Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Moku Manu

About 2-million years ago, much of the northeast flank of Koʻolau volcano was sheared off and material was swept onto the ocean floor (named the Nuʻuanu Avalanche) – one of the largest landslides on Earth.

The Pali is the remaining edge of the giant basin, or caldera, formed by the volcano. Mōkapu Peninsula (where Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i is situated) is evidence of subsequent secondary volcanic eruptions that formed, among other features, the islet of Moku Manu.

The majority of seabird-nesting colonies in the main Hawaiian Islands are located on the offshore islands, islets and rocks. Many of these offshore islands are part of the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary System.

These sanctuaries protect seabirds, Hawaiian Monk seals, migrating shorebirds, and native coastal vegetation. These small sanctuary areas represent the last vestiges of a once widespread coastal ecosystem that included the coastlines of all the main Hawaiian Islands. (DLNR)

Hawaiian seabirds today are subject to a number of threats to their survival, including predation by introduced mammals, habitat loss and degradation, and human impacts by people trespassing in seabird nesting areas.

Moku Manu (Bird Island) is three-quarters of a mile off Mōkapu Peninsula. It’s aptly named; it has the most diverse and one of the densest seabird colonies in the Main Hawaiian Islands. The state designated it the Moku Manu State Wildlife Sanctuary. (DLNR)

It is home to Uʻau Kani or Wedged-Tailed Shearwater, Noio or Black Noddy, Noio kōhā or Brown Noddy, ʻOu or Bulwer’s Petrel, Koaʻe ʻula or Red-tailed Tropicbird, ‘Ewa ʻEwa or Sooty Tern …

… ʻIwa or Great Frigatebird, Christmas Shearwater, Pākalakala or Grey-backed Tern, ʻā or Masked Booby, ʻā or Brown Booby, ʻā or Red-footed Boobies and various common shorebird species. (DLNR)

Moku Manu is protected as a state seabird sanctuary like its neighbors to the south, Manana, Kāohikaipu, and Mōkōlea Rock. “It is prohibited for any person to land upon, enter or attempt to enter, or remain in any wildlife sanctuaries …” Regardless, landing by boat is nearly impossible due to the lack of a safe beach.

The island is actually of two parts; the main western one is about 18 acres in extent and the smaller outer part is about three acres.

It has a relatively flat top, averaging about 165 feet in height but running up to 202 feet. The cliffs of Moku Manu drop directly into the sea around more than half of the island.

Moku Manu is perhaps the least accessible to humans of any of O‘ahu’s offshore islands. This fact seems to explain to an important degree the breeding of several species there that do not nest on any other of Oahu’s offshore islands.

Due to the challenging accessibility onto the island, it is rarely visited by unauthorized persons and not often by others (it is prohibited by law to go onto the island without a permit.)

During the last century or more, when the bird populations of more accessible offshore islands were depleted by man, and domestic plants and mammals sometimes introduced, Moku Manu remained relatively free from such influences.

The much longer canoe trip (there are no beaches near the head of Mōkapu Peninsula opposite Moku Manu,) the rough channel, and the uncertainty of being able to get on the island must have combined to keep even the old Hawaiians away much of the time. (Richardson & Fisher, 1950)

I grew up on Kaneohe Bay (on the other side of Mōkapu Peninsula from Moku Manu). No one sailed in our family. Except, as a pre-/early-teen, we did get a car-toppable Sunfish that I used to sail by myself in the Bay, usually in the main basin of the Bay.

However, one day I cruised to Coral Island, then ventured a bit more out the Crash Boat Channel to Turtle Back. And, from there, in the distance, I saw another target, Moku Manu.

After a while, and about halfway to Moku Manu, I realized this was probably not a good idea; folks at home thought I was leisurely cruising in the Bay, now I was in blue water, well outside the Bay.

No one knowing, no life jacket, no radio … a kid with no brains. However, the challenge was there and I eventually circled the island, and its birds, and safely headed home.

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Land Divisions

In discussing ancient land divisions, we typically hear of Mokupuni (island,) Moku (district,) Ahupuaʻa (generally watershed units) and ʻIli (strips of land.) Kalana and ʻOkana are often less-heard-of land divisions.

“In very ancient times, the lands were not divided and an island was left without divisions such as kalana, ʻokana, ahupuaʻa, and ʻili, but in the time when the lands became filled with people, the lands were divided, with the proper names for this place and that place so that they could be known.” (Kamakau)

Each of the larger divisions of this group, like Hawaiʻi, Maui and the others, is called a mokupuni (moku, cut off, and puni, surrounded.)

Six districts on the islands of O‘ahu and Hawai‘i, and the system of developing smaller manageable units of land became formalized by the early 1600s, in the reigns of ʻUmi-a-Līloa and Māʻilikūkahi. (Maly)

“The island (moku that is surrounded by water) is the main division, like, Hawai’i, Maui and the rest of the island chain. (Islands) were divided up into sections inside of the island, called moku o loko, like such places as Kona on Hawai’i island, and Hana on Mäui island, and such divisions on these islands.” (Malo)

Over the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved. The moku puni or islands were subdivided into land units of varying sizes.

Each island was divided into several Moku ʻĀina (moku-o-loko (district – literally: interior island)) (Moku) or Districts. The Moku and Kalana (similar to the Moku) were divided into ʻokana (divisions within a Moku or Kalana) and Ahupuaʻa.

There sections were further divided into subdivision called ʻokana, or kalana. On the intermediate level, some kalana/moku were subdivided into ʻokana, some ʻokana were apparently independent of any moku/kalana, and moku and kalana were not always synonymous but appear in some cases to have been units nested within each other. (Beamer)

“(A) poko is a subdivision of a ʻokana. These sections were further divided into smaller divisions called Ahupua’a, and sections smaller than an Ahupua’a were called ‘ili ‘āina.” (Malo)

There is a district called Kona on the lee side, and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island. On Maui there are some sub-districts called ʻokana, of which there are five in the Hana district, while Lahaina is termed a Kalana. (Alexander)

Despite the diversity and complexity of the system, it appears that the ahupua’a became the most important division in the resource administration of the Hawaiian Kingdom, both as a unit and as a reference for the location of smaller properties. (Beamer)

Ahupuaʻa are subdivisions of land that were usually marked by an altar with an image or representation of a pig placed upon it (thus the name ahu-puaʻa or pig altar.)

In their configuration, the ahupua‘a may be compared to wedge-shaped pieces of land that radiate out from the center of the island, extending to the ocean fisheries fronting the land unit.

Their boundaries are generally defined by topography and geological features such as pu‘u (hills), ridges, gullies, valleys, craters, or areas of a particular vegetation growth.

The ahupua‘a, like the larger districts they belonged to, were also divided into smaller manageable parcels. Among the smaller land units that were identified by the ancient Hawaiians were the: ‘ili lele and ‘ili kupono. (Maly)

A peculiarity of the ‘Ili, on Oʻahu at least, is that it often consists of several distinct sections of land in different parts of the Ahupua’a, which are called lele, i.e. ‘jumps.’

Thus many lands in Waikiki have their corresponding patches of taro land and forest in Waikiki and Manoa valleys. The taro lands of Wailupe are found in Palolo valley. In Kalihi, and also in the district of ʻEwa, are ʻili which consist of eight or ten scattered lele apiece, included under one title. (Alexander)

ʻIli were detached parcels with resources in various environmental zones; kihāpai, both lo‘i (pond fields) and dry gardens; māla, dryland agricultural systems; and kōʻele, agricultural parcels worked by commoners for the chiefs.

These smaller parcels were inhabited and managed by the makaʻāinana (people of the land) and their extended families. In each ahupua‘a—from mountain slopes to the ocean—the common people were generally allowed access to all of the various natural resources within a given ahupua‘a. (Maly)

Land Divisions include, generally:

• Mokupuni – The island groups (such as our current county system)
• Moku – The major districts of each individual island
• Kalana – The significant divisions within each Moku
• ʻOkana – Division of the Moku or Kalana
• Ahupua‘a – Individual watershed regions within each Kalana
• ʻIli – functional subdivisions of an Ahupua‘a

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Keʻelikōlani

Keʻelikōlani’s heritage was controversial. She was the poʻolua (“two heads”) child of Kāhalaiʻa and Kekūanāoʻa. (Johnson)

Her mother, Pauahi, was said to be carrying the child of Kāhalaiʻa when she married Kekūanāoʻa. Kekūanāoʻa claimed Keʻelikōlani as his own in court, and the matter was officially settled, though it would be debated again in later years, even by her own half-brother, Lot. (Nogelmeier)

After Pauahi’s death, Kekūanāoʻa married Kīna‘u, and they became the parents of Lot Kapuāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu, making Keʻelikōlani a half-sister to these three.

Her mother died during her childbirth (February 9, 1826,) and she was raised by the Kuhina Nui and favorite wife of Kamehameha I, Kaʻahumanu. (Kaʻahumanu died six years later; she was then sent to live with her father, Kekūanāoʻa, and her stepmother, Kīnaʻu.)

Keʻelikōlani was an important figure during her lifetime, known for her high rank in the Kamehameha lineage, her social position as a governor and woman of means, and for her character as a woman of dignity, both strong-willed and kind.

She was held in high regard by the general populace, and treated lovingly or respectfully by the ranking chiefs, government officials, and the people of her time.

She was a great-granddaughter of Kamehameha, a grand-niece to Kamehameha II and III, and a half-sister of Kamehameha IV and V. (Nogelmeier)

As a Kamehameha descendant, Keʻelikōlani was part of the royal family and the court for as long as the Kamehameha dynasty ruled. Following the death of Kamehameha V, William Charles Lunalilo ascended the throne by election in 1873.

A Kamehameha through his mother Kekāuluohi, Lunalilo proclaimed the royal family to consist of himself, his father Kanaʻina, Dowager Queen Emma and Keʻelikōlani. His official royal court included these four, along with the king’s treasurer, H. G. Crabbe. (Nogelmeier)

When mentioned in the press, Keʻelikōlani was usually listed as Ka Mea Kiʻekiʻe, Ke Ali‘i Ruta Keʻelikōlani – Her Highness, Chiefess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Foreigners knew her as “Princess Ruth.” (Nogelmeier)

At the age of sixteen, Keʻelikōlani married William Pitt Leleiōhoku. While serving as governor of Hawai‘i Island, Leleiōhoku died, only twenty-two years old. Their surviving son, William Pitt Kīnaʻu, died at the age of seventeen in an accident on Hawai‘i. (Silva)

Keʻelikōlani’s second husband (June 2, 1856) was the part-Hawaiian Isaac Young Davis, grandson of Isaac Davis, a British advisor to King Kamehameha I. The two had a son (1862,) Keolaokalani, whom Keʻelikōlani gave as a hānai to Bernice Pauahi. Keolaokalani died in about 6-months and Leleiōhoku died of pneumonia in 1877.

She was also the adoptive mother of Leleiōhoku, brother to Kalākaua, Liliʻuokalani and Likelike, and heir apparent, whom she had renamed in honor of her first husband. (Nogelmeier)

“Princess Ruth, daughter of Pauahi and Kekūanāoʻa, who had adopted Leleiōhoku, asked of the king (Kalākaua) if she herself could not be proclaimed heir apparent; and this suggestion was placed before the king’s counsellors at a cabinet meeting, but it was objected that …”

“… if her petition was granted, then Mrs. Pauahi Bishop would be the next heir to the throne, as they were first cousins. At noon of the tenth day of April, 1877, the booming of the cannon was heard which announced that I was heir apparent to the throne of Hawaii.” (Liliʻuokalani)

Keʻelikōlani died in 1883 at Haleʻōlelo, her large hale pili native-style home on the grounds of Huliheʻe Palace in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i.

At her death, Keʻelikōlani’s will stated that she “give and bequeath forever to my beloved younger sister (cousin), Bernice Pauahi Bishop, all of my property, the real property and personal property from Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi, all of said property to be hers.” (about 353,000 acres)

This established the land-base endowment for Pauahi’s subsequent formation of Kamehameha Schools at her death. Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop passed away a year later.

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Waimea

Hole Waimea i ka ihe a ka makani
Hao mai nā‘ale a ke Kīpu‘upu‘u
He lā‘au kala‘ihi ‘ia na ke anu
I ‘ō‘ō i ka nahele o Mahiki
Kū aku i ka pahu
Kū a ka ‘awa‘awa
Hanane‘e ke kīkala o kō Hilo kini
Ho‘i lu‘ulu‘u i ke one o Hanakahi
Kū aku la ‘oe i ka Malanai
A ke Kīpu‘upu‘u
Holu ka maka o ka ‘ōhāwai a Uli
Niniau ‘eha ka pua o ke koai‘e
Ua ‘eha i ka nahele o Waikā

Waimea strips the spears of the wind
Waves tossed in violence by the Kīpu‘upu‘u rains
Trees brittle in the cold
Are made into spears in Mahiki forest
Hit by the thrusts
Hit by the cold
The hips of Hilo’s throngs sag
Weary, they return to the sands of Hanakahi
Pelted and bruised by
The Kīpu‘upu‘u rains
The petals of Uli sway
The flower of koai‘e droops
Stung by frost, the herbage of Waikā

This is a mele inoa (name chant) for Kamehameha I, that was inherited by his son, Liholiho. This is a tale of the Kîpuʻupuʻu, a band of runners whose name is taken from the cold wind of Maunakea that blows at Waimea on the big island of Hawaiʻi.

They were trained in spear fighting and went to the woods of Mahiki, a woodland in Waimea haunted by demons and spooks, and Waikā to strip the bark of saplings to make spears. Hole means to handle roughly, strip or caress passionately.

In the forest they sang of love, not of work or war. Hanakahi is the district on the Hamakua side of Hilo, named for a chief whose name means profound peace.

Malanai is the name of gentle wind. Pua o Koaiʻe is the blossom of the Koaiʻe tree that grows in the wild, a euphemism for delicate parts. Parts of this old chant, full of double entendre or kaona, was set to music by John Spencer and entitled Waikā.  (Hualapa)

Waimea (which literally means reddish water, as it was thought to be tinted as it was drained through the hāpu‘u tree fern forests or through the red soil) has been poetically characterized as being “like a spear rubbed by the wind, as the cold spray is blown by the kipu‘upu‘u rain…” (Cultural Surveys)

Many elders familiar with the area attribute the red tint not to the red soil, but to the natural color added as the water seeps through the hāpu‘u forest on the slopes of the Kohala Mountains.

The fern plants there are a natural source of red dye, and so they say the reddish tint comes from that vegetation. Perhaps the red tint comes from both the soil and the hāpu‘u.  (Cultural Surveys)

The population of Waimea became the most significant in density, scattered among fields adjacent to streams that provided year-round water for consumption, cleaning and irrigation. The availability of dependable irrigation systems gave Waimea a unique advantage whereby both dryland and irrigated kalo (taro) could be grown.  (Bergin)

The early Waimea inhabitants resided typically within a pā hale (fenced house lot) with a sleeping house and adjacent protected cooking facility. The pā pōhaku (stone wall) surrounded the pā hale, and likely included within was a kīhāpai (garden).

The farming plot (‘apana) of the householder was located elsewhere within the agricultural zone of the respective ahupua’a. These prehistoric farmed areas have become known as the Waimea Field System.  (Bergin)

Dry taro used to be planted along the lower slopes of the Kohala Mountains on the Waimea side, up the gulches and in the lower forest zones. Dry taro was planted also along the slopes toward Honoka’a, and is said to have been grown on the plains south and west of Kamuela.  (Handy)

Archibald Menzies, noted in 1793, “A little higher up, however, than I had time to penetrate, I saw in the verge of the woods several fine plantations, and my guides took great pains to inform me that the inland country was very fertile and numerously inhabited.”

“Indeed, I could readily believe the truth of these assertions, from the number of people I met loaded with the produce of their plantations and bringing it down to the water side to market”. (Menzies)

Kamehameha started marketing sandalwood, a multitude of people from Waimea had been ordered to harvest sandalwood trees from the Kohala Mountains. It was arduous labor that required the men to carry these huge harvested trees to the coastline for shipping.  (Cultural Surveys)

“(W)e were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandal wood, which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku, by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point, had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu.”

“There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandal wood, according to their size and weight.”

“It was generally tied on their backs by bands made of ti leaves, passed over the shoulders and under the arms, and fastened across their breast. When they had deposited the wood at the storehouse, they departed to their respective homes.”  (Ellis)

Other activities had altered the landscape. Captain George Vancouver brought gifts of cattle, goats, and sheep for Kamehameha.  A kapu (prohibition) was instituted and the animals multiplied across Waimea and the rest of the lands of north Hawai‘i Island.

Many walls and enclosures had to be built to protect the people’s cultivated crops from destruction from the animals. In 1803, the horse was also introduced to the island.  (Bergin)

With the lifting of the kapu in 1830, Kamehameha appointed the first authorized cattle hunter, John Palmer Parker.  Three years later, Parker married Keli‘i Kipikane Kaolohaka, a great-granddaughter of Kamehameha. The hunting of animals, and especially the salting and corning of beef and the procurement of hides and tallow, became a booming industry.  (Bergin)

The salted beef, hide, and tallow export industry grew to become a major component of commerce. Forty to fifty-nine whaling ships annually called at Kawaihae in the mid-1850s.

They provisioned taking aboard 1,500 barrels of salt beef, 5,000 barrels of sweet potatoes, 1,200 bullock hides, and 35,000 pounds of tallow on an average. Between Waimea and Kawaihae, South Kohala became the center of the cattle industry. (Bergin)

In 1832, the first of numerous Mexican cowboys arrived on Hawai‘i Island to lend their experience and skills in handling cattle.  While the vaqueros were busy teaching their cowboy skills to Hawaiians in the 1800s, Parker became a leader in the industry.

In 1847, he established the Parker Ranch, an enterprise which would later become one of the greatest ranches under the American flag.  (Bergin)

Overlapping with the arrivals of foreign sailors, whalers, and cowboys to the islands was the equally significant arrival of Christian missionaries.  One of the most famous early missionaries was Lorenzo Lyons, who arrived in the islands in 1832.  He established a Mission Station in Waimea.

The Territory, officially through the US Board of Geographic Names, in 1914, agreed to name the community “Waimea” (and further noted it as a “village.”)  Later, in 1954, they revised the name to simply Waimea (and dropped the village reference.)

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Kiribati

Kiribati is an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, located in the central Pacific Ocean. It is part of the division of the Pacific islands that is known as Micronesia. It is located along the equator and International Date Line about halfway between Hawaii and Australia (about 2,500 mi southwest of Hawai‘i).

The islands in Kiribati are divided among three island groups: the Gilbert Islands in the West (named after British Captain Thomas Gilbert who on June 20, 1788 first sighted Tarawa – Adam von Krusenstern named the group of islands the Gilbert Islands in the 1820s (Macdonald)) …

… the Phoenix Islands Protected Area or PIPA (formerly known as the Phoenix Islands Group – reportedly named by Captain John Palmer on the whaling ship ‘Phoenix’ on Feb 23, 1824) in the center, and the Line Islands (a chain/alignment of islands) in the East. 

The name Kiribati is the local rendition of ‘Gilberts’ in the Gilbertese (it is pronounced as kee·ree·bas; in the Gilbertese language the letters ‘-ti’ together make an ‘-s’ sound).

Of the 33 islands of Kiribati, 21 are inhabited. Most of the population is concentrated in the Gilbert Islands and only one of the islands in Phoenix Group (Kanton Island) is inhabited and three of the Line Islands are permanently inhabited. The capital of Kiribati is Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Bairiki, an islet of Tarawa, serves as an administrative center. (Kiribati Tourism)

The atoll Kiritimati (kee-ris-mahs – a rather straightforward respelling of the English word “Christmas” in the Kiribati language) is the largest coral atoll in the world; it has a land area of 150 square miles – its lagoon is roughly the same size.

The atoll is about 93 mi in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over 30 mi. Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati. This is where Captain Cook spent Christmas.

Cook’s third (and final) voyage (1776-1779) of discovery was an attempt to locate a North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  Cook commanded the Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery.  (State Library, New South Wales)

After a year among the islands of the South Pacific, many of which Cook was the first European to make contact, on December 8, 1777, they were in Bora-Bora (northwest of Tahiti).

Proceeding north, they discovered the Pacific’s largest atoll, Kiritimati (what Cook called Christmas Island (where they celebrated Christmas)) and Cook observed an eclipse of the sun. After stocking up on over a ton of green turtles, the ships departed on January 2, 1778. (Smithsonian)

“On the 2d of January, at day-break, we weighed anchor (at Christmas Island,) and resumed our course to the north; having fine weather, and a gentle breeze at east, and east-south-east …”

“We continued to see birds every day … sometimes in greater numbers than others; and between the latitude of 10° and 11% we saw several turtle. All these are looked upon us signs of the vicinity of land.”

“However, we discovered none till day-break, in the morning of the 18th, when an island made its appearance, bearing northeast by east; and, soon after, we saw more land bearing north, and entirely detached from the former.”  (Cook’s Journal)

On January 18, 1778, Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

In another Hawai‘i connection, Hiram Bingham II, son of Pioneer missionary Hiram Bingham, was born on O‘ahu born on August 16, 1831.  He was ordained a Congregationalist minister in New Haven, Connecticut on November 9, 1856, and married Clara Brewster nine days later.

Like his father, he set sail less than two weeks later to begin his missionary career. He left Boston on December 2, 1856, on the brig Morning Star, arrived in Honolulu on April 24, 1857, then he went on to the Gilbert Islands in November 1857.

Hiram II spent seven years in the Gilbert Islands (he settled at Abaiang, just north of Tarawa), struggling against disease, hunger and hostile merchants. During that time, he made few converts, about fifty in all, but learned the language and began translating the Bible into Gilbertese.

Due to ill health, he was forced to return to Honolulu in 1864. Except for occasional visits to the US and another short stay in the Gilberts (1873-75,) Hiram II spent the remainder of his life in Hawaiʻi where he translated of the entire Bible into Gilbertese.

Bairiki, on Tarawa Atoll, serves as the head of Kiribati government and administrative center. During WWII, Tarawa was a Japanese stronghold.

RADM Shibasaki, the Japanese commander there, proclaimed, “a million men cannot take Tarawa in a hundred years.”   The US Marines attacked; 9,000 marines took only four days (November 20 to November 23, 1943) to take it – but not without a staggering 37% casualties.

The Marines would reconstitute at Camp Tarawa at Waimea, on the Island of Hawaiʻi; it became the largest Marine training facility in the Pacific following the battle of Tarawa.

Over 50,000 servicemen trained there between 1942 and 1945.  On Maui, Marines trained in Upcountry, as well as Ma‘alaea.  One of the training scenarios was to take Japan’s Iwo Jima.

During the nearly month-long battle for Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), the Marines seized Mount Suribachi.   The 36-day assault on Iwo Jima cost America more than 26,000 casualties, including 6,800 dead.  Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived.

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