Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
But even neonationalists aren't convinced that complete self-determination is possible.
Each of the 30 identifiable sovereignty organizations (and more than 100 splinter groups) has
a different stated goal, ranging from total independence to nation-within-a-nation status, sim-
ilar to that of Native Indians. In 1993, the state legislature created a Hawaiian Sovereignty
Advisory Commission to “determine the will of the native Hawaiian people.” The commis-
sion planned to pose the sovereignty question in a referendum open to anyone over 18 with
Hawaiian blood, no matter where they live. The question still remains unanswered.
LOOKING BACK: OAHU & HAWAII'S HISTORY
Paddling outrigger canoes, the first ancestors of today's Hawaiians followed the stars and
birds across the ocean to Hawaii, which they called “the land of raging fire.” Those first
settlers were part of the great Polynesian migration that settled the vast triangle of islands
stretching between New Zealand, Easter Island, and Hawaii. No one is sure exactly when they
came to Hawaii from Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, some 2,500 miles to the south, but a
bone fishhook found at the southernmost tip of the Big Island has been carbon-dated from
a.d. 700. Chants claim that the Mookini Heiau (a temple made from stones), also on the Big
Island, was built in a.d. 480.
An entire Hawaiian culture arose from these settlers, with each island becoming a separate
kingdom. Across each kingdom, though, some things were consistent: The alii (high-ranking
chiefs) created a caste system and established taboos—and anyone that broke those taboos
could be sacrificed. Plus sailors became farmers and fishermen, and the inhabitants built
temples, fish ponds, and aqueducts to irrigate taro plantations.
The “Fatal Catastrophe”
No ancient Hawaiian ever imagined a haole (a white person; literally, one with “no breath”)
would ever appear on one of these islands. But then one day in 1778, just such a person sailed
into Waimea Bay on Kauai, where he was welcomed as the god Lono.
The man was 50-year-old Captain James Cook, already famous in Britain for “discovering”
much of the South Pacific. Now on his third great voyage of exploration, Cook had set sail
from Tahiti northward across uncharted waters to find the mythical Northwest Passage that
was said to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On his way, Cook stumbled upon the Hawaii-
an Islands quite by chance. He named them the Sandwich Islands, for the Earl of Sandwich,
first lord of the admiralty, who had bankrolled the expedition.
