Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Owyhee

Some suggest the spelling was the way Captain James Cook spelled the Island chain he “discovered” in 1778, and the name of the island where he eventually died.

However, we need to remember that Cook first sighted Oʻahu on January 18, 1778. On February 2, 1778 his journal entry named the island group after his patron: “Of what number this newly-discovered Archipelago consists, must be left for future investigation. … I named the whole group the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich.”  (Cook’s Journal)  (That name stuck for about 60-years, when the Hawaiian Islands replaced the Sandwich moniker.)

Likewise, in the dedication of his journals, the memorial (and in numerous references throughout) noted: “He raised himself, solely by his merit, from a very obscure birth, to the rank of Post-Captain in the royal navy, and was unfortunately killed by the savages of the of the island Owhyhee on the 14th of February, 1779; which island he had not long before discovered, when prosecuting his third voyage round the globe.”

When Captain Cook first visited the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian was a spoken language but not a written language.  Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs.  After western contact and attempts to write about Hawaiʻi, early writers tried to spell words based on the sound of the words they heard.  People heard words differently, so it was not uncommon for words to be spelled differently, depending on what the writer heard.

So the origin of the specific spelling of this place(s) is not clear.

The discussion of this place relates to a river on the continent (and some places it passes that are similarly named.)  There are many stories about other “Owyhee” continental place names; those are subjects of future stories – this one is about the Owyhee River.   The word Owyhee is the older spelling of Hawaiʻi.

The USGS Geological Names Information Systems note an 1838 map of Oregon Territory prepared by Samuel Parker (not Hawaiʻi’s Samuel Parker) as the citation for the river’s name (by Board action of the Board of Geographic Names, the river received that “Official” name in 1959.)

The Owyhee River (a 280-mile tributary of the Snake River) has its source in northern Elko County, Nevada, flowing northward into southwestern Idaho through Owyhee County, and continuing into extreme southeastern Oregon in southern Malheur County.

So how did Hawaiʻi (Owyhee) make it to the Oregon Territory?  And, why did a river receive that name?

To get there, we need to go back a bit … to 1811.

That year, the first two-dozen Kanakas (Hawaiians) were recruited to work the Pacific Northwest to support the expanding fur trading business (twelve as seamen and the remaining half to work at a proposed fur post.)

Thick, luxurious and water-repellent furs of sea mammals (from beavers, sea otters and fur seals) were highly valued in China as well as in Europe, where they were sewn into coats, hats and bed covers.  Furs were mostly traded in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.

Trading ships plying between the Northwest, China and Europe would stop in Hawaiʻi to replenish their stores.  Hawaiians had worked on many of the merchant ships.  Most served as seamen or contract workers; others manned their outposts and built structures or farmed food for the ships’ crews and others.

As the fur trade expanded, nearly every post had had a contingent of Kanakas, who were noted for their reliability, cheerful dispositions and hard work.

This leads us to Donald Mackenzie, a brigade leader for the Canadian North West Company, who led yearlong trapping expeditions on the Snake and Columbia Rivers in the Oregon Territory.

About one-third of Mackenzie’s men on his 1818-1820 Snake River expedition were Kanakas.  Mackenzie and his party wintered among the Snake Indians in 1819-1820.

Three of his Kanakas had been sent to another area to hunt beaver.  When they did not return, Mackenzie sent out a search party which “found the place where they had been hunting, and where they had been murdered (believed to be by a band of Bannock Indians;) the skeleton of one of them was found, but nothing else.”  (Duncan)

The river in the area was thereafter known as the Owyhee (in honor of the three Hawaiians.)  (Some early references also note the name as “Sandwich Island River.”)

The earliest surviving record of the name is found on a map dating to 1825, drawn by William Kittson (who was previously with Donald Mackenzie in 1819-1820.)

Then, Peter Skene Ogden, who led subsequent Snake River expeditions for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1825-1826, noted in his journal, “Saturday, (February) 18th (1826.) Severe cold. …  when we reached Sandwich Island River, so called, owing to 2 of them murdered by Snake Indians in 1819. This is a fine large river…”

Ogden later notes, “Thursday, June 15th (1826.) All along our route this day the plains were covered with women digging roots; at least 10 bushels were traded by our party; the men (Indians) all gone to join the Fort Nez Perces Indians. Reached a fork of Owyhee River.”

The Owyhee begins at its headwaters in Nevada, flows through Idaho, and crosses into southeastern Oregon, where it eventually flows into the Snake River. From the Oregon/Idaho border to the Owyhee Reservoir (formed by the Owyhee Dam), the river flows through deeply incised canyons in a remote, arid and almost unpopulated area.

Other places near or on the river received the same “Owyhee” name.

Owyhee Dam, the tallest in the world when completed in 1932, is significant as a proving ground for engineering techniques used later in construction of Hoover Dam. As construction of the Owyhee began in 1928, plans were being laid for the much larger Hoover Dam on the Colorado River; it was Hoover’s testing ground.  (NPS)

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Owyhee irrigation project is the largest in Oregon, with surrounding farmland used for a combination of livestock grazing and specialty crops such as potatoes, sugar beets, onions, and alfalfa seed. (In 1984, a hydroelectric powerhouse was built just downstream from the dam.)

The first known recreation use of the river occurred in 1951, when commercial outfitter Prince Helfrich floated from Three Forks to Rome utilizing surplus World War II rubber assault rafts. Boating use remained extremely light through the 1950s and 60s.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began recording recreation use in 1974, when 482 persons floated the river. By 1980, 2,000 boaters were utilizing the Owyhee and popular campsites were beginning to show the effect of recreational use.  (Meyer)

In 1970 the state of Oregon designated the Owyhee River as a State Scenic Waterway.  On October 19, 1984, President Reagan signed Public Law 98-494, designating 120 miles of the Owyhee River from the Oregon-Idaho boundary to the Owyhee Reservoir, excluding the Rome Valley from China Gulch to Crooked Creek, as a “Wild River” to be included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Oh, back to the fur trappers … they didn’t last long. It was the discovery of gold that brought many more people to the Owyhee.  As prospectors fanned out throughout the state they eventually found their way into the Owyhee Mountain; a group discovered gold there in 1863.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Snow Queen

“The Hawaii Visitors Bureau has sent out an SOS for a fur parka and fur mittens.  Seems the Waikiki Lions are flying a plane load of snow to Waikiki beach Saturday afternoon from Mauna Loa to stage their annual snowball fight between bathing beauties.”

“The HVB wants to put Hawaii’s Snow Queen, Illeana Satterlee, in a park and mittens to use in National Publicity.” (Honolulu Advertiser, March 25, 1953)

“A dimpled, dark eyed Illeana Alaumoe Satterlee will reign as Hawaii’s 1953 snow queen this Saturday at the Waikiki Beach winter carnival sponsored by the Lions Clubs.”

“The 19 year old University of Hawaii sophomore was crowned yesterday by former Governor Stainback at a Honolulu Lions Club luncheon.”

“Judges included Mr Stainback and Senators Kazuhisa Abe, Tom T Okino, William J Nobriga, Wendell F Crockett and Herbert KH Lee.”

“The judges said politics did not enter into the task of choosing a queen from a field of 14 University of Hawaii coeds.”

“The named as her attendants Katherine Tomoko Sugiyama of Kohala, Hawaii, and Barbara Joan Friedlander of Kauai.”

“Miss Satterlee is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Julian A Satterlee of 612 Kaulani Way, Kailua.  She is a graduate of Kamehameha School for Girls and is a sophomore university student majoring in psychology.”

“Lions will square off in front of the Moana Hotel for a snow fight using snow flown in from Mauna Kea.  And Miss Satterlee and her attendants will add beauty to the event.”  (Star-bulletin, March 25, 1953)

Snow was “assembled in piles from the summit slopes of 13,680-foot Mauna Loa by workers from Kulani prison farm and Mauna Loa boys school through cooperation of Charles Smith, farm superintendent, and Ishmael Manus, school superintendent.”

“Approximately 27 cubic feet of snow will be packed in six ice cream shipping jackets, This will be in cold storage over night, and early Saturday morning will be dispatched by local Lions via the first Hawaiian Airlines plane to Honolulu. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, March 27, 1953)

It seems the Hawaii Snow Queen is not the first such queen to Waikiki. “From the snowbanks and wintry fields of Minnesota to the coral sands of Waikiki, by plane, will be the experience soon of a lucky young woman from the middle northwest.”

“She’ll change from a fur coat huddle at St Paul to basking on the beach or riding through tropic jungles.”

“Beverly Prazak was chosen Snow Queen of the 1952 St Paul’s Winter Carnival. She will meet descendants of real kings and queens of Hawaii and attend a luau.”

“The Queen of Snows will have a weeks whirl of excitement in St Paul and Minneapolis and elsewhere before boarding a plane for Hawaii.” (Star-bulletin, December 24, 1951)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Dealing With The Changes In The Early-1800s

In researching and preparing these posts on Hawai‘i, I have had growing appreciation for the way Hawai‘i handled the diversity, complexity and profound nature of the changes it was going through in the early to mid-1800s.

As you can see, here, from the end of the 1790s to the middle of the 1800s the legal, social, religious and economic structures of the pre-existing society are upended and completely changed.

Here are just a few of the things going on around the first-half of that century:

1795 – Kamehameha I invades and conquers O‘ahu at the Battle of Nu‘uanu, uniting the eastern islands under single rule

1805 – Sandalwood trade begins, starting the transition from a subsistence-based society to a barter, trade and monetary system (over the next 20-years the Islands’ Sandalwood forests are decimated)

1810 – Kamehameha and Kaumuali‘i come to an agreement and the islands are unified under single rule for the first time

1819 – King Kamehameha I dies, the role of King is passed to his eldest son, Liholiho

1819 – King Kamehameha II ends the kapu system, ending 500-years of religious, political and social structure

1820 – New England missionaries arrive to spread the gospel and convert the islanders to Christianity

1820 – As the Sandalwood trade is diminishing, the islands start to serve as a central Pacific provisioning site for whaling ships (at its zenith in the 1840s, over 85% of the American whaling fleet was in the Pacific)

1824 – Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and his Queen Kamāmalu contract measles and die in London; Kauikeaouli, his younger brother and son of Kamehameha I, becomes King.

1835 – The first commercially-viable Sugar Plantation starts at Kōloa, Kaua‘i

1839 – Chief’s Children’s School (later renamed Royal School) was created by King Kamehameha III who hired Amos and Juliette Cooke to run the school and teach the next generation of Hawaiian royalty to become rulers.

1840 – The first Constitution is passed in the Hawai‘i legislature

1848 – The Great Māhele dismantles the traditional system of land tenure and instituted a system of private property ownership

1850 – The Kuleana Act of 1850 was passed, permitting land ownership by commoners who occupied and improved any portion of the lands controlled by the Ali‘i and Konohiki

Between 1800 and 1850, the language changed, the religion changed, the apparel changed, the housing changed, where and how people lived and worked changed …

Life became completely different – in a single generation.

Now put these into perspective on how some of these changes greatly affected the Hawaiian people:

• The health of many Hawaiians was weakened by exposure to new diseases, common cold, flu, measles, mumps, smallpox and venereal diseases

• As more ships came in, many of those who came to Hawaiʻi chose to stay and settle

• Many Hawaiians boarded these passing ships for either employment or to move to other areas (primarily, the North American continent)

• Hawaiʻi changed from a land of all Hawaiians to a place of mixed cultures, languages and races

• Many new plants and animals were brought to the islands, both on purpose and by accident (many turned out to be invasive to the native species)

• New products by foreign ships were traded, including firearms, beads, western dress and fabric, crystal lamps, mirrors, nails and metal goods, silk and liquor

• The economy and everyday life was changing from a subsistence way of life to a commodity-based economy that started with barter and trade, that eventually changed to a monetary system

• There was growth of business centers, where people ended up living closer to one another, typically surrounding the best seaports for western ships (small towns soon grew into large cities)

All of this set the foundation for the second half of the century, whose socio-economic status centered on the plantation industries of sugar and pineapple.

This changed the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for well over a century. With it came even greater foreign waves of workforce immigration.

If you look at the records, you’ll see that many of these changes were initiated, supported and promoted by the Aliʻi. They sought and acquired western goods; this caused many of the changes noted here.

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Great Lāhainā Fire of 1919

Like any town with wooden buildings built side-by-side, folks in Lāhainā in the early-1900s were always wary of the possibility of fire getting out of control. Then, it happened.

New Years 1919, a fire (which broke out earlier New Year’s Eve) started in the Sing Lung Co. fruit store, “two doors from the corner of Front and Church streets, on the mauka side” and grew to engulf a large part of the business center of the town.

More than 30 separate buildings were destroyed before the fire was stopped by the townspeople who turned out in the middle of the night to try to battle the blaze after a mounted police officer gave the alarm by riding around town frantically blowing his whistle.

The fire appeared to be intentionally set.

“The fact that the back door to the Sing Lung store, in which the fire originated, was found to be open when the first fire fighters arrived on the scene, first gave rise to this impression.”

“Later, on Monday morning, Sheriff Clem Crowell, after a careful search of the ruins, found the padlock and hasp with which the door in question had been fastened, and both show unmistakable evidence of having been forced open.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The community helped control the spread and the Maui News specifically praised the heroics of a Japanese boy named Aoki who saved the historic Baldwin House.

“This youth, with great grit and good judgment, mounted to the roof of the building with a garden hose, and, protecting himself from the terrific heat with a small table which he held in front of him as a screen, kept the roof and cornices of the building wet …”

“… and watched for sparks and embers which rained about him as he worked. The building was not damaged except for a badly charred cornice on the side next the fire.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The big fire of 1919 destroyed all of the wooden buildings along Front Street from Dickenson Street to the Lāhainā Store, which was spared. Starting at Dickenson, those stores were: Yee Lip General Store, Sing Lung Fruit Store, Wa Sing Barber Shop, the Lāhainā Branch of Bank of Hawaii and Len Wai Store.

The buildings in what was called Library Park were also destroyed; the Japanese Hotel owned by M. Shimura, Yet Lung General Store, the Goo Lip Building, several small businesses, shacks and the fish market.

The Pioneer Hotel was seriously threatened, although some distance from the fire, by the shower of sparks carried upon it by the wind. By keeping the roof wet with water carried up in buckets, it was possible to prevent its catching fire.

“By the time fire fighters arrived on the scene the store was a mass of flames, and the heat was so great that no one could approach very near.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“Fire hose from the court house was carried to the scene within a reasonable time, but a reducing coupling was missing It could not be attached to the fire hydrant. It developed that this coupling had been left at the scene of the fire which destroyed cottage at the Lahaina hospital at the time of the big wing storm, several weeks ago.”

“By the time it was found and brought to the scene the blaze had communicated to buildings on either side and the heat was so great that it was impossible to pass In front of them along the street.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“By far the disastrous conflagration in the history of Maui, was that which started about 11:30 o’clock last Saturday night in the business center of Lahaina, and before it was finally checked had destroyed more than 30 separate buildings and had caused a loss aggregating between $125,000 and $150,000.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The Lāhainā fire was not only started by burglars, who broke into the Sing Lung fruit store, stole a number of watches and about $8 in coin, but that the crime was committed by members of the gang of young bandits who robbed the Len Wai Co., store and planned to rob the Lāhainā bank.

“Partial confession has been secured from a number of boys more or less directly implicated, and the circumstantial evidence is all but conclusive against two of the gang.” (Maui News, January 17, 1919)

The fire, considered one of the worse in the history of Maui to that date, was the catalyst for important improvements to Maui urban life.

The following month, the County Board of Supervisors approved and funded the start of a fire department for Lāhainā. BO Wist was elected as the first fire chief and given the job of organizing a volunteer fire company. The Board went on to approve the purchase of two fire trucks – one for Lāhainā and one for Wailuku.

Because of the fire, the Lāhainā townspeople asked that the County install a large water main for fire purposes in the center of town as well as proper fire hydrants.”

“The Board instructed the county attorney and the county engineer to “collaborate in drawing up of fire ordinances for both Lahaina and Wailuku, fixing fire limits, and prescribing the class of buildings and equipment that may be maintained in the thickly built parts of town.”

Within a short time after the fire started the leading Japanese of Lāhainā had formed a relief organization for the benefit of those who had suffered loss from the fire.

The first work of this organization was supply food and drink to the hundreds who were engaged in fighting the fire. Later, it took up the matter of helping those sufferers of the fire.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Leo Kiʻe Kiʻe

The earliest mention of the yodel dates back to the 4th-century, when Roman Emperor Julian complained about the wild, shrieking songs coming from the mountain people to the north.

The earliest written record where a yodel is mentioned by name is found in a collection entitled Bicinia Galca, Latin Germanica, from 1545, where it was described as “the call of a cowherd from Appenzell.”

Many experts agree that yodeling was used by those living in the Central Alps as a method of communication between herders and their stock or between Alpine villages, with the multi-pitched “yelling” later becoming part of the region’s traditional lore and musical expression.

Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register (or “chest voice”) to the “head register;” making a high-low-high-low sound.

In Hawaiʻi, in 1793, the first cattle were given as gifts to the King.  This was followed shortly thereafter (in 1803) with the first gifts of horses.

Three decades before the American West was running cattle, in 1832, King Kamehameha III brought Spanish cowboys (paniolo, from español, meaning Spanish) from California to train Hawaiians in horse and cattle handling.

The paniolo who came to the Big Island from southern California may also have brought their yodeling. There is no concrete evidence to support this claim, though Mexican singers do use falsetto. Robert Sonomura wrote in his 1973 study of falsetto in Hawaiʻi that “the best of the early Hawaiian falsetto singers came from the island of Hawaiʻi.”  (Kanahele)

Records indicate Band Master Henri Berger used yodeling in his voice instructions.  Later, Theodore Richards began conducting the Kamehameha School Boy’s’ Choir in 1889. Charles E. King wrote in The Friend of Richards …

“He used many native songs in his work, and it was he who introduced the yodel which is now the rage with Hawaiian singers.” (The Friend, December 1 1928)  By 1890 falsetto seems to have been widely known, often accompanied by yodels.

Many believe the Hawaiian falsetto, in part, was derived through the technique of yodeling – to reach notes out of the singer’s ordinary range, where only the edges of the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to the whole length.

Falsetto singing is defined as the ability to go from a lower register “chest voice” to a higher register “head voice.”  (Kanahele)  (The word falsetto is derived from the Italian falso, ‘false.’)

Many Hawaiian chanters used a certain vocal ornament involving the transition from regular chest voice to falsetto voice. At this transition a characteristic break occurs.  Mele with dialogues between male and female characters were reportedly chanted in two different registers, where the female response was occasionally delivered in falsetto. (Kanahele)

The origin and development of falsetto singing in Hawaiʻi is not clear; it is safe to assume that no single individual can be credited.  (Kanahele)

Hawaiian falsetto is a blend of pre-European Hawaiian chant practices, early hymn singing and the popular European music of the latter half of the 19th century.  (Kanahele)

It wasn’t until a 1973 Hawaiian Music Foundation falsetto concert that the Hawaiian falsetto was coined – Leo Kiʻe Kiʻe (high-pitched voice.)

“As for the word haʻi, Hawaiian speakers and owners of the Kawena Pukui dictionary alike know that the word translates as ‘break,’ and in this context refers to the technique of emphasizing the transition between a singer’s lower and upper vocal registers.”  (Kanahele)

Likewise, many male Hawaiian falsetto singers insist that the aim of falsetto is not to imitate women’s voices.  Likewise, the issue of whether women can accurately be described as “Hawaiian falsetto singers” has been complicated by the unfortunate use of the word haʻi as a gender-specific term for women who sing in a style that would otherwise be described as “female falsetto singing.”

“The modern Hawaiian term for Hawaiian falsetto singing by members of either sex is leo kiʻe kiʻe (it was previously known as leowahine (female voice.)) … Hawaiian female falsetto singers were falsetto singers, not ‘haʻi singers.’”     (Kanahele)

The relevant translation relates to a style in which singers voice a break when moving between their lower register (“chest voice”) and upper register (“head voice.”)

Hawaiian falsetto singers use this technique to emphasize or add emotional intensity to a phrase or passage, whereas traditional European-American falsetto singers try to eliminate any hint of it.

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