“Captain James Cook, who had been sent into the Pacific on a voyage of exploration by the King of England, discovered several islands which he named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich.”
“He later sailed northward and in March of the next year sighted the American coast in the neighborhood of the present Yaquina Bay. He thus became the first to make a contact between the Oregon country and Hawaii.”
“Cook was followed within a few years by vessels that engaged in trading furs from the Indians along the northwest coast of America which they sold in China. The captains of such ships were quick to learn the value of the Hawaiian Islands as a resting place and provisioning station.”
“Their custom was to stop there on the northward voyage, spend a season in trade, return to the islands for the winter, and afterwards sail back to the American coast to complete their cargo of furs before going to Canton. (Clark)
“King Kamehameha, claiming the throne in 1810 after an internal power struggle, attempted to forge a united kingdom out of competing groups.. He decided upon. an outward-looking policy to cushion his country against foreigners by absorbing the European’s economy and Christianity.”
“The heart of this policy was to send out young men to learn western techniques and values through practical experience. One place they migrated to was the Oregon Country, where Hawaiians had been in the crews of merchant vessels as early as 1788.” (Dodds)
When the Americans entered the fur trade of the Pacific in 1788 they, like the British, stopped at the Hawaiian Islands. (Clark) The Hawaiians soon became a vital labor supply in the fur trade. (Dodds)
“Loyal and docile, asking only food and clothing for compensation, the Hawaiians on one occasion saved Donald McKenzie from a surprise attack at Fort Walla Walla at the hands of his discontented Indian trappers.”
“The Hudson’s Bay Company and Nathaniel Wyeth also found the Kanakas most valuable as laborers, canoe men, sailors, gardeners, herders, and domestic servants, among other pursuits.”
“The missionaries, too, admired the islanders. The Methodists used them as blacksmiths, farm laborers, and kitchen help, and the Lees at one time proposed to import Hawaiian Christians as missionaries to their countrymen.”
“At the Whitman mission the Kanakas were also well received; and they worked in a variety of pursuits. Both Methodist and American board workers found the Kanakas to be in an respects preferable to their Indian charges.”
“The Indians, in missionary eyes, were slow in emulating American agriculture and domestic science, but the Hawaiians were adaptable and hard working.” (Dodds)
In the nineteenth century the Hawaiians were known as Kanakas or ‘Blue Men.’ One theory for the ‘Blue Men’ name is because of traditional tattooing, which appears blue in color. (Rogers) Others suggest it was because they turned that color in the winter drizzles of the Pacific Northwest. (Dodds)
The growing population of Hawaiian into the Oregon Country resulted in growing concerns. Then, in 1845, the Oregon legislature addressed a bill designed to reduce the flow – it was called the Sandwich Islander Tax.
The intent was later disclosed, “For the taxation of the Sandwich Islanders, employed almost exclusively as servants and laborers, by the HB Company, and intended merely to annoy and embarass the gentlemen in charge of the said company.” (Oregon Historical Quarterly, 1909)
However, on October 15, 1862, Oregon Governor Addison C Gibbs approved the law that had passed the House of Representations (October 8, 1862) and Senate (October 13, 1862) that stated:
“Employers of Hawaiian labor were taxed three dollars for those islanders already residents and five dollars for those who were to be introduced in the future. After the organic law of 1848 created the territory of Oregon, Kanakas on several occasions applied for American citizenship.” (Dodds)
“The final blow came in the passage of the Oregon Donation Land Act of 1850, which gave to the emigrants 160 to 320 acres of free land (depending on their time of arrival), but which … excluded from its term blacks and Hawaiians, although not part-Indians.”
“After this rebuff most of the Kanakas returned to the Islands. more fortunate than other ethnic minorities, who had no place to go. In the end, in spite of the Hawaiians efforts to accommodate, racism had conquered assimilation.” (Dodds)
