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July 20, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Norman Keith Collins

Like other Polynesians, Hawaiians imported their traditional tattoo art, known as kakau, to the islands. It served them not only for ornamentation and distinction, but to guard their health and spiritual well-being.

Images of lizards, which were greatly respected and feared, and of the Hawaiian crescent fan (Peahi niu) for the highest-ranking members of society, dominated Hawaiian kakau.

Intricate patterns, mimicking woven reeds or other natural forms, graced men’s arms, legs, torso and face. Women were generally tattooed on the hand, fingers, wrists and sometimes on their tongue. (PBS)

Queen Kamāmalu had a tattoo applied to her tongue as an expression of her deep grief when her mother-in-law died in the 1820s. Missionary William Ellis watched the procedure, commenting to the queen that she must be undergoing great pain. The queen replied, He eha nui no, he nui roa ra ku‘u aroha. (Great pain indeed, greater is my affection.) (Fullard-Leo)

The designs were applied by specially trained kahuna, experts in one or more critical tasks, who applied pigment to the skin with a needle made from bone, tied to a stick and struck by a mallet.

Traditional designs varied widely, according to available records, but many memorialized fallen chiefs, leaders or family members. The process was guarded with great secrecy and all implements were destroyed after use, according to the dictates of kapu. (PBS)

Fast forward to modern tattooing … some suggest the history of tattooing can be divided into two periods, before Sailor Jerry (BSJ) and after Sailor Jerry (ASJ). That’s how important he was to the development of tattooing. (Levy)

Born on January 14, 1911 in Reno, Nevada, Norman Keith Collins first took the nickname ‘Jerry’ (apparently given to him after his father noticed a similar disposition between the young troublemaker and the family’s cantankerous mule).

He eventually landed in Chicago and two things happened that changed his life. One, he hooked up with local tattoo legend, Gib ‘Tatts’ Thomas, who taught him to use a tattoo machine. (For practice, he paid bums with cheap wine or a few cents to let him tattoo them). Then, at 19, he joined the Navy and he became known as Sailor Jerry.

When Collins mustered out of the Navy, he settled in Honolulu. Within a few years, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and everything changed.

At the height of WWII, over 12 million Americans served in the military and, at any given moment, a large number of them were on shore leave in Honolulu.

The circumstances of war fed a cross-section of American men into environments that usually only existed on the fringes – places like Honolulu’s Hotel Street, a district comprised almost exclusively of bars, brothels and tattoo parlors. This was where Collins, as Sailor Jerry, built his legacy. (Sailor Jerry)

Although Jerry was world famous for his tattooing, he had other interests. The sea was always a part of his life and while holding Captain’s papers in the 1950s; he skippered a tour ship that covered the Pearl Harbor memorial.

His study of electronics led to a first class FCC license, and for several years he hosted a late night talk show on a local radio station. On that show he was known as “Old Ironsides”, another reflection on his interest in the sea. (Tattoo Archive)

He taught himself to be an electrician, which helped him innovate his tattoo machines. He played in a jazz band. He toured around in a canary yellow Thunderbird and he was out on his Harley when he had the heart attack that would take his life (after collapsing in a cold sweat, he got back on his bike and rode home). (Sailor Jerry)

Sailor Jerry built a reputation for quality work, which attracted customers in spite of the cost. He is credited with the invention of the magnum tattoo needle, used to apply broad strokes of color to the skin, as well as an improved tattoo-machine construction, whose smooth operation resulted in greater detail and less pain for the sitter.

He was the first tattoo artist to find and use a purple ink that was not fugitive or toxic. During a time when trade secrets were guarded, he befriended the most talented tattoo artists in the world, corresponding only with those whom he tested and deemed worthy of his attention.

His studies culminated in a style that combined the bold colors and designs seen in Japanese tattoos with iconic Americana imagery.

Sailor Jerry, who longed for the day when tattooing would be seen as fine art, would be pleased to learn that his flash, stencils, rubbings, and sketches underwent full conservation treatment at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. (Sheesley)

Norman Keith Collins ‘Sailor Jerry’ died June 12, 1973 and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

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Sailor Jerry-art
Sailor Jerry-art
sailor-jerry tatoo shop-Honolulu
sailor-jerry tatoo shop-Honolulu
Norman Keith Collins-Sailor Jerry
Norman Keith Collins-Sailor Jerry
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Sailor Jerry-art
Sailor Jerry-art
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Sailor Jerry-art
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Sailor Jerry-art
Sailor Jerry-art
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Sailor Jerry-art
Sailor Jerry-art
Sailor Jerry-art
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Norman_Keith_Collins headstone Punchbowl

Filed Under: Military, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Norman Keith Collins, Sailor Jerry, Tattoo

July 19, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rice

Rice production was not a major contributor to Hawaiʻi’s economy until the latter half of the nineteenth century. As whaling declined in importance, greater emphasis was placed on agricultural production, primarily sugar and rice.

It was in 1850 when the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society was formed to develop Hawaiʻi’s agricultural resources that rice made its mark in the Hawaiʻi economy. The group purchased land in the Nuʻuanu Valley and rice seed from China and planted in a former taro patch.

At first the Society offered the rice seed to anyone in Hawaiʻi who wanted to plant it. King Kamehameha IV also offered land grants for cultivation of rice. Because there were no proper milling facilities in Hawaiʻi, it didn’t take off as a viable crop right away.

Then, in 1860, imported rice seed from South Carolina proved very successful and yielded a fair amount of crop. This, combined with the collapse of the taro industry in 1861-1862 (as the Hawaiian population declined, the demand for taro also declined,) added value to the numerous vacant taro patches and a boom in the rice industry.

From 1860 to the 1920s, Rice was raised in the islands of Hawaiʻi, particularly in Kauai and Oʻahu, because of their abundance of rain.

The Hanalei Valley of Kauai led all other single geographic units in the amount of acreage planted in rice. The valley was one of the first areas converted to this use and continued to produce well into the 1960s.

The Commercial Pacific Advertiser noted on October 3, 1861, “Everybody and his wife (including defunct government employees) are into rice – sugar is nowhere and cotton is no longer king. Taro patches are held at fabulous valuations, and among the thoughtful the query is being propounded, where is our taro to come from?”

During the 1860s and 1870s, the production of rice increased substantially. It was consumed domestically by the burgeoning numbers of Chinese brought to the Islands as agricultural laborers.

In 1862, the first rice mill in the Hawaiian Islands was constructed in Honolulu (prior to that it was sent unhulled and uncleaned to be milled in San Francisco.) By 1887 over 13 million pounds of rice were exported.

A particularly important stimulus for the increased demand for rice was the Reciprocity Treaty of 1876. This treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi granted duty-free status to certain items of trade between the two countries, including rice.

Thomas Thrum wrote in 1877 that Kamehameha V and other landowners had “planted a large tract of land in rice (in Moanalua,) and even went so far as to pull up and destroy large patches of growing taro to plant rice.”

In 1899, Hawaiʻi’s rice production had expanded so that it placed third in production of rice behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

Much of this rice acreage was worked initially by Chinese immigrants, who first arrived as contract laborers in 1852. By 1860 this immigrant population totaled 1,200. Chinese immigration continued at a rapid pace until 1884, when the official census estimated the number of Chinese at 18,254.

In 1882 the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act; then, Japanese workers were brought in to take their place. Within only five years the Japanese constituted more than forty-two percent of the plantation work force and one-seventh of the total population.

Ironically, this influx of Japanese immigrants accelerated Hawaiʻi’s decline in rice production. Japanese preferred short grain rice rather than the long grain rice the Chinese were used to eating. So rice began to be imported from California for the Japanese.

California’s success would ultimately mean the end of the rice industry in Hawaiʻi. Furthermore, the hand labor techniques of Hawaiʻi’s Chinese and Japanese rice farmers could not compete with California’s mechanized production technology.

Additional problems with the rice bird and rice borer, as well as the lack of interest on the part of the younger generation to continue rice farming, eventually meant the end of a once prosperous industry.

Attempts to revive rice production by the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Hawaiʻi were made in 1906 and 1933, primarily in Hanalei.

As a result the acreage planted in rice on the island rose from 759 acres in 1933 to 1,058 in 1934. For areas like Hanalei Valley, such efforts, coupled with the valley’s general remoteness and absence of competing demands for the land, allowed rice cultivation to continue as a regional activity long after it had been abandoned throughout the rest of Hawaiʻi.

Today, there is no trace of the rice fields in Hawaiʻi. However, Hoʻopulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill museum in Hanalei Valley provides a remnant look at the once prospering agricultural venture.

It was built by the Chinese and purchased by the Haraguchi family in 1924. The Haraguchi family has restored the mill three times; after a fire in 1930, then again after Hurricane Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The mill ceased operating in 1960 when Kauai’s rice industry collapsed. A nonprofit organization was formed to preserve and interpret the mill, which has been visited by thousands of school children and adults in the past 29 years.

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Rice
Rice
Rice
Rice
View of rice fields towards Pālolo Valley from the back of Waikīkī, Hawai`i, ca. 1910
View of rice fields towards Pālolo Valley from the back of Waikīkī, Hawai`i, ca. 1910
Rice
Rice
Windward_Rice_Planting
Windward_Rice_Planting
Rice_fields_workers_beneath_Punchbowl_Crater,_Honolulu,_in_1900
Rice_fields_workers_beneath_Punchbowl_Crater,_Honolulu,_in_1900
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Rice-aep-his290
Rice-aep-his291
Rice-aep-his291
The Iron Horse Comes to Hawaii-Peter Hurd-1889
The Iron Horse Comes to Hawaii-Peter Hurd-1889
Chinese water buffalo plowing rice field Hawaii Tai Sing Loo-(KSBE)=
Chinese water buffalo plowing rice field Hawaii Tai Sing Loo-(KSBE)=
Chinese-Waterbuffalo-Rice
Chinese-Waterbuffalo-Rice
Rice
Rice
Windward_Rice_Farmers
Windward_Rice_Farmers

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: Hanalei, Hawaii, Waikiki, Kaneohe, Rice

July 18, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Lēʻahi

Lēʻahi, also known as Diamond Head, is a nearly circular crater of approximately two-thirds of a mile in diameter.

Diamond Head is different things to different people:
• Homes of Hawai‘i’s Kings, Queens and Royal Families were in its shadow
• It’s an internationally-recognized visitor industry icon
• It’s the backdrop to the famous Waikīkī Beach
• It served an integral role in the island military defenses
• It is present home and command center for State Civil Defense
• It’s an easy walk to the summit for spectacular views of the ocean and coastline
• It is a backdrop to a transformation of social, political and religious events

Diamond Head was given its name by British sailors who found natural calcite crystals on the slopes of the mountain and mistook them for diamonds. Hawaiians called the volcanic cone Lēʻahi, Laeʻahi or Lae-ahi. Translations include: “brow of the ʻahi” and “cape of fire.”

In the legend of Pele and Hi‘iaka, Hi‘iaka is said to have compared Diamond Head to the brow of the ‘ahi: Me he i‘a la ka Lae o Ahi; E kalali au ae nei i ke kai – Like a fish is the Brow-of-the-ahi Resting high above the sea.

Other names for Diamond Head include Point Rose (given to the geologic feature in 1786 by Captain Nathaniel Portlock in honor of the secretary of the British treasury), Diamond Hill and Conical Mountain.

Geologically speaking, Diamond Head is a dormant volcanic tuff cone, with a variable-height rim surrounding the recessed interior area; the eruption of Diamond Head took place well over 150,000-years ago.

The highest point (at 761-feet) on the southwest rim of Diamond Head is known as Lēʻahi Summit (most of the rim is between 400-500-feet.) The crater is on the southern coastline of Oʻahu, approximately one-and-a-half miles south of the Koʻolau range.

From at least the 15th century, chiefly residences lined the shore of Waikīkī, and cultivated fields spread across the Waikīkī plain to the foot of the crater and inland to the Ko‘olau valleys. There were several heiau in Waikīkī, of which several were located around Diamond Head.

One of Kamehameha’s main heiau (also suggested as a surfing heiau,) Papaʻenaʻena (also called Lēʻahi Heiau,) was situated at the base of the southern slopes.

Other heiau in the vicinity include Kupalaha Heiau, which may have been connected with Papaʻenaʻena, Pahu-a-Maui Heiau on the crater’s eastern cliffs overlooking the ocean (the site of the present Diamond Head lighthouse), Kapua Heiau near the present Kapiʻolani Park, and Ahi Heiau on the peak of Diamond Head.

In the early years of the 19th century, people tended gardens in the crater and one visitor described finding “an abundance of melons and watermelons growing wild, upon which we feasted”.

In 1831, the botanist, Dr. FJF Meyen, noted the crater contained a small pool of water “which was completely covered with plants”. (The crater pond was filled-in by military bulldozing; now, there is a seasonally-moist wetland where standing water can occasionally be seen.)

Some have suggested there is little likelihood for archaeological sites of pre-contact Hawaiian or early post-contact origin in the crater. The archival research suggests that the only Hawaiian activity that might have taken place in the crater was dryland farming (dating to 1822.)

In the Great Māhele division of lands between the king and his high chiefs, Diamond Head, which lies within the ¬ʻili of Kapahulu in the ahupua¬ʻa of Waikīkī, was awarded to William C. Lunalilo, the future king of Hawaiʻi (1873-1874).

In the early 1860s, Mark Twain commented, “On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head, a piece of this world which I had not seen before for twenty-nine years.”

“So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again. Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock did.”

In 1884, the Kapahulu portion of Lunalilo’s Māhele award was subdivided by the Lunalilo Estate. Diamond Head was transferred from the estate to the Hawaiian Government.

The summit of Lēʻahi affords an excellent and unobstructed view of the ocean from Koko Head in the east, to beyond the ʻEwa Plain to Wai‘anae in the west. The utility of Diamond Head did not go unnoticed by the U.S. Army.

In 1906, the US government acquired the 729-acres of Lunalilo’s property from the Hawaiian Government, as well as other adjacent lands (including Black Point), to create Fort Ruger Military Reservation, the easternmost of the coastal defense forts.

From 1963 to 2001, the FAA had its air traffic control facilities in Diamond Head crater, which guided Hawai‘i-bound aircraft from 250 miles outside the Islands to within 20 miles of their intended airport.

Diamond Head State Monument was first officially established under an Executive Order by Hawaiʻi’s Governor Quinn in 1962; nearly 500-acres of land now make up the Monument.

This early designation covered about 145-acres in a horseshoe configuration preserving the famous profile and the south and west exterior slopes from the crater rim down to Diamond Head Road. Subsequently, Executive Orders have added additional lands to the Monument.

The interior of the crater had been closed to the public from 1906 until 1968. (Remember the Sunshine Festivals back then?) In 1976, DLNR’s Division of State Parks became the agency responsible for the planning and management of the Monument – it is now open every day.

Two major tunnels (Kāhala Tunnel and Kapahulu Tunnel) provide pedestrian and vehicular access into the crater.

Two separate trail systems (interior and exterior) address different needs and purposes. The exterior trail system has a dual function as a jogging and bicycle path traversing the mauka end of the Monument and along the existing trail on the lower ʻEwa-makai slopes. The interior trail system leads to the summit of Lē¬ʻahi (1.6-mile round trip.)

Diamond Head is open daily 6 am to 6 pm, every day of the year including holidays, with entrance Fees of $5.00 per car or $1 per person for pedestrians (the money goes to State Parks.) Mountain Biking is not allowed on this trail. No dogs allowed in Diamond Head State Monument.

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Overlooking Waikiki-1929
Overlooking Waikiki-1929
Waikiki-Diamond_Head-1940
Waikiki-Diamond_Head-1940
1935 Chevrolet convertible with Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach in the background
1935 Chevrolet convertible with Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach in the background
Waikiki_Beach-Boats-1935
Waikiki_Beach-Boats-1935
Waikiki with Diamond Head in the background-hawaii-gov-1934
Waikiki with Diamond Head in the background-hawaii-gov-1934
Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_'View_of_Diamond_Head',_oil_on_canvas-1880s
Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_’View_of_Diamond_Head’,_oil_on_canvas-1880s
Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_'Hawaiians_at_Rest,_Waikiki',_oil_on_canvas,_c._1884
Joseph_Dwight_Strong_-_’Hawaiians_at_Rest,_Waikiki’,_oil_on_canvas,_c._1884
From_Mccully_to_Diamond_Head-1900
From_Mccully_to_Diamond_Head-1900
Diamond_Head-LOC-aep-his180
Diamond_Head-LOC-aep-his180
'Diamond_Head_from_Waikiki',_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr.,_c._1865
‘Diamond_Head_from_Waikiki’,_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr.,_c._1865
Diamond Head & Honolulu from the Punchbowl-(vic&becky)-1953
Diamond Head & Honolulu from the Punchbowl-(vic&becky)-1953
Automobile with Diamond Head and Waikiki in background, 1933
Automobile with Diamond Head and Waikiki in background, 1933
Alexander_Scott_-_Diamond_Head_from_Tantalus',_oil_on_canvas,_c.1906-8
Alexander_Scott_-_Diamond_Head_from_Tantalus’,_oil_on_canvas,_c.1906-8
Clipper plane passes Diamond Head-1935
Clipper plane passes Diamond Head-1935
Diamond_Head_Lighthouse-Transpac_Finish
Diamond_Head_Lighthouse-Transpac_Finish
Diamond Head

 

Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Waikiki, Leahi, Diamond Head, Fort Ruger, Sunshine Festival, Crater Festival

July 17, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pālama Settlement

Central Union Church dates back to the days of the Seaman’s Bethel Church in 1828. It was formally founded in 1887 and it moved into its present location in 1924.

In addition to developing new institutions within the church, the congregation made great strides in the field of missionary work in the city of Honolulu, including the beginning of the present Pālama Settlement.

Pālama, then a sleepy neighborhood of neat little cottages and taro patches, was chosen by philanthropist and Central Union members Mr. and Mrs. PC Jones as the site for a new chapel.

On the makai side of King street, opposite Liliha Street, the chapel was dedicated on June 1, 1896, and presented to Central Union by the Joneses, on the condition that the church …

… “maintain public preaching there on Sundays, a weekly prayer meeting, sustain a Sabbath school and also an occasional social for the residents of Pālama, the services to be conducted in the English language.”

Located west of Nuʻuanu Stream, near Downtown Honolulu, Pālama was home to mostly working-class Hawaiian families.

Walter F. Dillingham, long active in philanthropic endeavors in Honolulu, once observed of Pālama: “One must picture Honolulu at the end of the century with its mixture of races, their variety of foods, dress, cultures, customs and living habits. All this gave Honolulu a character and personality not duplicated in any American city.”

“The business section was composed mainly of low framed buildings with corrugated iron roofs near the water front. Streets were unpaved, horse-drawn vehicles, with the ox-cart was a common sight. Taro patches, duck ponds and even sugar cane grew in the section of Palama. It was in such a section that Palama Chapel was built and which grew to be Palama Settlement.” (HJH)

In 1900, as Honolulu health officials attempted to rid the nearby Chinatown area of bubonic plague, fire destroyed a four-block section. Displaced residents took up residence in newly built tenements in Pālama, changing the physical, social and economic make-up of the community.

The chapel’s staff located housing for many of the displaced and took care of the injured and children. It also ministered to the needs of immigrants who moved into the Pālama area soon after arriving in the Islands.

Social worker James Arthur Rath, Sr. and his wife, Ragna Helsher Rath, turned Pālama Chapel into Pālama Settlement (in September 1906,) a chartered, independent, non-sectarian organization receiving contributions from the islands’ elite.

“… they called them ‘settlement houses,’ the philosophy being that the head worker, as they called them, settled in the community. Instead of going in to spend the day working and coming out, they settled in, raised their families there and in that way learned …”

“… one, what the people needed; two, gained their confidence so that they could help them fulfill their needs; and then, three, went ahead and designed programs for exactly what the people needed.”

“So they were settlers and therefore they called them settlement houses. Which is what the origin of Pālama Settlement was because my father and my mother settled there and all five of us children were born and raised in our home in the settlement.” (Robert H. Rath, Sr)

The Raths established the territory’s first public nursing department, a day-camp for children with tuberculosis, a pure milk depot, a day nursery, a night school, and low-rent housing.

In 1908, an indoor swimming pool was opened, and a year later, a gymnasium and bowling alley were built above it. Later, outdoors, a playground, tennis court, and basketball court were added.

Also that year, a new Parish House was erected on an adjacent property at Richards Street, to be used for Sunday School classes and midweek meetings

After a territory-wide fund-raising effort, in 1925 Pālama Settlement moved to its present location with nine buildings spread over eight acres of land on Vineyard and Pālama streets.

Over the years, a medical clinic, an outpatient clinic and the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic were established along with annual circuses, athletic competitions, social and community-service clubs, boardinghouses for women and a preschool. Classes and events relating to music, arts, vocations, and athletics were also offered.

World War II and the postwar era brought about widespread changes in Hawai‘i’s social, economic, and political environment. These developments, in turn, led to changes in the way social agencies such as Pālama Settlement addressed community needs.

Observers noted that Pālama Settlement was departing from its original settlement house philosophy by offering programs for fees and catering to a broad cross section of people regardless of where they lived.

The 1960s and 1970s were periods of re-evaluation, adjustment, and growth, with the settlement’s programs becoming more people-centered rather than activity-centered, stressing human and community needs as opposed to uncoordinated, departmentalized activities, following the large-scale social and economic programs being implemented nationally.

Civil rights and anti-poverty legislation brought large amounts of federal monies to Pālama Settlement for local programs geared to at-risk youth and community development.

Pālama Settlement – a smaller one due to the widening of Vineyard Boulevard and the construction of the H-1 Freeway – continues to exist as a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency dedicated to helping needy families and at-risk youths.

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Palama Chapel-(centralunionchurch-org)-circa 1897-1901
Palama Chapel-(centralunionchurch-org)-circa 1897-1901
Original Palama Settlement at King and Liliha streets-(HJH)-circa 1912
Original Palama Settlement at King and Liliha streets-(HJH)-circa 1912
Palama_Settlement-(palamasettlement-org)
Palama_Settlement-(palamasettlement-org)
James Arthur Rath (1870-1929) and Ragna Helsher Rath (1879-1981)founded Pälama Settlement in 1905-(honoluluadvertiser)
James Arthur Rath (1870-1929) and Ragna Helsher Rath (1879-1981)founded Pälama Settlement in 1905-(honoluluadvertiser)
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Palama_Settlement
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Palama_Settlement
Palama_Settlement
Palama_Settlement
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Palama_Settlement
Palama_Settlement
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Palama Settlement Swim Meet-(hawaii-edu)-1932
Palama Settlement Swim Meet-(hawaii-edu)-1932
Palama_Settlement
Palama_Settlement
If you had a toothache in 1935, you could get dental work done at Palama Settlement
If you had a toothache in 1935, you could get dental work done at Palama Settlement

Filed Under: General, Buildings, Place Names Tagged With: Dillingham, Central Union Church, Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, Palama Settlement, Palama, Chinatown

July 16, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nihoa

Nihoa was reportedly inhabited sometime between 1000 and 1500 AD. Archaeological surveys on Nihoa have documented numerous archaeological sites and cultural material.

The sites included; habitation sites such as massive platforms; rockshelters, terraces and enclosures; heiau that are small terraces with single linear arrangement of upright stones and numerous pieces of branch coral laying on surface; extensive agricultural terraces and burial sites.

The heiau (place of worship) and platform foundations with upright stones found on Nihoa resemble other Hawaiian wahi pana on the islands of Maui at Haleakalā, Hawai‘i Island on top of Mauna Kea and the island of Kaua‘i Kea Ali‘i heiau in Waimea.

It is believed that the first Native Hawaiians to inhabit the archipelago and their descendants frequented Nihoa for at least a 500- to 700-year period.

Archaeologists believe that the terraces were planted with sweet potatoes. They estimate that the 12-16 acres under cultivation might have supported about 100 people.

The only tree on the island is the loulu palm; a total of 515 palms were counted in 1923. Its fan-like leaves were used for plaiting (braiding,) and its trunk could have been used for building shelters or for firewood (however, if cut for firewood, the supply would eventually be depleted.

Without forest products, islanders could not have provided themselves with canoes, wood containers, nets, fishing line, clothing and blankets, mats, and medicines. So, some of these were probably supplied from Kauai or Ni‘ihau.

Fish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, turtles, and seals, as well as seabirds and their eggs are abundant sources of food. Food and water supply was sufficient for subsistence, but that the lack of firewood would have created a hardship.

Also referenced as Bird Island and Moku Manu, Nihoa is the closest island northwest of the main Hawaiian chain, about 155-miles northwest of Ni‘ihau and 250 miles from Honolulu.

It’s the largest and tallest of ten islands and atolls in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI;) total land area is about 171-acres (about a mile long, a quarter mile wide.) It is the summit of a huge volcanic rock with two main peaks, Miller’s Peak (895-feet) and Tanager Peak (852-feet.)

Landing on the island is difficult. High, sheer cliffs prevent landing on the east, north, and west sides; the island slopes down to the south, but the shoreline is rocky and unprotected from the surge of southerly swells.

By the time of Western European contact with the Hawaiian Islands, little was collectively known about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) by the majority of the population, as relatively few individuals traveled to these remote islands and had seen them with their own eyes. However, families from Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau voyaged to these islands to fish.

The first Westerner to see Nihoa was Captain James Colnett of the ‘Prince of Wales,’ on March 21, 1788.

Within the next century, a number of expeditions were initiated by Hawaiian ali‘i to visit these islands and bring them under
Hawaiian political control and ownership.

Having heard chants and stories about the island of Nihoa, in 1822, Queen Ka‘ahumanu organized and participated in a royal expedition to the island, under the charge of Captain William Sumner. Reportedly, the waterfront area around Ka‘ahumanu Street in Honolulu was named Nihoa in honor of the visit.

The following is a part of the story related to the direction from which the winter rains come:

‘Ea mai ana ke ao ua o Kona,
‘Ea mai ana ma Nihoa
Ma ka mole mai o Lehua
Ua iho a pulu ke kahakai

The rain clouds of Kona come,
Approaching from Nihoa,
From the base of Lehua,
Pouring down, drenching the coast.

In 1856, Nihoa was reaffirmed as part of the existing land mass of Hawai‘i by authority of Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV (March 16, 1856 Circular of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i).

In 1885, the most famous visit by Hawaiian royalty was made by then princess Lydia Lili‘uokalani and her 200-person party who visited Nihoa on the ship ‘Iwalani.’ They brought back artifacts – a stone bowl, a stone dish, a coral rubbing stone and a coral file.

While I have visited the NWHI, now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, I have never been to Nihoa. However, in 2003, I had the good fortune to fly over the island and capture a few images of Nihoa.

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Hokulea_Nihoa-(PapahanaumokuakeaManagementPlan)
Hokulea_Nihoa-(PapahanaumokuakeaManagementPlan)
Endemic Nihoa fan palm (Pritchardia remota) in its original habitat on Nihoa Island (Peter T. Oboyski)
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Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Nihoa, Hawaii, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, Queen Liliuokalani, Kamehameha IV, Queen Kaahumanu, Captain William Sumner

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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