The Hui of Kahana

THE HUI OF KAHANA by bob stauffer ABSTRACT hawaii this district encompasses a large valley and the ocean fishery offshore from it the mission and membership of the church of jesus the valley is drained by the major kahana river which is christ of latter day saints in the hawaiian islands were in turn fed by the kawaKawa and kahana streams which flow from confronted early on with two epic cruises first there was the wet forked backbackcounttybackcountrycountry valleys in addition to these loss of the colony on the island of lanai in the early 1860s irrigation sources the hawaiians had constructed two major then came the sundering and temporary loss of about half of rocklinedrock lined auwaiahwaiwatercourseswatercourses of 151.5 and 252.5 miles in the faithful from the laie mission in the 1870s through the length helping to create an intensive agricultural community socalledso called awa rebellion 1 this paper picks up the thread with a relatively high precontactpre contact population of about 1000 of the churchs breakaway mormon colony in kahana in people doing so light is also shed on the broader debate over defining altogether the valley system was some eight square miles the traditional hawaiian system of land ownership and 5200 acres in size with another 232 3 square miles of bay and management offshore fishery A traditional lifestyle appears to have been practiced with the peoples time spent largely with gardening taro in irrigated BACKGROUNDbackgrounds2 terraces iolaliloi&li tending to other agricultural produce and harvesting the rich fishery and the acquaticacquatic produce of rock some ten miles down along the windward coast of oahubahu sugar walled fishpondsfishponds from the old laie mission and plantation lies the gm class which provided adnaanadministrative land A chiefly alii existed dnistrative ahul2uaaahupuaaahupuaa district of kahana As was common in coordination for the upkeep of the auwaiahwaiand the fishery helped in the mediation of disputes and enforceenforcementmi ent of societys rules and in the exercise of certain religious observances the people of the valley the makaamakaainanainana class appear to have had certain operativecooperativeco interests and rights to itheataitheawaIThethe awa rebellion has been separatelyseparatelyaracely reported on by the historical the land and to making their views known and respected society it involved amongst other factors the excommunication of a although a centuryoldcentury old debate continues amongst historians large number of native members of the church over a dispute regarding and as to the extent of such interests and rights methysticum commentators the raising of awaw piperpiller methvsticum the kava plant the roots of here as elsewhere in old hawaii one popular view is that the which are used to make an intoxicating beverage makaamakaainanainana were little more than serfs with their labor and ithesthe2the hawaiian term hui means a group association club organization lives controlled by the alii in a feudal relationship society or partnership see page 7 for a fuller description of a huhuihuli aina As occurred throughout the islands the effects of disease land partnership the hui aina 0 kahana often shortened simply to diminished kahanas population by more than eighty percent the hui 0 kahana or the kahana hui was an organization formed to only about 150 people in 35 families remained in the ahupuaaahupuaa purchase the land division of kahana and operate a community within it by the mid 19th century such land huishulsof a century ago should not be confused with their modem namesakes which are little more than land speculation schemes 13 THE HUI OF KAHANA it was 1848 when the great kahelemahele dividing of the land greatgreatgreatgreat great great grandchildren of the homesteader named began prior to the kahelemahele there were no private lands in kadadakapadakapapa hawaii through the kahelemahele every acre became owned by nearly all of the descendants of these kahelemahele era families someone the king 245 of the high alii and the government who remained in kahana later joined the church of jesus took 99 percent of the islands land for themselves leaving the christ of latter day saints some also joined the breakaway remaining one percent to the makaamakaainanainana mormon group huihulhuihulwhich brought out the 5000acre5000 acre kahana fared no differently the homesteads kuleanakukuheanaleana kahana interest of the high chief keohokalole in the 1870s awarded to the valleys families totalled under two hundred keohokalole had sold her interest in 1857 to the chinese acres and the districts high chief got the remainder of the land merchant ahsing in honolulu aldaidakanaapakanaapadanaApAiDakana in hawaiian buying including the rights to the fishery the fishfishpondsponds and to the for 2500 he sold his interest a decade later for 6000 J surplus supplies of surface and underground water cheang chuck locally known as achuck was the buyer A high chiefs had vested interests in keeping the wealthy businessman in the portugese colony of macao his makaamakaainanainana homesteads within their districts as small as local partnership afong and achuck was a leading trading possible because all homesteadnonhomesteadnon land went to them aiding house in honolulu easily equalling any of the white 11aolehaole them in this were government rules excluding from homestead firms of his day awards those formerlytilledformerly tilled familyy lands which lay untended kahana was being used for rice farming and a local due to declines in family population those gardens which chinese rice farmer H ahheeahmee bought achuck out in 1872 were laying fallow and the large upcountry lands which having taken a hawaiian wife ahheeahmee personally worked his families utilized for nonintensivenon intensive agricultural production fields along with his hired hands he made a good enough the name of the high chief of kahana at the time of cook business of it to keep his mortgage payments current but he is lost to history although we know that he or she would have eventually yearned to return to his native china and so he been a chief of oahubahu0ahu through the right of conquest was open to an offer from the breakaway mormons from laie kamehameha I1 and his group of big island chiefs had since who had been temporarily cast out from the church due to the 1795 appointed the ruling chiefs of kahana in 1848 this was events of the awa rebellion A keohokalole coming from the hilo area keohokalole was mother of the kalakaua dynasty king kalakaua queen liliuokalaniLiliuokalani THE hulHUI OF KAHANA princess likelikelakelikeLikelike and prince leieiohokuleleiohokuII11 keohokalole received several dozen ahul2uaaahupuaaahupuaa of land on all the major the group which made the offer to ahheeahmee was an odd islands on the windward coast of oahubahu0ahu area she got the bundle of native hawaiiansHawaiians there were some local kahana kahana and malaekahanaMalaekahana districts it is doubtful if she ever residents or others living nearby all homesteaders or their visited those outlying areas more likely she managed these heirs who undoubtedly wished to regain a broader say and districts through local land agents konohikikonohiki influence over the land district than had been granted them appendix A lists the 35 families of kahana at the time of through the kahelemahele the kahelemahele and shows their original requests and the many of the group hujihuihulchuji members were those who had left trimmedtrimmeddowndown sizes of their final homestead awards at least laie and were interested in establishing their own gathering one of these families has descendants who still live in the place and in fanningfarming the area but there were also friends or valley john gorai kapapa and beatrice gorai soga each of family from other districts on oahubahu0ahu as well as the islands of whom are grandparents in their own right are two of the hawaii kauai and maui who joined in 14 THE HUI OF KAHANA with the concurrence of brigham young and the central kamakaniauKamak aniau in return he agreed to abide by the bylawsby laws church authorities the members of the officially unrecognized established by the hui and unorthodox colony were quickly welcomed back into the the final settlement of the mortgage and exchange of the fold the colonys chapel bomborn in heresy to succor heretics deed occurred on october 31 1881 it was at this time that stands today as the oldest standing mormon structure on hui members were clearly listed as holding operativecooperativeco oahubahu shares in the 5000acre5000 acre parcel and its associated water and the huishulshurshues administrative leader was george william fishing rights appendix B lists the hui membership as of kamakaniauKamakaniau sometimes known as kamaka niau on 1875 and 1881 august 1 1874 on behalf of the huis membership he most of the current residents of kahana are descendants or signed an intent to purchase the ahul2uaaahupuaaahupuaa from ahheeahmee otherwise heirs to either the original kahelemahele families or the hui inadequate funds were raised but a year later a preliminary members or both adella johnson and lilliana vincent both sale was made with ahheeahmee holding the deed until a mortgage slated to be on our afternoon panel are heirs to the for the remaining half of the sale price had been settled with laeasolomona and mahelona shares respectively the him many of the group members began farming the area vierra family who currently live by the kahana fishpond that A separate

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