General | Page 61 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Trail of the Whispering Giants

Peter Wolf Toth (rhymes with ‘oath’) was born in 1947 (one of eleven children) into poor circumstances in the newly formed Republic of Hungary. His early years were marked by injustice and violence.

During the 1956 uprising, the Hungarian borders were open, briefly (before the Soviet tanks rolled in), and the Toth family took the opportunity to flee. After two years of being shuttled from refugee camp to refugee camp, Toth and his family eventually immigrated to the United States, and settled in Akron, Ohio. (Quahog)

As Toth grew up in his new country, he developed a deep interest in native North American culture and history. He saw in their story a parallel to the violent repression he had experienced in Hungary.

Although he studied art briefly at the University of Akron, and learned a lot from watching his father (also an artist), Toth considers himself to be self-taught.

In 1971 at age 24, Toth carved a statue of a native American (locally dubbed “the scarfaced Indian”) into a sandstone cliff in La Jolla, California – the first of what he referred to his ‘long Trail of the Whispering Giants.’

In Peter Wolf Toth’s words, “my monuments are made to remind people of the contributions of the Indians of this country. Statues to honor the plight of the Native Peoples of North America.”

“I study the indigenous people of that state, that province, or even that country or island, and once I have a good visual image of who they are … that’s how I come up with these statues. I even try to intertwine the spirit of the tree and the spirit of the (native).” (Toth, Johnson City Press)

“The purpose of my work is to honor the (Native American) people, to honor all people facing injustice.” (Toth)

“Peter Wolf Toth had just dropped out of college and was traveling around the country when he found himself in La Jolla, where his brother has resided for decades.”

“Seeing a ‘haunted face’ in the stone set him on a lifelong mission to honor legendary Native Americans and the plight of occupied indigenous nations. Today, his Trail of Whispering Giants includes 74 sculptures, all of which he carved by hand.” (San Diego Reader)

“Toth is an artist in many senses of the word. … First, he was a painter. Then, he etched his first sculpture into a cliffside in California in 1972.”

“He returned to his home in Ohio in search of another cliff to place his second statue. While he didn’t find any cliffs, he came across a dead elm tree, and from then incorporated wood carving into his repertoire as a sculptor. For his Native American pieces, he strives to use wood native to the area in which he creates each piece.” (Johnson City Press)

Traveling the United States in his ‘Ghost Ship’ (a modified Dodge maxi-van), he spent summers in the north and winters in the south, stopping wherever local officials would allow or invite him to carve one of his ‘Whispering Giants.’

“From Alaska to Florida he has sculpted giant memorials to native Americans. Forty-nine states have welcomed him so far. One state has not. Hawaii.”

“‘I’ve committed myself to honoring the native peoples of this country,’ says Toth who fled Hungary in 1956, and found a home in what he believes is the greatest country in the world.”

“In appreciation, Toth, 37, has devoted the past 17 years to chiseling whole trees into gargantuan 20-ton likenesses which he calls ’Whispering Giants.’”

“These colossal achievements, for which Toth accepts no money, have been featured on all three television networks and in The New York Times.”

“‘Not that it matters, but some of my statues have been valued at up to $100,000 – which is the least of the meaning here,’ says Toth, who lives on the money he earns from the sale of less intimidating icons and books. ‘My biggest obstacle has usually been getting the log.’” (Honolulu Advertiser, Jan 1, 1988)

Later that year, “The Church of Hawaii Nei invited Toth to carve the giant statue on its property at 59-254 Kamehameha Highway in Sunset Beach. … Weyerhaeuser Paper Co donated a huge redwood tree trunk for the statue. …[T]he statue is named Maui Pohaku Loa, after ‘the demigod Maui … from the beginning of time to the end of time.’”

During Toth’s sculpturing, “A city building inspector … happened to drive by there Friday and stopped his car to see what was on the roadside. He got out his tape and measured the statue’s two parts; the face is 16 feet long and the pedestal 4 feet.”

“Based on his measurements and description of the statue, the city Department of Land Utilization determined yesterday that no permit was necessary to erect it.” (It was considered a work of art and not a structure.) (Star Bulletin, May 11, 1988) The Hawai‘i sculpture is no longer standing near Sunset Beach.

What is now dubbed the Trail of the Whispering Giants, a collection of Toth’s sculptures, ranging in height from 20 to 40 feet, and are between 8 and 10 feet in diameter. There was at least one in each of the 50 US states, as well as in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, and one in Hungary. (Wright)

Because the statues are made from wood (each is carved from a single log and is hand-chiseled (no power tools)), many have been damaged by storms, rot, termites, and winds. He has replaced several of them. The Hawai‘i statue is no longer displayed and the property that it was on has sold. (Lot of information here is from quahog, memorialogy and postcardhistory.)

November 29, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kauwā

At the time of European contact in 1778, Hawaiian society comprised four levels. People were born into specific social classes; social mobility was not unknown, but it was extremely rare.

The kapu system separated people into four groups: Aliʻi, the ruling class of chiefs and nobles (kings, high chiefs, low chiefs); Kahuna, the priests (who conducted religious ceremonies at the heiau and elsewhere) and master craftsmen; Maka‘āinana, commoners (the largest group) those who lived on the land; and Kauwā (or Kauā), social outcasts, “untouchables”.

“[T]he Paramount Chief (Ali’i Nui) fulfilled the role of father to this people … At the other extreme of the social order were the despised kauwā, who were outcasts …”

“… compelled to live in a barren locality apart from the tribesmen or people “belonging to the land” (ma-ka-‘aina-na), and whose only function and destiny was to serve as human sacrifices to the Ali’i’s war god Ku when a Luakini or war temple was dedicated in anticipation of a season of fighting.” (Handy & Pukui)

“The kauwā class were so greatly dreaded and abhorred that they were not allowed to enter any house but that of their master, because they were spoken of as the aumakua of their master.”

“Men and women who were kauwā were said to be people from the wild woods (nahelehele), from the lowest depths (no lalo liio loa).” (Malo) The word kauwā “was used in historic times to mean servant, but originally it meant outcast.”

“There was a landless class of people who were probably the descendants of aborigines found already settled in the Hawaiian Islands when the migrants from the south came and their chiefs established themselves as overlords.”

“In the district of Ka‘u on the island of Hawaii the Kauwā were confined to a small infertile reservation. This reservation was the dry, rocky west half of the ahupua’a named Ninole, which is near Punalu‘u.”

“For a makaainana or ali‘i to walk on kauwā land was forbidden. Whoever did so became defiled and was put to death. However, a kauwā, with head covered under a scarf of tapa and eyes downcast, might go to the chief in case of need.”

“When in need of a victim for human sacrifice at the war temple a priest would go to the boundary of the kauwā reservation and summon a victim. The man summoned could not refuse.”

“If a kauwā woman gave birth to a child sired by an ali’i the child was strangled; and the same was true of a child born to a chiefess whose father was a kauwā.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Kepelino gives a detailed description of kauwā under the title ‘The Slave Class,’ as follows: “The slaves or kauwā were people set apart from the rest and treated like filthy beasts. They could not associate with other men. They were called ‘corpses,’ that is, foul-smelling things.”

“They were not allowed to marry outside their own class. If they were married and bore children to one not a slave, then all those children would have their necks wrung lest disgrace come to the family and the blot be handed down to their descendants.”

“The slaves were considered an evil here in Hawaii. They increased rapidly, – a thousand or more there were. They continued to give birth from the time of their ancestors until the present time, they could not become extinct.”

“They are not a laboring class; they were not selected to serve the chiefs; but on the tabu days of the heiau [anciently] they were killed as offering to the idols.”

“The slaves occupied themselves with their own work. They had a separate piece of land given them by their masters where they built houses and sought a livelihood for themselves by farming and fishing.”

“This land was tabu. Those not slaves could not till there or use its products. The commoner who trespassed on the land was put to death.”

“The slaves were so tabu that they could not bare their heads but must cover themselves with a wide piece of tapa with great humility and never look up.”

“They were so tabu that they were not permitted to enter the house-lot of other men. If they wished for anything they came outside the enclosure and spoke. But to the place of their Chief who was their master they were at liberty to go.”

“The slaves were very different in old times, a humble people, kind and gentle. They worked for a living much like those who work under contract, but they were despised in Hawaii and are so to this day, they are not regarded as like other people.”

“There were slave lands in every district of the islands, as, for example, Ka-lae-mamo in Kona on Hawaii, Makeanehu in Kohala, and so forth.” (Kepelino)

“When the ancient system of kapu was abandoned in Liholiho’s reign, the humiliation of the kauwā ended, and they merged with the maka‘ainana gradually over the years.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

November 28, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dogs

The dog was present at the time of European discovery of Polynesia in only a few archipelagoes. The Tuamotus, Society Islands, Hawaiian Islands, and New Zealand had dogs. (Luomala)

The generalized description of the native dog by J. R. Forster (1778) notes, “The dogs of the South Sea isles are of a singular race: they most resemble the common cur, but have a prodigious large head, remarkably little eyes, prick-ears, long hair and a short bushy tail.”

“They are chiefly fed with fruit at the Society Isles; but in the low isles and New Zealand, where they are the only domestic animals, they live upon fish.”

“They are exceedingly stupid, and seldom or never bark, only howl now and then; have the sense of smelling in a very low degree, and are lazy beyond measure …”

“… they are kept by the natives chiefly for the sake of their flesh, of which they are very fond, preferring it to pork; they also make use of their hair, in various ornaments …”

“The quadrupeds in [the Hawaiian Islands], as in all the other islands that have been discovered in the South Sea, are confined to three sorts, dogs, hogs, and rats. The dogs are of the same species with those of Otaheite, having short crooked legs, long backs, and pricked ears.”

“I did not observe any variety in them, except in their skins; some having long and rough hair, and others being quite smooth. They are about the size of a common turnspit; exceedingly sluggish in their nature; though perhaps this may be more owing to the manner in which they are treated, than to any natural disposition in them.”

“They are in general fed, and left to herd with the hogs; and I do not recollect one instance in which a dog was made companion in the manner we do in Europe.”

“Indeed, the custom of eating them is an insuperable bar to their admission into society; and as there is neither beasts of prey in the island, nor objects of chace, it is probable that the social qualities of the dog, its fidelity, attachment, and sagacity, will remain unknown to the natives.”

“The number of dogs in these islands did not appear to be nearly equal in proportion to those in Otaheite. But, on the other hand, they abound much more in hogs; and the breed is of a larger and weightier kind.”

“The supply of provisions of this kind, which we got from them, was really astonishing. We were near four months either cruising off the coast, or in harbour at Owhyhee.”

“During all this time, a large allowance of fresh pork was constantly served to both crews; so that our consumption was computed at about sixty puncheons of five hundred weight each.”

“Besides this, and the incredible waste, which, in the midst of such plenty, was not to be guarded against, sixty puncheons more were salted for sea-store. The greatest part of this supply was drawn from the island of Owhyhee alone, and yet we could not perceive that it was at all drained, or even that the abundance had any way decreased.”

“The hogs, dogs, and fowls, which were the only tame or domestic animals that we found here, were all of the same kind that we met with at the South Pacific islands. There were also small lizards; and some rats, resembling those seen at every island at which we had as yet touched.”

“Of animal food, they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run, without restraint, about the houses; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seem to be very considerable”. (Cook’s Journal)

Hawaiians lived by a strict set of laws known as kanawai. Certain people, places, and things were kapu (forbidden.) Kapu established rules for behavior. For example, women and men ate separately. Also, women were forbidden from eating certain foods such as pork [they ate dog instead], coconuts, and bananas. (NPS)

Dog teeth were made into hula ankle rattles (kūpe’e niho īlio) that were worn in pairs by male dancers; these produced sharp, rattling sounds. An average pair might contain the canines of up to 500 dogs.

November 25, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sweet Potato Getting to Hawai‘i

Tracing the history of agricultural products is one way scientists track the migration of people during times when no written records were left behind to offer clues. (Yirda; PHYS)

On his voyages across the Pacific, Captain James Cook encountered geographically disparate Polynesian societies, including those living on Easter Island, Hawai‘i and the north island of New Zealand. These far-flung communities cultivated a common crop, sweet potato. (Denham; NCBI)

Researchers later sampled specimens brought back by early explorers (including Cook.) They found that the DNA evidence indicated that the sweet potato had migrated to Polynesia long before European explorers had made their way to that part of the world. (Yirda; PHYS)

Peruvians first domesticated the sweet potato around 8,000-years ago. And though the crop spread from there, the means by which it traveled have always remained contentious.

One possibility was that Polynesian sailors first brought it home from across the ocean: The oldest carbonized sweet potato evidence in the Pacific hails back to about 1,000 AD – 500-years before Columbus sailed to the Americas.

The Polynesian word for sweet potato resembles the central Andes’ Quechua people’s word for the vegetable. (SmithsonianMag) Polynesian word for sweet potato ‘kuumala’ resembles ‘kumara,’ or ‘cumal,’ the words for the vegetable in Quechua, a language spoken by Andean natives. (NPS)

By analyzing the DNA of 1,245 sweet potato varieties from Asia and the Americas, researchers have found genetic evidence that proves the root vegetable made it to Polynesia from the Andes.

DNA studies did not just look at potatoes, research suggests Polynesians from Easter Island and natives of South America met and mingled before 1500 AD, 3-centuries after Polynesians settled the island also known as Rapa Nui. In the genomes of 27 living Rapa Nui islanders, the team found dashes of European and Native American genetic patterns.

But did Polynesians land on South American beaches, or did Native Americans sail into the Pacific to reach Rapa Nui? (Lawler; ScienceMag) Or, did its seeds possibly hitch a ride on seaweed or natural raft, or gotten lodged in the wing of a bird? (NPR)

“Our studies strongly suggest that Native Americans most probably arrived (on Rapa Nui) shortly after the Polynesians (got there.)” (Erik Thorsby; ScienceMag)

But many scientists say that Pacific currents and Polynesian mastery of the waves make it more likely that the Polynesians were the voyagers. They may have sailed to South America, swapped goods for sweet potatoes and other novelties—and returned to their island with South American women. (Lawler; ScienceMag)

“There’s a lot of evidence accumulating … that the Polynesians made landfall in South America. We think they had sophisticated, double-hulled canoes – like very large catamarans – which could carry 80 or more people and be out to sea for months.” (Kirch; NPR)

But Polynesians didn’t just grab the potatoes and head home. There are clues that they may have introduced chickens to the continent while they were at it.

“(T)here is this baffling evidence that there were chickens in western Peru before Columbus.” (Mann; NPR) Chicken bones – unknown in the Americas before 1500 AD have been excavated on a Chilean beach, which some believe predate Columbus. (NPR)

The researchers found strong evidence that “supports the so-called tripartite hypothesis, which argues that the sweet potato was introduced to Polynesia three times: first through premodern contact between Polynesia and South America, then by Spanish traders sailing west from Mexico, and Portuguese traders coming east from the Caribbean.”

“The Spanish and Portuguese varieties ended up in the western Pacific, while the older South American variety dominated in the east”. (SmithsonianMag)

It is believed the sweet potato then made three independent trips to Southeast Asia. The Polynesians probably introduced it in 1100 AD. While the Spanish and Portuguese brought other varieties from the Americas around 1500. (NPR)

“I’m delighted to see the (tripartite) hypothesis now further confirmed by these recent results.” (Kirch; Nature) Such studies of how humans moved plants and animals, Kirch says, show what the late pioneering ethnobotanist Edgar Anderson called “man’s transported landscapes.”

Historical specimens will be crucial to explaining these patterns. The sweet potatoes collected by Captain Cook’s voyage, for example, “provided time-controlled data” that show “the importance of continuing to curate such specimens in the world’s museums”. (Nature)

As widely used as it is now, the sweet potato could play an even bigger role in feeding people across the world: climate change may help the roots grow even bigger. (SmithsonianMag)

He ʻuala ka ʻai hoʻola koke i ka wi.
The sweet potato is the food that ends famine quickly. (ʻŌlelo Noʻeau from Pukui)

3 Independent introductions of sweet potato-NPS

November 23, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Thanksgiving is a major holiday celebrated in the United States, with origins dating back centuries to Colonial times.

The faith of celebrating a harvest of plenty was a dramatic event in early Colonial America, since food supplies were far from dependable. Years of massive starvation were as common as times of plenty.

Although Native Americans were known to have harvest celebrations for centuries, if not millennia, before arrival of Europeans, the quintessence of Thanksgiving in all regions was a joint celebration of colonists and indigenous peoples, sharing the bounty of autumn and their common survival.

The site and date of origin of Thanksgiving are matters of great dispute, with regional claims being made by widely disparate locations in North America. The chief claims are: Saint Augustine, Florida – 1565; Baffin Island, Canada – 1578; Jamestown, Virginia – 1619 and Plymouth, Massachusetts – 1621.

Na-Huihui-O-Makaliʻi, “Cluster of Little Eyes” (Makaliʻi) (a faint group of blue-white stars) marks the shoulder of the Taurus (Bull) constellation. Though small and dipper-shaped, it is not the Little Dipper. (Makaliʻi is also known as the Pleiades; its common name is the Seven Sisters.)

Traditionally, the rising of Makaliʻi at sunset following the new moon (about the middle of October) marked the beginning of a four-month Makahiki season in ancient Hawaiʻi (a sign of the change of the season to winter.)

In Hawaiʻi, the Makahiki is a form of the “first fruits” festivals common to many cultures throughout the world. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations.

Something similar was observed throughout Polynesia, but it was in pre-contact Hawaiʻi that the festival. Makahiki was celebrated during a designated period of time following the harvesting season.

As the year’s harvest was gathered, tributes in the form of goods and produce were given to the chiefs from November through December.

It’s not clear when the first western Thanksgiving feast was held in Hawaiʻi, but from all apparent possibilities, the first recorded one took place in Honolulu and was held among the families of the American missionaries from New England.

According to the reported entry in Lowell Smith’s journal on December 6, 1838: “This day has been observed by us missionaries and people of Honolulu as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God. Something new for this nation.”

“The people turned out pretty well and they dined in small groups and in a few instances in large groups. We missionaries all dined at Dr. Judd’s and supped at Brother Bingham’s. … An interesting day; seemed like old times – Thanksgiving in the United States.”

A January 1, 1841 reference by Laura Fish Judd, Sketches of Life in Honolulu states: “There were twenty-five adults and thirty-two children of the station in Honolulu, and a proposition to unite in appropriate religious exercises and a Thanksgiving dinner, met with unanimous approval. …”

“Each lady was to furnish such dishes as suited her taste and convenience, while the table arrangements were the portion of one individual. … At three o’clock we had donned our best apparel, and sat down at the long table to enjoy a double feast.”

The first Thanksgiving Proclamation in Hawaiʻi appears to have been issued on November 23, 1849, and set the 31st day of December as a date of Thanksgiving. This appeared in ‘The Friend’ on December 1, 1849.

The following, under the signature of King Kamehameha III, named the 31st of December as a day of public thanks. The Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1849 read, in part:

“In accordance with the laws of this Kingdom, and the excellent usage of Christian Nations, it has pleased his Majesty, in council, to appoint the Thirty-first day of December, next, as a day of public thanksgiving to God, for His unnumbered mercies and blessings to this nation; and …”

“… people of every class are respectfully requested to assemble in their several houses of worship on that day, to render united praise to the Father of nations, and to implore His favor in time to come, upon all who dwell upon these shores, as individuals, as families, and as a nation.” (Signed at the Palace. Honolulu, November, 23, 1849.)

“It will be seen by Royal Proclamation that Monday, the 31st of December has been appointed by His Majesty in Council as a day of Thanksgiving. We are glad to see this time-honored custom introduced into this Kingdom.”

As noted in an 1850 edition of The Friend, “Among the many good imports into this Kingdom, we rejoice that on the last day of 1849 a National Thanksgiving made its appearance. His Majesty, Kamehameha, could not have made an appointment that would call up in the minds of Americans in his dominions, more pleasing and time hallowed associations.”

“Thanksgiving is a season as fondly cherished and observed by the descendants of the Pilgrims, as Christmas is by people of the ‘old countries.’ To be sure, Thanksgiving on the 31st of December when that occurs on Monday, rather shocks our ideas of the festival, which we have always been accustomed to celebrate on Thursday, and that Thursday ordinarily the last of November …”

“… but not supposing it possible for the King to err, we would merely express the wish that his ministers will consult their almanac next year before making the appointment. This is however, of minor importance — we come to matters of graver moment. …”

“Under the general direction of the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, Minister of Public Instruction, all the Protestant Schools in Honolulu were assembled at ten o’clock at the stone church [Kawaiaha‘o].”

“It was a pleasant spectacle, on a most charming Monday morning to witness group after group of neatly dressed children wending their way to the place of gathering, conducted by their respective teachers.”

“Soon after the audience was seated, His Majesty, the Queen, the Premier, the Minister of Foreign Relations, and others, took their seats upon the platform.” [A program of singing, chants and public addresses was described in the record.] (The Friend, January 4, 1850)

The celebratory day of Thanksgiving changed over time. On December 26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed into law a bill making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law, fixing the day as the fourth Thursday of November.

Here is a link to information on the First Thanksgiving:

Click to access First-Thanksgiving.pdf

Happy Thanksgiving!!!