Boki (Poki)
Boki (born before 1785 - died after December 1829) was the son of Kekuamanoha, a chief of Maui (but it was rumored that he was the son of Kahekili II.) His original name was Kamaʻuleʻule; his nickname came from a variation on Boss, the name of the favorite dog of Kamehameha I. His older brother, Kalanimōkū, was prime minister and formerly Kamehameha's most influential advisor. His aunt was the powerful Kaʻahumanu, queen regent and Kamehameha's favorite wife. Boki married Chiefess Kuini Liliha (born 1802 - died August 25, 1839,) daughter of Ulumaheihei Hoapili (Kamehameha's most trusted companion) and Kalilikauoha; her paternal grandfather was Kameʻeiamoku, one of Kamehameha's four Kona Uncles and a respected advisor; her maternal grandfather was Kahekili, high chief of Maui and later of O'ahu. King Kamehameha II appointed Boki as governor of Oʻahu and chief of the Waiʻanae district. John Dominis Holt III said Boki was "a man of great charisma who left his mark everywhere he went." Boki was skilled in Hawaiian medicine, especially the treatment of wounds, as taught by the kahunas. He was considered very intelligent and a highly persuasive man. His duties as governor of Oʻahu brought him in frequent contact with foreigners. He became one of the first chiefs to be baptized. Boki agreed to the breaking of the tabus in 1819 and accepted the Protestant missionaries arriving in 1820, although he had been baptized as a Catholic aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet, along with Kalanimōkū , the previous year. In 1824, Boki and Liliha were members of the entourage that accompanied Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu on a diplomatic tour of the United Kingdom, visiting King George IV in 1824. Less than two months after the royal group arrived in England, the king and queen were dead from the measles; it was Boki who lead the Hawaiian delegation to meet with King George IV and receive the King’s assurances of British protection for Hawai‘i from foreign intrusion. Returning with Lord Byron on the Blonde, Boki brought to Hawaiʻi an English planter, John Wilkinson, and with him began raising sugar cane and coffee beans in Mānoa Valley. Boki also encouraged the Hawaiians to gather sandalwood for trade, ran a mercantile and shipping business, and opened a liquor store called the Blonde Hotel. In the late-1820s, Boki came into conflict with Kuhina Nui (Premier) Ka‘ahumanu when he resisted the new laws that were passed, and did not enforce them. In May of 1827, Ka‘ahumanu and the Council charged Boki with intemperance, fornication, adultery and misconduct, and fined him and his wife Liliha. In 1829, at the suggestion of Kaʻahumanu, Boki and Liliha gave the lands of Ka Punahou to the Reverend and Mrs. Hiram Bingham, members of the American Board's first Sandwich Island Mission company. The Binghams oversaw the early development of the land and Mrs. Bingham planted the first night blooming cereus, now a symbol of Punahou. The Binghams left Hawaii in 1840, before Punahou School became a reality. Boki incurred large debts and, in 1829, attempted to cover them by assembling a group of followers and set out for a newly discovered island with sandalwood in the New Hebrides. Boki fitted out two ships, the Kamehameha and the Becket, put on board some five hundred of his followers, and sailed south. Somewhere in the Fiji group, the ships separated. Eight months later the Becket limped back to Honolulu with only twenty survivors aboard. Boki and two hundred and fifty of his men apparently died at sea when the Kamehameha burned, possibly when gunpowder stored in the hold blew up as a result of careless smoking. Liliha then became a widow and governor of Oʻahu. She gave the ahupuaʻa of Mākaha to High Chief Paki. Chief Paki was the father of Bernice Pauahi Bishop. (Lots of info here from waianaebaptist-org; punahou-edu; keepers of the culture and others.) The image shows Boki and Liliha, drawn when they were in London in 1824. In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200563932884118.1073742023.1332665638&type=1&l=49d835d8ab © 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC |
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Wahinepio
Kalaʻimamahu
Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu
Kaukuna Kahekili
Kekauʻōnohi
Mokuʻula, Lāhainā, Maui
Waineʻe Cemetery
Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio (died 1826) was a Hawaiian chiefess and member of the royal family during the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Wahinepio means captive women inHawaiian.[1]:5 Sometimes she is called Wahineopiʻo, or an extra ʻokina is added, calling her Kahakuhaʻakoʻi. She was also called Kamoʻonohu.[2]:53 She was consideredKamehameha I's third favorite wife[1]:11 and served as female Governor of Maui, an act unheard of at the time in the western world, but common in Hawaiian history.
Contents
[hide]Life[edit source]
She was born on the island kingdom of Maui.
One source gives her birth to be around 1796, but this would be impossible seeing as how her youngest child was said to be born around 1805.[3] Judging from the alleged birthdate of her brother and the fact she married Kamehameha I and later his son, she was probably born in the 1770s or 1780s. Her father was Kekuamanoha, and her mother was Kamakahukilani, the niece of her father. Through her father she was a granddaughter ofKekaulike, the King or Moʻi of Maui. Her mother was the daughter of Kauhiaimokuakama, the eldest son of Kekaulike, who was denied the right of succession to the throne of Maui due to his mother Kahawalu's inferior rank in contrast to Kekaulike's other wifeKekuiapoiwa I.[4]:212 Supported by King Peleioholani of Oahu, he fought against his younger half-brother Kamehamehanui Ailuau, who was assisted by the King of the Big Island Alapainui, at the Battle of Keawawa. The battle ended in a stalemate, but Kauhiaimokuakama was captured and drowned by Alapainui's orders.[4]:140-142 Her siblings included Kalanimoku, Boki, Governor of Oʻahu, and Manono II, the wife of Keaoua Kekuaokalani. She was cousin ofKaʻahumanu, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, and Namahana Piʻia, Kuakini, Governor of Hawaiʻi; and Keʻeaumoku II, who later served as her predecessor as Governor of Maui.[5]
Born Kahakuhaʻakoi, details of her early life are scarce. She grew up in the court of her uncle King Kahekili II of Maui. During her early childhood her father Kekuamanoha helped Kahekili conquer the island of Oahu, and was the chief responsible for the capture and execution of its King, Kahahana, who was his own brother-in-law.[4]:225 Afterward Kahekili set up this court on Oahu. She probably stay on in Maui with her aunt Kalola, the most senior chiefess of Maui at the time, and her cousin Kalanikauikaʻalaneo (later named Keōpūolani), Kalola's granddaughter. When Maui forces under Kalanikūpule, Kahekili's son and regent in his absence, lost toKamehameha I at the Battle of Kepaniwai, Kalola along with her family tried to flee to Oahu. They stopped in Molokai as sickness overcame the elderly Kalola, and were caught by Kamehameha's forces. The dying Kalola offered her granddaughter Keōpūolani as a future bride in exchange for peace. Other Maui chiefesses, including Kahakuhaʻakoi, also joined Kamehameha's court.[6]:260 She and her cousin both shared the new name Wahinepio (captive women) commemorating this event. Her cousin later adopted the nameKeōpūolani, while Kahakuhaʻakoi is mainly called Wahinepio by historians throughout the rest of her life.[1]:5[6]:
Marriages[edit source]
Kamehameha I married most of the women he took captive because they were the highest-ranking women in all the Hawaiian Islands and any children bore by them would hold the highest mana or spiritual power. Wahinepio married Kamehameha around that time. She was related to everyone of Kamehameha's wives; her cousins mentioned above were all married to the king, and her younger sister Manono was later to be one of two young women taken by Kamehameha "to warm his old age".[7]:108 She was considered to be Kamehameha's third favorite wife, after Kaʻahumanu and Kaheiheimālie,[6]:184although Keōpūolani was his most sacred wife. Like Kaʻahumanu she had no children by Kamehameha.[8]:43
She and Kamehameha separated in the early 1800s, around the time he married Kaheiheimālie. As a sort of compensation Kamehameha may have given Wahinepio to Kaheiheimālie's first husband, his half-brother, Kalaʻimamahu.[2]:50 Kamehameha gave many of his wives to his trusted friends and relatives. Remarriage was common among the chiefs of Hawaiʻi, and many chiefesses could even choose to have more than one husband at a time. She had a son Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu by her second husband. Some sources state he was the product of her third marriage and not her second marriages, but most historian agree that he was Kalaʻimamahu's son.[2]:50[9] Kahalaiʻa would later be appointed Governor of Kauaʻi after helping suppress the Humehume rebellion in 1824.[10]:228 He had a possible daughter Keʻelikōlani and an unnamed son from his fourth and fifth marriages, respectively.
Her second marriage didn't last long, and she remarried to Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu, the eldest surviving legitimate son of Kamehameha by his wife Peleuli.[11] According to Hawaiian tradition Kīnaʻu would have been Kamehameha's heir to the throne as his eldest son,[4]:211instead his younger half-brother Liholiho was chosen to be Kamehameha's heir due to his mother Keōpūolani's higher rank. This is ironic considering Wahinepio's own grandfather had been denied his right to the throne because of the inferior rank of his own mother. Tradition tells of a story, recorded down by John Papa Īī, that once while traveling with Kīnaʻu from Honolulu to Waikīkī, an offering of fishes were made to the couples by Kinopu from Moehonua's fishpond in Kālia. At the moment the sea came into the pond and fishes of every kind entered the sluice gate. Fish nets were cast and the harvest was so abundant that a great heap of fish lay spoiling upon the bank of the pond. When word of this reached Kamehameha, instead of being pleased, was displeased at that their waste of food. Kalanimoku, who was by the king's side at the time, ordered that Kinopu release most of the fish. When Kalaʻimamahu heard of what his nephew had done, his anger was kindled against him.[12]:87 With Kīnaʻu she had a daughter named Kekauʻōnohi, who later became one of the five wives of Kamehameha II and later Governor of Kauaʻi. Kekauʻōnohi had a son, but he died young.[11] Kīnaʻu died around 1809 leaving her a widow.[6]:197
Her final marriage was to Kaukuna Kahekili, who was descended from the Kings of Maui like herself[13] and had Spanish blood in his vein.[14] Her fourth husband had absolutely no power and served no post under Kaʻahumanu, although he had help lead an army of a thousand soldier to Kauai with Hoapili and Kaikioʻewa to assist her brother Kalanimoku and her son Kahalaiʻa put down the Humehume uprising in 1824. He was noted as a stern warrior with great strength and many battle scars.[10]:238 No known children came from this union.
Governor of Maui[edit source]
Wahinepio, a wife of Kamehameha I, died May 26. She served as governor of Maui at one point as one of the few female governors in the kingdom's history.[15]
Like many Hawaiian chiefesses at the time, Wahinepio was a giant of a woman. Reverend Stewart observed that she weighed no less than four hundred pounds.[16]:36 But like many females of rank, she became accustomed to Western dress and may have become self-conscious about her weight and thought of eating less poi, so her clothes could sit better. She became part of the first generation of Hawaiian women to be bothered by their appearance and inability to fit the mold of Western femininity. This came at the cost of lowering the status and right of Hawaiian women, and subsequent generations' only notion of being a woman was to follow their subservient Puritanic sisters.[17]:242
Christianity[edit source]
When the Christian missionaries arrived Wahinepio accepted Christianityalong with Queen Keōpūolani, Hoapili, Nāhiʻenaʻena, Keʻeaumoku II, Kekauʻōnohi, Kahekili, and Kaiko and his wife Haʻaheo who all attended classes set up by the missionaries.[13]:137 After Keōpūolani's death in 1823, many of the chiefs returned to some of the old ways including Wahinepio, who allowed most of her subjects to do as they wish. She was said to have been the principal agent in leading the princess to return to worshipping the oldHawaiian gods in 1824, a year after the death of her mother. Wahinepio may have assumed a motherly role over the recently orphaned princess. Although not for long because Nāhiʻenaʻena return to the Christian faith the following year and forbade anyone to enter her house who could no read hymns, targeting Wahinepio who couldn't read. The angry Wahinepio likewise forbade any to enter her house who was not skilful in dancing, referring to the paganhula forbidden by the missionaries.[18]:170 She may have eventually reconverted, but she was never considered a devout Christian and was clearly disliked by Reverend Richards and Reverend Bingham.[10] Her refusal to bend to Western ways or submitting to Chritianity and her strong belief in the old Hawaiian ways was identical to her possible granddaughter Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.
Reverend Richard tells of a change of heart by Wahinepio, in an account involving a Hawaiian girl Leoiki under her care. The sixteen year-old girl Leoiki was an attentive student of the Christian missionaries. She had attracted the eyes of Captain William Buckle of the British whaleship Daniel IV, who resolved to have her board his vessel. She pleaded to be spared, but Wahinepio allow her to be taken for the payment of sixteen doubloons, valued at ten dollars each, and Leoiki was taken on board for seven months, according to Richard's as a slave.[19] Wahinepio soon confessed that she had done wrong. She gave the coins to Nāhiʻenaʻena who refused them, and according to legends the coins were placed among the treasures left by Kamehameha II. Afterward laws were place throughout the islands forbidding women to visit ships for immoral purposes much to the anger of visiting sailors.[18]:170 Although, this might just be missionary propaganda.
Other accounts seems to suggest that Wahinepio took the payment as dowry and assurance of her return. And that Leoiki, instead of being sold, married Captain Buckle and had a son with him, born on February 5, 1826 as a British citizen on board the Daniel IV. The boy was named William Wahinepio Kahakuhaakoi Buckle in honor of her, and he served in King Kalakaua's privy council and was the first warden of Oahu prison.[20]
Death and legacy[edit source]
In 1826, an epidemic of whooping cough and bronchitis swept across Hawaii, claiming the lives of many Hawaiians who lack natural immunity to the disease. Her son Kahalaiʻa and his son, her grandson, fell victim to the epidemic in April of that year.[21]:221[22]:31 This double loss brought great sorrow to Wahinepio. Her grief weakened her constitution even further, and added with the rapid change Hawaii,[clarification needed] she succumbed to the epidemic.[6]:274 She died at Mokuʻula, the royal residence of Kamehameha III, in May 1826.[23]:102 She was given the honor of being buried at Mokuʻula, where Keōpūolani had been interred and where her daughter Kekauʻōnohi would be buried too. Her remains along with other royals were later transported to the Waineʻe Church, later renamed theWaiola Church, in Lāhainā.
Wahinepio Avenue in Kahului, next to Maui Community College and Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, is named after her.[24]
Ancestry[edit source]
References[edit source]
Keʻeaumoku II
ca. 1820s
Hoapili
hpd@honolulu.gov et.als.: For your information, evidence of Royal Families existing thru genealogies,....add to the Genocide Activities Files for the records, mahalo - Amelia Gora, one of the Royal Family members, etc.
info sent
More about Our Family Members:
Kalanimoku
Kuwahine
Likelike
Akahi-a-Pauelua
Maui
Kamakahonu
William Pitt Kalanimoku (c. 1768–1827) was a High Chief who functioned similar to aprime minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom during the reigns of Kamehameha I, Kamehameha II and the beginning of the reign of Kamehameha III. He was called The Iron Cable of Hawaiʻi because of his abilities.[1]:2
Life[edit source]
Kalanimoku was born at Kauiki, Maui, circa 1768. His father was Kekuamanoha and his mother was Kamakahukilani, the niece of his father. Through his father he was a grandson of Kekaulike, the King or Moʻi of Maui. Through his mother he was great-grandson of Kekaulike. He was cousin of Kaʻahumanu, Kaheiheimālie, and Namahana Piʻia, Kamehameha's three wives; Kuakini, later served as Governor of Hawaii; and Keʻeaumoku II, later served as Governor of Maui. His siblings included Boki, later served as Governor of Oʻahu; Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio, later served as Governor of Maui, and Manono II, the wife of Keaoua Kekuaokalani.[2] Both his sisters were at one time wives of Kamehameha I which may explain how he gained his power.
At the time, his name was often spelled Karaimoku by Hawaiians and contemporaries alike, and even Kalanimoku, himself, signed his name as such.[3] Other spellings were Kalaimoku, Crymoku or Crimoku. He adopted the name William Pitt after his contemporary the Prime Minister of Great Britain, William Pitt the Younger. He was frequently addressed as Mr. Pitt or Billy Bitt. He served as Kamehameha I's chief minister and treasurer succeeding his uncle Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiahiahi. He had great natural abilities in both governmental and business affairs. He was well liked and respected by foreigners, who learned from experience to rely on his words. He was called "the iron cable of Hawaiʻi" because of his abilities.[4][5]
In 1819, he was baptized a Roman Catholicaboard the French ship Uranie, in the presence of Kuhina Nui (Premier) Kaʻahumanu and King Kamehameha II.[5]:38The event depicted in a watercolor by ship's artist Jacques Arago (1790—1855), who wrote and illustrated accounts of the Hawaiian Islands during Freycinetexpedition.[1]:12
Kalanimoku led an army against the revolt of Kekuaokalani in December 1819 in the successful battle of Kuamoʻo.[6]
He served as regent along with Queen Kaʻahumanu while Kamehameha II traveled to London in 1823, and to Kamehameha III after Kamehameha II's death in 1824.
In his later years his vision dimmed and one of his eyes was defective. He suffered from dropsy through 1826 and the disease became alarming in the following year. He died at Kamakahonu (the old home of Kamehameha I) in Kailua Kona, Hawaii Island on February 7, 1827. He had only one son, William Pitt Leleiohoku I, who married Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani and had their only son William Pitt Kīnau, who died while still a teenager.
References[edit source]
Boki (Hawaiian chief)
1825–1829
Samoa?
Boki (sometimes Poki, born Kamāʻuleʻule) (before 1785–after December 1829) was a High Chief in the ancient Hawaiian tradition and served the Kingdom of Hawaii as royal governor of the island of Oahu. Boki ran a mercantile and shipping business and encouraged the Hawaiians to gather sandalwood for trade.
Contents
[hide]Early life[edit source]
Boki was the son of Kekuamanoha and Kamakahukilani. His father was a chief of Mauiand grandson of Kekaulike, King of Maui. He was a younger brother of William PittKalanimoku, but it was rumored that he was a son of Kahekili II. His original name wasKamāʻuleʻule ("The one who faints") and his nickname came from a variation of "Boss", the name of Kamehameha I's favorite dog which was a very common name for dogs in Hawaii at the time.[1][2]
Royal governor[edit source]
Boki was appointed Royal Governor of Oahu and chief of the Waiʻanae District by Kamehameha I, and continued in his post under Kamehameha I's son Kamehameha II.[3]
Boki and his wife Kuini Liliha (1802—1839) were leading members of a delegation toEngland led by King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu in 1824. After the monarchs died from measles during the stay, Boki and his wife returned to Hawaii with Admiral Lord Byron aboard the British frigate, HMS Blonde, which bore the bodies of the late king and queen.[4] En route, the ship stopped at Brazil and obtained several Arabica coffee trees, which Boki gave to ex-West Indies settler and agriculturalist John Wilkinson, to plant on the Chief's land in Oahu's Mānoa Valley. Wilkinson was never able to cultivate the strain for commercial production.[5] He also transplanted South American native turkeys to Hawai'i and Rotuma, along with the Hawaiian transliteration of the Portuguese name for turkey, peru (pelehu in Hawaiian, perehu in Rotuman).
Emboldened by the voyage, Boki sought to trade on the fame it gave him. He moved a wood frame house inland and opened a store and inn called the Blonde Hotel. He became unpopular with local missionaries because he sold liquor there. He stocked his bar with cheap but bad wine, saying it was good enough for visiting sailors. Like his other business ventures, it was not profitable to himself, but perhaps was to his employees. One of them claimed the building in the 1830s, calling it the "Boki House".[6]
Catholicism[edit source]
Boki agreed to the breaking of the kapu (the ancient system of strict rules) in 1819 and accepted the Protestant missionaries arriving in 1820. He had been baptized as a Catholic, along with his brother Kalanimoku, the previous year aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet. Although he was one of the first chiefs to be baptized, when he married Liliha, he refused to marry her in church and, despite his conversion, was known to enjoy partaking of "sinful" and "immoral" treats, such as drinking okolehao (liquor made from ti root).
Queen regent Kaʻahumanu had become influenced by the Protestant missionaries in Honolulu and was baptized into the Congregational church. Heeding the advice of her Congregationalist ministers, Kaʻahumanu influenced King Kamehameha III to ban the Roman Catholic Church from the islands. Boki and Liliha were a constant threat to Kaʻahumanu and her hold on the boy-king and when she learned that they were among the first chiefs to convert to the Hawaii Catholic Church it angered her, since she wanted all the chiefs to accept Protestantism, an example she hoped all Hawaiians would follow. Torn in conflicting directions, the young king under the influence of Boki turned to alcohol in what was portrayed as a clear rejection of the either Christian standards of morality.
Sandalwood[edit source]
After restrictions on sandalwood trading placed by Kamehameha I lapsed, Boki immersed himself in the business. He grew rich, like many other chiefs, but the chiefs' lack of understanding of financial concepts caused him to become deeply indebted by 1829. When word reached him that New Hebrides, a faraway group of South Pacific islands, was heavily forested in sandalwood, he pulled together a fleet of two ships and set sail. It is known that he reached Rotuma in 1827 and also called at Erromanga however when he failed to return to Hawaii it was assumed that he had perished at sea.
Despite the Hawaiian belief that he died during his sandalwood expedition, there is evidence that Boki was alive and well in Samoa in the year 1830. According to Marques' 1893 report, Boki's ship was wrecked in 1830 near Iva on the Samoan island of Savaiʻi where he rallied under the banner of the ambitious Samoan chief, Malietoa Vaiinupo. The Hawaiian embassy delegation sent to Samoa by King Kalakaua in 1886 learned that the two Prussian cannons from Boki's ships were indeed still to be found in Iva village along with "many of his descendants".[7]
Before departing, Boki entrusted administration of Oahu to his wife and, subsequently, widow, Liliha who was made chiefess of Waiʻanae and governor of Oʻahu, until she tried to overthrow Kaʻahumanu. Her father Hoapili talked her out of it at the last minute, but she was, nevertheless, relieved of her duties. After Kaʻahumanu died in 1832, Liliha was described as no longer observant of the missionary rules.[8]
References[edit source]
External links[edit source]
Lydia Nāmāhāna Piʻia?
1825?– 1829
Kuini Liliha
in Hawaii
Kaulana Na Pua
www.youtube.com
Project KULEANA and Kamehameha Publishing present a collaboration of musical KUL...
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All Hawaii Stand Together by Liko Martin
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Written by the Hawaiian poet Liko Martin, this mele is a call for all of us to f...See More