Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī Historic Trail

George Kanahele designed the Waikīkī Historic Trail, a walking tour that traces the history and cultural legacy of this area where chiefs and commoners once lived.
 
It is seen as a way to enhance awareness of Waikīkī both as a sacred place to Hawaiians and a huge part of Hawaii’s history.
 
Bronze cast trail markers in the shape of surfboards (designed by Charlie Palumbo) describe a Waikīkī that few knew existed. Once part swamp, part playground for Hawaiian royalty, Waikīkī was for centuries a center of Hawaiian hospitality and seat of Oahu’s government.  Following are brief descriptions of the sites along the trail.
 
Stewards of the trail are the folks from Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA.)  Waikīkī Improvement Association supports and promotes the trail.
 
Marker 1 (Kapiʻolani/Waikīkī Beach)
This section of Waikīkī Beach contains four distinct areas: Outrigger Canoe Club (founded in 1908,) Sans Souci (1890s,) Kapi’olani Park and Queen’s Surf (demolished in 1971.)
 
Marker 2 – (Kapahulu groin)
From ancient times Waikīkī has been a popular surfing spot – it’s one of the reasons chiefs of old make their homes and headquarters in Waikīkī for hundreds of years (he‘e nalu, surfing.)
 
Marker 3 (Ala Wai/Lili‘uokalani Site)
Waikīkī served as a marshy drainage basin for the Koʻolau Mountain Range; in 1927, the Ala Wai Canal reclaimed the land for the development of today’s hotels, stores and streets. Here was Queen Lili’uokalani’s home, the last reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
 
Marker 4 (Kuhio Beach)
This stretch of beach (from the Kapahulu groin to the Beach Center) is Kuhio Beach Park. It is named for Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole, Hawaii’s second Delegate to the United States Congress (1902-1922.)
 
Marker 5 (Kuhio Beach)
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku statue – Duke was known as the “Father of International Surfing;” he introduced surfing to the Eastern Seaboard of America, Europe and Australia.  He has been recognized as Hawaii’s Ambassador of Aloha since 1962.
 
Marker 6 (Kuhio Beach)
The Healing Stones of Kapaemahu statue  These stones were placed here in tribute to four soothsayers with famed healing powers, Kapaemahu, Kahaloa, Kapuni and Kinohi, who came from Tahiti to Hawaii in the 16th century.
 
Marker 7 (King’s Alley Entrance)
King David Kalakaua (1836-1891) had a residence here, in Uluniu, in the late-1800s; it was a two-story, frame structure, situated in a grove of towering, very old coconut trees. The house was big enough for hosting large parties, which he was fond of giving.
 
Marker 8 (‘Ainahau Park/Triangle)
 
Nani wale ku’u home ‘Ainahau I ka ‘iu – So beautiful is my home ‘Ainahau in a paradise.  These are the words from a popular song honoring ‘Ainahau (“land of the hau tree”), once described as “the most beautiful estate in the Hawaiian Islands.”
 
Marker 9 (International Marketplace, Under Banyan Tree)
King William Kanaʻina Lunalilo (1835-1874), the first elected king in Hawaiian history, had a summer residence here in the area known as Kaluaokau. Here he enjoyed “the quiet life of Waikīkī and living simply on fish and poi with his native friends.”
 
Marker 10 (Courtyard, next to Banyan Tree, Moana Hotel Restaurant)
The first hotels in Waikīkī were bathhouses, which began to offer rooms for overnight stays in the 1880s.  The Moana Hotel, the “First Lady of Waikīkī,” which opened in  1901, established Waikīkī as a resort destination.
 
Marker 11 (Next to Patio, Duke’s Restaurant)
Overlooking favored surf spot for some of Waikīkī’s famed beach boys. This elite group got their start sometime in the 1930s when the first Waikīkī Beach Patrol was organized.  They have been called “Waikīkī’s ambassadors,” serving the needs of royalty, Hollywood celebrities, and the general public alike.
 
Marker 12 (Back Lawn, Royal Hawaiian Hotel)
The royal coconut grove known as Helumoa once stood here, nearly 10,000 trees.  Kamehameha the Great and his army camped as they began their conquest of O’ahu in 1795. They returned victorious from the battles in Nu’uanu Valley and made Waikīkī the first capital of the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
 
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel or “The Pink Palace” was completed in 1927 and was touted as the “finest resort hostelry in America.”
 
Marker 13 (Beach, Next to Outrigger Reef Hotel)
From olden times Waikīkī was viewed not only as a place of peace and hospitality, but of healing.
One of Waikīkī’s places of healing was this stretch of beach fronting the Halekulani Hotel called Kawehewehe (or the removal). The sick and the injured came to bathe in the kai, or waters of the sea.
 
Marker 14 (Next to U.S. Army Museum)
On this site stood the villa of Chun Afong, Hawaiʻi’s first Chinese millionaire, who arrived in Honolulu in 1849.  He was the inspiration for Jack London’s famous story, “Chun Ah Chun.”  In 1904 the US Army Corps of Engineers purchased the property to make way for the construction of Battery Randolph and the no-longer-extant Battery Dudley to defend Honolulu Harbor from foreign attack.
 
Marker 15 (Kālia Road)
In 1897, Waikīkī’s largest fish pond (13-acres,) the Kaʻihikapu, was here. All of today’s Fort DeRussy on the mauka (toward the mountain) side of the road was covered with fishponds (growing mostly ‘ama’ama or mullet and awa or milkfish.) in 1908, the US military acquired 72 acres of land and started draining it in 1908 to build Fort DeRussy.
 
Marker 16 (Paoa Park)
Olympic swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku (1890-1968) spent much of his youth here in Kalia with his mother’s family the Paoas. The family owned much of the 20 acres which the Hilton Hawaiian Village now occupies; they grew their own taro and sweet potatoes and fished for seaweed, squid, shrimp, crab, lobster and varieties of fish.
 
Marker 17 (Patio of Ilikai Hotel)
 
The Pi’inaio was Waikīkī‘s third stream which entered the sea here where the Ilikai Hotel stands.  Unlike the Kuekaunahi and ‘Apuakehau streams, the mouth of the Pi’inaio was a large muddy delta intersected by several small tributary channels.
 
Marker 18 (Diamond Head Corner of Entrance to Ala Moana Park)
In the late 1800s, Chinese farmers converted many of Waikīkī’s taro and fishponds into duck ponds. This area, including the Ala Moana Shopping Center, was covered with duck farms.  In 1931, the City and County of Honolulu decided to clean up the waterfront.  The new Moana Park was dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934.
 
Marker 19 (Ala Wai Canal Side of Hawai’i Convention Center)
Ala Wai (freshwater way) Canal was at the heart of Waikīkī Reclamation Project launched in the early 1900s to “reclaim a most unsanitary and unsightly portion of the city.” With the canal’s completion in 1928, the taro and rice fields, the fish and duck ponds, vanished.  Begun in 1996, the Hawai’i Convention Center is the largest public building of its kind in Hawai’i.
 
Marker 20 (Near Corner of Ala Moana and Kalakaua Avenue)
This green expanse in the middle of Waikīkī is Fort DeRussy.  It was started in 1908 as a vital American bastion of defense, but today it serves as a place of recreation and relaxation for U.S. military personnel and their families.
 
Marker 21 (Intersection of Kuhio and Kalakaua Avenue)
Kalākaua Statue at Kalākaua Park, intersection of Kalākaua and Kūhiō Avenues. Kalākaua was the first king in history to visit the United States; he was often referred to as “The Merry Monarch” and was fond of old Hawaiian customs.  Kalākaua died while on a trip to San Francisco on January 20, 1891.
 
Marker 22 (Hilton Hawaiian Village)
Ali’i (royalty) from all points came to Kālia to enjoy great entertainment along with lavish banquets with the freshest fish and shrimp from the largest fishponds in all the Hawaiian Islands. Here once stood the gracious Niumalu (coconut shade) Hotel; today, the Hilton Hawaiian Village continues the rich heritage of Kālia with a tradition of ho’okipa (hospitality.)
 
Marker 23 (Hilton Hawaiian Village)
In ancient Hawaii, the “Kālia” area where the Hilton Hawaiian Village is located was once swampland. Early Hawaiian farmers converted the marshes into ponds, lo’i, rich with taro, the staple food of the Hawaiian people. The Kālia area was also known for its abundant fishing grounds. It was also a favorite playground for the Ali’i (royalty).

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

National Chronological Era

In Hawaiʻi’s prior subsistence society, the family farming scale was far different from today’s commercial-purpose agriculture. In ancient time, when families farmed for themselves, they observed and adapted; products were produced based on need and season.

Hawaiians divided the year into two seasons – Kau (Summer – when it was dry and hot; beginning in May when Makaliʻi (Pleiades) set at sunrise;) and Hoʻoilo (Winter season when it was rainy and chilly; beginning in October.)

Months were measured not by the number of days but were based on the phases of the moon – each beginning with the appearance of a new moon and lasting until the appearance of the next new moon.

When the stars fade away and disappear it is ao, daylight, and when the sun rises day has come, it is called la; and when the sun becomes warm, morning is past. When the sun is directly overhead it is awakea, noon; and when the sun inclines to the west in the afternoon the expression is ua aui ka la.

After that comes evening, called ahi-ahi (ahi is fire) and then sunset, napoʻo ka lā, and then comes pō, the night, and the stars shine out. (Malo)

“The days are divided … not into hours but into parts: sunrise, noon, sunset; the time between sunrise and noon is split into two, as is the time between noon and sunset.” (Lisiansky; Schmitt)

It wasn’t until the Westerners arrived that clocks and watches were used to measure passage of time during the day.

Another time reference/measurement was the National Chronological Era timeframes that at least Fornander and others call attention to.

One such is the reference used in identifying Abner Paki’s birth year.  First, a bit about Paki, which includes this birth reference.

Abner Paki “appears in the genealogy of the Chiefs of this Nation, from ancient times, and he is a high Chief of this land descended from Haloa, that being the one father of the children living in this world, and the father of our people.”

“Part of his genealogy is taken from the High Chiefs of the land, and he is part of Kamehameha’s, and he is part of Kiwalao’s, and he is a hereditary chief of a single line from ancient times; and he was a father who rescued from trouble his people of this nation from Hawaii to Kauai.”  (Nupepa Kuakoa, Elele E, 6/16/1855, p. 20)

“He was born at Kainalu, Molokai, in the month of Nana.” (Nupepa Kuakoa, Elele E, 6/16/1855, p. 20)  Handy and Pukui tell us that “Nana (March) means ‘getting better,’ referring to the subsiding of the stormy weather characteristic of the preceding month (February).” (Hawaiian Planters)

Paki was “the last of the family of old high chiefs. … His father’s name was Kalanihelemaiiluna, and his mother’s Kahooheiheipahu. He was born on the island Molokai, in the year ‘Ualakaa’”.

“He was an intimate friend of the King [Kamehameha III] and was a person of considerable weight and importance in the affairs of the nation. He held during his life, some high offices of trust and honor; being at different times, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, acting Governor, Privy Councillor, member of the House of Nobles, and Chamberlain to the King.”

“The most prominent feature in his character was firmness; where he took a stand, he was immovable. On the death of Kamehameha III, he prophesied that he should survive his Royal master but a few months, though he was in usual health at the time.”  (Bennett)

Kamehameha III died December 15, 1854; Paki died June 13, 1885.  Paki’s “wife Konia, (also a high chief,) who survived him two years, she dying in 1857.” (Bennett)  Paki and Konia were the parents of Bernice Pauahi Pākī (born December 19, 1831); she later married Charles Reed Bishop. 

So, the exact date of Paki’s birth is apparently not known, except that it was in March, “in the year ‘Ualakaa.’”

Per Fornander, this points to a National Chronological Era that refers to the time frame that Kamehameha I was farming uala (sweet potatoes) at Ualaka‘a (rolling sweet potato – what we now call Round Top at Mānoa Valley).

Several reference the time of Paki’s birth as “about 1808”; Kamehameha left O‘ahu in 1812, so that ends the time he was farming at Ualaka‘a.

Fornander suggests that this was also a time of another National Chronological Era when he says, “That was the time of the sounding reed, that is, a thinned stem of coconut leaf placed on a fat piece of wood which fitted in the mouth; or it may be fibrous lauhala, and so forth.”

In a footnote we learn that the ‘sounding reed’ (ka niau kani) was a “mouth-sounding contrivance with a coco leaf which came into vogue at this time and became thereafter a national chronological era, as here noted, according to ancient custom, which reckoned by events, not years.” (Fornander V)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lyman Herbert Bigelow

Lyman Herbert Bigelow was born August 16, 1878 in Charlestown, MA; he was the son of Lyman Haven and Elmira J. (Bond) Bigelow.  He went Bunker Hill grammar school, Charlestown, MA, 1893; Mechanics Arts high school, Boston, 1896, post graduate 1897; and then Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), B. S Civil Engineer degree, 1901.

Began work as an instructor in surveying at MIT in the summer of 1901.  He then worked at a variety of places: as a civil engineer for Merrimac Paving Co of Lowell, MA 1901-02; structural steel draftsman for Phoenix Bridge Co, Phoenixville, PA, Jan.-Sept. 1902.

He then got into government work as sub-inspector of government buildings, US Navy Dept League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA, 1902-05 and as a civil engineer and superintendent of construction, US Quartermaster Dept, US Army (initially at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, following which he was assigned to Hawaii).

Bigelow came to Hawaii as a civil engineer and construction superintendent in the United States army quartermaster corps in 1911, resigning the next year to become construction superintendent for the Honolulu Planing Mill.

In that role he assisted in the building of the Fort Kamehameha Barracks, Fort DeRussy buildings, Pearl Harbor coal station and Kaimuki reservoir on Wilhelmina Rise. On July 14, 1914 he married Henrietta M Tucker in Honolulu.

In 1918, he resigned the federal work and took a position for the Territory of Hawaii as Superintendent of Public Works through an appointment by Gov. Charles McCarthy for a four-year term. During that time, he served as 1st Lieutenant with the Hawaii National Guard.  He was reappointed by Governors Wallace Farrington and Lawrence Judd.

He was charged with the task of supervising the expenditure of millions of dollars for improvements throughout the Territory.  He held the dual position of superintendent of public works and chairman of the board of harbor commissioners for more than a decade.

Among the projects under Mr. Bigelow’s supervision were the renovation and rehabilitation of Washington Place, the official gubernatorial mansion, the Territorial Capitol, the former Iolani Palace of monarchial days; construction of the Territorial Hospital at Kaneohe and Girls’ Industrial School at Kailua.

He oversaw the Waikiki reclamation and Ala Wai Canal improvements.  Bigelow stated, “In 1918 when I was appointed in charge of Public Works, Governor (Charles J. McCarthy told me he wanted me to get busy on the Ala Wai project. We had no money appropriation for the job but we knew something had to be done.”

“Every time there were heavy rains in Makiki and Kaimuki, the whole area was flooded. We found $150,000 in a sanitation fund and decided we would initiate the drainage as a sanitation project.”

“We had the area from Kapahulu Road to Keʻeaumoku St. and from King St. to the sea condemned as unsanitary and began work. The value of the canal and the surrounding filled land has proved itself many times over.” (Bigelow, Hnl Adv, Dec 29, 1965)

The Territorial harbor development plan embracing the modern Honolulu piers, and development of Kapalama basin and wharves; and the modern piers on Hawaii, Maui, Molokai and Kauai.

In other construction across the Islands, he built  Waimano Home; Honolulu, and Hilo armories; new Territorial office buildings on Oahu, Maui and Kauai; extension to Honolulu library; new Territorial Normal School; new buildings of Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry; addition to Archives building; reconstruction and additions to Kapuaiwa building.

He oversaw development of Territorial airports, Animal Quarantine Station, Kalakaua Avenue bridge, Volcano road on Island of Hawaii, Haleakala road on Island of Maui, portions of Waianae road, Kalanianaole highway, Kamehameha highway, twin bridges at Waialua and Waimea bridge, all on Oahu; Waimea Canyon road on Kauai, and many other minor projects.  (Lots of information here is from Nellist & Siddall)

“Because of the mandatory retirement age, he had to retire on June 30, 1950, but then he was immediately rehired as superintendent on a temporary basis. When that expired, he was given the monumental task of writing a new building code for Honolulu.” (Star Bulletin, June 20, 1966)

Bigelow was on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from August, 1952, to August, 1957, serving most of that time as chairman.  While a member of the commission, Mr. Bigelow was an advocate of the Molokai irrigation project of homesteads on Kauai and Maui, and of extension of the Waimanalo program.  Through his efforts, they were put into effect. (Star Bulletin, June 20, 1966)

“Years later Mayor Blaisdell paid tribute to Mr. Bigelow in these words: ‘Mr. Bigelow had the difficult and important task of beading the City’s Building Department during and following World War II.’”

“‘In directing the City’s tremendous construction program to catch up with the backlog of building needs and to provide the many new facilities needed after the war, he contributed much to the building of present day Honolulu.’”

“‘The City was indeed fortunate to have had a man like Mr. Bigelow in its service during such a critical period. He gave generously of himself to his work and won not only the high respect but warm regard of his associates.’” (Blaisdell, Star Bulletin, June 20, 1966)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Thelma

Clifford Carlton “Gavvy” “Cactus” Cravath (March 23, 1881 – May 23, 1963,) was an American right fielder and right-handed batter in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the seven years from 1913 to 1920 he led the National League in home runs six times, in runs batted in, total bases and slugging average twice each, and in hits, runs and walks once each.  Cravath had part-ownership in a 40-foot boat, the Thelma.

On June 14, 1925, the Thelma was leaving Newport Harbor with 17-people, going out for a fishing expedition.

“The fishing party, including high school boys, left early and found a smooth sea until within 150 feet of the Jetty, Bland (the skipper) testified, when one wave turned the craft sideways. The boat rode the second, but the third, said to be at least 20 feet high, crashed over the boat.” (San Bernardino County Sun, June 15, 1925)

“When she neared the end of the breakwater a large wave smashed the engine room hatch, disabling the motor. Another wave, closely following, carried away part of the rigging, leaving the craft overturned, but another wave righted it.”  (San Bernardino County Sun, June 15, 1925)

“Big green walls of water were sliding in from the horizon, building up to bar like heights, then curling and crashing on the shore.  Only a porpoise, a shark or a sea lion (ought) to be out there.”

Some surfers were nearby; one had his board with him the others ran for theirs.  What follows is a recounting of the events that followed.

“It was obvious that the Thelma had capsized and thrown her passengers into the boiling sea.  Neither I nor my pals were thinking heroics; we were simply sunning – me with a board, and the others to get their boards – hoping we could save lives.”

“I hit the water hard and flat with all the forward thrust I could generate, for those bobbing heads in the water could not remain long above the surface of that churning surge.”

“Fully clothed persons have little chance in a wild sea like that, and even the several who were clinging to the slick hull of the overturned boat could not last long under the pounding.”

“It was some surf to try and push through! But I gave it all I had, paddling until my arms begged for mercy. I fought each towering breaker that threatened to heave me clear back onto the beach, and some of the combers almost creamed me for good.”

“I hoped my pals were already running toward the surf with their boards. Help would be at a premium. Don’t ask me how I made it, for it was just one long nightmare of trying to shove through what looked like a low Niagara Falls.”

“The waves were pounding so furiously that when a breaker came in, he had to scramble beneath the board and hold on with all fours as the waves broke over him. Fighting his way out, he came upon the havoc of the sinking boat and began grabbing its occupants and shoving them onto the board, begging them to hold on.”  (Sports Illustrated)

“The prospects for picking up victims looked impossible. Arm-weary, I got into that area of screaming, gagging victims, and began grabbing at frantic hands, thrashing legs.”

“I didn’t know what was going on with my friends and their boards. All I was sure of was that I brought one victim in on my board, then two on another trip, possibly three on another – then back to one.”

“It was a delirious shuttle system working itself out. In a matter of a few minutes, all of us were making rescues. Some victims we could not save at all, for they went under before we could get to them.”

“We lost count of the number of trips we made out to that tangle of drowning people. All we were sure of was that on each return trip we had a panicked passenger or two on our boards. Without the boards we would probably not have been able to rescue a single person.”   (as quoted by Burnett and HawaiianSwimBoat))

After the ordeal, 5 had died, 12 were saved (8 were saved by the primary rescuer.)

“At an inquest held at the Smith & Tuthill parlors at Santa Ana yesterday afternoon the Jury brought in a verdict of ‘unavoidable accident’ and thus absolved Bland, a cigar store owner and pilot of the craft, from blame.”  (San Bernardino County Sun, June 15, 1925)

The primary rescuer, known to many, received a hero’s welcome.

The Los Angeles Times reportedly noted, “His role on the beach that day was more dramatic than the scores he played in four decades of intermittent bit-part acting in Hollywood films. For one thing, that day he was the star.”

The Hawaiian Society of Los Angeles presented a medal of heroism on September 25, 1925.  On Christmas Day 1925, the Los Angeles Athletic Club honored him with a gold watch.

Several decades later (1957,) three of the survivors thanked him in person before a national television audience of ‘This is Your Life.’

The humble hero, Duke Kahanamoku, reportedly simply replied, “That’s okay.”

This is Your Life – Duke Kahanamoku
https://archive.org/details/this_is_your_life_duke_kahanamoku

The Newport Beach, Calif., chief of police was quoted in the newspapers as saying, “Kahanamoku’s performance was the most superhuman rescue act and the finest display of surfboard riding that has ever been seen in the world.”  (Sports Illustrated)

In addition to Duke, rescuers included Antar Deraga, captain of the Newport lifeguards; Charles Plummer, lifeguard; Thomas Sheffield, captain of the Corona del Mar Swimming Club; Gerard Vultee, William Herig and Owen Hale.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sutter’s Hawaiians

Early California history is closely linked with Hawaii. (Kenn)

“[I]n December 1838, there arrived in Honolulu one of the most colorful soldiers of fortune to land on Hawaiian shores. This individual was Captain John Sutter, later to make his mark on California history, accompanied by a small party of followers.  The previous October, Sutter and his party had reached Fort Vancouver after an overland trek from Missouri.”

“He was welcomed at Fort Vancouver and treated generously. An excellent raconteur with an active imagination (his title of former Captain in the Swiss Guards serving France was entirely his own invention), a congenial guest, part visionary and part con man, Sutter’s presence enlivened this active but still relatively isolated post.” (Spoehr)

“It was in the latter part of 1838 that Captain John Sutter arrived in Honolulu from Oregon on his way to California where he hoped to make his fortune, and where he realized his ambition until gold was discovered on his land when he lost everything in the turmoil that followed.”

“Sutter was a citizen of the Principality of the Grand Dutchy of Baden, Germany, where he left his wife and four children to seek his fortune in America. After crossing two oceans and a continent, Sutter found himself in Honolulu where he remained for five months, eagerly awaiting passage to California.”

“He made friends with Honolulu merchants and participated in a few business ventures, one of which was to purchase the abandoned ship Clementine moored in the harbor. He served as supercargo, sailing first to Sitka, Alaska, then to Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, where he disembarked with some Sandwich Islanders.”

“There were contracted to serve him for three years at ten dollars each per month …. He was to pay their passage back to Hawaii after that time. The actual number of Hawaiians who accompanied Sutter is not definitely known. Sutter claimed there were ten, eight men and two women, while William Heath Davis numbered eight, four men and four women.” (Kenn)

“Sutter was very poor on names and referred to the Sandwich Islanders merely as ‘Canacas,’ though he observed that had it not been for his Canacas he would not have been able to succeed in his California venture.  They helped to build his fort [near present-day Sacramento] said to be patterned after Kekuanohu (the Honolulu fort)”. (Kenn)

“The task of [Sutter’s] Hawaiian workers was not only to assist with building the fort, but to ensure labor tranquility amongst the hundreds of California natives (including Nisenan, Miwok, and Yokut) who would eventually be laboring at New Helvetia by 1846. Some Americans would compare these Sacramento Valley natives to Pacific Islanders.”  (Farnham)

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas. They were always faithful and loyal to me.” (Sutter)

From 1839 to 1849, Sutter’s Fort was the economic center of the first permanent European colonial settlement in California’s Central Valley. During that time, the Fort catalyzed patterns of change across California. Then, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

So, what happened to the Sutter Hawaiians and other Hawaiians on the continent?

“[B]y the mid-1800s, there were hundreds of Hawaiians in what is now Canada and California. In 1847, Hawaiians made up 10% of San Francisco’s tiny but growing population.”  (Terrell)

“In the aftermath of the gold rush, many Hawaiians stayed in California. And as they settled in California, a number of Hawaiian men married local indigenous women. Which, it turns out, was a common occurrence up and down the West Coast.: (Terrell)

“Both Hawaiians and Indians in the Oregon Territory were explicitly excluded from the dominant society. From the mid-1860s onward, neither they nor their offspring were legally permitted to marry into the dominant society.”  (Barman & Watson)

As a result, Hawaiians were absorbed into local Native American communities through intermarriage. These Hawaiians were less likely to return to the Islands and leave their Native American wives and children behind. (Farnham)

“Sutter’s Hawaiians were to play an important role in the development of Sacramento, and their descendants, many of whom are living in Sacramento and environs today, have contributed greatly to the economic progress and welfare of the region. They became gold miners, salmon fishermen, snag boat operators, river boatmen, farmers, trappers, levee builders, and entertainers.” (Kenn)

“In the summer of 1865 some Hawaiian fishermen and their ‘wahine,’ who had sailed the placid Pacific in search of new realms for their nomad spirits, arrived in San Francisco bay only to discover that the cool fogs bred dire distress in lungs used to none but the fervid breezes of a tropic sea …”

“… so on they kept until, after a day and night of clear weather, they reached Vernon, a busy farming community on the banks of the Feather river.”

“Housed in picturesque huts on the east bank of the Feather river, near the thriving little town of Vernon, and gaining a livelihood

as best they may, and according to the tenets of their native land, caring not for the morrow so long as they may live and enjoy the day…”

“… a hundred or more big brown men and women and numerous tots form a colony where, peace and content rule their world, and where the salubrious climate Is engendering in this languorous race …”

“… an aptitude for labor a foreign element in their home taro-patches and rice field, with the sun shining upon them ten months of the year, and with the brown rush of waters homing myriad finny tribes for their ever ready rods …”

“… these dusky exiles pass their days rowing and fishing and pitching their tents at night in the shaggy thickets that clothe the river reaches, where with their ukuleles and guitars they build harmonies and weave legends into their cloth of dreams.”  (Parkhurst)

“And living up there close to the touch of nature, they have kept all of their race identity. When one of their people visits them bringing pol, ti leaves, kukui and other choice tidbits from home, they have barbecues, chowders and hula-hulas, and all of the delights that comprise a luau or Hawaiian feast.”  (Parkhurst)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC