oppressive forest laws, made him their champion.” (Historic-UK)

“ls a 77-acre portion of Bellows Field, now owned by the State, being used as a hideout for thieves, car strippers and drug pushers? The president of the Waimanalo Council of Associations the Rev. Jack Hedges, says it is.”

“Hedges made his charges on Wednesday during a visit to Waimanalo of the Mayor’s annual Windward Safari. He claimed that crime as rampant in the bushes and abandoned buildings in the State-owned strip and that nearby beaches were unsafe at night”

“He said that burglars used the bushes for their headquarters, while organized gangs roamed out of the thick ironwood jungle to strip cars, peddle dope and look for new crimes to commit.”

“‘It’s a wonderful place for hoodlums to hide out in. They practice car-stripping in the bushes. It’s quite a hide-out area . . . It’s become a sanctuary for these people.’”

“He also claimed that ‘no one dares to walk on Waimanalo Beach after dark anymore’ and that residents have been so intimidated by the gangs that they are afraid to call the police. … He compared it with the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood’s days”. (Adv. May 12, 1967)

“The principal difference between Robin Hood’s forest and the ’forest’ at Waimanalo lies in the cast of characters. Robin Hood’s band was composed of essentially ‘good’ men, while the delinquent and dope addicts who populate the ‘forest’ are a menace to society.” (SB May 10, 1967)

“At least 59 houses along the short Laumilo Street near the ‘forest’ have been broken into since January. Many residents of the area have been ‘intimidated’ by the gangs so much that they are afraid to call the police.”

“Police Chief Dan Liu said the department is adding 18 new patrolmen to the Windward area this year. This will provide two beat patrolmen day and night for Waimanalo. Liu told the Mayor his men will work on clearing the area of crime and protecting the houses.”

“‘The best solution is to remove the hazard rather than creating a larger police problem,’ the Mayor said. He promised to talk with State officials in an effort to clear the area of the protective undergrowth and abandoned buildings.” (SB, May 10, 1967)

First used by the State as the ‘Waimānalo State Recreation Area’, managed by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of State Parks for outdoor recreational uses for the public including camping and picnic areas, in 1992, the Park was transferred to the City and County of Honolulu and was the Waimānalo Bay Beach Park.

The City later renamed it Hūnānāniho, that archaeological reports noted was “a small hill said to have been famous in olden days as a place of refuge (puuhonua)” from battle and that “all the chiefs recognized the sacredness of this hill and the lives of those who reached this elevation were spared”. (C&C Resolution 21-132)

January 27, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻAuwai

In pre-Captain Cook times, kalo (taro) played a vital role in Hawaiian culture. It was not only the Hawaiians’ staple food but the cultivation of kalo was at the very core of Hawaiian culture and identity.

Taro can be cultivated by two very different methods. Upland, or dryland, taro is planted in non-flooded areas that are fed by rainfall. Lowland, or wetland, taro is grown in water-saturated fields.

The early Hawaiians probably planted kalo in marshes near the mouths of rivers. Over years of progressive expansion of kalo lo‘i (flooded taro patches) up slopes and along rivers, kalo cultivation in Hawai‘i reached a unique level of engineering and sustainable sophistication.

Kalo lo‘i systems are typically a set of adjoining terraces that are typically reinforced with stone walls and soil berms. Wetland taro thrives on flooded conditions, and cool, circulating water is optimal for taro growth, thus a system may include one or more ʻauwai (irrigation ditches) to divert water into and out of the planting area. (McElroy)

Most important in the system of distribution of water for application to the soil were the main ditches diverting the water from natural streams.

Each of these large ʻauwai was authorized and planned by the King or by one or more chiefs or konohiki whose lands were to be watered thereby, the work of excavation being under the direction of the chief providing the largest number of men. (Perry, Hawaiʻi Supreme Court)

The ʻauwai construction and maintenance formed foundations around which an entire economy, class system, and culture functioned. The ʻauwai, lo‘i and the taro plant’s mythical and spiritual connections in Hawaiian society influenced individual and social activity within the ahupua‘a. (Handy, HART)

Taro cultivation affected many aspects of Hawaiian life: the labor required to build and maintain the ʻauwai; the shared water rights; and tributes to the Mō‘ī and to the chiefs (Ali‘i.) (Handy, HART)

All ʻauwai had a proper name, and were generally called after either the land, or the chief of the land that had furnished the most men, or had mainly been instrumental in the inception, planning and carrying out of the required work. All ʻauwai tapping the main stream were done under the authority of a konohiki of an ahupuaʻa. (Nakuina, Thrum)

ʻAuwai were generally dug from makai – seaward or below – upwards. The konohiki who had the supervision of the work having previously marked out where it would probably enter the stream, the diggers worked up to that point.

The different representatives in the ahupuaʻa taking part in the work furnished men according to the number of kalo growers on each land. (The quantity of water awarded to irrigate the loʻi was according to the number of workers and the amount of work put into the building of the ʻauwai.)

Dams that diverted water from the stream were a low loose wall of stones with a few clods here and there, high enough only to raise water sufficiently to flow into the ʻauwai, which should enter it at almost a level. No ʻauwai was permitted to take more water than continued to flow in the stream below the dam (i.e. no more than half.)

Use of the water was regulated by time increments, which varied from a few hours each day for a small kalo patch to two or three days for a kalo plantation. By rotation with others on the ʻauwai, a grower would divert water from the ʻauwai into his kalo. The next, in turn, would draw off water for his allotted period of time. (KSBE)

The ʻauwai primarily existed to support taro cultivation. Other crops, such as sweet potatoes, bananas or sugar cane, were regarded as dry land crops dependent on rainfall. Sugar cane and bananas were almost always planted on loʻi banks (kuauna) to receive moisture seeping through. (Nakuina, Thrum)

ʻAuwai varied in size and structure depending on the number and size of lo‘i they irrigated. In smaller lo‘i, water could be directed from one terrace into the next below it.

However, larger lo‘i required individual ʻauwai capable of carrying more water. In more complex systems, these might be branches from another ʻauwai, often connected to the same source. (HART)

An early description of ʻauwai is from explorer Nathaniel Portlock, noting the Kauaʻi ʻauwai in 1787, “This excursion gave me a fresh opportunity of admiring the amazing ingenuity and industry of the natives in laying out the taro and sugar-cane grounds …”

“… the greatest part of which are made up on the banks of the river, with exceeding good causeways made with stones and earth, leading up the valleys to each plantation; the taro beds are in general a quarter of a mile over, dammed in, and they have a place on one part of the bank, that serves as a gateway.”

“When the rains commence, which is in the winter season, the river swells with the torrents from the mountains, and overflowed their taro-beds; and when the rains are over, and the rivers decrease, the dams are stopped up, and the water kept in to nourish the taro and sugar-cane during the dry season …”

“… the water in the beds is generally about one foot and a half, or two feet, over a muddy bottom … the taro also grows frequently as large as a man’s head.”

Another early description of ʻauwai and loʻi is from Otto von Kotzebue, a Russian naval officer who was in the Islands in 1816, “The artificial taro fields, which may justly be called taro lakes, excited my attention. … I have seen whole mountains covered with such fields, through which water gradually flowed; each sluice formed a small cascade which ran … into the next pond, and afforded an extremely picturesque prospect.”

The burden of maintaining the ditches fell upon those whose lands were watered; failure to contribute their due share of service rendering the delinquent hoaʻāina (tenant) subject to temporary suspension or to entire deprivation of their water rights or even to total dispossession of their lands. (YaleLawJournal)

In some ʻauwai, not all of the water was used; after irrigating a few patches the ditch returned the remainder of the water to the stream. (YaleLawJournal)

One notable ʻauwai, with water still flowing through it (however, the loʻi kalo is long gone) is in Nuʻuanu. After damage to the ʻauwai system during the battle of Nuʻuanu, Kamehameha moved to quickly restore the valley’s agriculture production, summoning Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Paki to rebuild the irrigation system.

“(I)n three days, (Paki) rallied several hundred men to construct the tremendous Nuʻuanu irrigation system which supplies the numerous pondfields (from Luakaha, near Kaniakapūpū to around what is now Judd Street) …this irrigation system is known even today as the Paki ʻauwai.” (Hawaiʻi Legislature)

Among other loʻi along its course, Paki ʻAuwai served the loʻi kalo of Queen Emma at Hānaiakamālama (the Queen’s Summer Palace.)

The image shows a portion of the rock-lined Paki ʻAuwai in Nuʻuanu (just below Kaniakapūpū (you take the same trail to see each.))

January 26, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sailamokus

There is historical evidence suggesting that Hawaiians began moving to the US mainland as early as the late-1700s for economic survival.

As early as 1811, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

When British and American ships, lured by the fur trade, entered into the Pacific in the wake of Captain Cook at the close of the eighteenth century, young Hawaiian men were regularly recruited off the Islands as deckhands. Thousands of shipped out as seamen, called “sailamokus”.

“Hawaiian men proved to be valuable sailors who were at home in the seas and their excellent swimming skills had a variety of uses, such as repairing hulls underwater and dislodging stuck anchors.” (Brown)

The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void. Hawaiians took to the sea and sailors traveled all over the world.

Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian. (NPS) “Sandwich Island crew … are complete water-dogs, therefore very good in boating. It is for this reason that there are so many of them on the coast of California; they being very good hands in the surf.”

“They are also quick and active in the rigging, and good hands in warm weather; but those who have been with them round Cape Horn, and in high latitudes, say that they are useless in cold weather. In their dress they are precisely like our sailors.”

“In addition to these Islanders, the vessel had two English sailors, who acted as boatswains over the Islanders, and took care of the rigging.” (Dana, 1840)

Historians suggest “that young Hawaiian males left Hawai’i as workers on whaling ships and traveled to China, Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. mainland. In addition, many ventured into the Pacific Northwest territory, worked in the fur trade, and ended up settling in those areas.” (pbs-org)

“Hawaiian sailors were known for their seamanship and swimming abilities and made desirable recruits for the whaling captains, so much so that the Hawaiian government began to regulate this recruitment and passed laws requiring bonds to ensure the sailors’ return to the islands as early as the 1830s.”

“The demographic decline due to foreign diseases (an additional import of the early western whalers) made it all the more important to ensure the return of local sailors to Hawai‘i. Nonetheless, the role of Kānaka maoli in the American whaling fleet continued to increase. By 1871, Kanaka sailors made up almost half of the entire whaling crews in Alaska.” (Van Tilburg, NOAA)

Other Native Hawaiians landed in Nantucket, New Bedford, and nearby ports. By the 1830s, Nantucket whalers employed about fourteen hundred seamen, including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Four or five hundred men arrived or departed annually.

At least six sailor boarding houses operated during the 1820 to 1860 period when Native Hawaiian seamen frequented Nantucket.

At least one house, near Pleasant Street in Nantucket’s New Guinea section, primarily or exclusively boarded Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and a sign identified William Whippy’s establishment as the “William Whippy Canacka Boarding-House.”

These whalers, on countless other New England voyages with Hawaiian crews, contributed to the economic and social history there. They shared their cultural traditions, languages, skills and knowledge with New England’s citizens and with each other aboard the whaleships. (Lebo)

“Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village. There is evidence that Hawaiians settled across California in the late-1800s and even intermarried with Native Americans.”

“Many scholars speculate that Hawaiians migrated to the mainland in order to gain more economic opportunity and to flee from the dramatic Westernization that was changing the face of Hawai’i.” (pbs-org)

The American Civil War, the discovery of petroleum, and the decimation of the whales ended the reign of the whalers in the Pacific by about 1876. Whaling had been ‘an economic force of awesome proportions in these Islands for more than forty years’. (NPS)

Of course, this summary only highlights some of the early outmigration of Hawaiians from Hawaiʻi. Recent decades have seen a flurry of movement of Hawaiians (and others) from Hawaiʻi to the continent. (Some areas on the continent show over 100% increases decade-by-decade in the number of Hawaiians living there.)