Hawaii | Page 369 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 8, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Āinapō Trail

The canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawai‘i; land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.

Extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

Ancient trails, those developed before western contact in 1778, facilitated trading between upland and coastal villages and communications between ahupua‘a and extended families.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water-worn stones.

One such overland trail, leading to Mokuʻāweoweo, the summit crater at the summit of Mauna Loa, is ‘Āinapō Trail (darkened land (often heavy with fog)).

It is a narrow, single-file, twisting, and occasionally slightly abraded trail above the 11,600 elevation. It leads up the broad southeast flank of Mauna Loa volcano to and along the east side of Mokuʻāweoweo, the major summit crater (HHF)

Hawaiians laid out the ‘Āinapō foot trail to assure availability of shelter, drinking water, and firewood between their nearest permanent settlement, Kapāpala village, and Mokuʻāweoweo. Kapāpala village could be reached over easy-grade trails from the coastal Hawaiian settlements.

Most Mauna Loa ascents by Hawaiians were made during summit eruptions, when the volcano goddess Pele was present, to honor her with chanted prayers and offerings; and perhaps at other times to honor a site she frequented. (NPS)

“The Hawaiian style of ascent to Mokuʻāweoweo lay in moving upslope in easy stages to lessen fatigue and permit acclimatization to the increasingly rarefied atmosphere.

The major stages were a series of overnight camps, each complete with small, warm, thatched houses and well supplied with food, drinking liquid, and firewood. In each camp, the elite were supported in the style of Hawaiian high chiefs. The lesser stages consisted of frequent rest stops, perhaps in natural rock shelters, warmed by fires as necessary. (NPS)

In 1840, Lt Charles Wilkes, as part of the US Exploring Expedition, came to Hawai‘i to conduct experiments and make observations, including swinging pendulums on Mauna Loa’s summit to calculate the force of gravity. They hiked from Hilo to the summit.

Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian ‘Āinapō trail. Wilkes’ line of march was through wooded country, but without streams or waterholes. Shoes of the Caucasians scuffed and soles abraded on the lava they crossed.

Most of the Hawaiians were barefoot. To mark the path for the straggling porters, Wilkes’ associates built fires and blazed trees. Bushes were broken with their tops laid down to indicate the direction of travel. (NPS)

Much unnecessary thirst, hunger, cold, altitude sickness, fatigue, and snowblindness were suffered by both Caucasians and Hawaiians of the expedition when Wilkes substituted his own route for the Hawaiian ‘Āinapō trail.

‘Mountain’ sickness, probably caused from the combination of fatigue, dehydration, chill, hunger, and the altitude, was prevalent.

To the rescue came the Hawaiian guides ‘Ragsdale’ and Keaweehu, a famous bird catcher. Both had apparently been waiting at Kapāpala for the expedition to arrive and planned to guide the expedition up the ‘Āinapō trail.

Ragsdale was hired to supply water for the camp. His men delivered it the next day – fifteen gallons carried in open-top vessels over the trackless ten miles of rugged lavas which separated Wilkes’ camp from the ‘Āinapō trail.

At about the same elevation on the Āinapō was a large lava tube with pools of water inside. This tube was used by Hawaiians on the ‘Āinapō trail and was easily supplied with grass (for insulation from the cold ground) and firewood from a point on the trail not far below. (NPS)

Up until around 1916, the customary route to the summit of Mauna Loa was the 34-mile long ‘Āinapō Trail. Most Mauna Loa ascents by Hawaiians were made during summit eruptions, when the volcano goddess Pele was present, to honor her with chanted prayers and offerings. (HHF)

In 1916, With the assistance of the US Army, Thomas A Jaggar, a geologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a trail constructed from Kīlauea to the Mauna Loa summit along the northeast flank of the mountain.

That year, the summit of Mauna Loa, the Army-built trail, and the summit of Kilauea volcano were incorporated within Hawaii National Park, established by Congress.

With the trail completed, horses and mules could go as far as Pu‘u ‘Ula‘ula (Red Hill), where a 10-man cabin and 12-horse stable had been built. The remaining 10-mile trail to the summit was pedestrian only.

After 1916, for the next half century, there were two trails to the summit, but the Āinapō received diminishing usage and was not maintained. Below the barren lavas, the savannah-forest areas through which the ‘Āinapō passed became ranching country private land through which public passage was discouraged. (NPS)

From the trailhead, ʻĀinapō Trail ascends 7,600-feet in 10.2 miles to the National Park Service cabin on the rim of Mokuʻāweoweo crater.

Vegetation varies from mixed mesic koa /ʻōhiʻa forest to alpine stone desert. Intermittent, and in places infrequent, stacks of loose lava boulders (ahu) line the sides of the trail.

Abraded spots occur only on the rare surface types subject to pockmarking by metal blows; this was done by iron-shod hooves since 1870s, when horses and mules began to be used. (NPS)

Day use of ʻĀinapō trail does not require a permit; however, hikers are required to contact Kapāpala Ranch at 808-928-8403 to obtain the combination for the locked gate.

Users are required to call the night before between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm.to schedule entry. Lock combinations are changed daily and given out daily at the same phone number from 4:30 am to 7:00 am on entry day. Everyone using this public access will sign in and out on the log sheet located in the mailbox on the gate.

Reservations and permits for camping at the trail shelter may be obtained from Hawaiʻi District Division of Forestry and Wildlife, at 808-974-4221 or at the link below. Hikers continuing to the summit need to register with the National Park Rangers (808 985-6000). (DLNR)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Hawaii_VolcanoesNationalPark_AinapoTrail-HHF

Ainapo-Trail-DLNR

Ainapo_Trail-Halemaumau-DLNR

Ainapo_Trail-DLNR

Ainapo_Trail_Marker-DLNR

Ainapo_Trail_DLNR

Ainapo_Trail_-Map-NPS

March 7, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Land Matters

Malo notes, “The office of an independent king (Ali‘i ‘āi moku, literally one who eats, or rules over, an island) was established on the following basis …”

“He being the house, his younger brothers born of the same parents, and those who were called fathers or mothers (uncles and aunts) through relationship to his own father or mother, formed the stockade that stood as a defence about him.”

“Another wall of defence about the king, in addition to his brothers were his own sisters, those of the same blood as himself. These were people of authority and held important offices in the king’s government.”

“One was his kuhina nui, or prime minister; others were generals (pukaua), captains (alihi-kaua), marshals (ilamuku), the king’s executive officers, to carry out his commands. … So it was with the king; the chiefs below him and the common people throughout the whole country were his defence.” (Hawaiian Antiquities, Malo)

“Controversy and bitterness have arisen in recent years because of the widespread and seemingly well-established belief that land owned by early foreign settles was dishonestly acquired …”

“… either through cajoling the king or a chief, so that gifts of large tracts resulted; or through some vague arrangement whereby the common people were induced to part with their land for less than the current value.” (Pageant of the Soil, Hobbs, 1935)

Jon Osorio suggests, “The single most critical dismemberment of Hawaiian society was the Māhele or division of lands and the consequent transformation of ‘āina into private property between 1845 and 1850.”

He boldly suggests, “No one disagrees that the privatization of lands proved to be disastrous for Maka‘āinana”. He goes on to suggest, “The Māhele was a foreign solution to the problem of managing lands increasingly emptied of people.” (Dismembering Lāhui, Osorio)

Actually, some disagree.

“The accusation of dishonesty in regard to land transactions by foreigners seems to be directed most bitterly and emphatically toward the missionary group.” (Hobbs, 1935)

“The popular theory that missionaries acquired land by dishonest practice is unsupported by facts.”

However, “There is indisputable evidence that individual missionaries refused many opportunities to acquire gifts of land, either for themselves or for the mission.” (Hobbs, 1935)

“A page-by-page research of all records of land conveyance in the Territory of Hawaii was made in order to determine the amount of land acquired by each individual member of the American Protestant Mission, the amount paid for it, and, in general, the disposition made of the property.”

“In most instances it is clear that these lands were disposed of for very nominal sums and that comparatively small areas were left by will to descendants.” (Hobbs, 1935)

Hobbs notes that “Close scrutiny of the records of the Land Office in Honolulu will reveal, however, that a much larger area of land remained in the possession of Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians than is generally thought to have been the case.”

Likewise, Donovan Preza “offers a correction to the perceived results of the Māhele.” He notes “that the particularities of Hawaiian history should be properly explored, contextualized, and not be pre-judged.”

“These kinds of pre-judgments lead to a kind of colonial determinism which allows for the acceptance of less-rigorous arguments to be accepted as truth.” (Preza)

In looking at the Māhele, Preza makes the argument that “This division took place between the King and each individual konohiki whereby the rights of all of the Konohiki to the various ahupua‘a were divided.”

“These rights were codified in the 1839 Declaration of Rights. These vested rights refer to ‘interests’ in land, but these interests were segregated by class and did not imply an equality of rights between the government, Konohiki class, and Maka‘āinana class.”

“Under Kālai‘āina (the carving/distribution of land), the King can be thought to have held absolute title to land as sovereign and was the source of governance, “The Government was as exclusively in him as the titles to the lands were.” (Preza)

The Māhele ‘event’ resulted in the division of the previously ‘undivided’ rights of the Konohiki class in the dominium of Hawai‘i. The Māhele ‘event’ did not establish one’s title to land. (Preza) The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

“The Māhele itself does not give a title. It is a division, and of great value because, if confirmed by the Board of Land Commission, a complete title is obtained. … By the Māhele, His Majesty the King consented that [Konohiki’s name] should have the land, subject to the award of the Land Commission” (Kenoa et al v. John Meek, October Term 1871)

After a Konohiki took their claim to the Land Commission, their rights and interests in land were confirmed and title to land was established through the issuance of a Land Commission Award.

Preza argues, “If the Māhele produced an initial dispossession, one would expect to see the majority of the land transferring into foreign hands.”

Actually, “Interpreting the Māhele as a division of land (versus rights in land), contributes to this confusion due to the large amount of land initially divided between Kauikeaouli (2.5-million acres) and the remaining Konohiki (1.5-million acres).”

Foreigners were not part of the Māhele. Some nonaboriginal Hawaiians who arrived in Hawai‘i prior to the Māhele were consolidated into the Konohiki class, such as John Young and Isaac Davis “foreigners who came and worked for Kamehameha were treated in a manner similar to kaukau ali‘i”. (Preza)

Then, the Kuleana Act was one mechanism which was used to divide out the interests of the maka‘āinana class.

Foreigners were not included in the system of Kālai‘āina and were not considered to be of the Maka‘āinana class, they were outside of it. Foreigners, even those naturalized as Hawaiian Nationals, were not considered Native Tenants and therefore, they were not eligible for a Land Commission award from the Kuleana Act. (Preza)

“On March 8, 1848, the day after the great division (Māhele) between the Konohiki class, Kauikeaouli divided the 2.5-million acres of land in his possession between his private estate and the government.”

“As a result of this division he kept approximately 1-million acres of land for himself as his private property (King’s Land) and relinquished 1.5-million acres of land to the Hawaiian Kingdom government creating what is called “Government Land”.”

“Government Lands are those lands which are considered to be used for the benefit of the country as a whole and constitute approximately 1.5-million acres. Any proceeds from Government Lands went to the government treasury and were used to benefit the citizenry of the country.” (Preza)

In 1850, a law was passed allowing maka‘āinana (the ‘native tenants’) to claim fee simple title to the lands they worked.

“The makaʻāinana were the planters and fishers who lived on (ma) the (ka) lands (‘āina;) the final na is a plural substantive.” (Handy) Or, they may be viewed as maka (eye) ‘āina (land) – ‘the eyes of the land.’ Pukui notes the name literally translates to ‘people that attend the land.’

Some suggest the foreigners bought up all the land.

In 1850, provision was made to permit foreigners equal privileges with Hawaiians; on July 10, 1850, the Hawaiian legislature passed ‘An Act To Abolish The Disabilities Of Aliens To Acquire And Convey Lands In Fee Simple’ (sometimes referred to as the Alien Land Ownership Act); it allowed: …

“That any alien, resident in the Hawaiian islands, may acquire and hold to himself, his heirs and assigns, a fee simple estate in any land of this kingdom, and may also convey the same by sale, gift, exchange, will or otherwise, to any Hawaiian subject, or to any alien, resident …” (Penal Code 1850)

At its August 19, 1850 Privy Council meeting, “Mr Wyllie brought forward & read a report of a committee appointed on the 29th April & powers enlarged on the 24th June to report respecting lands applied for by Missionaries.” The ‘Report on Missionary Lands’ was published in the Polynesian on May 7, 1852.

In part, that report notes, “The missionaries who have received and applied for lands have neither received and applied for them, without offering what they conceived to be a fair consideration for them.”

“So far as their applications have been granted, your Majesty’s government have dealt with them precisely as they have dealt with other applicants for land, that is, they have accepted the price where they considered it fair, and they have raised it where they considered it unfair.” (Signed by RC Wyllie and Keoni Ana)

WD Alexander, Superintendent of Government Survey, notes that “Between the years 1850 and 1860, nearly all the desirable Government land was sold, generally to natives. The portions sold were surveyed at the expense of the purchaser.” (Alexander, 1891)

Preza validates that and also shows Hawaiians out-purchased Non-Hawaiians. “Purchases by Hawaiians (1,856) in the 1850s alone outnumbers the total number of purchases by Non-Hawaiians (1,020) from 1846-1893. More Hawaiians bought land in the 1850s than Non-Hawaiians did between 1846 and 1893.” (Preza)

Government Grants refer to the fee-simple sale of Government Land and take the form of ‘Royal Patents’, ‘Royal Patent Grants’, or ‘Grants’. Of the 3,470 awards, 2,450 (71 percent) of the Government Grants were purchased by ‘Hawaiians’. ‘Non-Hawaiians’ purchased 1,020 awards (29 percent). (Preza)

Some blame sugar planters for buying all the land. “The Māhele of 1848 created the potential to own private property in Hawai‘i.
Immediately following the Māhele the sugar plantations were more likely to lease land rather than purchase land …”

“… due to the economic risks involved in purchasing large amounts of land with little re-sale value. Trends in the sale of Government Lands show that Hawaiians were active participants in the purchase of these lands.” (Preza)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837

March 6, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

March 6, 1899

She was born on October 16, 1875, to Princess Miriam Likelike (the youngest sister of King Kalākaua) and Archibald Cleghorn; she was the only direct descendant of the Kalākaua dynasty. She was duly appointed and proclaimed heir apparent to the Hawaiian throne.

Her father Archibald Scott Cleghorn was from Edinburgh, Scotland and was brought to Hawaiʻi by his parents by way of New Zealand, arriving in Honolulu in 1851.

Within the year, Archibald’s father died of a fatal heart attack while on his way home from church. Archibald took over his father’s business and turned it into one of the most successful mercantile chains in the islands.

She inherited 10-acres of land in Waikīkī from her godmother, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Originally called Auaukai, her mother named it ʻĀinahau; she spent most of her life there.

She once said, “Well, it has been a strange life, really, and a very romantic one. Still I have been happy. I have seen a great deal and everybody has been most kind to me.” (Independent, November 11, 1897)

“(S)he is beautiful. This royal Hawaiian girl needs not the exaggeration of newspaper gallantry. Of all her portraits there is none that does justice to her expressive, small proud face.”

“She is exquisitely slender and graceful, quite tall and holds herself liko a like a Princess and like a Hawaiian, I know no simile more descriptive of grace and dignity than this last.” (Miriam Michelson, Independent, November 11, 1897)

“While we were talking a friend of the Princess, a Hawaiian girl, came in, and we three got to discussing the political situation in the islands, despite previous paternal admonitions. It was pretty, then, to see the earnestness with which (she) said:”

“‘Even the enemies of my aunt, of the Queen, will tell you that all through her suffering, and through her hard treatment, she conducted herself with the utmost dignity. And she felt the indignities, she felt the insults I know it, for I felt them for her.’” (Independent, November 11, 1897)

“(She) was adored by her people; her death is the greatest blow that could have befallen them; with her their last hopes are buried. There. is not a native in the islands who could have wished to compass that sweet girl’s death.”

“People used to say that if she got hold of a few yards of material and wound them about her she would contrive to look fashionably attired.”

“She had the dignity of an English aristocrat and the grace of a creole. It is not the case that she was a three-quarter caste; she was a pure half-caste, wholly native on her mother’s side.”

“But her early seclusion and her English training had made her different from others, and she was thoroughly English in her ideas and ambitions.” (San Francisco Call, April 9, 1899)

“As a child she was kept apart from other children, mixing with them, only by condescension, never allowed for a moment to forget the part she was to play.”

“As a young girl, at an English school, she was not as others; she had her own governess, her own system of training, her own studies, peculiarly calculated to fit her for her position.” (San Francisco Call, April 9, 1899)

Then, returning from England, she had gone to the Waimea on the Big Island to visit Helen and Eva Parker, daughters of Samuel “Kamuela” Parker (1853–1920,) grandson of John Parker (founder of the Parker Ranch.)

While attending a wedding at the ranch, she and the girls had gone out riding horseback on Parker Ranch; they encountered a rainstorm. She became ill; she and her family returned to O‘ahu.

Tragically, after a two-month illness, Princess Kaʻiulani died on March 6, 1899 at her home, ʻĀinahau, at age 23.

It is said that the night she died, her peacocks screamed so loud that people could hear them miles away and knew that she had died.

“Every one admired her attitude; they could not do otherwise. Her dignity, her pathetic resignation, her silent sorrow, appealed to all. The natives loved her for her quiet, steadfast sympathy with their woe, her uncomplaining endurance of her own …”

“… the whites admired her for her stately reserve, her queenly display of all necessary courtesy, while holding herself aloof from all undue intimacy. All were attracted by her sweetness and grace; it was impossible not to love her.” (Macfarlane, San Francisco Call, April 9, 1899)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kaiulani_and_father_at_Ainahau_in_1889-WC

Kaiulani_(PP-96-8-014)-1890s

Ainahau_-_Kaiulani’s_House_after-1897

Kaiulani_in_1897_(PPWD-15-3.016)

March 5, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pelekunu Tunnel

In the early days, Kamalo was known as Kamalo‘o, or “The Dry Place,” because the waves breaking on the reef did not hit the shore. The people of Kamalo‘o liked their shallow pools because octopus were found there.

Jack Ka‘ilianu, remarked that the abundance of food from the sea should be harnessed through the creation of fresh water ponds, or loko wai, and sand-dune ponds, or pu‘uone. In the pu‘uone, fishermen kept pua ‘ama‘ama, or young mullet, pua awa, or young milkfish, kūmū, or goatfish, and mao.

Jack raised his fish in his lo‘i kalo, or wetland taro patch. In it he put pua āholehole, pua awa, and pua ‘ama‘ama. Puni, Jack’s 14 year-old hānai son was happy to take care of the lo‘i kalo because he liked watching the fish.

One day, he caught many small ‘iao fish, or silversides, and released them in the pond. ‘Iao fish are used to bait aku, and resemble mo‘o. It was kapu to kill ‘iao fish since the ‘aumakua of Kamalo‘o was the mo‘o. Breaking the kapu, Jack instructed Puni to catch all of the ‘iao and put them in the ocean.

Puni did not obey his father’s command because he had made pets of the fish. When Jack discovered he did not obey, he collected the fish and released them in the ocean.

That night Puni failed to come home for dinner. Jack searched the village and found Puni dead in the loko lo‘i kalo (he was attempting to catch the small ‘iao that Jack did not).

From that time on, every time Jack saw the fishponds, he “recalled the reason for them and muttered under his breath ‘Kamalo‘o kākā ‘āina’ (The land has gone dry. It is no longer verdant).

The people mourned Puni’s death and Jack exchanged his parcel for one up mauka. For many years after, the people could hear the giggling of a child coming up from that same pond (Ne 1992:33–36). (Keala Pono)

Pelekunu is an unusual ahupua‘a for several reasons. Within the Pelekunu ahupua‘a are three lele (disconnected portions of associated land) that belong to ahupua‘a on the other side of the island in the Kona District. Another unusual feature is that the ahupua‘a of Kawela actually extends up and over the mountains at the back of Pelekunu and runs into the valley.

Additionally, the ahupua‘a of Pelekunu includes not only most of the valley itself (less the extension of Kawela at the back and the lele within), but also the land of Honokaʻupu to the west as well as the small valley of Waiahoʻokalo just beyond. (Eminger/McElroy)

The windward valleys developed into areas of intensive irrigated taro cultivation and seasonal migrations took place to stock up on fish and precious salt for the rest of the year. Kalaupapa was well known for its bountiful ʻuala (sweet potato) crops and its fine-grained, white salt which was preferred over that from the salt ponds of Kawela and Kaunakakai. (Strazar)

Emory (1916) describes Pelekunu Valley as the “most densely populated area of the ahupuaʻa … where we found miles and miles of huge stone terraces, witnesses of a once thriving population that must have run into the thousands.” Taro was grown on the flat land and in the steep ravines of the valley. (NPS)

The earliest recorded population figures we have for Molokai are those of visiting missionaries in 1823. A loose estimate of three to four thousand inhabitants in 1823 was published by Claudius S. Stewart in 1830.

The Reverend Harvey Rexford Hitchcock who established the first permanent Mission Station at Kaluaʻaha in 1832, gave a census figure of 6,000 for the island. (Strazar)

These early counts were generally taken in the field by both native school teachers and missionaries. During this period, the Reverends Hitchcock and Smith preached once a week at seven different stations from Kamaloʻo to Hālawa, and in 1833 they estimated the population of the entire island to be about 3,300. (Strazar)

During the years around 1854, taro was raised extensively in the windward valleys and shipped as far away as Maui. Everywhere the inhabitants (of Pelekunu) were busy making baskets of ki (ti) leaves …., which they used to pack and transport … the product of their oasis, taro reduced to paʻiʻai (dry poi.) (Strazar)

In the land of Kamalo, it is said that there is a lava tube going through the island from Kamalo gulch to Pelekunu, The story is that it was used in the very early days by the Chief of the island, who communicated by runners between the leeward and windward sides of the island. (Cooke)

A love story from those early times tells of courage and determination, as well as physical stamina. A Pelekunu maiden fell in love with Akoni, who lived on the other side of the mountain in Kamalō.

In fair weather, Akoni paddled his canoe from Hälawa to Pelekunu. When the weather was bad, he would hike the Kamalö trail to court her. But one day, the weather changed as Akoni paddled to Pelekunu.

The ocean became too rough to return home by canoe and recent rainstorms had washed out parts of the mountain trail. Yet it was urgent that Akoni return to Kamalō to help his aging father repair their fishpond, so he decided to take another route.

He had heard tales of a mysterious mountain tunnel that joined Pelekunu and Kamalō, though its location had been forgotten.

People spoke of the tunnel with fear, and his ku‘uipo begged him not to go, but Akoni was determined. So his ku‘uipo went to every Pelekunu family to ask about the tunnel’s location until finally Kaleiho‘olau, a kama‘äina, agreed to help the couple find it.

They quickly packed food and water and Kaleiho‘olau brought a torch. The three hiked to the northeastern part of the valley until Kaleiho‘olau pointed out the tunnel entrance in a cave on the side of the cliff. The lovers kissed aloha and the young man entered the cave.

Initially, light streamed into the tunnel from the entrance but grew steadily dimmer until there was only darkness. Akoni lit his torch and continued slowly, stumbling and groping his way along the tunnel.

After hours of walking, he began to feel dizzy and nauseated, and was having difficulty breathing. He sat and rested briefly, but knew he needed to get to fresh air. He knew the torch was using up oxygen, but finding his way in complete darkness would be perilous, so he kept it lit until, finally, light glimmered far ahead.

At last, he stumbled through the opening. He leaned, panting, against the rocks, grateful to be alive. In that moment, he realized that the tunnel was there and could be used. He turned toward the cave and said a mahalo prayer, thanking the guiding spirits who brought him through the tunnel safely.

When Akoni moved into the sunlight, he saw that he was on his own property, just south of Ioli Gulch. His parents were astonished to see him. Akoni excitedly told them about the tunnel that exited on their property. He could hike to Pelekunu whenever he wished.

Akoni showed his father the tunnel the next day and shared the discovery with Kamalö residents, including the dizziness and suffocation he felt midway through the mountain. He said no one should use the tunnel when ill or having breathing trouble, and they must always tell Akoni and his family if they were using that route. (Hughes; KWO-OHA)

Another tunnel from Pelekunu was later proposed (early-1900s). The plan was to tunnel for water and transport it from Pelekunu and Wailau to the dry leeward side of Molokai.

“By the utilization of Pelekunu and Wailau 14,000,000 gallons (21.66 cubic feet per second) should be secured, besides the large flow which will almost certainly be met in the tunnels.”

“Ditches and flumes must be correspondingly enlarged, and a tunnel 14,500 feet long driven from Pelekunu to convey the water after it is collected from the different branches. The expense would be at least $800,000.”

“The enterprise would consume several years … In conclusion, I consider it feasible to bring the water from Wailau and Pelekunu to the cane fields, but do not believe that the enterprise would be a paying investment.” (Water Resources on Molokai, USGS, 1903)

Later, in 1960, a 5.5-mile water tunnel was built into the western side of Waikolu Valley to tap the extensive water resources. The water is stored in a large reservoir at Kualapu‘u. (Clark)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

pelekunu-valley-Richard A. Cooke III

March 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kini Kapahu

Ana Kini Kapahukulaokamāmalu Ku‘ululani McColgan Huhu (Kini Kapahu – Jennie Wilson) was born March 4, 1872, the daughter of a Hawaiian woman and an Irish immigrant to Hawai‘I, John N. McColgan.

As an infant, she was adopted by a Hawaiian woman, Kapahukulaokamāmalu, who was an expert chanter, hula performer, and friend of Queen Kapi‘olani, Kalākaua’s consort. She and her adoptive mother lived on a property adjacent to the royal palace. (Imada)

“Kalākaua always had dancers in his court dancing for his pleasure…. There were parties for his guests from the mainland on their way to Australia with dancers as well. They weren’t only for his friends, but for everyone in Honolulu.” (Kupahu; Tong)

In 1886, the same year of his jubilee, Kalākaua assembled Hui Lei Mamo, a group of eight Hawaiian women and girls under the age of 20. Hui Lei Mamo was a ‘glee club’; it performed acculturated hula performance as well as choral music. (Imada)

Kapahu was fourteen years old when she joined Kalākaua’s hula court; other members of the group included Pauahi Pinao, Annie Grube (transliterated in Hawaiian as Ani Gurube), Malie Kaleikoa, Aiala and Namakokahai. All the girls were daughters of court retainers except for Kapahu. (Imada)

As a member of the royal family and the reigning monarch of Hawai‘i, King Kalākaua had the rightful authority to dictate when the hula would be performed. (Tong)

While Kalākaua’s older court dancers performed pre-contact forms of hula with indigenous instrumentation and chanting, the young women of Hui Lei Mamo performed only the hula ku‘i, ‘the modern hula’.

An acculturated dance that developed in the king’s cosmopolitan court, hula ku‘i merged Western music and instruments with traditional hula steps. It is suggested that Kalākaua himself was the inventor of this hybrid genre …

“[The king] took some steps out of the old-fashioned [hula] and put them into the modern [hula] with guitar. He was the first one to start this.” (Kapahu; Imada)

When Kalākaua died in 1891, the dancers no longer had a place in court. Nevertheless, they continued to benefit directly from Kalākaua’s cultural renaissance through training in hula ‘schools’, called hālau hula or pā hula.

Namake‘elua (who is sometimes recorded as Nama-elua), a hula teacher Kalākaua summoned for his jubilee, had decided to remain in Honolulu instead of returning to his home on the island of Kauai.

The handful of students undertook training in hula genres associated with Indigenous pre-European contact traditions, very different from the hula ku‘i of the court. (Imada)

Four women entered the hālau hula – three of them were Hui Lei Mamo dancers, including Kapahu. Their intensive training commenced in 1892, with the young women taking residence in the teacher’s home.

For about six weeks, the dancers were kapu (sacred or consecrated). They dedicated themselves to the goddess Laka, the patron of hula, and erected a hula kuahu (altar), imploring Laka to give them knowledge.

They danced for about six hours a day, taking swims in the ocean and meals in between practices. The repertoire was ‘very religious’. Hula practice was a part of a sacred realm and governed by strict rules, because hula performances manifested the gods’ and ali‘i’s mana (sacred power) and rank.

On the day of the ‘ūniki (ritual graduation), graduates of other hula schools came to watch the four women dance. Only after undergoing ‘ūniki were they released from sacredness and became noa (free). The following day, they celebrated their release with a feast and public performance for friends and family.

At the end of their graduation, Kapahu and three others graduates and two men as chanters and musicians were chosen to go to Chicago for the Exposition in 1893. They were the first hula dancers to dance on the mainland, or for that matter, anywhere in the Western world. (Kealiinohomoku)

They were a ‘smashing success’. While they left the Islands with a 6-months contract, they extended their tour for four years, during the time they travelled over Europe and Russia. (Kealiinohomoku)

“On the way back from Europe, Jennie met Johnny Wilson in Chicago. They were both 24. He was managing a tour of Hawaiian Band — another big hit on the vaudeville circuit. They’d been childhood playmates. Now they simply fell in love.”

However, “Back home in Honolulu, Johnny’s mother refused to allow him to marry a hula dancer. … Johnny and Jennie respected his mother’s feelings, but finally she passed on and in 1908 they were married.” Kapahu then became known as Jennie Wilson.

“Johnny became a builder of sewer systems, roads, breakwaters and even of the highway over the Pali. And he built respect for social new deals along democratic lines and that’s why the people of Hawaii came to love and respect him”. (Honolulu Record, November 21, 1957)

Johnny Wilson brought Jennie to Pelekunu to live in 1902. The entry in Johnny’s diary for Tuesday, April 8, 1902, reads, “Arrived Pelekunu & occupied Koehana’s house”. According to Bob Krauss, Jennie was “one of Hawai‘i’s premier hula dancers” and not used to country life; the Hawaiians in the valley wondered how long Jennie would stick it out.

In the beginning Johnny and Jennie lived at the shore, but sometime after the 1903 tsunami Johnny built Jennie a house farther back in the valley. Later, Johnny bought Jennie a piano, the only one in Pelekunu. (Krauss)

Jennie did stick it out for quite a while. She helped teach the children in Pelekunu and ran their taro operation while Johnny was away. Eventually, however, Jennie did leave the valley; in the summer of 1914, Jennie finally got tired of the rain. She staged a one-woman mutiny and moved to a drier place on Molokai at Kamalō, where Johnny had a cattle ranch.

Wilson tried to aid the small native Hawaiian farmers by arranging for a steamer schedule to remote taro- and rice-producing areas. When his plans for a commercial line fell through Wilson convinced the federal administration to place a post office in Pelekunu, guaranteeing regular steamer visits to deliver the mail. (Cook)

However, when his wife left (she was postmistress,) no one filled the post and the post office closed. The steamships tried to keep regular schedules to Pelekunu to support the valley’s residents. However, they were not regular enough and eventually others abandoned Pelekunu valley, deeming it as too isolated to remain viable in a cash economy. (Cook)

John (Johnny) Henry Wilson was born December 15, 1871 to Charles Burnett (CB) Wilson and Eveline (Townsend) Wilson. His parents’ friends included the John and Lydia Dominus (Lili‘uokalani) and Kalākaua.

“We had known Mr. Wilson quite well as a young man when he was courting his wife. My husband and myself had warmly favored his suit; and, with his wife, he naturally became a retainer of the household, and from time to time they took up their residence with us.” (Liliʻuokalani)

During her imprisonment, Queen Liliʻuokalani was denied any visitors other than one lady in waiting (Mrs. Eveline Wilson – Johnny’s mother.) Johnny would bring newspapers hidden in flowers from the Queen’s garden; reportedly, Liliʻuokalani’s famous song Kuʻu Pua I Paoakalani (written while imprisoned,) was dedicated to him (it speaks of the flowers at her Waikiki home, Paoakalani.).

Johnny Wilson got involved with politics and is credited as being the most important Democrat in the first half of 20th-century Hawaiʻi; his name is used with Jack Burns in the party movement. He was in a meeting on April 30, 1900 that organized the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi.

He would serve three stints as mayor: 1920 to 1927, 1929 to 1931 and 1946 to 1954. (From 1941 to 1946, he was Director of Public Works.) Jennie Wilson made her most significant strides for women’s rights in 1919 as first lady to the Honolulu mayor.

She organized what’s considered “the first meeting of women in the territory to discuss the new sphere of womanhood” that the 1920s suffrage movement ushered in. (Hawai‘i Magazine) Johnny Wilson passed away on July 2, 1956 at the age of 84; Jennie Wilson died July 23, 1962 at the age of 90.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger