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September 28, 2013 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Poʻolua

Poʻolua is literally broken down as Poʻo (head) and lua (two) and refers to a child who has two fathers (the child is sired by other than the husband, but he is accepted by both the husband and the sire.)

A child said to be poʻolua, “that is, a child of two fathers, was considered a great honor by chiefs of that period.” (Luomala)

Kamehameha has been referred to as poʻolua (shared, two-headed) son of Keōua and Kahekili by his mother Kekuʻiapoiwa.  (VanDyke)

Kamakau references Kamehameha was born at Kokoiki in Kohala.  His father was Keōua, younger brother of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, and his mother was Kekuʻiapoiwa, daughter of Kekela and Haʻae, both of whom belonged to families of chiefs.

Kamakau explains that it was the custom from ancient times among the chiefs of Hawaiʻi for the chief of one island to give a child to the chief of another island. This is the reason why Kahekili has often been called the father of Kamehameha, for chiefs of Hawaii and Maui were closely related.  (Kamakau)

Kamehameha, who had always thought that Chief Keōua of the island of Hawaiʻi was his natural father until a few years after he conquered all the islands but Kauaʻi.  Dibble notes that when Keōua, the father of Kamehameha, died, he commended his son to the care of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who received him, and treated him as his own child.

Per Kamakau’s account, in 1802, Kamehameha, on hearing that Chief Kameʻeiamoku was dying at Lāhainā, went to him.  Kameʻeiamoku had attended Kamehameha since his boyhood and was one of his four Kona Uncles who had engineered his rise to power and made him king.  Kameʻeiamoku (on his deathbed) said to Kamehameha, “I have something to tell you: Kahekili was your father, you were not Keōua’s son. Here are the tokens that you are the son of Kahekili.”  (Kamakau)

Kamehameha responded, “Strange that you should live all this time and only when dying tell me that I am Kahekili’s son! Had you told me this before, my brothers need not have died; they could have ruled Maui while I ruled Hawaii.”    (Kamakau)

Kameʻeiamoku answered, “That is not a good thought; had they lived there would have been constant warfare between you, but with you alone as ruler the country is at peace.”    (Kamakau)

Kahekili’s age is not accurately known, but as by all native accounts he was the reputed father of Kamehameha I.  (Fornander)

“Kamehameha was the reputed son of Keōua otherwise called Kalanikupuapaikalaninui, a younger half-brother of Kalaniopuʻu, king of Hawaiʻi. It is said, however, that Kamehameha was the real son of Kahekili, king of Maui and that Kahekili gave him the name of his brother which was Kamehameha.”   (Dibble)

Kalākaua notes, “To this record of the tangled relationships of the chiefly families of the group at that period may be added … that Kahekili, the mōʻi of Maui, was the real father of Kamehameha; and in proof of the latter the acts and admissions of Kahekili are cited.”

When Kamehameha prepared an invasion in east Maui, Kahekili sent his younger brother, Alapaʻi, with the following orders: “Go, and bestow our kingdom upon our son; and if he will receive it, well; but if he does not recognize me as his father and will not respect the gift, but insists upon war; then, tell him that both he and his soldiers shall die in their youth, before the going down of the sun.”  (Dibble)

“If, indeed he shall listen to my request, then, say to him, ‘Wait, till the black tapa, shall cover me and my funeral rites shall be performed, then, come and receive his kingdom, without the peril of war,’ – for indeed, he is my son, and from me he received his name Kamehameha after that of my elder brother.” (Dibble)  Receiving the message, Kamehameha delayed his invasion.

Some say that Kekuʻiapoiwa had a liaison with Kahekili (ruler of Maui) and from this union was born Kamehameha.  Though Kahekili was thought to be his biological father, he was raised by his parents (and was considered the son of Kekuʻiapoiwa and Keōua.)

After Kahekili died, Fornander had an interesting perspective related to the relationships of the parties.  Fornander notes, “Kameʻeiamoku and his twin-brother Kamanawa secretly took Kahekili’s body away and hid it in one of the caves at Kaloko in North Kona, Hawaii.”

Kameʻeiamoku and Kamanawa were the children of Kekaulike of Maui, and thus half-brothers of Kahekili.  The twins (Kameʻeiamoku and Kamanawa) were Chiefs from the Kohala and North Kona districts and were uncles of and his counselors in the wars to unite the islands.

This relationship receives further confirmation from the native legends when they relate that, on learning the birth of Kamehameha, Kahekili sent these two sons of his father Kekaulike to Hawaiʻi to be and act as “Kahus” to Kamehameha.  (Fornander)

“In no other way can the otherwise singular fact be explained that two of Kamehameha’s oldest and most prominent and trusted councilor chiefs, during a time of what may be called suspended hostilities, should have repaired from Hawaii to Oahu for the purpose of securing and safely hiding (Huna-kele) the bones of Kamehameha’s political rival; nor the otherwise equally inexplicable fact that they should have been permitted by Kalanikūpule, Kahekili’s son and successor, to carry their design into effect.”  (Fornander)

Under the social system of the old regime, and of time-hallowed custom, Kamehameha would have had no power to prevent those chiefs from executing their pious errand, and Kalanikūpule would have had no motive to mistrust their honesty when resigning to them his father’s remains; and a breach of trust on their part would have consigned them to an infamy of which Hawaiian history had no precedent, and so deep, that the Hawaiian language would not have had a word detestable enough wherewith to express it.  (Fornander)

“He was the reputed and accepted son of Keōua, the half-brother of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, although it was believed by many that his real father was Kahekili, mōʻi of Maui. But, however this may have been, he was of royal blood, and was destined to become not only the king of Hawaiʻi, but the conqueror and sovereign of the group. This chief was Kamehameha.”  (Kalākaua)

Kamehameha, through the assistance of the Kona “Uncles” (Keʻeaumoku, Keaweaheulu, Kameʻeiamoku & Kamanawa (the latter two ended up on the Island’s coat of arms;)) succeeded, after a struggle of more than ten years, in securing to himself the supreme authority over that island (and later, the entire Hawaiian Islands chain.)

The image shows Kamehameha (drawn by Choris in 1816.)  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance Tagged With: Kekuiapoiwa, Hawaii, Kekaulike, Kameeiamoku, Poolua, Kamanawa, Kamehameha, Kahekili, Kalanikupule, Keoua, Kalaniopuu, Keaweaheulu, Keeaumoku

December 20, 2012 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Puʻukoholā Heiau, Kawaihae, South Kohala, Hawaiʻi

One of the most famous heiau in Hawaiʻi is Puʻukoholā Heiau (“whale hill”,) a significant structure (224-feet by 100-feet) with walled ends, and open and terraced on the makai side – sitting above the Kohala shoreline.

In the 1780s, there were warring factions were fighting for control. The island of Hawaiʻi was in internal struggle when one of the aliʻi nui, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, died.

He passed his title to his son Kīwalaʻo and named his nephew, Kamehameha, keeper of the family war god, Kūkaʻilimoku.

Kīwalaʻo, the new ali‘I, then bestowed gifts of land to his uncle Keawemauhili, but left his own half-brother, Keōua Kuʻahuʻula, with nothing.

Kīwalaʻo was later killed in battle, setting off a power struggle between Keōua, Keawemauhili and Kamehameha.  The 1782 Battle of Mokuʻōhai gave Kamehameha control of the West and North sides of the island of Hawaiʻi.

By 1790, the island of Hawaiʻi was under multiple rule; Kamehameha (ruler of Kohala, Kona and Hāmākua regions) successfully invaded Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.

While on Molokaʻi, he sent an emissary to the famous kahuna (priest, soothsayer,) Kapoukahi, to determine how he could conquer all of the island of Hawaiʻi.  Kapoukahi prophesized that war would end if Kamehameha constructed a heiau dedicated to the war god Kū at Puʻukohola.

Called back to Hawaiʻi by an invasion of Kohala by his cousin, Keōua (ruler of Kaʻū and part of Puna,) Kamehameha fought more battles without gaining a decisive victory.

One part of the legend stated that Kamehameha first intended to refurbish and rededicate Mailekini heiau, on the lower slope. But Kapoukahi, who had joined Kamehameha’s staff as royal architect, suggested that a new heiau on the summit would be more appropriate and provide greater benefits.

According to Thrum, Kapoukahi instructed Kamehameha “to build a large heiau for his god at Puʻukoholā, adjoining the old heiau of Mailekini.”

Thrum continues: “Of Mailekini heiau little of its history is learned, or what connection, if any, it had in its working with Puʻukoholā within two hundred feet above it. In early days it was said that traces of an underground passage existed, though it was difficult to tell whether or not the two temples were connected by it. … A tradition is current that this was the one that Kamehameha set out to rebuild that he might be successful in war, but on the advice of Kapoukahi he transferred his labors to the upper one of Puʻukoholā.”

According to Samuel Kamakau, Kamehameha “…summoned his counselors and younger brothers, chiefs of the family and chiefs of the guard, all the chiefs, lesser chiefs, and commoners of the whole district. Not one was allowed to be absent except the women. . . .The building of the heiau of Puʻu-koholā was, as in ancient times, directed by an expert … by a member of the class called hulihonua who knew the configuration of the earth (called kuhikuhi puʻuone) …”

“When it came to the building of Puʻu-koholā no one, not even a tabu chief, was excused from the work of carrying stone. Kamehameha himself labored with the rest. The only exception was the high tabu chief Ke-aliʻi-maikaʻi [Kamehameha’s younger brother]. …”

“Thus Kamehameha and the chiefs labored until the heiau was completed, with its fence of images (paehumu) and oracle tower (anuʻunuʻu), with all its walls outside and the hole for the bones of sacrifice. He brought down the ʻōhiʻa tree for the haku ʻōhiʻa and erected the shelter house (hale malu) of ʻōhiʻa wood for Kū-kaʻili-moku according to the rule laid down for the kahuna class of Pā‘ao.”

According to Historian Kuykendall, basing his information on Kamakau and Fornander, in 1790: “The building of this heiau was a great and arduous undertaking. Priests were everywhere about; they selected the site, determined the orientation, the dimensions, and the arrangement of the structure, and at every stage performed the ritualistic ceremonies without which the work could not be acceptable to the gods.”

Recalling the words of Kapoukahi, Puʻukoholā Heiau was being used by Kamehameha to secure unification of the Hawaiian Islands (at the same time that George Washington was serving as the US’s first president (1790.)

Many of the stones on Puʻukoholā Heiau are believed to have come from Pololu Valley. It is storied that Kamehameha and his men formed a human chain nearly 20 miles long and passed the stones one person to another all the way to the heiau site.

After completing the heiau in 1791, Kamehameha invited Keōua to come to Kawaihae to make peace.  However, as Keōua was about to step ashore, he was attacked and killed by one of Kamehameha’s chiefs.

With Keōua dead, and his supporters captured or slain, Kamehameha became King of Hawaiʻi island, an event that according to prophesy eventually led to the conquest and consolidation of the islands under the rule of Kamehameha I.

In early 1795, Kamehameha took Maui, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi. With the conquest of Oʻahu that year, Kamehameha succeeded in bringing all the islands, but Kauaʻi, under his control. In 1810, Kaumualiʻi, that island’s paramount chief, acknowledged Kamehameha’s supremacy, completing the consolidation of the islands into the Kingdom of Hawai’i.

Puʻukoholā Heiau was designated as a Historical Landmark by the Hawaiian Territorial Government in 1928.

The Queen Emma Foundation donated 34 acres of land in 1972, encompassing Puʻukoholā Heiau and the John Young Homestead, making it possible for the establishment of Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site.

Through an act of Congress on August 17, 1972, this site became one of the chosen few to be recognized as one of our nation’s crown jewels and national treasures, to be preserved and protected for future generations.

The image shows Puʻukoholā Heiau in 1890; in addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

http://plus.google.com/108947657421184863425

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Kamehameha, Keoua, South Kohala, Kawaihae, Puukohola

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