Hawaiian Traditions | Page 52 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 15, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lapakahi State Historical Park

Lapakahi (“single ridge”) State Historical Park is the archaeological site of the remains of a traditional Hawaiian fishing community. It was believed to have been inhabited about 600-700-years ago (1300s.)

Lapakahi was a place of the maka‘āinana, the fishermen and farmers. They worked to sustain the resources and support their families.

The rolling hills and gulches sheltered this cove from the strong Kohala wind. The sea was rich in food and the soil nurtured their crops. Black stone walls and thatched roofs soon appeared on the landscape.

As the village prospered, the families moved inland to grow their crops of kalo (taro) and ‘uala (sweet potato). Families along the shore (makai) traded fish for kalo from the uplands (mauka).

Pa‘akai (“salt from the sea” – for seasoning and preservative for food) was taken mauka while olonā plants were brought makai to make nets and fishing line. A trail curbed with stones connected mauka and makai and the people of Lapakahi travelled this trail exchanging the resources of the land and sea.

Parts of this former village have been partially restored but most of the rocky walls and remains are original. Today, this 265-acre State Park is the site of an ancient Hawaiian settlement located along the shoreline of the North Kohala coastline.

A self-guided tour takes visitors over marked trails (with a free guide brochure) and leads them through several acres of this historic village.

Highlighted sites include house sites and a canoe halau (long house); runs through a game area where visitors can try spear throwing, ‘ulu maika (disc rolling) and konane (checkers); and leads to a fishing shrine and salt pans along the rocky shoreline.

Lava stone walls formed the lower portion of the homes and shelters built here. Wooden poles supported the pili grass roofs and walls. Trees, bushes, grass and rocks were all used as food sources or utensils for building, cooking or fishing.

In 1979, the nearshore waters were added to the Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD) system under DLNR. Within Koaiʻe Cove are two small beaches consisting of coral rubble (there is no sand beach). The cove provides the easiest access to the water.

The nearshore bottom is mostly boulders and lava fingers with some coral. The cove’s northern portion has some good coral growth close to shore, but coral and fish are most abundant in the southern portion. Considerable marine life is also found around the outcropping of rocks to the right of the cove’s center.

There is a remarkable diversity of fish species within the MLCD, as nearly all nearshore species typical of the North Kohala coast are represented. During the winter, humpback whales are frequently spotted just offshore.

Near the entrance to the park is an educational display of implements used by the ancient villagers. Pick up the guide brochure and take the self-guided tour through the marked trails at your convenience.

The Park is located on the northwestern coast of Hawaiʻi; Lapakahi is about 12 miles north of Kawaihae. Take Hwy 270 north from Kawaihae to Lapakahi State Historical Park. The park entrance is on the left side of the highway, and marked with a sign. Parking is available at the end of the road. (Lots of information here from DLNR.)

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Reconstructed hale (house) at the village of Lapakahi

Lapakahi State Park-Brochure-noting_sites_and_uses

October 6, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keʻanae

“Wai o ke ola! Wai, waiwai nui! Wai, nā mea a pau, ka wai, waiwai no kēlā!” (Water is life! Water is of great value! Water, the water is that which is of value for all things!) (Joe Rosa, in Maly)

If you are going to tell a story about Keanae, in Koʻolau on the coast of Maui, the story starts with water, and with it, the life of the land.

From ancient times, the abundant rains, supported the development of rich forests; the rains and forests have in turn led to the formation of hundreds of streams (kahawai) that have molded the landscape of Maui into one with many large valleys (awāwa) and smaller gulches (kahawai). (Maly)

These watered valleys and gulches, and their associated flat lands (kula), have been home to and have sustained native Hawaiian families for centuries.

Handy, Handy & Pukui report that there were several major population centers on the Island of Maui: Kahakuloa (West Maui) region; the deep watered valleys of Nā Wai ‘Ehā (Waihe‘e, Wai‘ehu, Wailuku and Waikapū); the ‘Olowalu to Honokōhau region of Lāhainā; the Kula – ‘Ulupalakua region and the Koʻolau – Hana region.

They note the importance of the Ko‘olau region in this discussion: “On the northeast flank of the great volcanic dome of Haleakala…the two adjacent areas of Ke‘anae and Wailua-nui comprise the fourth of the main Maui centers and the chief center on this rugged eastern coast.”

“It supported intensive and extensive wet-taro cultivation. Further eastward and southward along this windward coast line is the district of Hana… [Handy, Handy and Pukui.]” (Maly)

Settlement in the watered valleys along the Koʻolau coast consisted primarily of permanent residences near the shore and spread along the valley floors. Residences also extended inland on flat lands and plateaus, with temporary shelters in the upper valleys.

Two primary forms of agricultural sites occur in these river valleys: lo‘i kalo (irrigated and drainage taro farming field systems) on the valley floors and slopes; and the kula and kīhāpai dry land farming plots where crops such as ‘uala (sweet potatoes), kō (sugar canes), kalo (taro), mai‘a (bananas and plantains) and wauke (paper mulberry.)

Handy, Handy and Pukui further that “…Ke‘anae lies just beyond Honomanu Valley. This is a unique wet-taro growing ahupua‘a… It was here that the early inhabitants settled, planting upland rain-watered taro far up into the forested area. In the lower part of the valley, which is covered mostly by grass now, an area of irrigated taro was developed on the east side.”

“A much larger area in the remainder of the valley could have been so developed. However, we could find no evidence of terracing there. This probably was due to the fact that the energies of the people were diverted to create the lo‘i complex which now covers the peninsula.” (Maly)

Anciently, the peninsula was barren lava. But a chief, whose name is not remembered, was constantly at war with the people of neighboring Wailua and was determined that he must have more good land under cultivation, more food, and more people.

So he set all his people to work (they were then living within the valley and going down to the peninsula only for fishing,) carrying soil in baskets from the valley down to the lava point. (Maly)

The soil and the banks enclosing the patches were thus, in the course of many years, all transported and packed into place. Thus did the watered flats of Keʻanae originate.

A small lo‘i near the western side of the land formerly belonged to the chief of Keʻanae and has the name Ke-‘anae (the Big Mullet); it is said that the entire locality took its name from this small sacred lo‘i. Here, as at Kahakuloa, the taro that grew in the sacred patch of the aliʻi was reputed to be of great size. (Maly)

This area was nearly completely destroyed by a tsunami in 1946 (April 1.) Reportedly, the only building said to have been left standing was the Lanakila ʻIhiʻihi O Iehova o na Kaua (now called the Keʻanae Congressional Church.)

In 2005, the DOE announced the closure of the last one-room school in the state of Hawaiʻi (in Keʻanae,) just a few weeks before the school year began. The village of Keʻanae had its own school for 96 years.

Since then, Keʻanae students have made the 16-mile, one-way trek to Hana School. Reportedly, a Keʻanae Charter School has been proposed by community members. Last year, the non -profit group Ka Waianu o Hāloa launched a fund-raising effort in support of the establishment of a charter school in Keʻanae.

Today, Keʻanae continues to be a relatively isolated, but significant taro-growing community; it is one of the major commercial wetland taro farming regions in the state.

Keʻanae residents reportedly use the terms “inside” and “outside” to express the difference between life in their rural heartland and the new world of towns and cities where most Hawaiians live today.

Keʻanae lies on the windward coast of Maui, about a two-hour drive over the narrow, winding Hana Highway. Heading toward Hana leads you further to the “inside,” heading towards Kahului is taking you “outside.”

While at DLNR, I was involved through the Land Board and the Water Commission (both of which I chaired) on several issues related to Keʻanae – all focused on historic stream diversions and the impacts to downstream users, particularly the taro farmers there.

We authorized the release of an additional 6-million gallons per day for downstream uses, as well as appointment of a monitor to determine that this amount will meet the needs of the downstream farmers, as well as monitor other aspects of the decision.

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September 28, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Piʻilanihale Heiau

Piʻilanihale Heiau is Hawaiʻi’s (and maybe Polynesia’s) largest heiau that is still intact (it is situated near Hāna, Maui.)

Standing over 40-feet high, the stone platform is 289-feet by 565.5-feet; Piʻilanihale Heiau is a stepped lava rock platform the size of nearly two football fields.

Interior construction consists of eight lesser walls, three enclosures, five platforms, two upright stones and 22 pits.

The north wall is the longest wall and measures 565.5-feet. It is also the highest wall, measuring about 43-feet at its maximum point.

This wall contains the most unusual feature of the Heiau, the immense retaining wall that fills a gully between the two ridges comprising the Heiau foundation.

According to Cordy, this wall is unique in Hawaii: “it is built of superbly fitted stones ….. and has four [terraced] steps up its face.”

Piʻilanihale Heiau (also identified as Hale-o-Piʻilani Heiau) is one of the most important archeological sites in the Hawaiian Islands and is impressive in size and architectural quality.

Archaeologists believe the heiau (temple) was constructed in four stages, beginning as early as the 12th century.

The earliest shrines and rituals appear to have been simple ones constructed by families and small communities and dedicated to the gods of peace, health, fertility and a good harvest of the products of the land and the sea.

With increased population growth and social organizational complexity, religion, the legitimizing sanction of directed social and political change, evolved becoming integrated with government at the state level as well as at the local and personal level. Large and complex temples were constructed for public ceremonies dedicating major events.

Sometimes the ceremonies lasted for days. Between these major events, the temple might be left untended which accounts for the seeming neglect of some of these structures recorded by early voyagers to the Islands.

According to Kamakau, state temples were constructed on the sites formerly built on by the people of old. Studies have verified that these temples were constructed in a series of stages.

Archeologically Piʻilanihale Heiau’s occupation and use span both the prehistoric and historic periods.

Each rebuilding episode may commemorate a significant event in the reign of a particular chief or king. The stylistic changes embodied in these structures, therefore, not only document evolutionary changes in social organization and the evolution of religion, but may be stylistically identifiable with prominent lineages or personages.

In addition to serving as a heiau, some archaeologists believe this structure may also be the residential compound of a high chief, perhaps that of King Piʻilani.

The royal compound probably would have included the king’s personal temple.

The literal translation of Piʻilanihale is “house (hale) [of] Piʻilani.”

It is not known if the first king of the Piʻilani line built the structure or whether it was constructed by one of his several well-known descendants: his sons Lono-a-Piilani and Kihapiilani, and his grandson Kamalalawalu.

According to oral tradition, in the 16th century, Piʻilani unified the entire island of Maui, bringing together under one rule the formerly-competing eastern (Hāna) and western (Wailuku) multi-district kingdoms of the Island.

Hāna served as one of the royal centers of the kingdom.

Several generations later, through inter-island conquest, the marriage of his brother to the Queen of Kauaʻi, and appointment of his son to alternately govern Maui, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe and Oʻahu during his periodic absences, Kahekili by 1783 dominated all the Hawaiian Islands except for Hawaiʻi.

Hāna continued to be a center of royal power until 1794, when Kamehameha I, ruler of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, defeated the Maui army and Maui came under him.

In 1848, the Hawaiian Monarchy was created and private land ownership was established. As a direct result of this new land ownership system, one-half of the ahupua‘a of Honomā‘ele, roughly 990 acres, was granted to Chief Kahanu by Kauikeaouli (King Kamehameha III).

In 1974, members of the Kahanu/Uaiwa/Matsuda/Kumaewa Family (descendants of Chief Kahanu) and Hāna Ranch deeded 61 acres of land to the then Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden to establish Kahanu Garden.

In exchange, the institution promised to restore Pi‘ilanihale, share it with the public, and provide perpetual care for this sacred site as well as the family graves that are on this ‘āina (land).

The restored Piʻilanihale Heiau is within the grounds of the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Kahanu Garden.

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September 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ancient Agricultural Production Intensification

According the research and reporting by noted archaeologists, there were three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones.

Walled Fishponds

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania. Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

Only in Hawaiʻi was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

The ancient Hawaiian fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique. Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

The cultivation of fish took place in Hawaiian agricultural pondfields as well as in specialized fresh and brackish water fishponds. Walled, brackish-water fishponds were usually constructed on the reef along the shore and one or more mākāhā.

Samuel M. Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls.

In 1848, when King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property. This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Lo‘i Kalo (terraced pondfields)

A second technological invention by Hawaiian Polynesians was the development of their extended stone-faced, terraced pondfields (lo‘i) and their accompanying irrigation systems (‘auwai) for the intensive cultivation of wetland taro (kalo.)

The terraces were irrigated with water brought in ditches from springs and streams high in the valleys, allowing extensive areas of the valleys to be cultivated. The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

An acre of irrigated pondfields produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time thin irrigated gardens.

In addition, walled pondfields not only produce taro, but were also used to raise an additional source of food, freshwater fish: primarily the Hawaiian goby (‘o‘opu nakea) and certain kinds of shrimp (‘opae.)

Captain George Vancouver visited O‘ahu in 1792 and wrote about the taro gardens in tine Waikīkī-Kapahulu-Mo‘ili‘ili-Manana complex that he observed:

“Our guides led us to the northward through the village [Waikiki], to an exceedingly well-made causeway, about twelve feet broad, with a ditch on each side. This opened to our view a spacious plain…the major part appeared divided into fields of irregular shape and figure, which were separated from each other by low stone walls, and were in a very high state of cultivation.”

In 1815, the explorer Kotzebue added to these descriptions by writing about the gardens and the artificial ponds that were scattered throughout the area:

“The luxuriant taro-fields, which might be properly called taro-lake, attracted my attention. Each of these consisted of about one hundred and sixty square feet, forms a regular square, and walled round with stones, like our basins. This field or tank contained two feet of water, in whose slimy bottom the taro was planted, as it only grows in moist places. Each had two sluices. One to receive, and the other to let out, the water into the next field, whence it was carried farther.”

Dryland Field System

The third form of subsistence intensification involved the systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones as exemplified by the Field Systems in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō and Kalaupapa (Ka‘ū reportedly also has a field system.)

Cultivation of the soil in Kona was characterized by a variety of non-irrigated root and tree crops grown for subsistence, each farmer having gardens in one or more vegetation zones. Each crop was cultivated in the zone in which it grew best.

Reverend William Ellis described the area behind Kailua town in Kona above the breadfruit and mountain apple trees as, “The path now lay through a beautiful part of the country, quite a garden compared with that through which they had passed on first leaving the town.”

“It was generally divided into small fields, about fifteen rods square fenced with low stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered from the surface of the enclosures. These fields were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, mountain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every direction.”

Farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry. Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

The fields were typically oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls; sometimes these were made up of a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from the wind.

Since the dryland technique was away from supplemental water sources, this was truly dryland agriculture. There was no evidence to level terraces as in irrigated pondfield systems (taro lo‘i,) and there was no evidence of water control features or channels; so the conclusion was the system was strictly rainfed.

The inspiration (and much of the information) for this post came from research from Dr. Marion Kelly.

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Moku‘ula

Moku‘ula

Fish_Ponds_at_Honoruru,_Oahu,_by_John_Murray,_after_Robert_Dampier-(WC)-1836

Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893) - Waikiki_portion-(note_fish_ponds-rice_fields_(formerly_used_as_taro_loi)

c. 1826 lithograph, William Ellis C., Big Island. Waipio Valley, Ahupua’a.

Stepped terrace walls under hau trees, Kahaluʻu Taro Loʻi-(WC)

Hanalei_Valley_Taro-Loi-(WC)

Loi-Kalo-Punaluu-(KSBE-BishopMuseum)-1924

Water from the ‘auwai going back to the kahawai-(KSBE)

Kohala Field System-walls-trails-map-Vitousek

Kalaupapa_Field_System-densely packed windbreak field walls are visible from the air-(McCoy)

Map of Islands noting Majory Dryland Field Systems-(Kirch)

August 30, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

View of Hawaiians in 1828

“Almost all travelers have been pleased to endow with surpassing beauty the women of the different archipelagos of the South Seas. I cannot speak of those in the Marquesas or Society Islands, but if one may judge by the Sandwich Islanders, on whom they have heaped the same praises, I am obliged to say that they are far from living up to this portrait.”

“But I must agree that they possess a natural grace that, without matching the fine and regular features of a white and delicate skin has nevertheless an almost irresistible attraction. Their movements are smooth and supple, their postures enchanting and easy, and their glances, more than anything, are indescribably alluring.”

“The freedom they enjoy means that they are strangers to anxiety or constraint, and this state of tranquility is reflected in all their bodily manners.”

“If they suffer storms of the heart these must be of a passing nature because there is no need for these to persist. Their ways appear to be based on inconstancy; they need never suffer the boredom of an ill-matched union.”

“Amused by the veriest trifles, they wear only smiles on their lips, and their mouths never open to say no. It is surprising that that the stranger, finding such an easy welcome among them, lets himself pain =t them with flattering praise if only to enlarge on and embellish his own conquests.”

“When, several days after our arrival, the young king wished to visit the Heros, we prepared a small collation, and he came on board with the regent and a numerous suite.”

“Kauikeaouli drank with pleasure our best liquors and ate our cakes with eagerness. We noticed that he did not touch the poi that he always has brought along wherever he goes; he preferred our good bread.”

“When he got into his boat to return we saluted him with thirteen guns, a courtesy that he found quite flattering. On the quay his bodyguard awaited: a score of fine young men fitted out simply but uniformly in blue pantaloons, short blue jackets, round hats, guns, bayonets, and ammunition pouches.”

“The king’s house is located in the same compound as that of the regent and is of the same style and size. It has a very high roof supported by low sidings that incline to the inside.”

“This shape imparts to these dwellings of wood and straw more strength than if the sustaining walls were perpendicular. The king has another house built according to the rules of our architecture but he never lives in it, preferring this one of thatch.”

“In fact, this sort of dwelling is better suited to their mode of life. They love to stretch out on mats, letting themselves drop wherever the fancy strikes them, and there they spend the greatest part of the day lying together helter-skelter on their rush carpets. This could not be done in lodgings furnished like ours, where they would need a sofa for each person.”

“The young king sleeps in his thatched great house only in bad weather; when the night is fine he stays in a small hut that has to be entered on hands and knees and that is barely large enough for four people sitting or stretched out.”

“Those of his young court follow his example; each constructs a small hut close to his, all of them together forming a sort of camp around the principal house, which hardly serve for more than to store the furniture.”

“The king and the regent are not the only principal authorities in the archipelago. A wife of the famous Kamehameha I, Queen Kaahumanu, exercises much power in fact if not legally.”

“She has her private court and her own coterie of followers. She lives in the city during the winter but passes the summer in a pretty valley a league to the east of Honolulu.”

“Along with the English consul I went one day to see her at her residence, which consisted of two main houses and a number
of huts.”

“We found her seated on a mat and leaning back on cushions covered in silk. Although she was not much interested in us, she received us in a dignified way. A woman of forty-two, she appeared to have once had much embonpoint, but bad health, caused by her well-known excesses, had brought on premature old age, which left her little hope of a long life.”

“Thus the adherents of the young king were being patient while awaiting the death of Kaahumanu, which they expected soon and believed would deliver him from a feminine yoke.”

French sea captain Auguste Dehaut-Cilly made round-the world travels between 1826 and 1829; all of the above is from his account of the Islands following his trip from California to Hawai‘i, in 1828.

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Alphonse_Pellion,_Sandwich Islands-Houses of Kalanimoku, Prime Minister of the King_(c._1819)
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