“So many Hawaiians living in California! 1863.”
“O Kamaaina of my dear land of birth; Aloha oukou: – I was just in California, and came back. I had much interaction with Hawaiians living there, and I saw most of them who are living in that large land; and by asking, I obtained the names of some who I have not seen.”
“You maybe want me to tell you those who I came across there? You all answer, “‘Yes, that is a good thing indeed; we will find there brethren that were lost to us, who we mistakenly thought were dead; come to find out they are living in California.’”
“Yes, I will tell you, and I will also where they live; so that you all can write to them. Look carefully at the names of the places below, and that is what to write outside of the letter so that it goes straight; and one more thing, affix a Postage Stamp (Poo Leta), of five cents price.”
“The majority of Hawaiians in California move from place to place, and do not settle in one place, therefore accuracy of the list of names stated below is not certain, because some people may have moved away at this time.”
“There is one more thing before I stop. With the grace of the Lord, I intend to return to California next week, to carry on the word of God amongst the Indians and the Hawaiians in that land, and I ask of you, all of your brethren of this archipelago, pray hard to God that he makes the work progress among the kamaaina and malihini who live in California.”
“With much aloha, Gulick Jr. [Kulika Opio]. Honolulu, September 2, 1863.” (Kuokoa, 9/12/1863
The town of Vernon, located just south of the junction of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers and roughly eighteen miles to the north of Sacramento, was originally established as a trading center in 1849 for miners of the Feather and Yuba Rivers.
It was centrally connected to the various towns and mining communities in the gold-mining region by a network of rivers. Within a few short years it was superseded by Marysville in the north, a town that became an important metropolis of the Feather and Yuba river mines. (Farnham)
However, Vernon remained an active agricultural town until the late 19th century. The evolution of Vernon as a Kanaka “fishing” colony appears to have its origins on the opposite side of the Sacramento River, at the former town known as Fremont in Yolo County.
In the nineteenth century Kanaka laborers were moving between the two neighboring communities regularly, up until 1870. (Farnham)
On April 17, 1861, just days after the US Civil War had commenced, an editor with Ka Hae Hawaii requested that immigrants in California respond to accusations by “Dr. Frick,” a Honolulu foreigner, that labor conditions in California mimicked the conditions of “na keiki hookaumahaia o Aperika” (burdened African children).
The editor asked:
- Are you experiencing difficulties in your living conditions in Caifornia with regards to the justice system of the country?
- Do you suffer difficulty due to the cold and the heat?
- Do you suffer from famine and going without food or due to bad food in that country?
- Are you without proper clothing, wool clothes and blankets?
- Are you exhausted from the work you do there?
- Do your foreign bosses burden you with difficulties?
- Are you sad, lonely, uncomfortable in your living conditions there or not?
- Are there sicknesses and vices that tempt the soul and body of man in that country, more so than the vices found here [in Hawaii]?
Only one Hawaiian, a fisherman by the name of Thomas B Kamipele (Campbell) living in Vernon, California, answered the newspaper’s inquiry. He wrote in part:
“I offer you an olive flower. Will you please take it to the four corners of your country so that parents, friends of those living here in California may know. . . “
“Life here is tiresome and one works hard, and you work hard everyday but do not realize expansion [wealth], but experience hunger as your reward for the day.”
“Recent years have seen better times here in California.”
“These years in which we live, everyone living up in the mountains digs for gold, but do not get a worthy pay for the effort. What they earn is the pangs of hunger and a want of food and fish.”
“And because of this lack [of pay] they cannot return to their homeland. It is just as it is said in letters of the those who write to their friends living here in California.” (Ka Hae Hawaii, July 3, 1861, Farnham)
“Perhaps more importantly, Kamipele indicated that many immigrants had become frustrated with contract employment in California. “Ka hana hoolimalima me na haku haole, ua pili aku no i ke ano o na kauwa hooluhi” (The act of contract labor with white owners is very much like hard slavery), he explained.”
“He cited as an example: ‘One white man, Coneki, brought some Hawaiians from the homeland, about fifty of them in total. Among that group was Kekuaiwahie and Kapua‘a who worked with their boss for six months. They were not paid at all for their labor. They left and each went their separate ways.” (Farnham)
“Just as in Hawaii, Kanaka Hawai’i laborers in California were beginning to reject contract work with haole employers in favor of independent work in more ideal environments. The Sacramento River of the Central Valley offered one such environment.” (Farnham) (Lots here is from April Farnham.)
