VIS
: :20t2 he 'Cliffs of Keolewa' to the Sea of Papaloa'
ANH                      An Archaeological Reconnaissance of Portions
of the Kalaupapa National Historical Park,
Moloka"i, Hawaiian Islands
Patrick V. Kirch
The 2000 archaeology field team at the venerable Quonset hut, Kalaupapa.
Left to right James Coil, Sharyn O'Day, Solomon Kailihiwa, Sidsel M ilerstrom,
Patrick V, Kirch, not present, John Holson, Kathy Kawelu.
ISBN 1882744136
FROM THE
'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA'
TO THE
'SEA OF PAPALOA'
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA':
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE OF PORTIONS
OF THE KALAUPAPA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK,
MOLOKAI, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
PATRICK V KIRCH
WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
JAMES COIL, LISA HOLM, JOHN HOLSON, SOLOMON KAILIHIWA,
KATHY KAWELU, SIDSEL MILLERSTROM, AND SHARYN O 'DAY
OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY LABORATORY
SPECIAL PUBLICATION No. 2
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY
2002
iv
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by funds from
the Class of 1954 Endowed Professorship fund,
University of California, Berkeley.
Library of Congress Card Number 2002114637
ISBN 1882744136
? Patrick V. Kirch, 2002
all rights reserved
Published by the Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory,
Archaeological Research Facility,
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
v
DEDICA TED TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN F. G. STOKES
AND
CATHERINE C. SUMMERS
WHO INDEPEYDENTLY LAID THE
GROUIYDWORK FOR
MOLOKA 'I ARCHAEOLOGY
vi
CONTENTS
Preface                                                                  ix
Acknowledgments                                                          x
Introduction                                                            xi
1 The Kalaupapa Regional Landscape                                         1
Geology and Geomorphology                                          1
Climate and Hydrology                                             3
Soils                                                             5
Biotic Communities                                                8
2 Ethnohistorical Background: The Kalaupapa Region                         11
3 Traditional Lands of the Kalaupapa Region: Analysis of the Mahele Land Records  15
Chiefly control of the Ahupua'a                                   16
Land Claims of the Maka'ainana                                     17
The Hierarchy of Lands                                            19
Konohiki Succession                                               21
Economic Infrastructure                                           21
4 Previous Archaeological Research at Kalaupapa                            26
5 The 2000 KHNP Survey: Objectives and Methods                             34
Selection of Sampling Areas                                        34
Field Methods                                                     37
6 Overviews of Sampling Areas                                              39
Waikolu Valley (WK-)                                               39
Wai'ale'ia Valley (WL-)                                           46
Kalawao Talus-Colluvial Slopes                                    49
Kaupikiawa Transect (KT-)                                         61
Kaupikiawa Point (KC-)                                            71
Nihoa Landshelf (NI-)                                             72
Other Sites                                                       81
7 Re-Excavations at Kaupikiawa Rockshelter                                 87
Field Methods                                                     87
Surface Features                                                  90
Stratigraphy                                                      90
Faunal Analysis                                                   90
Charcoal Analysis                                                 92
Radiocarbon Dating                                                93
Reinterpretation of the Depositional Sequence                     93
8 Ethnobotanical Observations in the Survey Areas: Relevance for Cultural
Landscape Interpretation                                            96
Native Taxa                                                       96
Pre-Contact, Hawaiian Cultivated Plants                           97
Post-contact Naturalized Plants                                   99
Invasive Flora                                                    99
Interpretations/Summary                                           99
9 Discussion and Interpretations                                           101
Variability in the Kalaupapa Archaeological Record                101
Some Major Research Issues                                         103
10 A Long-Range Program for Kalaupapa Archaeology                           112
References Cited                                                         114
Appendix: List of Sites Recorded                                         119
FIGURES
Figure 1  Map of Moloka'i Island, showing the location of Kalaupapa National
Historical Park (KNHP).                                            xiv
Figure 2  View eastwards along the windward coastline of Moloka'i Island.   2
Figure 3  Map showing the distribution of major soil types within the Kalaupapa
National Historical Park.                                          6
Figure 4  View along the rocky eastern shore of Kalaupapa Peninsula.        9
Figure 5  Map showing the traditional land units within the area of Kalaupapa
Peninsula.                                                         20
Figure 6  Map showing the locations of heiau sites (triangles) recorded by Stokes in
1909.                                                              27
Figure 7  Locations of the reconnaissance survey zones covered during the 2000
archaeological survey.                                             35
Figure 8  Plan map of Site WK-1, at the eastern mouth of Waikolu Valley.    42
Figure 9  View of the wave-cut bank (Section B) along the seaward edge of
Site WK-1, Waikolu Valley.                                         43
Figure 10 The cleaned stratigraphic section (Section B) at Site WK-1, Waikolu Valley.  44
Figure 11 The recorded stratigraphic section (Section B) of Site WK- 1.    45
Figure 12 View of Wai'ale'ia Valley from the taluvial slopes of Kalawao.    48
Figure 13 Plan map of Site 289.                                             50
Figure 14 View of the main front facing of Site 289.                        51
Figure 15 The well-constructed eastern wall on top of the Site 289 plafform.  52
Figure 16 Plan and cross-section of Site KA-5.                              53
Figure 17 Plan map of Site KA-1.                                            54
Figure 18 Scale drawing of the anthropomorphic petroglyph at Site KA-1.     55
Figure 19 View of stacked basalt retaining walls for probable agricultural terraces
in the Kalawao Sampling Zone A area.                               56
Figure 20 Plan and section of Site KA-2, a possible habitation feature.     57
Figure 21  Plan map and cross-section of Site 288, a ko 'a or fishing shrine.  58
Figure 22 View of Site 288 from the southwest.                              59
Figure 23 Plan of Site KB-6, a rectangular enclosure.                       60
Figure 24 Plan and section of Site KB-9a, a possible residential site.      61
Figure 25 Map of the Kaupikiawa Transect.                                   63
Figure 26 View along one of the low stone field alignments in the Kaupikiawa
Transect.                                                          66
Figure 27 View of the Sites KT- 1 to -6 cluster in the seaward portion of the
Kaupikiawa Transect.                                               67
Figure 28 Plan and section of Site KT-1, a probable fishing shrine (ko'a).  68
Figure 29 Plan of Site KT- 19, an L-shaped shelter.                         69
Figure 30 Plan and section of Site KT-20, a C-shaped shelter.               69
Figure 31 Plan of Site KT-27, a stacked stone shelter.                      70
Figure 32 Plan of Site KT-34, a possible residential or activity area.      71
Figure 33 Plan and section of Site KC-6, a possible post-contact residential feature.  73
Figure 34 Plan and section of Site KC-9, a possible pre-contact residential feature.  74
Figure 35 Plan and section of Site KC-5, a probable garden feature.         75
Figure 36 Plan and section of Site KC-1 3, a possible garden feature.       76
Figure 37 View of the boulder beach approach to Nihoa.                      77
Figure 38 Plan and section of Site NI-1, a set of probable habitation terraces.  78
Figure 39 Plan map of the NI-6 site complex at Nihoa.                       79
Figure 40 Plan and section of Site NI-10 at Nihoa.                          80
Figure 41 Plan map of the Site NI-4 complex.                                81
Figure 42 View of the Site NI-4 complex from the east.                      82
viii
Figure 43 Plan map of the NI-7 complex.                                  83
Figure 44 View of the eastern face of the probable heiau at Kalawao.     84
Figure 45 Plan map of the probable heiau at Kalawao.                     85
Figure 46 Plan map and sections of the exterior portions of the Kaupikiawa
Rockshelter and adjacent Site KC- 1.                            88
Figure 47 View of the interior of Kaupikiawa Rockshelter.                89
Figure 48 Plan and sections of the interior portion of Kaupikiawa Rockshelter.  91
Figure 49 Stratigraphic section of Unit A, Kaupikiawa Rockshelter.       92
Figure 50 Charcoal diagram for the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter.               94
TABLES
Table 1  Characteristics of Waihdnau, Wai'ale'ia, and Waikolu Valleys.   5
Table 2  Summary of Mahele Land Claims, KNHP.                            18
Table 3  Names of Ahupua 'a, 'lii, and Mo'o as Derived from Mahele
Claims (1848-52).                                               22
Table 4  Konohiki Succession in Kalaupapa Region Ahupua 'a.              23
Table 5  Dimensions of Maka'ainana Land Claims.                          24
Table 6  Some Environmental Characteristics of the Sampling Areas.       36
Table 7  Radiocarbon Age Determinations from Kaupikiawa Rockshelter.     95
ix
PREFACE
Kalaupapa certainly ranks as one of the more
elusive localities for archaeological-or that mat-
ter, for any scientific-studies within the Hawaiian
archipelago. Not that the place is forgotten, or ob-
scure; far from it, Kalaupapa is one of the most
famous localities in the islands. Established in 1865-
66 as a place of banishment, and later a treatment
center for those suffering from leprosy, or Hansen's
disease, Kalaupapa occupies a unique niche in the
annals of Hawaiian history. This rugged peninsula,
jutting out into the Pacific swells and cut off from
the rest of Moloka'i by formidable cliffs rising thou-
sands of feet, has become known largely as a land-
scape of suffering. The thousands of historic grave
sites, marked and unmarked, that line the narrow
road from the small airstrip to the settlement, can-
not but impress the first-time visitor. Most famous
for his suffering, of course, was Father Damien,
now not merely beatified by the Catholic Church
but--questionably to his greater glory-subject of
a recent motion picture.
The elusiveness of Kalaupapa derives as much
from its peculiar history as a place of containment
and isolation for those afflicted by this once dreaded
and formerly untreatable disease, as from its corol-
lary, that visitors have been carefully restricted and
monitored; indeed, they still are. Once controlled
tightly by the Kingdom's and later the Territory's
Board of Health, the County of Kalawao (which
forms its own jurisdiction separate from Maui
County) is currently administered by a delicate
balance of authorities, including the State of Hawai'i
(Department of Health, and Department of Hawai-
ian Home Lands), U. S. Coast Guard, and the U. S.
National Park Service. New patients have not been
admitted to the settlement since 1969, and plans
call for the area to be gradually turned over to full
control by the National Park Service. Kalawao
County (and the Kalaupapa National Historic Park,
KNHP) includes not only the peninsula itself (with
the three ahupua'a of Kalawao, Makanalua, and
Kalaupapa, from east to west), but also the large
windward valley of Waikolu, and the smaller val-
leys of Wai'ale'ia and Waihanau, along with the
isolated landshelf of Nihoa to the west.
I had gazed down upon the peninsula from the
overlook at Pu'u Lua many times (the first, if I re-
call correctly, in 1959), and had even set down once
or twice in small planes on the landing strip, but
had never enjoyed the opportunity to explore
Kalaupapa until 1993, when Earle ("Buddy")
Neller, then residing at KNHP as a National Park
ranger, invited me and my Berkeley colleague Kent
Lightfoot to spend a day with him visiting sites.
Crawling through the thick Christmas berry and
lantana on the talus slopes to examine previously
unrecorded habitation and heiau sites which Buddy
had discovered, I was struck by the evident rich-
ness of the archaeological record. As Kent and I
enjoyed a beer "topside" at the end of a long and
stimulating day, we mused over the possibilities of
long-term research at Kalaupapa.
In the late 1990s, I began informal discussions
with Dr. Robert Hommon, Pacific region archae-
ologist of the National Park Service, and Ms. Laura
Carter Schuster, of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park,
regarding the potential of a long-term program of
archaeological research in the Kalaupapa National
Historical Park. In April 1999, the three of us were
able to rendezvous at Kalaupapa for two days,
guided to various sites by Mr. Dean Alexander, then
KHNP Superintendent. This trip further convinced
me that Kalaupapa deserved a closer archaeologi-
cal exploration, and we began discussing how such
a project might proceed. It seemed logical that the
first step should be an intensive reconnaissance of
selected portions of KNHP, to assess more fully
the potentials for long-term archaeological study.
Pursuant to a Scope of Work submitted to Mr.
Dean Alexander, Superintendent of the KNHP, on
1 May 2000, and subsequently approved, an ar-
chaeological research team from the University of
California at Berkeley, under my direction, con-
ducted a reconnaissance archaeological survey in
selected portions of KNHP from August 11 to Sep-
tember 3, 2000. The field team consisted of the
following individuals: P. V. Kirch, director; S.
Millerstrom, J. Coil, and K. Kawelu, U. C. Berke-
ley archaeology graduate students; S. Jones O'Day,
University of Florida archaeology graduate student;
S. Kailihiwa, U. C. Berkeley undergraduate stu-
dent; and J. Holson and J. Cerny, volunteers. They
were a first-rate team, as indeed they needed to be
to deal with seemingly endless stretches of boul-
der beaches, a leaky and rustic Quonset hut, and
restricted opportunities for provisioning. This re-
port summarizes the field work accomplished by
our team, and fulfills our obligations under the terms
of our Scope of Work. Copies of all detailed site
records generated during the reconnaissance sur-
vey have been deposited with the KNHP Superin-
tendent, for curation as a part of the Park's archives.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Financial support for this research project was
provided by the Pacific Rim grant program of the
Office of the President, University of California,
and by the Class of 1954 Professorship endowed
fund of the University of California, Berkeley. In-
kind support was provided by the National Park
Service, for lodging and local transportation. We
are particularly grateful to KNHP Superintendent
Dean Alexander, and his staff of rangers and assis-
tants. NPS Archaeologists Dr. Robert Hommon and
Ms. Laura Schuster were instrumental in setting up
the project, and Rob provided additional maps and
documentary sources. We also thank Dr. Holly
McEldowney and Dr. Sara Collins of the State of
Hawai'i Historic Preservation Division for addi-
tional assistance and support. Ms. Dorothe Curtis
of Kamalo, Moloka'i, likewise offered additional
source materials and information. In the final stages
of report writing, Mr. Mark McCoy of Berkeley
shared new archival and cartographic information
he had obtained in Honolulu.
A special thanks to Dr. Emmett Aluli, who
treated my badly injured leg (casualty of the Nihoa
boulder beach), and who with Daviana McGregor
gave our team a most welcome evening repast dur-
ing our weekend "topside." Kat and Glenn Davis
were likewise gracious hosts during that respite from
trying fieldwork. We particularly extend our mahalo
nui loa to the residents of Kalaupapa Settlement
who welcomed us into their community.
All of my co-authors have contributed to the
preparation, writing, and production of this report,
whether through map-making, describing sites,
carrying out laboratory analyses, or preparing
graphics. The final report writing was coordinated
by me, with particular assistance from Lisa Holm
and Kathy Kawelu in the preparation of graphics
and text layout. I thank Therese Babineau for her
fine skills in printing the black-and-white photo-
graphs.
Patrick Vinton Kirch
Quinta Pacifica
El Sobrante
x
xi
INTRODUCTION
The overall purpose of the 2000 Kalaupapa
project was to conduct a reconnaissance-level sur-
vey of selected portions of Kalaupapa National
Historical Park (KNHP), in order to assess the range
of prehistoric and early historic Hawaiian archaeo-
logical sites and features, as well as their geographic
distribution and density. The goal was to obtain
sufficient data to enable development of a possible
multi-year research design for collaborative ar-
chaeological work in KNHP to be conducted in
partnership between the NPS and the University of
California at Berkeley, Archaeological Research Fa-
cility (ARF).
The area of KNHP corresponds with that of
Kalawao County, a separate administrative unit dis-
tinct from Maui County, the latter incorporating the
remainder of Moloka'i Island along with Maui and
Lana'i (Fig. 1). Within the Park boundaries are four
traditional Hawaiian land units (ahupua'a):
Kalaupapa, Makanalua, Kalawao, and Waikolu
(from west to east). The name Kalaupapa, then,
has several connotations: as the traditional
ahupua'a situated on the western side of the pen-
insula; as the name for the peninsula as a whole; as
the name of the current Hansen's Disease settle-
ment on the western side of the peninsula; and, in
popular usage, as a synonym for the whole of
Kalawao County. Throughout this report, we will
distinguish these meanings by reference to
Kalaupapa Ahupua'a, Kalaupapa Settlement,
Kalaupapa Peninsula, and Kalaupapa Region (i.e.,
the area of KNHP).
Three specific objectives were outlined in our
Scope of Work: (1) A reconnaissance survey of
several selected environmental zones within the
Park (e.g., the wet valleys, the colluvial and talus
slopes inland of the peninsula, and the peninsula
itself), in order to gain an overview of the kinds
and distributions of major archaeological features.
(2) Detailed plane table mapping and architectural
recording of selected sites, including several known,
but currently un-documented heiau and associated
features. (3) Cleaning and re-recording of the test
excavations conducted by Richard Pearson in 1966-
67 in the Kaupikiawa lava tube complex in Kalawao
(Site 312), which had produced an early 14C age
determination. Because this site is of considerable
significance for developing a long-term chronol-
ogy and sequence for Kalaupapa, it was judged
important that its stratigraphy be recorded, and new
samples obtained to check the original dating re-
sults on Pearson's samples.
Our project explicitly did not focus on archaeo-
logical vestiges of the post-1866 period, when
Kalaupapa became a leprosy settlement by Act of
the Hawaiian Kingdom. Such remains are, in fact,
extensive throughout the KNHP, and include the
virtually intact remnants of the early Kalawao settle-
ment, as well as later houses and settlement ruins
(such as the Baldwin and Bishop Homes, and the
foundations of the 1908 Federal research center
overlooking Keawaiki and Wai'ale'ia Bay). Our
expertise and interest is not primarily in historical
archaeology, a specialized field which has come
into its own in recent decades. We simply note here
the tremendous scope for the historical archaeol-
ogy of post-1866 Kalaupapa, and leave that field
for others to develop in the future.
This short monograph presents the main results
of our field survey. In addition, we review previ-
ous archaeological research within the KNHP, and
summarize some pertinent ethnohistorical materi-
als, including the interesting Mahele land claims
dating to 1848-52. Given that so little archaeologi-
cal research has been carried out in a region with
such rich cultural resources, our aim here is to sum-
marize the results of our reconnaissance survey, as
well as to present our views regarding the potential
of long-term archaeological research in the KNHP.
Not included here, however, are full details on the
re-excavation of the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter
(sometimes called "Pearson's Cave"), or our strati-
graphic sampling of the Waikolu 1 irrigation com-
plex. Additional laboratory work is necessary to
complete the analyses of this site, which will be
published separately.
xii
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CHAPTER 1
THE KALAUPAPA REGIONAL LANDSCAPE
a Out of all the striking landforms
found throughout the Hawaiian
archipelago, that of the Kalaupapa
Peninsula and its adjacent sur-
roundings surely count as among
the most awe inspiring. The peninsula itself-which
juts out into the Pacific waters with limited reefs to
lessen the impact of rolling swells on lava rock-
interrupts the massive line of immense sea cliffs,
rising to heights of 1,000 meters above sea level,
that define the windward coastline of Moloka'i (Fig.
2). These towering cliffs are themselves cleaved in
places by deep erosional valleys, such as Waikolu,
Wai'ale'ia, and Waihanau within the KNHP bound-
aries; between the valleys, waterfalls tumble over
the cliffs plunging into the sea, or billowing out
into the mist. Sunrises and sunsets are equally spec-
tacular at Kalaupapa, with the sun rising to the east
off Cape Halawa, and setting to the west beyond
the landslip of Nihoa. From the perspective of the
peninsula, however, it is the towering cliffs that con-
tinually loom up in the background, defining this
detached world so isolated unto itself. It was just
this isolation that made the Hawaiian Kingdom's
health administrators choose Kalaupapa for a leper
colony in 1866, and the additional restrictions im-
posed for that purpose have truly made Kalaupapa
a world unto itself. Not surprising that the rest of
Moloka'i above and beyond those imposing cliffs
should be known to the locals as "Topside".
Within an archipelago famous for its physical
and biotic diversity, the lands within KNHP are
especially notable for the range of variation in vir-
tually every aspect of natural history: geology, land-
form, rainfall and hydrologic resources, soils, and
biotic communities. The following paragraphs sum-
marize key aspects of this variability, which played
a major role in influencing the ways in which pre-
contact Hawaiians settled and utilized the penin-
sula and valleys that today make up KNHP. Our
emphasis is on aspects of landscape and environ-
ment which were directly relevant to indigenous
Hawaiian settlement patterns and cultural practices,
and which helped to shape the ways in which people
used the lands of KNHP prior to the development
of the leprosy settlement. These environmental
variations also supplied the major criteria in our
selection of sampling areas for archaeological sur-
vey.
GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY
The geological history of Moloka'i was first
thoroughly worked out by Stearns and Macdonald
(1947) in their classic study of geology and ground-
water resources. They recognized that the island
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 2 View eastwards along the windward coastline of Moloka'i Island. The towering cliffs were created by
a combination of massive landslides and wave erosion, Waikolu Valley and Okala Island are visible in the middle
portion of the photograph.
had been created by the coalescence of two sepa-
rate shield volcanoes (the West Moloka'i and East
Moloka'i volcanic series), followed by a major
phase of erosion during which the great windward
sea cliffs and deep amphitheater-headed valleys
were created. Stearns and Macdonald debated
whether the northern sea cliffs were formed solely
by marine erosion, or whether faulting was also
involved (1947:11). Recent work including sub-
marine mapping has now shown that faulting and
massive collapse were major processes at work in
creation of the cliffs. Subsequent to the develop-
ment of the deep windward valleys and formation
of the high sea cliffs, a renewed phase of volcanic
activity created the Kalaupapa Peninsula. Stearns
and Macdonald described this late phase of volca-
3
THE KALAUPAPA REGIONAL LANDSCAPE
nic activity as follows:
The Kalaupapa basalt is named from the leper settle-
ment which is built on this lava. The basalt forms a
peninsula 21/2 miles long and 2/2 miles wide projecting
from the base of the great windward cliff of East
Molokai Mountain. The lava is a porphyritic olivine
basalt pahoehoe ... that issued from a flat lava cone
405 feet high indented with a crater a quarter of a mile
wide and more than 450 feet deep. A brackish pond lies
in the crater. Two distinct rock benches in the crater
indicate that the lava lake halted twice during the
recession of the magma column. Most of the lava
discharged northward through a large lava tube that is
now collapsed. Several other tubes are exposed at the
sea where they have been eroded to form natural
bridges, blow holes, and other scenic forms. Most of
the cone lies under the sea. (1947:25)
Radiometric dating of volcanic rocks, such as
potassium-argon dating, not available in Stearns
and MacDonald's day, have now given the histori-
cal geology of Moloka'i a firm geochronology. The
West Moloka'i shield dates to ca. 1.9 million years,
and the East Moloka'i shield to ca. 1.5 million years.
The rejuvenation stage which resulted in the
Kalaupapa Peninsula is dated to ca. 570-350,000
years ago (Clague 1998:43). Between the creation
of the East Moloka'i shield and the rejuvenation
stage, indeed "probably late in the shield stage,"
the East Moloka'i volcano was bisected through
its summit caldera "by the enormous Wailau land-
slide, which slid northward and thrust kilometer-
sized blocks onto the seafloor up to 100 miles (166
km) offshore" (Clague 1998:43).
This complex geological history resulted in a
diversity of geomorphological landforms within the
area of KNHP. The peninsula itself consists of rela-
tively gentle, only minimally weathered, lava flow
slopes, emanating from the deep pit crater of
Kauhako. The coastline of the peninsula varies
from 10-20 m high sea cliffs on the east, to more
protected sandy beaches and rocky shores on the
west. Along the inland (south) margin of the pen-
insula, landslides and erosion from the cliffs has
created a zone of talus and colluvium (or, as
Wentworth termed it, "taluvium"). In the eastern
portion of KNHP are the large Wai'ale'ia and
Waikolu Valleys, which slice deeply into the East
Moloka'i Mountains. Wai'ale'ia has an intermittent
stream and limited alluvial flats, with more exten-
sive colluvial slopes, while Waikolu has a perma-
nently flowing stream and more extensive alluvial
deposits near the mouth of the valley, as well as
extensive colluvial deposits. All of these alluvial
and colluvial areas provided excellent zones for
indigenous Hawaiian horticultural practices. In the
far western part of KNHP is yet another landform,
the "landshelf' of Nihoa which represents a block
of the East Moloka'i shield which collapsed through
faulting; other such landshelves are found along
the length of the windward Moloka'i coastline.
CLIMATE AND HYDROLOGY
The major factor influencing rainfall on
Moloka'i is orographic (or mountain-induced) pre-
cipitation, capturing the moisture-laden marine air
typically borne landwards by the northeast trades.
As KNHP is situated on the windward side of
Moloka'i, it partakes fully of this orographic rain-
fall pattern. The northern tip of the peninsula, which
is nearly at sea level and thus does not induce much
rainfall, receives only about 1,000 mm (40 inches)
annually, but between 1,500-2,000 mm (60-80
inches) falls towards the inland side of the penin-
sula against the talus and colluvial slopes (rainfall
data from Giambelluca and Schroeder 1998). In
contrast, the headwaters of Waikolu Valley receive
an estimated 3,000+ mm (120+ inches) per year,
more than enough to ensure permanent stream flow,
even with a considerable quantity of Waikolu's
water diverted through intakes and tunnels to arid
West Moloka'i. Rainfall throughout KNHP displays
a distinctly seasonal pattern, with a wet season from
around November through April/May, and a drier
season in the intervening months. Of course, within
the context of the windward valleys such as
Waikolu, the notion of a "dry season" is only rela-
tive.
This steep rainfall gradient, ranging from
<1,000 mm to >3,000 mm in just over 7 km from
north to south, had major implications for ancient
Hawaiian land use, given the indigenous Hawai-
ian crop plant assemblage. Rainfall over most of
the peninsula was sufficient only to support a few
dryland crops, most notably sweet potato (Ipomoea
batatas), and presumably also sugar cane (Saccha-
rum officinarum), gourds (Lagenaria siceraria),
and yams (Dioscorea alata). However, as one ap-
proached the extensive colluvial slopes along the
southern base of the peninsula, the higher rainfall
4
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
levels (1,500-2,000 mm) would have been adequate
not only for such crops, but also for dryland taro
(Colocasia esculenta), bananas (Musa hybrids), as
well as secondary crops such as 'awa (Piper
methysticum) or noni (Morinda citrifolia). In
Waihanau, Wai'ale'ia, and especially Waikolu Val-
leys, very high rainfall as well as permanent
streamflow were ideal for the creation of permanent
irrigated pondfield systems for wet taro cultivation,
although crops such as sweet potato may not have
tolerated the continuously humid conditions.
The three valleys within KNHP vary greatly in
their hydrologic regimes, largely a function of their
respective sizes and drainage basins (Table 1); sta-
tistical data on streamflow are available for
Waihanau and Waikolu Valleys, due to stream gaug-
ing stations maintained by the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey (USGS 1961, 1971). Waihanau, farthest to the
west, is also the narrowest valley, with an average
width at the base of the cliffs of ca. 100-300 m, leav-
ing only restricted colluvial slopes on which cultiva-
tion could have been carried out. Although the main
valley area is small, Waihanau Stream drains an ex-
tensive upland area extending to the base of Pu'u
Kaeo, and therefore always has some flow in its
upper portions. Waihanau Stream is subject to ma-
jor flash flooding when there are heavy rains in the
uplands, as we witnessed during the night of Au-
gust 20, 2000, when a subtropical depression hit
Moloka'i Island. Waihanau Stream discharges into
the ocean just south of the Kalaupapa Settlement,
about 50 m from the Quonset Hut, and the roar of the
stream which was carrying entire trees and moving
large boulders in its bed, was quite impressive.
Wai'ale'ia Valley contrasts strikingly with
Waihanau in being much wider than the latter, and
amphitheater shaped. There are many small allu-
vial terraces, and fairly extensive colluvial slopes
in Wai'ale'ia Valley, which might have made horti-
cultural practice there more inviting. However, un-
like Waihanau, Wai'ale'ia has very little drainage
area above Waimanu Falls, so that Wai'ale'ia Stream
is dry much of the time, limiting the potential for
irrigated pondfield agriculture. Moreover, at times
of heavy rain the valley slopes and floor are sub-
ject to significant slope wash and flash flooding.
Over much of these slopes we observed loose
subangular to rounded gravel scree beds which were
the result of surface water flow. These constraints-
a lack of constant water in the main stream, and
uncontrollable slope wash and flooding during
heavy rains-may thus have rendered Wai'ale'ia
less desirable for permanent settlement than first
appearances might suggest.
Waikolu Valley is significantly larger than ei-
ther Waihanau or Wai'ale'ia, being one of the four
great windward valleys of Moloka'i (the others are
Pelekunu, Wailau, and Halawa). With valley walls
rising to heights of 1,000 m, Waikolu visually over-
whelms a diminutive human. The main valley has
a length of about 4 km, and significant alluvial ter-
races and colluvial slopes are found well inland; at
the valley mouth an alluvial floodplain was the set-
ting for a significant taro irrigation system, and
many other taro pondfield systems are distributed
up the valley on the flats and slopes. Despite the
fact that considerable streamflow is captured about
3.5 km inland, and diverted through a tunnel to the
western side of the island, Waikolu Stream has an
average discharge near the stream mouth of 18.9
cubic feet per second, and never goes dry. This is
in part due to a number of springs which emanate
from the lower valley walls, tapping perched ground
water. Clearly, the potential for extensive irrigation
systems in Waikolu is significant, a potential that
was developed by indigenous Hawaiian cultiva-
tors well before contact, and which seems to have
been further intensified and possibly transformed
using Asian rice pondfield technology during the
later part of the 19th century.
The peninsula itself has no streams flowing
across it, although Waihanau Stream runs westwards
along the base of the colluvial slopes to discharge
into the sea at Puiwahi. The absence of stream chan-
nels on the peninsula is largely a function of the
young age of the substrate, gentle slopes, and rela-
tively low rainfall. Thus it was not possible to de-
velop irrigated, pondfield agriculture on the pen-
insula itself, and crops would have had to depend
solely on rainfall. Moreover, fresh water for drink-
ing would have had to be collected from rainfall,
obtained from the pit crater at Kauhako, or trans-
ported from Waihanau or Wai'ale'ia streams. There
are very likely freshwater springs or seepages along
the shore, which may well have been known to
former residents of the peninsula.
5
THE KALAUPAPA REGIONAL LANDSCAPE
Table 1 Characteristics of Waihdnau, Wai'ale'ia, and Waikolu Valleys*
Parameter          Waihinau       Wai'ale'ia          Waikolu
Length of main valley     1.5 km     2 km               4 km
Average width at cliff base  0.1-0.3 km  0.5 km         0.3-0.5 km
Drainage basin area       1.18 sq mi  No data           3.68 sq mi
Average discharge         3.02 cfs   No data            18.9 cfs
Maximum discharge        4,950 cfs    No data           6,600 cfs
Minimum discharge        0.09 cfs     No data, stream   5.1 cfs
dry at times
*Drainage basin area and discharge statistics from USGS (1961, 1971).
Cfs = cubic feet per second.
SOILS
In addition to rainfall and surface hydrology,
the distribution of soil types was of fundamental
significance in shaping traditional patterns of land
use. Of course, rainfall and soils are themselves
related, as the rate of rock weathering and soil for-
mation increases as a function of rainfall (Chadwick
and Chorover 2001). However, nutrient depletion
(especially of phosphorus) may also become a lim-
iting factor in areas of very high rainfall (Chadwick
et al. 1999). Two soil surveys have covered the
KNHP region, both under the auspices of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture (Cline ed., 1955; Foote
et al. 1972), but using different soil classification
systems; we have consulted both. Neither survey
seems to have paid close attention to the valleys,
and we suspect that these were either not field sur-
veyed, or at best covered in a very cursory fash-
ion.
The soils of the peninsula proper have parent
materials of relatively young basaltic lavas, and con-
sequently are not deeply developed; on the other
hand, this young age may equate with a relatively
high nutrient status, a hypothesis we will develop
further in our conclusions. Cline (1955:631) clas-
sified the soils of the peninsula as "Rockland (map
symbol RB)", a soil unit "made up of young lavas
with a very thin cover of volcanic ash." He elabo-
rated that
where soil occurs, it averages less than 10 inches deep,
but ranges from a fraction of an inch to as much as 2
feet deep within a very short distance... Commonly the
Al horizon rests directly on solid bedrock, but in the
cracks and crevices of this rough, broken lava, soil
material typical of Kawaihae, Waikaloa, or Naalehu
soils may extend to depths of 2 feet (1955:631).
In the more recent survey of Foote et al. (1972),
the soils of the peninsula were more closely subdi-
vided, between "Rock Land (rRK)" on the north-
west and northeast peripheries of the peninsula, and
a special soil type distinctive to the area, the
"Kalaupapa Series." The distribution of these soil
types is shown in Figure 3. Rock Land, which
makes up a smaller area closer to the ocean, is de-
fined as "areas where exposed rock covers 25 to
90 percent of the surface" (1972:119). Typical of
this category is the area around the Kaupikiawa
Rockshelter. The larger percentage of the peninsu-
lar lands, however, consist of the Kalaupapa Se-
ries, which are described as "well-drained upland
soils underlain by pahoehoe bedrock at a depth of
about 14 inches" (1972:56). Foote et al. elaborate
on this important soil type as follows:
This soil occurs as one large area. It is shallow, and
there are many stones and cobblestones on the surface
and few to many in the profile. Rock outcrops cover
about 15 percent of the surface.
In a representative profile the surface layer is dark-
brown silty clay loam about 6 inches thick. The subsoil,
about 8 inches thick, is dark yellowish-brown, nearly
massive silt loam. Hard pahoehoe bedrock occurs at a
depth of about 14 inches. The soil is neutral throughout
the profile (1972:56).
In a remark that underscores the bias of USDA
soil surveys towards large-scale, commercial agri-
cultural interests, Foote et al. note that "cultivation
is impractical because of shallowness, the many
stones, and the rock outcrops" (1972:56). Of
course, the unstated assumption here is that one is
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
a           -
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z  t  6)U X   T -J rn
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ag  ~~~   ~.  .   .   ..  .   .  .  *.. * * *- **   .*
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97
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~~~~~ ',,,',''C!
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7
THE KALAUPAPA REGIONAL LANDSCAPE
using mechanized equipment; for a Hawaiian cul-
tivator working with a hardwood 'o'o (digging
stick), stoniness may not have been particularly
significant, and stones could easily be piled into
windbreaks and mounds. What mattered more was
the fertility of the soil. Given that the Kalaupapa
Series coincides with the archaeological manifes-
tations of a remarkable agricultural field system, it
might seem reasonable to suppose that the fertility
and productivity of the Kalaupapa Series soils are
quite high.
As noted earlier, running along the southern
margin of the peninsula where it meets the tower-
ing cliffs, is a zone of talus and colluvium, as well
as some alluvial deposits emanating from the mouth
of Waihanau Valley. This geomorphic province has
its own distinctive soils, as might be anticipated. In
the older Cline study, these were classified within
the Kawaihapai Series (1955:588-93), a group of
"brown or reddish-brown soils derived from very
young deep alluvium washed from humid regions."
At Kalaupapa, the specific soil type was defined as
Kawaihapai Very Stony Clay Loam (map symbol
K2y), a "moderately fine textured soil . . . found
mainly in narrow valleys where loose stones litter
the surface and are scattered throughout the pro-
file" (1959:593). (Again, the problems for machin-
ery are noted.) In the later Foote et al. study, this
area was included within a newly-defined Haleiwa
Series, "well-drained soils on fans and in
drainageways along the coastal plains" (1972:33).
The agricultural potential of these soils is again seen
as restricted due to stoniness, although it is noted
that sugarcane and truck crops are grown on them.
The importance of the Kawaihapai-Haleiwa soil
category for indigenous Hawaiian horticulture de-
serves notice. In his 1977 comparison of pre-con-
tact valley agricultural systems on O'ahu and
Moloka'i Islands, Kirch pointed to the prevalence
of Kawaihapai Series soils in areas with evidence
for intensive Hawaiian cultivation (1977:250). Re-
ferring to analyses made by the Cline (1959) team,
Kirch wrote that soils
... of the Kawaihapai Family are excellent for
cultivation, being well supplied with bases, having a pH
invariably greater than 6.0, and containing small
amounts of calcium and potassium, as well as average
amounts of nitrogen (1977:250).
Kirch also noted that the distinctive Hauula
Paddy Soils of Hawaiian pondfield irrigation sys-
tems were often developed on soils of the
Kawaihapai Series. Thus, the existence of an ex-
tensive zone of Kawaihapai-Haleiwa soils running
along the southern part of the peninsula-in an area
where annual rainfall reaches ca. 1,500-2,000
mm-suggests that this environmental subzone of
KNHP may have been a significant agricultural
sector in pre-contact and traditional times. Evidence
for agricultural utilization of this zone will be pre-
sented in detail below.
The soils of the three valleys, as noted, have
not been studied or described in detail. Cline (1955)
classified these as "Rough, Broken Land (map sym-
bol Rs)", but this general category does not do jus-
tice to the variations we observed, and we doubt
that the Cline team actually visited these difficult-
to-access valleys. The same is probably true for
the Foote et al. (1972) study which lumps the areas
of all three valleys into a category of "Colluvial
Land", consisting of "steep and very steep talus
slopes in windward valleys on the island of
Molokai" (1972:29). In our opinion, the soils of
these valleys probably incorporate significant varia-
tion between small alluvial flats, colluvial slopes,
weathered ridges, talus deposits, and so forth, which
would require detailed study to evaluate. There are,
for example, probable areas of Kawaihapai-
Haleiwa soils which have not been mapped. What
we can say is that the soils of the valleys are rather
deeply developed, generally on colluvium or allu-
vium, and derive from parent material that is on
the order of 1.5 million years old.
Finally, there is the Nihoa landshelf, which was
mapped by Cline (1955:623) as "Stony land, talus
material" (map symbol SH), and not distinguished
at all in the Foote et al. study. Cline writes that "this
land type is mapped at the base of cliffs or escarp-
ments where rock debris brought down by gravity
and water has accumulated. . . Among the stones
there is enough fine soil material to provide some
medium for the rooting of plants. This fine mate-
rial is generally similar to that of Alluvial soils, but in
some places it is moderately sticky and plastic clay-
comparable to that of the Kaena series" (1955:623).
From our field survey of Nihoa, we can state that the
8
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
landshelf indeed has a considerable depth of alluvium
and supports a dense vegetation cover.
BIOTIC COMMUNITIES
Given the great variability in geology, geomor-
phology, climate, and soils as discussed above, the
Kalaupapa region predictably displays a tremen-
dous range in biotic communities-particularly
vegetation communities-from coastal dry
herblands and shrublands rimming the peninsula,
through lowland dry and mesic shrublands and
forests, to montane forests in the interior portions
of the valleys. However, the extent to which these
communities have been modified by human ac-
tions on the land, both through pre-contact Native
Hawaiian land use and subsequent changes in the
post-contact period, also varies considerably over
space. The peninsula itself along with the coastal
regions and valley bottoms and colluvial slopes
have been the most affected, whereas the steep val-
ley walls and tablelands inland remain significant
zones of largely native vegetation (e.g., the Aca-
cia-Metrosideros montane forests in the interior
portions of Waikolu Valley). Although the penin-
sula does retain important vestiges of its endemic
and indigenous flora, much of it is dominated today
by historically-introduced taxa, such as Christmas
berry (Schinus terebinthifolius) and lantana (Lantana
camara) in the drier zones, or Java plum (Syzgium
cumini), rose apple (Syzgium jambos) and strawberry
guava (Psidium cattleianum) on the talus slopes.
Prior to the introduction of these now-domi-
nant exotic taxa, the vegetation communities within
the Kalaupapa region would have included at least
the following major zones, as based on the classi-
fication of vegetation communities by Gagne and
Cuddihy (1990): (1) coastal dry communities with
such shrubs as naupaka (Scaevola sericea) and
'ilima (Sida fallax); lowland dry grasslands and
shrublands across much of the peninsula proper,
with such dominants as pili grass (Heteropogon
contortus), and shrubs such as 'aiweoweo (Chenopo-
dium spp.), 'a'ali'i (Dodonaea spp.), 'akoko
(Chamaesyce celastroides), alahe'e (Canthium
odoratum), and 'akia (Wikstroemia spp.); (3) low-
land dry forests dominated by wiliwili (Erythrina
sandwicensis) trees and other species; (4) lowland
mesic forests on the talus slopes and lower por-
tions of the valleys, with such trees as koa (Acacia
koa), 'ohi'a (Metrosideros polymorpha), lama
(Diospryros spp.), loulu palm  (Pritchardia
hillebrandii), and the Polynesian-introduced kukui
(Aleurites moluccana), the latter found especially
in the wetter ravines; (5) coastal hala forests (Pan-
danus tectorius) and possibly loulu forests along
the coastal ridges and steep slopes separating the
valleys; and (6) montane wet forests dominated
by 'ohi'a and koa in the interior mountainous
zones. Clearly, this tremendous range of vegeta-
tion zones and communities, packed into a rela-
tively small geographic space, offered a consider-
able variety of floristic resources to the region's
inhabitants, and may have been an inducement to
early settlement.
Reconstructing the vegetation communities and
zonal biogeography of the Kalaupapa region both
prior to, and during the course of several centuries
of Polynesian occupation, as well as the changes
which occurred following European contact, poses
a challenge. Significant information for this task
can potentially be provided by analysis of char-
coal and other macro- and micro-botanical remains
recovered from archaeological sites. Some initial
data along these lines has been derived from our
work at Kaupikiawa Rockshelter, and will be pre-
sented below. Other data might be derived through
sediment coring of Kauhako Crater and extraction
of pollen assemblages from the lake's sediments,
assuming that these have stratigraphic integrity.
The terrestrial fauna inhabiting these vegeta-
tion zones has also doubtless changed significantly
over time, and zooarchaeological assemblages from
future excavations within the KNHP may be ex-
pected to provide significant data for tracing these
changes. Certainly, a rich endemic avifauna must
have occupied the region at the time of initial
Polynesian settlement, but as elsewhere we might
predict that many of these birds-especially flight-
less taxa-were quickly eliminated through a com-
bination of direct predation and habitat disturbance.
Following European contact, a variety of animals
were introduced, including on Moloka'i the highly
destructive Axis deer which have run rampant over
the peninsula in recent years, wreaking havoc on
much of the remaining endemic vegetation.
Finally, we can briefly comment on the marine
biotic communities which were so important to the
THE KALAUPAPA REGIONAL LANDSCAPE
Native Hawaiian inhabitants as a primary source
of protein. The peninsula's coastline and offshore
environments vary greatly as one moves from the
eastern to western sides, the latter being in the lee
of the dominant currents and swells. Thus the east-
em shore is one of sea cliffs continually subject to
wave action, difficult and dangerous to access (Fig.
4), whereas the western shore is much more pro-
tected, with easy access, sand beaches and basalt
shelves where a range of shellfish can be readily
collected, and where in-shore fishing is feasible
most of the year. Fringing coral reef is restricted to
this western side of the peninsula, and not surpris-
ingly the Mahele land records refer to several pro-
prietary fishing spots (ko'a) in this area. Elsewhere,
along the boulder beaches between Waikolu and
Wai'ale'ia valleys, and between the peninsula and
Nihoa, the high wave energy and dynamic geo-
morphic environment prohibit development of
reefs. However, these boulder beaches do provide
a substrate for the much-desired 'opihi (Cellana
exarata) limpets and ha 'uke'uke (Colobocentrotus
atratus) sea urchins, which can be gathered when
the sea is calm, usually the summer months.
Figure 4 View along the rocky eastern shore of Kalaupapa Peninsula, characterized by low basalt
cliffs.
CHAPTER 2
ETHNOHISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
THE KALAUPAPA REGION
' The history of Kalaupapa and its
"   environs as a leprosy settlement,
beginning in 1865-66, has been
amply documented by Greene
(1985), and in other sources such
as Daws' biography of Father Damien (1973). These
and other accounts of the post-1865 period (e.g.,
Korn [1976] on the letters of Peter Kaeo) will be of
great interest to historical archaeologists in work-
ing out the many transformations of land and settle-
ment that came with the conversion of the penin-
sula to the dreaded land of isolation. However, such
conventional histories of Kalaupapa generally by-
pass the pre-1865 period, relegating it to a few gen-
eralities. Indeed, the early post-contact history of
Moloka'i in general is neglected terrain. Yet it is
this early period immediately following contact
with the West-as well as the pre-contact history
given through oral traditions and genealogies (e.g.,
Abad 2000)-which are of the greatest importance
to archaeologists focused on the prehistoric and
protohistoric periods.
Summers (1971:11-20) offers a synthesis of the
traditional histories as they relate to Moloka'i,
drawn primarily from such sources as Kamakau
(1961) and Fornander (1916-17). What is most
striking about these accounts, however, is that they
are really histories of the ruling chiefs of O'ahu,
Maui, or Hawai'i, into which Moloka'i and its ali'i
or chiefs figure from time to time. We need not
repeat these accounts in detail, other than to note
that Moloka'i was originally an independent polity
or polities (moku), which in the final century or
two prior to European contact increasingly came
under the control of ali'i from the larger and more
powerful islands, especially Maui and O'ahu. It is
also clear that there were long-standing tensions
between the two Moloka'i moku of Kona and
Ko'olau, that is the leeward and windward sides of
the island, and that at times these moku were sepa-
rate, warring polities. This is particularly brought
out in the traditional history of Kuali'i, the ruling
chief of O'ahu sometime in the early 1700s, who
came to the aid of the Kona chiefs in their battles
against the Ko'olau chiefs (Fornander 1916-
17:416-21). Decisive battles were fought both at
Kalaupapa and at Pelekunu along the Ko'olau coast,
with Kuali'i and the Kona chiefs emerging victori-
ous. Kuali'i made a redivision of the ahupua'a
lands of the island at this time, leaving Moloka'i in
the charge of the warrior chief Paepae who had
first enlisted his aid (Fornander 1916-17:420).
Throughout the remainder of the 18th century,
Moloka'i was variously fought over by the O'ahu
chiefs descended from Kuali'i (including
Kapi'iohokalani, Kanahaokalani, and Peleioho-
11
ETHNOHISTORICAL BACKGROUND: THE KALAUPAPA REGION
lani), and the Maui chief Kahekili. At one point,
the Hawai'i Island paramount Alapa'inui also be-
come involved in the Moloka'i wars, coming to
the defense of the Moloka'i chiefs (to whom he
was related) in their battles against Kapi'iohokalani
of O'ahu. Peleioholani is said to have wreaked par-
ticular havoc in one war, around the mid-18th cen-
tury, in revenge for the death of his daughter at the
hands of the Ko'olau chiefs (Summers 1971:18).
When O'ahu fell to the forces of Kahekili in 1785,
Moloka'i also came under the expanded Maui pol-
ity.
In these final years of the 18th century, when
Europeans were beginning to make inroads through
exploration and the Northwest Coast fur trade,
Moloka'i was one of the pawns in the struggle be-
tween Kahekili and the great war chief of Hawai'i,
Kamehameha I. Kamehameha invaded Moloka'i
in 1790, apparently causing considerable destruc-
tion; the island was, however, regained by the
forces of Kahekili in 1791. With Kahekili's death
at Waikiki, O'ahu, in 1794, Kamehameha was
emboldened to make his great push to claim the
leeward islands, and his war fleet swept through
Moloka'i on its way to victory on O'ahu in 1795.
The ahupua'a of Moloka'i were presumably once
again redivided among the followers of
Kamehameha, as is evidenced in the ali'i either
related to him or in his following who a half-cen-
tury later claimed many Moloka'i ahupua'a in the
Great Mahele (see below).'
Traveling to or from the windward Ko'olau
valleys and Kalaupapa Peninsula remains difficult
to this day, especially in the winter months when
high swells and surf make access by sea tenuous,
and these factors always seem to have limited con-
tact with the Ko'olau region. Thus it was on the
leeward, Kona side that the Protestant missionaries
under the Rev. H. R. Hitchcock established their
first station at Kalua'aha in 1832, and also on the
Kona side that limited commercial enterprises (such
as ranching, and later sugarcane and pineapple
growing) were established. Accounts of Ko'olau
including the region from Waikolu to Kalaupapa
are therefore few and far between prior to the es-
tablishment of the leprosy settlement in 1865-66.
Those which do exist, however, provide some
glimpse into Hawaiian life in these remote valleys
and on the plains of Kalaupapa in the first half of
the 19th century.
One of the few who ventured under the impos-
ing and dangerous Ko'olau cliffs was the natural-
ist-explorer Jules Remy, who traveled by whale-
boat from Halawa to Kalaupapa in July of 1854.
Nearing Waikolu, they passed the islets of Mokapu
and 'Okala, one of which "supported a bouquet of
palm trees, loulu [Pritchardia sp.] fan-palms." Af-
ter passing the islets they could see "Waikolu, a
village situated at the debouchement of a valley
which marked, to the west, the limit of the insur-
mountable palis of Molokai." Remy and the Catho-
lic priest, Father Aubert, who accompanied him ar-
rived at the "Calvinist temple," evidently the Con-
gregational church, where a weekly assembly of
the women was in progress; Remy was invited to
share in a repast of poi, lu'au, onions, and shell-
fish. Afterwards Remy explored the valley:
I advanced into the valley through fields of kalo
watered by a pleasant brook. All the houses which I
approached were old, miserable, a lack of propriety all
the more striking because their tenants possessed a
marked amiability. In one of the houses, I had occasion
to be witness to the reception being given a family
which had come from Maui to visit their parents; as
soon as they recognized one another, they all saluted by
rubbing noses; then they sat down on the floor in
silence, and began to weep for several minutes before
saying a word (Remy, Knowlton trans. MS, p. 18).
After another feast of roasted dog and pig, Remy
and his party continued by foot ("over the cobbles
between the sea and the foot of the escarpments")
to Kalaupapa, the Waikolu folk cheerfully carry-
ing their luggage.
... we arrived at a dwelling perched on a sort of
promontory at the entrance to Kalaupapa: it is the name
given to a tongue of land which projects from the foot
of the cliffs into the sea, forming a low, semi-circular
plain, slightly convex (hump-backed), about three miles
in diameter. About 100 feet from the house, at the
hamlet of Kalawao, a horse awaited me, all saddled,
which I mounted to continue my route through
cultivated land, where grew thorny Mexican poppies,
tropical shrubs (Malvaceae), common leguminous
plants, and the like. We rode through one village
surrounded by fields of potatoes.
At 6 p.m. I stopped for the night at the home of
Maipelekane, the tenant farmer of Liholiho, whose
house was part of the principal village of Kalaupapa
After having, since morning, travelled at the foot of the
escarpments and penetrated into a narrow valley
[Waihanau ?] where I observed the same rupestrian type
of vegetation as on Waikolu, I continued on and
directed my steps to the most swollen part of the plain
12
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
of Kalaupapa, walking on a terrain slightly sloping,
carpeted with pili grass and common shrubs;
desmodium (knotweed), euphorbia, waltheria,
vaccinium, verbesina, etc. Soon I arrived at the edge of
a large ditch rounded in the form of a crater, which the
natives had mentioned to me calling it Kauhako. It was
evidently an old crater. I went down into it through a
jumble of interesting vegetation, having a vigor and
variety more pronounced on the East than on the other
coasts: frutescent violet plants (shrubby), cassia,
neraudia, a caryophyllus, ligneous euphorbia, banana
trees, rose apple, daphne, phyllanthus, cassytha (dodder
laurel), ohe aralia (spikenard), bancoulier, erythrina
(coral tree), halapepe (Dracaena Pleomele), kakalaioa
(a thorny bramble), ilima (Sida), sonchus (sow-thistle),
etc....
My exploration completed, I went to the large village
of Kalaupapa, where Father Aubert was waiting for me
among his half dozen disciples in a very small house
near the beach... Not having seen in the fields of
Kalaupapa coconut trees, pandanus, taro, I asked these
people why these were not planted. They replied that it
was not their custom, and as regards the taro, the
ground was not suitable for its cultivation; it produced
potatoes in any amount at will and these could readily
be exchanged for products cultivated in Waikolu (Remy,
Knowlton trans., pp. 20-23).
Remy ascended the steep trail up the pali lead-
ing to Kalae to continue his botanical explorations
on the central mountains of Moloka'i. Just a year
earlier, another traveler, Marston Bates (who pub-
lished under the pen name, "A Haole") had viewed
the plains of Kalaupapa from the top of the pali,
without descending: "From the base of the Pali,
the plains of Kalaupapa extend some distance sea-
ward. Over its surface were scattered a number of
dwellings belonging to the natives, besides numer-
ous pasture-lands and plantations" (Haole
1954:282).
In 1871-72, Charles Nordhoff (grandfather of
the famous South Seas novelist) toured Hawaii,
making a special trip to Moloka'i to see for himself
the newly established leprosy settlement, which he
toured in the company of Otto Meyer, the German
immigrant who had charge of the settlement in its
early years. Nordhoff's account is worth quoting
in part, as he remarks specifically on the evidence
of former intensive cultivation:
The whole great plain is composed of lava stones,
and to one unfamiliar with the habits of these islanders
would seem to be an absolutely sterile desert. Yet here
lived, not very many years ago, a considerable
population, who have left the marks of an almost
incredible industry in numerous fields inclosed between
walls of lava rock well laid up; and in what is yet
stranger, long rows of stones, like the windrows of hay
in a grass field at home, evidently piled there in order to
secure room in the long, narrow beds thus partly
cleared of lava which lay between, to plant sweet-
potatoes. As I rode over the trails worn in the lava by
the horses of the old inhabitants, I thought this plain
realized the Vermonter's saying about a piece of
particularly stony ground, that there was no room in the
field to pile up the rocks it contained.
Yet on this apparently desert space, within a quarter
of a century more than a thousand people lived
contentedly and prosperously, after their fashion; and
this though fresh water is so scarce that many of them
must have carried their drinking water at least two or
even three miles. And here now live, among the lepers,
or rather a little apart from them at one side of the plain,
about a hundred people, the remnant of the forner
population, who were too much attached to their homes
to leave them, and accepted sentence of perpetual
seclusion here, in common with the lepers, rather than
exile to a less sterile part of the island (Nordhoff
1875:100-101).
Nordhoff's remarks on the former population
of Kalaupapa raise the key issue of the demo-
graphic history of the peninsula and larger region.
Unfortunately, no accurate censuses were taken
until after the establishment of the leprosy settle-
ment, and even the early missionary censuses for
Moloka'i lumped the entire island together, mak-
ing it impossible to obtain accurate counts for the
Ko'olau valleys and Kalaupapa. The earliest esti-
mates for the island as whole are from King (36,000)
and Bligh (20,000) on Cook's 1778-79 expedition
(Schmitt 1968:table 6), although many have con-
sidered these too high.2 However, the missionary
census of 1831-32 put the island's population at
6,000, and this would have been after a half-cen-
tury of impacts from disease, so Bligh's figure of
20,000 at initial contact may not be unreasonable.
Curtis (MS [1991], p. 12) cites an 1836 Missionary
Herald report that there was a population of 2,700
"within a few   miles of the Kalaupapa Station",
which probably therefore included Waikolu Val-
ley. A Kalua'aha Station Report for 1841 puts the
Kalaupapa census figure at "about 700" (Curtis MS,
p. 12). Between 1850 and 1878, the island-wide
population continued to decline, from 3,540 to
2,581 (Schmitt 1968:table 12). Coulter (1931:20-
21) puts the island population in 1853 at 3,607,
and graphically identifies "the Makanalua Penin-
sula" and neighboring Waikolu as population cen-
13
ETHNOHISTORICAL BACKGROUND: THE KALAUPAPA REGION
ters, with about 340 persons indicated for the
Kalaupapa region (Coulter 1931, fig. 7).
Retrodicting the maximum population of the
Kalaupapa region, prior to European contact, is a
problem that will require archaeological assessment
and paleodemographic modeling. However, given
the intensity of agricultural field system remains
on the peninsula, and the potential for intensive
irrigated agriculture in the valleys, an overall popu-
lation on the order of 3,000 (or possibly even
higher) persons for the Kalaupapa-Waikolu region
prior to contact seems to us to be a reasonable
working hypothesis.
Without doubt, it was the agricultural produc-
tivity of the Kalaupapa region which made it a sig-
nificant center of population. Ethnologist Edward S.
C. Handy, who toured Moloka'i in 1931 during his
field studies for "the Hawaiian planter" (Handy 1940;
Handy and Handy 1972) compiled both original ob-
servations and other reports of planting areas on the
island, including the Kalaupapa region. Concerning
irrigated taro cultivation, Handy wrote:
There were a few small wet-taro sections in Waikolu [in
1931, presumably]. On the slopes of Kalawao, watered
from Waileia Stream, are extensive terraces, cultivated
for subsistence by the people living in the Kalaupapa
Leper Settlement. There must fornerly have been wet
patches below Waihanau Valley, the stream of which
empties near Kalaupapa Settlement (1940:102; see also
Handy and Handy 1972:516).
With respect to sweet potato cultivation at
Kalaupapa, Handy quotes at length from a Native
Hawaiian account, by M. L. Napihelua ("Uala uala
Kalaupapa"), published in the Hawaiian language
newspaper Ka Hae Hawaii for March 4, 1857, prior
to the establishment of the leprosy settlement, of
which we give excerpts here:
These are sweet potatoes from ancient times. Most of
mine seen here in Kalaupapa are of these kinds. There
are nineteen vaneties. . . Kalaupapa is a good land
because the crops planted are successful and the gain is
large. They are not eaten by caterpillars and cut worms.
Many sweet potatoes are being planted now, four or
five patches to each man. Most of the crops are
watermelons, and some small and big beans and
onions. Be on the watch, you traders, for Kalaupapa is
the best in all the islands for good prices and fast work.
All the Califomia traders come to Kalaupapa. (in Handy
1940:158).
The account, of course, was written only a few
years after the California Gold Rush had created a
huge demand for sweet potatoes and other produce
from the Hawaiian Islands in the port town of San
Francisco (Morgan 1948:155-56).3
Less important crops worth noting include
wauke, the paper mulberry (Broussonetia
papryrifera) which provided bast for bark cloth,
and which Handy (1940:199) notes was grown
extensively in upland areas (see also Meilleur et
al., 1997:33-35). We have an early land claim from
Kalaupapa which mentions wauke cultivation in
the mountain, and it is probable that the crop was
grown throughout the wetter zones of all four
ahupua'a. Also noteworthy is the hala, Pandanus
tectorius, a dominant species in the windward
coastal mesic forests such as characterize the
Ko'olau district of Moloka'i (Gagne and Cuddihy
1990:63). Hala was extensively planted by Hawai-
ians around house sites, especially for its leaves
which were used to produce mats and canoe sails,
but for other uses as well (Meilleur et al. 1997).
Nathaniel B. Emerson, in his classic work on the
Hawaiian hula, recorded a hula pa'i-umauma
("chest-beating hula"), in which one line in the mele
refers to the especially fragrant hala of Nihoa, the
landshelf west of Kalaupapa:
A Molokai, i ke ala-kahi,
Ke kula o Kala'e, wela i ka la;
Mauna-loa la, Ka-lua-ko'i, e;
Na hala o Nihoa, he mapuna la ...
On Molokai I travel its one highway;
I saw the plain of Kala'e quiver with heat,
And beheld the ax-quarries of Mauna-loa.
Ah, the perfume of Nihoa's pandanus exhales!
(Emerson 1909:203).
The Pandanus groves of Nihoa are still extant,
and later in this volume we will report on our own
observations of the distribution of hala throughout
the Kalaupapa region, and its possible significance
for archaeology.
14
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
CHAPTER 2 ENDNOTES
' A further redistribution of Moloka'i lands was undertaken
by Kamehameha III in 1837.
2 The debate on pre-contact Hawaiian population levels,
and the extent to which the indigenous population was
quickly decimated by foreign diseases is nowhere near reso-
lution (see Stannard 1989).
I Morgan (1948:155) provides data on the export of agri-
cultural products indicating that sweet potatoes increased
from only a few barrels in 1848, to 9.6 thousand barrels in
1850, and an astonishing 56.7 thousand barrels in 1851.
The boom ended almost as quickly, however, and by 1851
export was down to 6.1 thousand barrels.
CHAPTER 3
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION:
ANALYSIS OF THE MAHELE LAND RECORDS
Well known to scholars of Hawai-
"   ian history and historical ethnog-
|    1  }    raphy are the complex series of
legal acts and associated political
and social developments that go
under the rubric of "The Mahele" or "The Great
Mahele" (Kuykendall 1953; Chinen 1958; Kirch
and Sahlins 1992; Kame'eleihiwa 1992). These in-
cluded: the establishment of a Board of Commis-
sioners to Quiet Land Titles, generally known as
the Land Commission (1845); the development by
this Commission of a set of Principles (1846) for
the conversion of a traditional land tenure system
into a system of allodial rights; a formal division
among the King (Kamehameha III) and some 252
ali'i and konohiki of the major land units
(ahupua'a) of the Kingdom (1848); and, the sub-
sequent passage of the Kuleana Act (1850) autho-
rizing the award of individual land claims (Land
Commission Awards, or LCA) to the maka'ainana
or commoners. The work of the Land Commission,
which spanned a full decade, resulted in an ex-
traordinary archive of documentation, including
the famous Mahele Book, some 12,000 individual
land claims entered by ordinary Hawaiians, as well
as corroborating testimony presented to the Com-
mission (e.g., NT, native testimony recorded in Ha-
waiian; FT, foreign testimony recorded in English).
These documents, preserved in the Archives of
Hawai'i, and recently made available on-line as an
internet database (Waihona 'Aina), provide a re-
markable "snapshot" of the complex network of
land rights and obligations that existed in the King-
dom of Hawai'i in the mid-1800s. Depending on
the particular location-as the extent and detail
given in the land records varies greatly from dis-
trict to district-the Mahele records often provide
the framework for a historical ethnography of land
tenure, kinship relations, economic infrastructure,
and other facets of social and political life at mid-
century. Such potential has been particularly well
illustrated in the cases of the Anahulu Valley, O'ahu
(Kirch and Sahlins 1992), and of the Halawa Val-
ley, Moloka'i (Anderson 2001).
For the Kalaupapa region, the Mahele records
are reasonably rich, and we have therefore con-
sulted them in an effort to extract information rel-
evant to an understanding of traditional Hawaiian
land organization, economic structure, and other
details that may aid in the interpretation of the ar-
chaeological landscape. Our examination of these
records has not been exhaustive, however, and had
to be limited to sources readily available to us, in-
cluding the Waihona 'Aina database commissioned
for the National Park Service. Further archival re-
search (especially in the Archives of Hawai'i) will
doubtless allow others to extend and amplify our
tentative analysis.
16
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
CHIEFLY CONTROL OF THE AHUPUA A
Some obscurity clouds the issue of chiefly title
to, and control of, the four ahupua'a comprising
the Kalaupapa region at the time of the Mahele. In
its comprehensive alphabetical lists of lands
awarded under the Mahele, the Indices of Awards
(Commissioner of Public Lands [CPL] 1929) does
not list any ali'i as having been awarded these
ahupua'a, nor are any of the ahupua'a included in
the list of lands belonging to the more important
ali'i and chiefs (CPL 1929:58-81). Only Kalawao
ahupua'a is included in the Indices' lists, specifi-
cally in the list of Government Lands, under the
Act of 1848 (CPL 1929:40). From Barrere's analy-
sis of the Mahele Book itself, however, we find
that Kalawao ahupua'a was under the control of
Samuel Kuluwailehua at the time of the Mahele,
and was relinquished by him in exchange for the
'i1i of Kamoku in Waikiki, O'ahu (Barrere
1994:389; see Mahele Book 47-48). Kuluwailehua
was of konohiki rather than ali'i status, a grandson
of Kahikaheana, who was a kahu or retainer of the
high chiefess Kekauluohi (the latter ruled as Kuhina
Nui under the title of Ka'ahumanu III).'
The ahupua'a of Makanalua was among the
lands received by high chiefess Miriam
Kekau'onohi in the King's Mahele (Mahele Book,
25-26, 27-28), and later listed under LCA 11216.2
Barrere says that Kekau'onohi, an ali'i nui (she
was a granddaughter of Kamehameha I by Peleuli
[Kame'eleihiwa 1992:fig. 22]) and heir of her uncle
Kalanimokui, was born in 1805 and died on June
2, 1851, to be survived by her second husband
Levi Ha'alelea.3 Goodwin (1994:30-35) traces the
title of Makanalua in some detail, inferring that
Kamehameha I held the ahupua'a from his con-
quest of the island in 1795 until his death in 1819,
after which it would have passed to Liholiho
(Kamehameha II) and his Kuhina Nui (regent)
Ka'ahumanu. Ka'ahumanu is presumed to have
awarded Makanalua to Hu'eu Kalanimokui, a chief
counselor to Kamehameha I and cousin of
Ka'ahumanu, who was also the mother's brother
of Miriam Kekau'onohi. Kalanimoku left all of his
lands to Kekau'onohi, who therefore was awarded
Makanalua during the Great Mahele of 1848. When
Kekau'onohi died on June 2, 1851, her will (given
in full in Goodwin 1994:33) designated that her
"entire estate from Hawaii to Kauai, the lands,
houselots, including real properties . . ." were to be
left to her second husband, Levi Ha'alelea.
Ha'alelea, who was somewhat younger than his
wife, passed away at 42 years of age in 1864, and
most of the lands he had inherited were sold dur-
ing probate to pay off a debt of $40,000 (Goodwin
1994:35). During probate, the ahupua'a of
Makanalua was deeded to the Hawaiian Govern-
ment in 1866, to help create the leprosy settlement
(Goodwin 1994:35; Greene 1985:50).
The entire ahupua'a of Kalaupapa was claimed
by the chiefess Kaunuohua, a kahu, or attendant,
in the court of King Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha
III), and a kaukau ali'i, or chiefess of lesser rank
(Kame'eleihiwa 1992:263). Her claim is entered
in the Mahele Book (p. 91-92), and in a claim (LCA
6450) dated 5 February 1848 (NR 372vS), further
confirmed by testimony of King Kamehameha III
himself (NT 728-729v3), on January 21, 1851. This
claim included several parcels at Mokauea and
Waikiki on O'ahu, as well as Kalaupapa. However,
the Indices (CPL 1929:1169) list only the O'ahu
claims under LCA 6450, leaving open the ques-
tion of whether the Kalaupapa portion of the claim
was actually awarded. Kaunuohua died in 1849,
survived by her second husband Moehonua, and
Barrere (1994:290) cites the 1852 probate, in which
witnesses affirmed that she died possessed of the
ahupua'a of Kalaupapa as well as her O'ahu lands
(see also Kame'eleihiwa 1992:264). Yet
Kame'eleihiwa (1992:233) cites a pre-Mahele,
1847 listing of the King's lands as including
Kalaupapa, so it is possible that the tenure of
Kalaupapa was disputed, and that the King ended
up reserving Kalaupapa for the crown. More re-
search is needed to resolve this question.
The ahupua'a of Waikolu has proven especially
refractory from the point of view of chiefly con-
trol. We can find no listing of Waikolu in the Indi-
ces, and in Barrere's detailed summary of the King's
Mahele, the only reference we could find to
Waikolu is with respect to Ilae Napohaku, who re-
linquished an 'i1i named Maniania (also spelled
Manienie) within Waikolu Valley, during the origi-
nal Mahele division (Mahele Book, pp. 168-169,
see Barrere 1994:490). Napohaku's control over
Maniania is validated in the claim (No. 10108, not
awarded) of Mali, as indicated in his testimony in
1848: "I am the konohiki of the Ahupua'a of
Maniania; Ilae is the head, over me, also, I have an
17
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION
'iii whose name is Leponui" (NR 290v7).4 The In-
dices (CPL 1929:40) lists "Manienie" as an "Ili of
Waikolu" among the Government Lands, which
would be consistent with Napohaku having relin-
quished his claim, in exchange for Piiko'o,
Moloka'i which he received. It seems unlikely that
Napohaku would have had control of the whole of
Waikolu ahupua'a; and it is also curious that Mali
lists Maniania as an ahupua'a, with the 'i1i of
Leponui within it. Perhaps additional research in
the Archives of Hawai'i will clarify these questions
regarding the chiefly title to Waikolu at the time of
the Mahele.
Greene's comprehensive historical study of
KNHP does little to clarify the matter of ali'i title to
lands, stating only that the lands acquired by the
Hawaiian Government for the leprosy settlement,
in 1865, included Waikolu and Wai'ale'ia valleys
which are reported to have been purchased, but it
is not noted from whom (Greene 1985:49). Greene
goes on to state that "a short while after the initial
land purchases, the large tract of Makanalua, 'be-
longing to the estate of the late Haalelea' and ad-
joining the settlement of Kalawao, was purchased"
(1985:50). Greene further notes that "the ahupua'a
of Kalaupapa would not be purchased until 1873"
(1985:50), but she again gives no further details of
this transaction.
In sum, from what we have been able to deter-
mine, the ahupua'a which make up the current
KNHP region were variously under the control of
a high-ranked chiefess (ali'i nui) descended of Maui
Island  ali'i and  related  to  Ka'ahumanu,
Kekau'onohi (Makanalua); a chiefess of middle
rank (kaukau ali'i), Kaunuohua (Kalaupapa); and,
a konohiki, Kuluwailehua (Kalawao). All of these
individuals had close relations to the Kamehameha
ruling line, either as consanguineal kin (in the case
of Kekau'onohi), or as kahu (retainers). Their
claims to these ahupua'a can therefore be traced
back to the conquest of Moloka'i by Kamehameha
in 1795. For Waikolu, we have reference only to
an 'iii section (Maniania) under the control of an-
other konohiki, Napohaku.
LAND CLAIMS OF THE MAKA AINYArNA
Far more informative-from the point of view
of teasing out the reticulate net of relations between
land and people that formed the fabric of traditional
Hawaiian society-are the land claims of the com-
moners (maka'ainana), and varied testimony as-
sociated with them. For the four ahupua'a that make
up the KNHP, there are a total of 101 Mahele land
claims, although only 66 of these were actually
awarded by the Board of Commissioners to Quiet
Land Titles (Table 2).
The claims vary considerably in the style and
detail with which they were presented to the Com-
mission. That of Haula, a taro cultivator of Waikolu
Valley, presented to the Land Commission on Feb-
ruary 1, 1848, is among the simpler and more di-
rect:
I, the one whose name is below, hereby state to you, the
Commissioners to Quiet Titles, that I have a claim for a
lo'i [taro pondfield] in the mo'o [land subsection] of
Kapalaha, 'ili [land section] of Makaluahau, Ahupua'a
of Kalawao, Island of Molokai. There are some
witnesses. The length is 528 feet on the west, the width
is 66 feet. These are my claims.
Aloha to you all.
HAULA
Waikolu, Molokai, February 1, 1848
(NR 229v7, LCA 8104).
Haula evidently saw no need to recite a long
litany of how his land had been held through the
successive tenures of various konohiki, or land stew-
ards, as did one Kaaikapu of Kalaupapa ahupua'a,
who entered his claim for 9.5 acres:
For your information, 0 Land Commissioners, I
have a claim in the Ahupua'a of Kalaupapa, Island of
Molokai, an 'iii, named Kokipohaku. This 'ili lies from
the pali of Keolewa to the Church of Kalaupapa, Makai
by at the back of the house of Kauhi, which is the
boundary. It is bounded as follows: Kaiaka is makai
adjoining the sea, Kokipohaku is one side. Here are
these claims: a "jump" [lele] from within Kokipohaku,
but it is still Kokipohaku. This "jump" of mine is in the
kula. It is situated as follows: Ohia is in the sea [sic],
Ahuli is mauka, Kakaanalua is makai and Kokipohaku
is the eastward. I received this 'iii when
Kaneikapuahakea was konohiki here in Kalaupapa-he
gave it to me, Koiole, this 'ili of Kokipohaku.
Kanekapuahakea was dispossessed, Kanaina was
appointed, and I still have my 'iii. Kanaina was
dispossessed and Heeia was appointed and I still had
the 'iii. Heeia was dispossessed and Puaaloa was
appointed and I still had the 'iii. Puaaloa was dispos-
sessed and Kekua was appointed and I still had the 'ili.
Kekua was dispossessed and Kanakaole was appointed
and I still had the 'ili. While Kanakaole was konohiki, I,
Koiole, became feeble, therefore I gave my 'iii to my
keiki, Kaaihapuu, to care for it forever. The witnesses
are: Kaoha, Kainaina, and Kaikai. I request you, the
18
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
Table 2 Summary of Mahele Land Claims, KNHP.
Ahupua 'a    No. of  No. of Awards    Kalo lands    Ku/a lands
Claims                  (mo 'o or lo' )
Waikolu          24        21 (87%)     20(83%)         6(25%)
Kalawao          14        11(78%)      10 (71%)        6 (43%)
Makanalua        12          1 (8%)     2(17%)          2(17%)
Kalaupapa        51        33 (65%)     14 (27%)       28 (55%)
Commissioners to Quite Land Titles, to award this land
to Kaaihapuu.
KAAIHAPUU (NR 270-271v7, LCA 8963).
The wording of Kaaihapuu's claim is especially
interesting, for it exhibits a wonderful example of
what anthropologist Marshall Sahlins (1985:47,
fnl9) has called the "kinship I," or the "heroic '," a
characteristic aspect of Polynesian cultures, in
which the living assume the voice of their ances-
tors. Thus, although it is Kaaihapuu making the
claim before the Commissioners, he speaks in the
first person singular for his deceased father, Koiole.
We know, indeed, from the testimony of Mahoe,
given before the Land Commission on October 3,
1853, that Koiole had passed away in 1850:
Mahoe, sworn, I know his land in the 'Ili
"Kokipohaku", Kalaupapa, Molokai.
Mauka, land of Moeimua
Waikolu and Makai, land of Konohiki
Kaluakoi, house lot of Maino.
It was from his parent, Koiole, in 1850. At the time
he died he bequeathed it to Kaaihapuu, and he had had
it in the time of Kamehameha I. He stayed there and
cultivated this land partially, most of the land was
overgrown, and he stays there now-I never heard that
it had been objected to by the Konohiki, and he is now
objecting. (FT 147v15)
We also find, on pursuing the Foreign Testi-
mony in this case, why Kaaihapuu was as pains to
relate how the land had been held in his line since
the time of Kamehameha I, for the konohiki (pre-
sumably Kanakaole at this time) was disputing the
size of Kaaihapuu's claim:
Kamaipelekane, sworn, (Deputy Konohiki). This claim
was disputed at the time it was formerly surveyed,
because of the excessive size, and I object to it today-
it is better to reduce it. I agree that he should be given
nine acres, and the remainder is for the konohiki.
It was decided that the Konohiki was right, and
Kaaihapuu agreed to it. (FT 147v15).
These were the local politics of the Mahele for
Kaaihapuu, the keiki of Koiole.
Yet Kaaihapuu may be counted among the for-
tunate, for he received his 9.5 acres, as LCA 8963
from the Land Commissioners. Not so fortunate
were many others, whose claims were entered and
denied, or simply lost. In Makanalua ahupua'a,
especially, only one claim out of 12 submitted was
awarded (Table 2). Pulihi, Naone, Kaaea, Lai,
Wahia, Kekolohe, Kawelo, Mauikoaole, Paele, and
Puuone all duly entered their claims, some (such
as Kawelo, NR 271-272v7) reciting the usual litany
of konohiki under whom they had held their title
for decades. Kawelo was not awarded his claim to
the mo'o named Mahana, nor were the others given
their claimed parcels. In all of Makanalua, only one
Kekinolau was to receive the land he claimed "from
past remembrance", an "inherited land" ('aina
ho'oilina). We can only now speculate as to why
only Kekinolau, out of 12 claimants within
Makanalua ahupua'a, should have been awarded
his 6.01 acres. Does this history correlate in some
manner with the fact that this ahupua'a was held
by a true ali'i nui, or ranking chiefess, Miriam
Kekau'onohi? Did Kekau'onohi, through her
konohiki, or through her other political connections,
in ways not recorded in the documentary history,
exert pressure to keep her "native tenants" from
receiving their lands? In that vein, does one push
the evidence too far to note that Kalaupapa
ahupua'a, where 35% of claimants were denied
awards, was under the control of the chiefess
Kaunuohua, not a great ali'i such as Miriam
Kekau'onohi, but nonetheless an ali'i of some in-
fluence, an important kahu in the court of the King
Kauikeaouli? The contrast with Kalawao, in which
11 of 14 claimants received their lands, and with
Waikolu in which only three out of 24 were de-
19
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION
nied, does call out for an explanation. Kalawao,
we know, had been given up by a konohiki, Samuel
Kuluwailehua, at the time of the Great Mahele, and
thus he would have had no further interest in de-
terring any of his "native tenants" from receiving
lands on which they resided and cultivated. For
Waikolu, where the greatest percentage of
maka'ainana claimants received their lands, the re-
lationship between commoners and ali'i remains
unclear.
THE IElERARCHY OF LANDS
In pre-Mahele Hawai'i, the land ('dina) was
divided and redivided by a complex hierarchy of
categories of varied size and economic importance,
categories which corresponded to a socio-political
hierarchy of persons and groups.5 At the apex of
this hierarchy was the island or district, moku, the
term itself being derived from the ancient Proto
Polynesian word *motu, meaning an island or islet
(Kirch and Green 2001:105). At the time of Euro-
pean contact, most Hawaiian Islands were divided
into several (often six) moku, each of which may
at previous times have stood as independent politi-
cal units, but which were by then under the control
of a single paramount chief (sometimes referred to
as the ali'i 'ai moku, or 'district-eating chief'). In
the case of Moloka'i Island, there were two such
moku, the leeward district of Kona and the wind-
ward district of Ko'olau, the latter including the
lands of KNHP. As related above, these had at one
time been independent political units-frequently
at war with each other-but both had been brought
variously under the control of the more powerful
Maui and O'ahu chiefs in the decades prior to Eu-
ropean arrival. After Kamehameha I's conquest in
1795, they had come under his control.
The Ko'olau moku, as was the pattern every-
where, was subdivided into a series of major units-
the ahupua'a -which in theory were independent
or self-sustaining economic units, each under the
control of a chief (called the ali'i 'ai ahupua'a) or
a konohiki. Often ahupua'a corresponded to a val-
ley drainage basin, as in the case of Waikolu, and
typically these ran from the mountain peaks, radi-
ally outwards to the shore and reef, thus cross-cut-
ting the ecological grain of the land. In the case of
the Kalaupapa Peninsula, the three ahupua'a of
Kalawao, Makanalua, and Kalaupapa subdivided
the peninsula from south to north, thus incorporat-
ing a range of terrain from mountain and cliffs,
across the talus slopes and peninsula itself, out to
the shoreline (Fig. 5). But these ahupua'a were by
no means equivalent in their specific environmen-
tal characteristics and resources. Kalawao incor-
porated within its boundaries the sizeable valley of
Wai'ale'ia and the most generous portion of collu-
vial slopes, but its coastline is largely one of wave-
lashed cliffs which makes fishing or shellfish gath-
ering risky much of the year. Makanalua took in
the narrow valley of Waihanau, giving it some
freshwater resources, and also incorporated the cra-
ter of Kauhako, running then across the center of
the peninsula. Kalaupapa, in the west, included the
lower extent of Waihanau Stream where it ran into
the sea, and also enjoyed the more sheltered west-
ern coastline where fishing and marine resource
gathering are the best.
Ahupua'a were further subdivided into subsec-
tions called 'i1i 'dina or simply 'iii, and these latter
were again subdivided into smaller units called
mo'o 'dina or mo'o. Typically, a given 'i1i might
contain several mo'o, each mo'o held by a single
residential group who worked the land either as
irrigated taro pondfields (lo'i), or as dryland fields
(kula lands, often referred to also as kihapai, or
sometimes as mala). Complicating this hierarchy
were the additional categories of ko'ele or po'alima
lands, agricultural plots which were held by the
chief or konohiki, but worked by the commoner
tenants, as well as 'i1i kupono (or 'iii ku), the latter
being 'i1i which were held independently of the
ahupua'a in which they were located. Moreover,
some 'i1i and especially mo'o fell into a category
known as lele (from the verb 'to jump'), meaning
that they were situated within a separate land sec-
tion. Thus, a land claimant might refer to his main
lands within a particular ahupua'a and 'ili, but then
claim a lele lying within another 'i1i or ahupua'a.
The result was a highly complex mosaic, simulta-
neously hierarchical and reticulate in nature.
The land records of the Mahele allow us to par-
tially reconstruct the particular mosaic of lands-
within the Kalaupapa region, as given in Table 3.
Unfortunately, in the absence of cadastral surveys
(evidently most of the LCA awards in the KNHP
were not surveyed prior to the land being taken
20
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
10-~
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te . eX i, i0DSe0<eB f   awaln
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M AKAN ALU A
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21
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION
over for the leprosy settlement), it is not possible
to situate most of these 'iii and mo'o parcels on the
ground. However, their relative positions can some-
times be inferred from the directions and place
names given in the land claims themselves. Thus,
for example, we know that the 'iii of Maniania was
situated within the "deep recess" of Waikolu Val-
ley. Also, many 'i1i in Makanalua and Kalaupapa
seem to have run from the cliffs (pali) to the sea.
Fortunately, some of the 'i1i or mo'o names also
appear on general maps made by surveyors for the
Hawaiian Kingdom, or later for the Territorial Gov-
ernment. For example, a number of these names
appear on the Hawaii Territorial Survey map of the
"United States Leprosy Station Sites" by George F.
Wright, dated June 1905 (traced from an earlier
Government Survey registered map no. 1728), on
file in the State of Hawai'i Survey Office (Hono-
lulu). This and other maps have allowed us to de-
termine the approximate locations of several key
land sections, such as Ahuli and Papakailoi, the
latter referred to in a number of land claims and
possibly an important locus of lo'i (pondfields).6
Figure 5 shows the locations of these place names,
as best as we can locate them with available
sources.
KONOHIKI SUCCESSION
A typical aspect of the Mahele claims of
maka'adinana is reference to the particular konohiki
under whom the claimant held or received rights
to work and reside on the land. As noted earlier,
much emphasis was often placed on naming a suc-
cession of konohiki under whom one had contin-
ued to hold land rights, thus validating one's claim
as a land right of long standing. As Kirch and
Sahlins (1992) have shown for Anahulu on O'ahu,
there was a hierarchy of maka'ainana, with those
who had been resident for some decades or gen-
erations (especially, those who could trace their
claims to the time of Kamehameha I) being differ-
entiated as kama'aina or kupa residents, as distinct
from hoa 'dina residents who held their lands under
a more recent (and often tenuous) arrangement with
the present konohiki. In the Anahulu case,
kama'aina claimants were favored in terms of the
frequency with which their claims were awarded,
and generally received larger plots as well (Kirch
and Sahlins 1992, Vol. 1:187, table 8.6). In Table 4
we list data derived from the Mahele records for
the claims within KNHP with respect to konohiki
successions, or other references to konohiki.
Makanalua and Kalaupapa seem to have had at least
seven successive konohiki appointed and "dispos-
sessed" within the period referred to (presumably,
since the conquest of Kamehameha I, hence about
50 years); Waikolu had at least three. This would
appear to be a relatively high rate of turnover for
konohiki appointments, and raises questions con-
cerning the stability of the local political system.
ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE
More than anything, the Mahele records tell us
much of significance regarding the economic or-
ganization of pre-Mahele society, data that are in-
valuable for the interpretation of the archaeologi-
cal record. For the Kalaupapa region, a pattern that
pervades the maka'ainana claims is that of dual
land holdings, one "wet" and one "dry." This pat-
tern can be taken as a local manifestation of the
widespread Polynesian emphasis on both wet (irri-
gated) cultivation, primarily of taro, and dryland
cultivation of yams or, in Eastern Polynesia, sweet
potatoes (Kirch 1994). The claim of Kailua in
Kalawao exemplifies the pattern:
I have a taro mo'o which is 66 fathoms by 22 fathoms
[the taro lo'i]. There is a kula mo'o for sweet potatoes
which is 11,000 fathoms by a width of 33 fathoms. It
was received from Malo, the konohiki of Kalawao. It
has been continuously occupied. (LCA 4951, NR 136-
137v7).
Here, as elsewhere, the two mo'o parcels, one
wet and one dry, were situated in different and
physically separate ecological zones. A similar
claim is that of Haula:
I, the one whose name is below, hereby state to you, the
Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles, that I have a claim
for a lo 'i in the mo 'o of Kapalaha, 'iii of Makaluahau,
Ahupua'a of Kalawao, Island of Molokai. There are
some witnesses. The length is 528 feet, the width is 66
feet. These are my claims.
Aloha to you all.
HAULA
Waikolu, Molokai, February 1, 1848.
(LCA 8104, NR 229v7).
What comes out in the testimony accompany-
ing Haula's claim is that there are two separate par-
cels (apana), one wet and one dry:
22
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
Table 3 Names of Ahupua'a, 'lli, and Mo'o as derived from Mahele Claims (1848-52).
Ahupua'a       'Ii Name        Mo'o Name
Name
WAIKOLU
Aihue
Kailiili
Kawailoa
Kaleakauea
Kiau, Kiao
Kukaenui
Leponui
Maniania
Puupuione
KALAWAO
Ahina
Aimanu
Akolekaihu
Haole
Kamaloo
Kawaeolono
Kawaluna
Kipapa
Kulahuhu
Kumani
Mahulili
Makaluahau
Makaluakua
Polapola
Uluopuhi
Wai'ale'ia
MAKANALUA
Kiihanailua
Makanakunahele
Ohia
Palawai
Waihanau
KALAUPAPA
Ahuli
Hauula, Hauola
Hina, Mahina
Kawahine
Keahua
Kiokio
Kokipohaku
Niu, Niunui
Ohia
Puhiula
Ululoloa
Ahina
Pukialo
Ahina
Kapalaha
Pohiwa
Ohia
Ohiaiki
Momuku
Kapua
Kahalakoma
Kiao
Lihau
Moomuku
Hauola
Moohueoloole
Kahuku
Papaele
Kuamoo
Kauhiokalani
Niuiki
Niunui
Kauamanu
lliilikaa
Ohianui
Hulula
Kahakuma
Kaiaka
Kaiwiiki, Kaiuiki
Kaulu
Mahaka.- Alnhakai
LCA
References
5004B
11009
11009
4951
8913,8942,
10502
10502
8942,10108,
10502
8942,10108
10502
8632,8902,
8903
8945
4540,4951
5020B
4947
8902
4962
8946
4945,5020B
4988
4962
8104,8632,
8946
4962
176B
04723B
181B
10124
8909
1992C, 9992,
10849
8631
8633
5911B
00000Mo19
182B
0000OMol6,
8631
197B,5010B,
9836,10475
198B, 8066
8028,10126
10499
10476
0000OMol2,
8960,10850
8962,8963
7776B,10572
8533,8605,
8914,10151,
10850B
10830
185B
184B
0000OMol4
9900
196B
Remarks
Lele of Makakupaia ahupua'a (Kona
district)
Lele of Makakupaia ahupua'a (Kona
district)
May be in Kalawao ahupua'a
Said to be lele of Makanalua
Lele of Kamiloloa (Kona district)
"deep recess at head of the valley'
Lele of Naiwa
Variously given as 'iii or mo'o
May be 'ii (lele) of Kamalo (Kona district)
Bounded by Ahina on N
Claimed as ahupua'a of Holawa (4945);
also named as mo'o (5020B)
Adjacent to 'i/i of Polapola
Kapalaha may be lele of Kalawao
Between 'ili of Kawaluna and Mahulili;
taro lele of Halepoki in Waikolu
Claimed as ahupua'a of Halawa
'ffi not named
From sea of Hoolehua to pali of
Kiihanailua
From sea of Kahili to Pahumahana
From stream of Waihanau to pali of
Kaweeku; same as Ohia in Kalaupapa ?
Runs straight in Waikanao
No 'ili named
No 'ili named
No 'ili named
No 'ili named
Niu on one side, Hauola on other
From Kapoloa to pali of Keolewa
Has le/e named Halemanu in Waikolu
Cultivated kula
Bounded by Ohia and Hauola
From sea of lliopii to paol of Keolewa
7776B: N is Keolewa, E is Ahuli, S is Kaiaka,
W is Niniki; 10572: Kokipohaku on W,
Niuniu on E, Kaiaka on S
Same as Ohia in Makanalua ?: from 'ili of
Naale to ahupua'a of Makanalua; has 2
lele, a fishery named Papaloa, Kenopano
in Waikolu
'/li not named; has lele in Makanalua
named Namae (a mala)
'In not named
'/li not named
'li not named
Cultivated kihapai named Kualele; 'i/i not
named
'i not named
----~~~~~~ .vu ._.._5_, ,._.u .__%.
23
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION
Kii, sworn, I know his apanas of land at
"Kakaluakau", Kalawao, Waikolu.
Apana 1: Apana of taro land. [apana aina kalo]
Apana 2: Apana of sweet potato land. [apana aina
uwala]
Apana 1 is bounded as follows:
Mauka, kula land Kalaupapa and Makai, a stream
Pelekunu, land of Haula 2.He received this land from
Apiki when Kinau was alive and has had quiet and
undisputed possession until the pr esent. 2 Govemment
[Aupuni] lo 'i are in Apana 1.Kailua, sworn. The
foregoing testimony is true-it is the same as my
knowledge of it.
(FT 139v15).
Of additional interest in Kailua's case is the re-
porting of two taro pondfields situated within his
wetland holding, which are said to belong to the
"Government" (Aupuni), and hence were ko-'ele or
po'alima plots, those worked by the maka'a-inana
for the benefit of the konohiki and chiefs. There
are similar references to ko'ele and po-'alima plots
throughout the Mahele claims for our region, dem-
onstrating the pervasiveness of maka'ainana labor
in generating agricultural production for the sup-
port of the chiefly class (see Kirch and Sahlins
[1992] on the general structure of tributary rela-
tions in the early 19th century). One case of par-
ticular interest is the claim of Kanakaole (LCA
5012B, FT 68v6), in which, in addition to four
po'alima lo'i there is one "po'alima patch of olond".
Olond (Touchardia latifolia) was cultivated for its
fibrous bast, which produced the finest cordage for
fishing lines and other uses.
Frequently, the different wet and dry mo'o or
'apana claimed by a cultivator were situated within
the same ahupua'a, particularly in Kalawao and
Waikolu, which offered ecological zones favorable
to both kinds of farming. As often, however, one
of the mo'o is identified as being a lele, or "jump".
This was the case with Kaluaaku of Kalaupapa,
who claimed a lele of wet land in the ahupua'a of
Waikolu (LCA 8914, NR 249-250v7), as well as a
lele named Papaloa, the latter being a "fishery" in
the sea. Another Kalaupapa claimant with a lele
Table 4 KonohikiSuccession in Kalaupapa Region Ahupua'a*
Waikolu Ahupua'a
8912:  Kanakaokai konohiki at Mahulili, Kanakaokai dispossessed, Kanaina appointed, Kanaina
dispossessed, Kaha appointed
10502: Received land in Kiau from Kaaihapuu (in 1844), and from Kakualike (in 1837)
Kalawao Ahupua'a
4945:  Paia was the former konohiki and Timoteo is the present konohiki (note: Timoteo was
konohiki of Halawa); land was received from Kiekie, the konohiki of Kalauao
4947:  Received from Kekiekie, konohiki of Kalawao
4951:  Received from Malo, the konohiki of Kalawao
Makanalua Ahupua'a
8631: Succession of Makanalua konohiki: Nakaluha, Haawiuhane, Hemahema, Pukeke,
Kekuelike, Pahia, Kaaihapuu (at present)
8633:  Succession of Makanalua konohiki: Makaluha, Hemahema, Pukeke, Pahia, Kaaihapuu
8964:  Succession of Makanalua konohiki: Nakauha (also spelled Nakaluha), Kohepukai, Pukeke,
Kekuelike, Pahia, Kaaihapuu
9992;  Succession of Makanalua konohiki: Hemahema, Pukeke, Kekuelike, Pahia, Kaaihapuu
10849: Succession of Makanalua konohiki: Pukai, Hamahema, Pukeke, Kekuelike, Pahia,
Kaaihapuu (until this year 1848)
Kalaupapa Ahupua'a
7776B: Succession of Kalaupapa konohiki: Kawaikapuakahaaheo, Kanaina, Heeia, Puaaloa,
Kekua, Kupu, Kanakaole
8533:  K Succession of Kalaupapa konohiki: Kawelo, Kanaina, Heeia, Puaaloa, Kekua, Kupu,
Kanakaole
8963:  Succession of Kalaupapa konohiki: Kaneikapuahakea, Kanaina, Heeia, Puaaloa, Kekua,
Kanakaole
* Numbers refer to LCA awards.
24
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
for wet taro in Waikolu was Mai:
For your information, 0 Commissioners to Quiet Land
Titles, I have a claim in a mo'o in the Ahupua 'a of
Kalaupapa. It is 77 fathoms long by 66 fathoms wide.
My claim has a lele, named Halemanu. This is taro land,
at Waikolu, bounded by Puupaneenee on the north, by
Alahaka on the east, by Kiokio on the south and by the
sea on the west. (LCA 10126, NR 295v7).
The claim of Nakoa (LCA 10502, NT 197v6)
identifies Kiau (or Kiao) as an 'i1i in Waikolu which
is a lele of Makanalua. Kalahili of Makanalua (one
of those maka'ainana whose claim was denied by
the Land Commission) describes his situation with
a main parcel in the 'i1i of Makanakunahele, but
with lele in the 'i1i of Palawai and Waihanau, the
latter probably for wet taro, given the reference to
a water source:
Greetings to the Land Commissioners: I have a claim
for land in the Ahupua'a of Makanalua on the Island of
Molokai. It is an 'ili, named Makanakunahele. It is
situated as follows: from the sea of Kahili as far as to
Puahumahana. It is bounded, as it lies from inland to
the sea, by Palawai on one side, by Paoole on one side,
by the sea of Kahili on one side, and by Puaakaa on the
mauka side. The lele lands are: Puaaikauai, in the 'i1i of
Palawai, bounded by Kapua on one side and by
Palawai on one side. The lele of Kainahelehele is in the
'i1i of Waihanau and it is bounded on the makai side by
Kaanopipalau, on the mauka side by a kumu waihi
[literally: source oozing water], and by Kaweeku on
one side and Mahanana on the other side. (LCA 8909,
NR 246-247v7).
Lele were not confined to within the four
ahupua'a making up the Kalaupapa region, and
we have several references to lele belonging to lee-
ward (Kona) district ahupua'a but situated within
Waikolu, a pattern also known for other windward
valleys. The 'i1i of Ka'ili'ili and Kawailoa in
Waikolu are said to be lele of Makakupa'ia
ahupua'a on the leeward coast (see LCA 11009,
NR 321-322v7), while the 'iIi of Kuikaenui is asso-
ciated with Kamiloloa ahupua'a (LCA10502, NT
197v6). The ecological principle here is evidently
again that of allowing the leeward dwellers to have
some access to the wet lands at the back of Waikolu
Valley.
Additional information of some archaeologi-
cal interest comes from physical dimensions re-
ported by claimants for their various mo'o, espe-
Table 5 Dimensions of Maka'ainana Land Claims.
Claim         Type                 Dimensions
Waikolu Ahupua'a
4951:         kula mo'o:           1 1,000 x 33 fathoms (in Kalawao)
taro mo'o:           66 x 22 fathoms
8913:         taro land            121 x 44 fathoms
Kalawao Ahupua'a
4953:         sweet potato mo'o:   230 fathoms long
5069:         taro 'ili:           63 x 29 fathoms
8104:         lo'i in mo'o:        528 x 66 feet
8902:         kalo ?               66 x 11 fathoms
8903:         kalo ?               77 x 55 fathoms
8946:         lo 'i                198 x 156 x 120 feet
kula                 2131 x 93 x 78 feet
4540:         potato kula          788 x 22 fathoms
taro                 66 x 9 fathoms
04723B:       half taro/s. potato  242 x 8 fathoms
4945:         sweet potato land    975 x 33 fathoms
4947:         kula                 407 x 47 fathoms
4951:         taro mo'o            66 x 22 fathoms
kula mo'o (s.p.)     11,000 x 33 fathoms
4988:         kula                 852 x 37 fathoms
8945          kula                 900 x 48 feet; 1,000 x 28 feet
Kalaupapa Ahupua'a
7776B:        kula                 510 x 60.5 fathoms
10572:        ?                    510 x 22 fathoms
25
TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KALAUPAPA REGION
cially from the ahupua 'a of Kalawao (Table 5). As
can be seen from the available data, plots identi-
fied as for taro (kalo) are generally much smaller
and tend to be rectangular in shape. In contrast,
the kula or dryland plots (often identified as being
specifically for sweet potato) tend to be very long
and narrow. Setting aside one claim in Kalawao
with a length of 11,000 fathoms as a possible ex-
aggeration, the remaining 10 kula parcels have a
mean length of 495 ? 291 fathoms, and a mean
width of 26 ? 18 fathoms. In measures more famil-
iar to us today, this means that an average kula plot
on the peninsula was about one half mile long, by
only 150 feet or so wide. As we will argue later,
such long narrow plots fit well with the archaeo-
logical remains of a dryland field system on the
peninsula, in which the stone rows or walls have a
similar long, narrow orientation.
As for crops cultivated by the Mahele claim-
ants, the majority of references are to taro (kalo)
and sweet potato ('uala), in the pattern of dual wet-
dry gardening already noted. However, a few claims
make reference to other cultigens, such as the
po'alima plot of olond mentioned earlier, and a ref-
erence in the claim of Kupainalua (LCA 9900, FT
66v6) of Kalaupapa to "a wauke patch in a water-
course in a lele of Ohia, on the mountain". Wauke
(Broussonetia papyrifera) was the plant used to
produce bast for barkcloth, and may have flour-
ished better in wetter and more protected condi-
tions "on the mountain" than on the windswept plain
of Kalaupapa itself.
CHAPTER 3 ENDNOTES
' For the genealogical relations between Kekauluohi and
the Kamehameha line of rulers, see Sahlins (1992:fig. 5.5).
Kame'eleihiwa (1992:table 19) lists a "Samuela
Kuluwaile", presumably Kuluwailehua, as a konohiki of
intermediate status.
2There appears to be a spelling error in the Indices (CPL
1929:1379) where Makanalua is rendered as "Makaalua."
The error is repeated under the Kekau'onohi listing (CPL
1929:68) of lands, where in addition "Makaalua" is iden-
tified as being part of the Kona (rather than Ko'olau) dis-
trict of Moloka'i.
3Ha'alelea was one of the famous Hulumanu, or coterie of
Kamehameha III, who sandalwooded in the mountains with
the King, and among whom the King redivided the lands
of Moloka'i in 1837.
4Further details on Mali and his land of Leponui in
Maniania is found in the Foreign Testimony: "Mali has
been an old Waikolu resident in Maniania, a deep recess at
the head of the valley farthest back on Moloka'i. We can
get no further information about it than is written in the
claim. I would advise to give him Manienie outright as no
human being will buy it from the aupuni & [illegible] in
his kuleana [illegible]" (FT 58v6).
5Some key accounts of the traditional system of Hawaiian
land categories include Malo (1950:16-18), Lyons (1875),
and Handy and Pukui (1958:4-5). Kirch and Sahlins (1992)
examine in great detail how such land categories were re-
lated to the local socio-political system in the case of the
Anahulu Valley, O'ahu.
6 The place names Ahuli and Papakailoi also appear on the
1924 USGS topographic map of Kalaupapa quadrangle,
along with a number of other local names, which have
been dropped from later editions of the USGS maps. Among
these names are the succession of Mahulili, Polapola, and
Kawaluna, which are shown as positioned from northwest
to southeast along the talus-colluvial slopes in Kalawao
ahupua'a, thus clarifying the position of 'i1i Polapola, re-
ferred to in non-awarded claim 4962 by Kanaokai. The
Waihona 'Aina database has this claim listed as within
Kalaupapa ahupua'a when it should be indexed under
Kalawao.
CHAPTER 4
PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
AT KALAUPAPA
The history of archaeological re-
'   search at Kalaupapa, and wind-
ward Moloka'i in general, begins
in 1909, with the pioneering sur-
vey by John F. G. Stokes, then Cu-
rator of Polynesian Ethnology at the Bernice Pauahi
Bishop Museum. Funded by a grant from the
Carnegie Institution, Stokes had been instructed by
William T. Brigham, the first Bishop Museum Di-
rector, to undertake a survey of heiau or temple
sites in order to test the latter's theories regarding
changes in Hawaiian religious practices (Dye, ed.,
1991). This research project had commenced with
fieldwork on Hawai'i Island in 1906, and contin-
ued with the Moloka'i field survey in 1909. Trav-
eling in part by Native Hawaiian canoe (Dye, ed.,
1991, fig. 3), Stokes covered the entire island of
Moloka'i, inquiring of Native Hawaiian informants
for the locations, names, and other details of heiau
still known to them. Within the area today encom-
passed by KNHP, Stokes recorded three heiau in
Waikolu Valley, a ko'a (fishing shrine) and three
heiau in Kalawao, two heiau in Makanalua, and
four heiau in Kalaupapa ahupua'a (Fig. 6).1 Stokes'
field notebooks, plans, and photographs of these
sites are preserved in the Bishop Museum archives,
although his manuscript report (Stokes, MS) was
never published in full. However, the late Cappy
Summers, in her masterful overview of the island's
known archaeological resources (Summers 197 1),
incorporated much of Stokes' information and site
descriptions. During our 2001 fieldwork, we relo-
cated three of Stokes' heiau and ko'a sites, and
remapped two of these in detail, for purposes of
comparison. This component of our work only
served to confirm our high esteem of Stokes' meth-
ods and reporting standards.
In the long hiatus between Stokes and more
recent professional archaeology, only a few brief
forays into Kalaupapa archaeology can be counted.
Southwick Phelps, a Yale graduate student, was
appointed "assistant ethnologist" at the Bishop
Museum in 1937, and charged with carrying out a
survey of the sites of Moloka'i (Hiroa 1945:57).
Phelps' study (MS), never published, was hardly a
comprehensive survey, although it did have for-
ward-looking qualities in terms of its landscape and
geographic perspective.2 Phelps (MS, p. 38) listed
five sites (#s 29-33) on Kalaupapa peninsula, and
two more in Waikolu Valley (#s 35 and 36), but no
detailed descriptions were provided. He classified
Kalaupapa within his "Region III", which encom-
passed both the dry western half of the island as
well as the peninsula. Phelps (MS., p.11, 58) drew
attention to the "low walls for sweet potato patches
such as those on the slopes of Kalaupapa Penin-
sula and Maunaloa in west Molokai", one of the
first references to the vast field system of stone walls
27
PREvlOuS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT KALAUPAPA
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28
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
which covers much of the peninsula. His brief de-
scription of these is given in full here:
In the center of the peninsula is an extinct volcanic cone
the top of which is nearly 400 feet in elevation and from
which the ground slopes rather evenly in all directions
but the southerly. The walls are on the northeastern or
windward side only and their course is almost exactly
northwest-at right angle to the prevailing northeast
trade-winds to which the peninsula is so exposed.
These winds are often very strong and it is very likely
that the walls served as partial shelters to the sweet
potato plants which were probably the vegetable staple
of this area. Many of the walls run for over a hundred
yards and are quite straight. Their height, as much as
one can infer from present conditions, must not have
exceeded a foot and a half. Some of them are 10 feet
apart while others are farther distant from one another.
In addition to sheltering the plants from wind their
building aided in clearing the rocky land and it is likely
that they also served as boundary lines (Phelps, MS.,
pp. 11-12).
At virtually the same time that Phelps was car-
rying out his "regional study" of Moloka'i, one F.
L. McHenry, an electrician employed at the
Hansen's disease settlement, began making obser-
vations of archaeological features on the penin-
sula.3 McHenry sent his notes and plans to the
Bishop Museum, where they remain on file, al-
though we have not had the opportunity to consult
them. Brief quotations from McHenry's manu-
scripts are given in Summers (1971:188-89) and
Goodwin (1994:7-8).
The heady days of archaeological renaissance
in the Hawaiian Islands during the 1950s and early
60s, when Kenneth P. Emory and his colleagues
were opening up new intellectual terrain with the
definition of a cultural sequence based on strati-
graphic excavations and fishhook typology (Kirch
2000:29-32), bypassed Kalaupapa without notice.
In the spring of 1967, however, Richard Pearson-
then a newly recruited member of the University
of Hawai'i Anthropology Department faculty-
took a small group of UH students to Kalaupapa
"for a total of four days during November 1966
and April 1967" (Pearson et al. 1974:44). These
tnps were part of a course in Laboratory Techniques
(University of Hawai'i Anthropology 421), which
evidently included both field methods, and "midden
analysis", the latter taught in conjunction with "Mrs.
Freddy Harby".4 Pearson selected a lava tube shel-
ter (called by him and, others subsequently, a
"cave") for "test pitting." This shelter is situated
near Kaupikiawa Point, but was simply referred to
by Pearson as "Cave 1"; subsequently it has been
identified as "Kaupikiawa Cave" (e.g., Goodwin
1994:9), "Pearson's Cave," or as Site 50-60-03-312
in the State of Hawai'i inventory of historic places.
Pearson's small team of students dug several "one
yard squares" using "artificial three-inch levels"
(Pearson et al. 1974:45). A few pre-contact as well
as historic-period artifacts were recovered, but the
main yield was a large quantity of shellfish remains,
which were analyzed under Freddy Harby's super-
vision, and reported on in detail by Hirata and Potts
(MS [1967]).5
Pearson's team thought that their evidence from
this shelter site, which included "fragments of iron"
in the upper levels, bespoke a relatively late occu-
pation (Pearson et al. 1974:49). They inferred from
this more broadly that:
It would appear that settlement and cultivation on the
Kalaupapa Peninsula were relatively late in the
sequence of Hawaiian pre-history. If this turns out to be
the case after adequate exploration is carried out, it
would fit into the general hypothesis of human
ecological succession, now being suggested, that the
marginal areas of the Hawaiian Islands were inhabited
late in the pre-historic sequence (1974:49).
Pearson collected several charcoal samples,
which he deposited in the collection of the Bishop
Museum, although he did not submit any samples
for radiocarbon dating. In 1984, Marshall Weisler
and Gary Somers re-examined the Kaupikiawa site,
and decided to submit three of Pearson's samples
for dating (Weisler 1989:137). A sample of wood
charcoal (Beta-9276) from 23-30 cm depth in
Square 7 yielded an uncalibrated age of 880 ? 70
B.P., while a second sample (Beta-9962) from
Square 7 (at 35.5 cm below surface) yielded an
uncalibrated age of 490 ? 180 B.P. The third sample
(Beta-9275), from Square 3 (30-38 cm) gave an
age of <120 years. Weisler commented that the
"young age and relatively deep stratigraphic posi-
tion [of this sample] seem incongruous" (1989:138).
Despite the wide differences in the ages of three
samples from approximately the same depths (and
lacking any stratigraphic sections), Weisler ac-
cepted the oldest date as accurately reflecting the
age of initial human use of the lava tube: "At
Kalawao on the windswept Kalaupapa Peninsula,
a collapsed lava tube shelter (Kaupikiawa) was ini-
tially occupied by the 11th century" (1989:126).
29
PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT KALAUPAPA
Others have continued to cite this date as evidence
for nearly a millennium of human settlement on
the peninsula.
At roughly the same time that Pearson and his
students were analyzing their "midden samples"
from Cave 1, Catherine C. Summers completed her
inventory of the known sites of Moloka'i, a labor
she had been engaged in for many years (Sum-
mers 1971). "Cappy" as she was known to her col-
leagues at the Bishop Museum, where she volun-
teered, was a member of the kama'aina Cooke fam-
ily who owned Moloka'i Ranch, and she had been
one of the early volunteer associates of Kenneth
Emory when he first began excavations at South
Point and other localities in the early 1950s. Her
Molokai: A Site Survey was not based so much on
original fieldwork (although she knew the island
like the back of her hand), as it was a compilation
and compendium of both published and unpub-
lished information, not only on sites per se, but
also place names, folk traditions, and oral litera-
ture. It remains the starting place for any archaeo-
logical research on the island today.
Summers (1971:188-96), drawing primarily on
the unpublished Stokes and McHenry manuscripts
in Bishop Museum, reported 20 sites on the penin-
sula, one site at Nihoa, and four sites in Waikolu
Valley, all within the present boundaries of KNHP.
Some of these "sites" were merely names of former
heiau given to Stokes or others. Although Sum-
mers surely visited Kalaupapa during her long years
working on the island, she appears not to have
made any effort to relocate or remap any of these
sites. Her report, however, includes verbatim much
of Stokes' description of heiau, as well as two of
his photographs (of site 288, a ko'a on the terrace
overlooking Wai'ale'ia Valley), and a plan of Site
286, a heiau in Waikolu Valley.
In 1974, the State of Hawai'i engaged the
Bishop Museum to undertake a "statewide inven-
tory of historic sites," a project that despite its name
was essentially a resurvey of known sites, and in-
cluded preparation of standardized site forms for
the Hawai'i Register of Historic Places. The
Moloka'i team worked from Summers' recently pub-
lished synthesis, but only managed to relocate a
small number of the Kalaupapa sites. To quote
Goodwin: "The fact that this survey team found
only three sites on the peninsula, and they placed
one of them in the wrong location, begs the ques-
tion of reliability" (1994:9).
By the mid-1970s, "contract archaeology" or
cultural resource management as it has come to be
called, arrived at Kalaupapa, first with a project by
William Barrera, Jr. in connection with the construc-
tion of a new hospital facility within the settlement
proper (Barrera, Jr., 1978). Barrera conducted a
series of test excavations that reported mixed pre-
contact and historic period deposits.
Far more significant was the project carried out
by Ed Ladd and Gary Somers, of the National Park
Service, in 1982-83, the first modem, professional
archaeological survey of portions of KNHP (Somers
n.d. [1985]). The Park itself had been established
by Act of Congress (Public Law 96-565) in De-
cember 1980, and the Ladd-Somers survey was
carried out in advance of improvements to the
Kalaupapa water system being planned by NPS and
the State Department of Health. Their team inten-
sively surveyed an area of about 79 hectares lying
outside of the Kalaupapa settlement proper (see
Fig. 6), as well as areas within the settlement
(Somers n.d., p. 37).6 In portions of their survey
area, dense concentrations of stone features were
discovered, including a large platform structure and
a "multi-enclosure" which may be an unrecorded
heiau.7 Most of the remains were of mounds, ter-
races, alignments and similar unimpressive features
that were probably associated with dryland culti-
vation, and were integrated with possible residen-
tial features such as walled shelters and enclosures.
However, in other portions of the survey area the
team found extensive evidence of historic distur-
bance, including bulldozing. Somers summarized
the project results as follows:
Two conclusions are obvious when one looks at the
results of the survey. First, the peninsula was inten-
sively utilized prehistorically and historically and
archaeological features can be expected to be found
anywhere and everywhere. Second, bulldozing and land
clearing have destroyed many archaeological features
and have distorted the archaeological record in and
around Kalaupapa Settlement and along the road and in
the pastures on the way to Kalawao (n.d. [1984], p.
103).
One outcome of Somers' report, which was
tellingly titled Kalaupapa, More Than a Leprosy
Settlement, was heightened awareness that the new
Park contained extensive archaeological resources
30
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
relating to traditional Hawaiian occupation of the
landscape, in addition to the obvious historical re-
sources associated with the period of use as a lep-
rosy settlement. Thus Somers wrote:
The sheer number and types of archaeological resources
that exist today, the possibility that there has been 900
to 1,000 years of occupation and use within the park,
and the excellent state of preservation of the resources
combine to make Kalaupapa National Historical Park
one of the richest and most valuable archaeological
preserves in Hawaii (n.d.[1984], p. 117).
Somers further recommended that:
Archaeologists from other institutions, such as the
Bishop Museum, should be encouraged to cooperate
with the National Park Service and to conduct
archaeological research at Kalaupapa to assist the
National Park Service in its attempts to understand and
interpret the prehistory and early history of the park
(n.d. [ 1984], p. 1 19).
Also as a result of the National Park Service's
effort to develop KNHP in the early 1980s, histo-
rian Linda W. Greene was contracted to carry out
an extensive "historic resource study" of
Kalaupapa (Greene 1985). Greene's impressive 737
page report, although it dealt with archaeology only
peripherally, is an extremely useful compendium
of historical information on the post-contact his-
tory of KNHP, including many developments which
had significant impacts on the region's archaeo-
logical resources (such as the construction of wa-
ter systems, the Federal leprosy research station,
roads, etc.). Historical archaeologists, in particu-
lar, will find Greene's study immensely valuable.
In 1984 Marshall Weisler, then with the Bishop
Museum and having several years of experience
working on Moloka'i (particularly at the leeward
Kawela site complex), was invited by NPS archae-
ologist Gary Somers to visit Kalaupapa and lend
his advice to efforts at site discovery and record-
ing (Weisler, pers. comm., Oct. 2001). Weisler spent
from June 27-30, 1984 visiting the Park, carrying
out reconnaissance level survey in Kauhako Cra-
ter, on the Nihoa landshelf, and in Wai'ale'ia and
Waikolu Valleys. It was at this time that Weisler
and Somers re-evaluated Pearson's excavation at
the Kaupikiawa lava tube shelter, and submitted
three charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating (see
above). Other than incorporating the results of these
radiocarbon dates into his paper on Moloka'i cul-
tural chronology (Weisler 1989), Weisler did not
formally write up the results of his reconnaissance
forays in KNHP.
In 1986, Martha Yent of the Division of State
Parks surveyed portions of the upper valley of
Waikolu, in conjunction with the development of
three proposed well sites by the Division of Land
and Water Development of the State of Hawai'i
(Yent MS [1986]). Yent briefly documented sev-
eral sets of agricultural terraces, probably for the
irrigated cultivation of taro (Colocasia esculenta).
From 1988 to 1994, a succession of archaeo-
logical studies was initiated by a proposed realign-
ment of the small-plane landing strip, Kalaupapa
Airport, situated on the northwestern tip of the pen-
insula. A reconnaissance survey was first conducted
by Athens (1989), who discovered a large number
of surface stone structures and features in the po-
tential zones of impact. This led to a more inten-
sive survey by Thegn Ladefoged (1990), and ulti-
mately to a full-scale excavation and mitigation
project on an historic period house site and associ-
ated "sweet potato farm" dating to the mid-19th
century (Goodwin 1994). Ladefoged's study is of
particular importance, as he was the first since
Phelps and McHenry to draw attention to the ex-
tensive sets of parallel stone rows or walls which
form a dryland field system over much of the pen-
insula. In summarizing the agricultural features,
Ladefoged wrote:
There are two main types of agricultural complexes in
the west end of the study area. These include align-
ments with enclosures around them, and alignments
without enclosures. . . The density of alignments is
much higher within the enclosures than the areas
outside of the enclosures... It is possible that the
agricultural enclosures are a later intensification of an
earlier field system. The test excavations in the two
agricultural contexts support this notion. The two test
units were excavated behind agricultural walls
contained in enclosure 5B. In both instances buried
alignments were encountered. A radiocarbon date
associated with one of these alignments [Beta-33 172,
510 ? 80 B.P.] indicates that the area could have been
used for agricultural purposes as early as the thirteenth
century (1990:182).
Although Ladefoged clearly recognized that at
least some agricultural features could have consid-
erable antiquity, he was impressed that "the vast
majority of features in the study area appear to date
to the historic era" (1990:183). Aware from his-
torical accounts that Kalaupapa had been a major
3 1
PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT KALAUPAPA
source of both sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes
for export to California in the 1850s, Ladefoged
advanced the hypothesis that much of the
peninsula's field system had been intensified in the
mid-19th century. "Of course it is possible that the
occupation and agricultural intensification took
place during an earlier phase of the historic era,
but the historical accounts indicate that the mid-
nineteenth century is the most likely period"
(1990:184).
Ladefoged followed up on this hypothesis in a
short paper in the journal Pacific Studies
(Ladefoged 1993). He summarized historical data
on economic trends in the islands during the 19th
century, which clearly documented that the impe-
tus for a mid-century phase of intensification was
present. He writes:
By the late 1840s there was an economic shift in
Hawai'i from provisioning ships in transit to actual
exportation of produce. The west coast of America
experienced an unprecedented economic boom during
the California gold rush. The massive influx of
prospectors and merchants [to California] had to be fed.
Hawai'i proved to be an excellent resource base for
food staples because of its geographic proximity and
low production costs. For example, Irish potatoes could
be purchased for $2 a barrel in Hawai'i and sold for
$27 a barrel in California ... (1993:124).
Ladefoged concluded from this, and from the
fact that the majority of archaeological remains in
proximity to the landing-strip were obviously of
historic age, that the extant configuration of the
Kalaupapa field system dated primarily to this mid-
19th century phase of intensification. Indeed, he
generalized further from the Kalaupapa case, to
suggest that perhaps "a later phase of historic in-
tensification affected the surviving archaeological
remains of field systems" in other areas, such as
Kohala and Waimea on Hawai'i Island (1993:127-
28). Ladefoged's hypothesis certainly remains a
critical research question needing further work, and
we will return to this later in our report.
The final stage of archaeological work associ-
ated with the airport improvement project was the
data recovery excavation carried out by "Mac"
Goodwin (1994) at site 1801, a "sweet potato farm-
stead" occupied between about 1845 and 1865.
Goodwin's report, certainly one of the best docu-
mented and presented excavations of a historic-
period Native Hawaiian habitation yet carried out
in the islands, also makes entertaining reading in
its rendering of the politically-charged controver-
sies surrounding site 1801 (Feature 2). This large
platform had been held by some to be a heiau, al-
though Goodwin demonstrates without a shadow
of a doubt that the structure was part of an historic
period farmstead. Goodwin's excavation adds con-
siderable fine-grained detail to Ladefoged's more
general model of historic-period intensification of
sweet potato cultivation at Kalaupapa.
Since the completion of the Athens-Ladefoged-
Goodwin series of projects associated with the air-
port improvement project, some archaeological
studies have continued within KNHP, largely con-
ducted by NPS staff or by State of Hawai'i archae-
ologists (the latter in part through mitigation ef-
forts carried out during the filming of the movie
Damien). Earle "Buddy" Neller, who was resident
at KNHP for several years, made extensive recon-
naissance surveys and located a large number of
sites, but evidently removed all of his fieldnotes
when he left the employ of the NPS (D. Alexander,
pers. comm., August 2000). However, two incom-
plete manuscript reports exist, documenting some
of Neller's activities during this period. The most
important, Manning and Neller (MS), presents the
results of five surface surveys carried out by Neller
and Elizabeth Manning (a former Berkeley student
of PVK's), between June and November 1991.
Evidently some 92 acres were covered. The most
significant of these surveys was "an arbitrary
transect across the peninsula through the agricul-
tural fields of Makanalua and Kalawao to the coast,
from Makapulapai to Kaupikiawa" (Manning and
Neller, MS). This survey began at the Makapulapai
benchmark and "heads due east at 900, ending at
the coast near Kaupikiawa Cave". Some 108 fea-
tures, grouped into 45 sites, were recorded, in a
total area of 12.8 hectares. Unfortunately, the manu-
script report we consulted in the KNHP archives
lacked all maps, photos, or figures, and the final
report has not been published by the NPS.8 The
second manuscript (Radewagen and Neller, MS)
concerns a survey of the "Kaupikiawa Lava Tube
System," which incorporates the "Cave 1" site ex-
cavated by Pearson.9
Most recently, portions of the interior slopes of
Kauhako Crater have been intensively surveyed
by archaeological consultants under contract to the
32
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
National Park Service. Final reports, if these have been
completed, have not been made available to us.
To sum up, the history of prior archaeological
research within KNHP has been sporadic and in
large part unsystematic. Early efforts were focused
on the documentation of heiau, while more recent
work has largely been driven by cultural resource
management concerns (e.g., the surveys by Ladd
and Somers, and the work at the airport runway
site). Very little work has been conducted with ba-
sic research questions to the fore, and there have
been no systematic efforts to extensively document
the archaeological landscape of either the penin-
sula or nearby valleys. The only excavations have
been those of Pearson in the Kaupikiawa lava tube
shelter site, and the data recovery efforts of Barrera
and Goodwin. The latter's study of a mid-19th cen-
tury farmstead is a masterful piece of historical ar-
chaeology, but no pre-contact sites have been ex-
cavated since Pearson's early tests.
The cumulative reports summarized above
make it abundantly clear that KNHP contains ex-
tensive archaeological resources, both pre-contact
and historic in age. At the same time, probably less
than 5 percent of the habitable or usable surface
area of the Park has been intensively surveyed, and
most of the covered areas were subjected to heavy
historic-period disturbances. The lack of chrono-
logically-controlled data from excavations makes
it impossible to even outline a long-term sequence
of land use, although there are hints that the penin-
sula has been occupied for centuries-possibly a
millennium-and that the agricultural field systems
might have an early pre-contact phase. To encap-
sulate what we know from the work of those who
have proceeded us on the terrain: the archaeologi-
cal potential is enormous, the gaps in our knowl-
edge equally so.
CHAPTER 4 ENDNOTES
I Goodwin (1994:7) quotes from an unpublished MS of
Stokes, regarding the difficulty Stokes had in finding Na-
tive Hawaiian informants at Kalaupapa who were familiar
with the local heiau sites. "All the native population of
Waikolu, Kalawao, and Kalaupapa was removed many years
ago by the government (when this was taken for a leper
settlement), and I was able to find out but one man who
claimed to know anything at all about this section [of the
island]" (Stokes in Goodwin 1994:7).
2 The date of Phelps' manuscript is uncertain. Summers
(1971) gives it as "n.d. (1937)"; Goodwin (1994) cites it as
both 1938 and 1941. It is certain that Phelps held his Yale-
Bishop Museum fellowship in 1937 (Hiroa 1945:57), but
the manuscript seems not to have been completed until
later. The copy of Phelps MS which we have consulted is a
xerox, made with permission, by the late Peter Chapman in
October 1968 (missing pages 31-33), and bears the Bernice
P. Bishop Museum Library stamp, dated "JAN 17 1941". It
is also marked, in the distinctive handwriting of former
Bishop Museum Librarian Margaret Titcomb, "Manuscript
Case 3." PVK fondly recalls both Titcomb, and Manuscript
Case 3, the unpublished wonders of which the former pro-
vided him access to so many years ago.
I Although we do not know if Phelps and McHenry met at
Kalaupapa, the temporal coincidence is notable, and it
might be interesting to determine whether Phelps' field-
work in any way influenced McHenry, who was by trade an
electrician and not formally trained in archaeology, to carry
out his amateur observations of archaeological sites.
I Freddy Harby had worked extensively in California ar-
chaeology prior to moving to Hawai'i, and had amassed a
sizable bibliography of publications within the field of
midden analysis. During her years in Hawai'i in the late
1960s and early 70s, she volunteered her services at Bishop
Museum, and PVK came to know her through numerous
social events.
I We are in possession of copies of three reports on the
1967 and 1971 excavations at "Cave 1" (Pearson et al.
1974; Hirata and Potts MS [1967] and Hirata and Potts
("Rewritten by R. Pearson") MS [1971]. The latter seems
to have been the basis for the published report by Pearson
et al. (1974).
6At the same time, Marshall Weisler of the Bishop Museum
visited Kalaupapa with Somers, and arranged to radiocar-
33
PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT KALAUPAPA
bon date several samples of charcoal which had been exca-
vated by the Pearson team in "Cave 1" at Kaupikiawa
(Somers, n.d., pp.42-43; Weisler 1989).
8 We have been told that the illustrations to accompany the
report are on file in Honolulu, but have not been able to
examine these. Certainly, the Manning-Neller transect sur-
vey is a major contribution to Kalaupapa archaeology, and
Somers (n.d. [ 1984], p. 1 16) speculated that these fea-  we would urge its editing and publication as a pnority.
tures, lying close to the boundary between Kalawao and
Makanalua ahupua'a, "may have been associated with  9 This unfinished manuscript was kindly made available to
the god Lono and the Makahiki festival."         us by Erika Radewagen.
CHAPTER 5
THE 2000 KNHP SURVEY:
OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
In our Scope of Work, we laid out
"   three major objectives for our
|rL1          2000 field season (see Introduc-
tion), of which the first and most
important was to sample a variety
of different environmental/geographical zones
throughout the Park, with respect to their varied
archaeological landscapes. We envisioned that this
sampling would be primarily at a reconnaissance,
rather than intensive survey level, although we did
undertake intensive mapping of one area, the
Kaupikiawa Transect. For most zones, however, our
aim was more modestly to assess the range and
types of surface archaeological remains present.
Wherever feasible, we recorded in detail the struc-
tures and features encountered, including 1:10 or
1:50 compass-and-tape sketch maps, treating these
structures and features as representative examples
of the kinds of structural remains present within a
particular zone. Clearly, we make no claim to com-
prehensiveness within our sampling areas, as our
main objective was not that of inventory survey. A
full-scale, intensive survey of the entire KNHP will
be a major undertaking which will require resources
and time far beyond what has been allocated to
date. It will suffice if our reconnaissance assists in
the development of such a larger project.
SELECTION OF SAMPLING AREAS
As we have documented, the KNHP encom-
passes an unusual diversity of terrain, soil types,
hydrologic regimes, and biotic communities; in-
deed, this environmental variability underscores the
Park's significance for cultural and natural history
investigations. It is reasonable to assume-from
what we know of indigenous Hawaiian society and
economy elsewhere in the archipelago-that this
environmental diversity would have been matched
by a variety of specific, local patterns of land use
and human settlement, reflected in differing sets of
surface archaeological remains. It was our main
aim to capture some of this variation by sampling
each of several major environmental zones, these
being defined by background research and initial
field reconnaissance.'
Seven areas were chosen for reconnaissance
survey, as listed in Table 6, and shown in Figure 7.
Two of these were valley drainages, the large val-
ley of Waikolu in which we spent two days, and
the smaller Wai'ale'ia Valley which we explored in
just a single, arduous day. Two areas are located
on the colluvial-talus (taluvial) slopes at the inter-
face between the peninsula and the cliffs; both are
within the zone of important Kawaihapai-Haleiwa
0
 K
I' -                (
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I S
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1                                           \
<3                       <3                             /3
<3                        K
I
THE 2000 KNHP SURVEY
35
I
._
0
(     0
0 _ _
*U_ *U oL
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O, Q
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Lr
uL)
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0
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0
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c
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:7
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36
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
soils which we identified as a probable horticul-
tural zone of some importance. One reason for sus-
pecting that this colluvial-talus zone had been a
focus of traditional land use was the distribution
over this zone of four heiau or temple sites first
recorded by Stokes in 1909 (Summers 1971). Each
of these colluvial-talus areas was covered in a day
of fieldwork.
The next two areas are located on the penin-
sula proper. The first, called the Kaupikiawa
Transect, runs from the eastern coast roughly east-
west up the gentle slopes of the peninsula to the
long stone wall marking the boundary between
Kalawao and Makanalua ahupua'a. This transect
thus encompasses a representative part of the ma-
jor Kalaupapa field system, and in order to sample
this field system closely we applied more intensive
survey methods, using a plane table and alidade to
map the field walls and other features at 1:500. The
second peninsular study area was that of surround-
ing "Pearson's Cave", which we reconnoitered over
three days while re-excavating in the lava tube it-
self. Our final sampling area was the landshelf of
Nihoa, a truly unique microenvironment; two trips
were made to Nihoa. In all, our team covered an
estimated 66.75 hectares (0.67 km2) of highly var-
ied terrain.
As can be seen from Table 6, these seven areas
encompass much of the environmental variability
within the KNHP, including key variations in geo-
morphology, soil type, slope, and rainfall. It would
have been interesting to include another colluvial-
talus slope sample area in Kalaupapa ahupua'a,
and a brief foray onto the slopes inland of the old
"rock crusher" near Puwahi demonstrated that this
area exhibits many surface sites. Another zone which
may yield interesting variations is the immediate
coastal/littoral strip along the peninsula's shoreline,
especially in areas where there are substantial sand
dunes and calcareous sediments which may con-
tain midden deposits, buried camp sites, burials, or
other features. Time, unfortunately, did not permit
us to sample these areas.
Access to the different sampling areas varied
considerably, and influenced how much work we
could do in each one. The two peninsula areas and
the two colluvial-talus slope areas could be reached
by van, or hiked to within a few minutes of a dirt
road, so that time could be concentrated on survey
work. To access Waikolu Valley, however, required
more than an hour's hike along the boulder beach
from the Wai'ale'ia Stream mouth, including climb-
ing around and over two high fences where these
ended on slippery wave-washed boulders.2 The
awe-inspiring hike, under towering 1,000-m high
cliffs, cut down considerably on time which could
be spent in the valley proper. Most arduous was
the route to Nihoa, a punishing 3-km hike each
way along a massive boulder/talus beach (parts of
its very unstable and subject to falling debris from
the cliffs). Several of the old-time Kalaupapa residents
expressed amazement when we told them we had
been to Nihoa, saying that they had never gone there
themselves because it was too far and too dangerous.
Table 6 Some Environmental Characteristics of the Sampling Areas.
Characteristic  Waikolu   Wai'ale'ia   Kalawao     Kalawao     Kaupikiawa   Kaupikiawa    Nihoa
Features      Valley     Valley     Colluvium   Colluvium     Transect      Cave
Talus A     Talus B
Geomorphology    Large    Small valley  Colluvial  Colluvial   Main          Northern     Landshelf
valley                slope       slope        peninsula    end of
slopes        peninsula
Soil type(s)     Colluvial  Colluvial  Kawai-      Kawai-      Kalaupapa     Rockland    Colluvial /
series    series      hapai /     hapai /      seres                     Stony land
Haleiwa     Haleiwa
Slope            Varied,  Moderate     Gentle      Moderate    Gentle        Nearly flat  Gentle to
some      to steep                to steep                               moderate
steep
Elevation (masl)  1-200   4-200        60-120     60-100       5-60          10-20       20-80
Rainfall (mm,    1,000-   1,000-       1,500-2,000  1,500-2,000  1,000-1,500  750-1,000  1,000-1,250
estimated)       3,0000+  3,0000+
Area surveyed    15.0     20.0         6.25       5.0          10.5          4.0         6.0
(ha)
37
THE 2000 KNHP SURVEY
FIELD METHODS
Sites3 were discovered through close walking
of the terrain, generally following predetermined
transects or routes. When a site was located, it was
flagged and given a temporary number, and its
position determined by use of a Magellan
ProMARK X global positioning system (GPS) re-
ceiver. We always made an attempt to estimate map
position independently of our GPS readings, as a
cross-check on GPS accuracy. Site coordinates as
determined by GPS were recorded in the UTM sys-
tem, using the NAD83 datum. In theory, these GPS
positions should be accurate to within 10 m. How-
ever, as has also been reported recently for a simi-
lar mountainous and heavily vegetated region in
American Samoa (E. Su'afo'a, pers. comm., 2001),
it was all too often difficult to get consistent or re-
liable GPS readings. This was especially the case
in the deep valleys, and/or under heavy tree canopy,
where the number of available satellites was greatly
reduced. Differential correction with the use of a
fixed base station may help to improve GPS read-
ings somewhat, but cannot compensate for the back
of available satellites. In practical terms, our expe-
rience was that GPS worked extremely well on the
open plains of the peninsula, moderately well on
Nihoa and on the talus slopes, and rather poorly or
not at all in the valleys.
Our use of GPS was further complicated by
inconsistency in the coordinate systems used on
the available USGS maps, with the 1983 1:25,000
Molokai East and West sheets using the Old Ha-
waiian Datum, and the 1993 Kaunakakai 1:24,000
quadrangle using the 1983 North American Da-
tum (NAD83).4 Moreover, according to notes pub-
lished on the 1983 sheets, the Old Hawaiian Da-
tum is offset from the NAD83 datum by 357 m
northing and 290 m westing. We mention these
problems here because while the use of hand-held
GPS units in scientific research has become de
rigueur, at the same time insufficient attention has
been paid to problems of consistency in the use of
datums, and in correlating observations GPS obser-
vations to published maps. Our own experience has
been that while GPS is a remarkable technology, its
use still requires careful and continual ground truthing.
After a site's position was determined by GPS
or map estimation, it was typically recorded by a
team of two persons, using compass and tape to
sketch map the site (usually at 1:10 or 1:50 scale).
Time constraints did not permit us to clear sites,
and in any event we wished our impact on the lo-
cal vegetation to be minimal, so we doubtless
missed minor architectural features when these
were obscured by plants. A pre-printed recording
form was filled in (we used our well-established
Kahikinui, Maui project form as a template), and a
free-form verbal description written out. The stan-
dardized form included two pages of structured ob-
servations, on feature form, probable function, di-
mensions, wall construction, pavements, entryways,
hearths, uprights, presence of coral, artifacts, and
surface midden, as well as altimeter readings and
GPS data points. Sites were photographed when
feasible, but dense vegetation precluded most sites
from being adequately photographed. In a few
cases, sites were also mapped in detail with plane
table and telescopic alidade at 1:100. For the
Kaupikiawa Transect, the entire landscape was
mapped at 1:500, including the densely packed,
low, stacked-stone field boundary walls. Copies of
our recording forms have been deposited in the
KNHP archives.
CHAPTER 5 ENDNOTES
I'In this we were aided by the fact that PVK had been able
to visit the Park twice prior to the 2000 field season, and
had already covered much of the peninsula by vehicle or
on foot, including visits into Kauhako Crater and up the
colluvial-talus slopes in Kalawao.
2 We still cannot understand why the Park employees who
installed these fences for much-needed deer and goat con-
trol did not bother to install pedestrian gates for the safety
of rangers, researchers, or others who must from time-to-
time pass along this beach.
38
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
I The term "site" has a wide range of definitions in archae-
ology. Here we use the term in a flexible manner to indi-
cate any archaeological feature treated for recording pur-
poses as a discrete entity. Most of the sites referred to in
this report are therefore individual stacked-stone architec-
tural features.
4We were also informed by USGS Menlo Park, prior to our
field season, that no quadrangles were available for the
eastern section of KNHP (the old Kamalo quadrangle was
out of print), and that it was uncertain when a new edition
using the NAD83 datum might become available.
CHAPTER 6
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
We turn now to the seven sam-
/   pling areas, giving for each an
rL |  overview of the local environment
and archaeological remains re-
corded, as well as ethnobotanical
observations. Detailed data on individual sites, in-
cluding sketch plans of all sites, have been depos-
ited in the KNHP archives, and are also available
in the Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory, Berkeley.
The Appendix to this volume provides a list of site
numbers, basic site types, and GPS positions as re-
corded.
WAIKOLU VALLEY (WK-)
GENERAL OBSERVA TIOINS
Waikolu is the easternmost and largest valley
located with KNHP, one of the four great amphi-
theater-headed valleys of windward Moloka'i, all
of which formerly comprised the Ko'olau chiefdom
in ancient times. Waikolu is much larger than
Wai'ale'ia, extending some 5 km into the central
spine of the East Moloka'i Mountains, and with
valley walls rising sheer to heights of 1,000 m. With
a more extensive drainage basin, and drawing upon
high rainfall on the summit of the East Moloka'i
Mountains, Waikolu boasts a permanently flowing
stream, with an average discharge of roughly 19
cubic feet per second. Despite the fact that the
Moloka'i water tunnel diverts substantial quanti-
ties of freshwater from the upper reaches of Waikolu
Stream to the island's west end, Waikolu Stream
still has permanent flow at the valley mouth. These
hydrologic conditions made Waikolu ideal for tra-
ditional Hawaiian taro irrigation, and our survey
found abundant evidence of irrigation works.
The Mahele land claims likewise reinforce the
view of Waikolu as a valley dominated by taro irri-
gation. Of 24 claims submitted to the Land Com-
mission, 83 percent refer to lo'i or to mo'o which
were clearly for wet taro cultivation (Table 2). Thus
it seems certain that the valley landscape was sig-
nificantly modified by pondfield irrigation within
the protohistoric period of Hawaiian history. How-
ever, the later 19th and early 20th century history
of Waikolu was closely linked to the Kalaupapa
leprosy settlement, and this adds a complicating
factor in that Waikolu became a major source of
taro and poi for the settlement, supplied on a con-
tractual, commercial basis. As early as 1870, the
Board of Heath reported efforts to extend taro cul-
tivation in Waikolu, and to manufacture pa'i 'ai
(hard taro paste) in order to supply the leprosy pa-
tients (Greene 1985:58-59). Twenty-one pounds of
pa'i 'ai were supplied to each of the villagers per
week (1985:61), which certainly would have stimu-
lated the development of Waikolu irrigation works
40
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
well beyond the level required for local consump-
tion alone.
Greene (1985) further relates how Waikolu
Valley continued to be a major source of food sup-
ply for the Kalaupapa Settlement:
During 1891 pressure was put on the Board of Health
to allow further cultivation and settlement in Waikolu
Valley. In the fall of that year, R. W. Meyer notified
William H. Tell, new superintendent of the settlement,
that the Board of Health wanted to provide suitable and
remunerative labor for all able-bodied residents at the
settlement and would allow them to cultivate taro in
Waikolu Valley (to be known as the Waikolu Taro
Plantation) under certain conditions (1985:207).
In 1901 a poi house was built at Kalawao for steam
cooking of taro, and reference is again made to
Waikolu as a major source of the taro provisions
(1985:313). In 1905, a steam poi factory was con-
structed within the Kalaupapa Settlement itself. A
1906 map of the "East Side of the Leper Settle-
ment, Molokai, T.H." prepared by Marston
Campbell and reproduced in Greene (1985, map
no. 3) delineates "taro patches" and "taro terraces"
on both sides of Waikolu Valley extending well in-
land.
Of particular interest with respect to early 20th
century development of the Waikolu irrigation sys-
tems, is Greene's comment that
because the residents [of the settlement] were unwilling
to cultivate Waikolu Valley, the superintendent again
urged in 1908 that the taro land there be leased to a hui
of Hawaiians or Chinese to work for the board
(1985:362).
This raises the possibility that taro cultivation in
the valley was not exclusively being carried out by
Native Hawaiians, and that Chinese farmers may
have been involved. This resonates with our own
observations that some of the archaeological re-
mains of pondfield systems which we saw during
our reconnaissance (see below), appeared to re-
flect the influence of non-Hawaiian construction
techniques.
Other early 20th century developments in the
valley also had some impact on the archaeological
landscape. These include the major water supply
system which redirected water from the valley to
the settlement via a pipeline running along the base
of the towering cliffs, the ruins of which are still
extant. This system was extensively improved in
1937 (Greene 1985:513-22), replacing the 1,800
foot long old wooden flume which descended the
valley from the 520 foot elevation, with an 8-inch
cast iron pipe system. At the same time new con-
crete dams, steel tanks, and other infrastructure were
installed. The project took 15 months to complete,
and materials were off-loaded from steamers at the
valley mouth. Evidence of this extensive project
can still be seen throughout the valley.
Greene (1985) unfortunately provides no in-
formation on when Waikolu ceased to be a main
source of pa'i 'ai and poi for the Kalaupapa Settle-
ment, although it appears that by mid-century most
food supplies were now coming in to Kalaupapa
from other sources. A major tsunami slammed into
the northern coast of Moloka'i in 1946, salting and
severely damaging the taro pondfields of Halawa
Valley, and is known to have been responsible for
a drastic depopulation of that valley shortly there-
after (Anderson 2001). This tsunami also affected
Kalaupapa and Waikolu (Greene 1985:525) and
may well have been a critical factor in the aban-
donment of Waikolu. Certainly by the early 1960s,
the valley was completely uninhabited.
SITES RECORDED
Intensive survey of a valley the scale of
Waikolu, which today is cloaked in dense vegeta-
tion, and which confronts the archaeologist with
dramatically rugged and difficult terrain, will be a
truly daunting task. We were able to make two one-
day forays into the valley, penetrating inland only
about 1-1.5 km. These reconnaissance trips, how-
ever, were sufficient to reveal the presence of ex-
tensive sets of formerly irrigated pondfield terraces,
situated on both sides of the stream. Some of these
terraces on the eastern flank of the lower valley are
remarkable constructions, with terrace embank-
ments frequently 1.5-2 m high. It is possible that
some of these terrace sets reflect Chinese influence
in the late 19th century, as there are indications in
the historic record that both Hawaiian and Chinese
cultivators provided taro for poi production in
Kalaupapa Settlement. Some of the terrace sets,
however, exhibit distinctly Hawaiian architectural
features.
This is particularly the case with an extensive
pondfield complex (Site WK-1) located at the
mouth of Waikolu Valley, on the eastern bank of
41
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
the stream. Portions of this pondfield complex (about
15 individual fields) which were covered in low
grass and sedge were mapped with plane table and
alidade at 1:600, reproduced here as Figure 8. The
two fields closest to the beach are very large, about
50 m long and more than 25 m wide. The fields are
rectangular in plan, and are separated by earthen
embankments or bunds, ranging in width from 1
to 3-4 m, and in height from 0.5-2 m. These em-
bankments incorporate some basalt boulders, and
are partially stone-faced in places. Water channels
between fields are also visible.
That part of the pondfield system inland of the
beach is covered in dense lantana, Christmas berry,
and guava, making it impossible to map without
extensive clearing. However, from the plane table
station we managed with some difficulty (having
no bush knives with us) to make our way inland,
crossing over 9 sets of pondfield terraces, these
becoming increasingly narrow as the slope in-
creased (the uppermost terraces were about 5 m
wide). At the interface of the steep slope and the
uppermost terraces, traces of what was probably
the main irrigation canal ('auwai) were observed,
although this has largely been filled in with slope
wash. This 'auwai evidently tapped the main
Waikolu Stream slightly farther up valley.
A major heiau site, named 'Ahina, first recorded
by Stokes (Summers' site 286) was also relocated
on the bluff ove-rlooking the pondfield complex.
Stokes' plan map (reproduced in Summers 1971,
fig. 83) shows this to be a somewhat irregular ter-
raced structure, with a substantial retaining wall "8
ft high on the outside". Today the heiau is heavily
overgrown with guava, sisal, lantana, and other
vegetation, and its features were impossible to trace
in detail without substantial clearing. We did ob-
serve that the main terrace wall is well constructed,
of stacked basalt boulders, at least 8 courses high
(1.5-2 m exterior height). From this heiau one com-
mands a superb view of Waikolu Bay, and of the
Site 1 pondfield complex directly below (see Fig.
8).
Waikolu Sites WK-2 through -6 each consist
of a pondfield terrace complex constructed along
narrow ridges on the eastern side of the valley.
Unlike traditional Hawaiian lo'i systems, which
were typically constructed on alluvial terraces or
on gently sloping colluvial slopes (Kirch 1977),
these sites were literally carved out of steeply de-
scending ridges, and as consequence have terrace
facing heights of 2 to 3 m. Site 6, for example,
consists of at least 14 descending terraces with faces
of up to 3 m high between terraces. Many of these
faces are cut deeply into the hillside, and are only
partially stone faced. From our brief reconnais-
sance, it is not possible to determine the age of
these pondfield systems, but we speculated that
they may date to the later 19th or early 20th cen-
tury period of intensive taro cultivation for supply-
ing the Kalaupapa Settlement. If so, then the un-
usual topographic setting and construction tech-
niques might reflect the influence of Chinese or
other immigrant cultivators.
In contrast to Sites WK-2 to -6 are another set
of pondfield terrace complexes (Sites WK-7, -8, -
10, -11) situated farther inland, and recorded dur-
ing our second reconnaissance foray into the val-
ley. These three complexes are situated on gentler
slopes, and have stone facings of 2-3 courses, av-
eraging 0.6 m high (although site 10 has some
higher facings). Site WK- 11, in particular, located
the furthest inland, impressed the survey team as
appearing more consistent with traditional Hawai-
ian irrigation techniques. The Site WK- 11 complex
is very extensive, with more than 24 terraces and
extending well over 100 m in an east-west direc-
tion.
One site other than an irrigation system was
also recorded in the valley interior. Site WK-9 is a
terraced enclosure, 8.9 by 4.2 m, situated at the
base of a small ridge and near a dry stream bed. A
rough entryway exists on the western side. The
structure likely had a residential function.
WAIKOLU SITE WK1ISTRATIGRAPHY
ANYD DA TIrYG
The Site WK-1 pondfields extend right to the
edge of the boulder beach at the mouth of Waikolu
Valley, and at the interface between beach and al-
luvial terrace high storm surges have cut an em-
bankment about 2 m high (it is possible that this
bank was initially cut by the 1946 tsunami wihich
hit the northern coast of Moloka'i at full force).
Examining this wave-cut bank, it was possible to
discern a stratigraphic sequence underlying the
pondfield complex, thus providing an excellent
42
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Boulder beach
!  ~~~~~
c  0
/cl
Terraced
area
Yts  `
"  X,,'
0     10     20     30     40   50 m
Figure 8 Plan map of Site WK- 1 at the eastern mouth of Waikolu Valley. The site consists of an extensive
irrigated pondfield complex, part of which is covered in dense vegetation and could not be mapped. Note the
location of Stokes' heiau 286 on the ridge overlooking the terraces.
opportunity to gain some information on the his-
tory of this large site without engaging in excava-
tion. On our first reconnaissance, an exposed sec-
tion (Section A on Figure 8) was examined, sug-
gesting the presence of two separate pondfield cul-
tivation horizons, separated by a deposit of unsorted
gravel (0.5-5 cm size range) possibly representing
a flood event.
The possibility that Waikolu Site WK-1 had a
stratified sequence of pondfield activity clearly
deserved additional investigation, and therefore on
our second trip to the valley, one team devoted the
day to cleaning a stratigraphic section (Section B,
Fig. 8) of this wave cut bank (Fig. 9), photograph-
ing and recording the stratigraphy (Fig. 10), which
revealed a classic set of oxidation-reduction zones
associated with taro irrigation (see Kirch 1977). A
stratigraphic diagram of Section B is given in Fig-
ure 11. The stratigraphy was recorded in the field
as follows:
Layer 1. Black (Munsell color 5YR2.5/1), silty
clay, penetrated by grass rootlets, and moist
from recent rains.
Layer II. Thin lens of gravel, grains 0.5-3 cm
diameter and rounded; colors variable. In-
terpreted as a single flooding episode from
,f Section A
: -Section: Bi .
D n e anana
and guava
J -, - - 4$,
Date  -
4   palms
)'A
/ A4V
/

.U,", .1-11
11

0 
111
43
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
the nearby Waikolu Stream.
Layer III. Dark reddish brown (5YR3/2), very
fine sandy loam, with less clay content than
Layer I. Limonite tubes are present but in-
frequent. Small charcoal flecks present but
not obvious. The boundary with Layer IV
is diffuse.
Layer IV. Dark gray (lOYR4/1) very fine sandy
loam, with infrequent (<10%) subrounded
gravel clasts (0.5-1 cm diameter range).
Fairly heavy charcoal flecking and limo-
nite tubing present. Limonite tubes are yel-
lowish red (5YR4/6) thus contrasting with
the matrix. Also present are a few larger
Figure 9 View of the wave-cut bank (Section B) along the seaward edge of Site WK-1, Waikolu Valley, James
Coil at work recording the stratigraphic section. Stokes' heiau site 286 lies on the ridge above the date palm, in
the upper left-hand portion of the photograph.
44
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA To THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 10 The cleaned stratigraphic section (Section B) at Site WK-1, Waikolu Valley; compare to the
stratigraphic section shown in Figure 11.
cobbles ( 15 cm diameter), as indicated on
the section drawing. Boundary between
layers IV and V is sharp.
Layer V. Dark brown (7.5YR3/2) deposit of
coarse volcaniclastic sand and gravel, with
subrounded particles. No visible bedding;
poorly sorted; no clear imbrication. Inter-
preted as a high-energy storm surge deposit,
rather than an alluvial depositional event.
Limonite tubes moderately frequent. Very
light charcoal flecking. Boundary between
layers V and VI is sharp.
Layer VI. Very dark gray to dark reddish brown
(5YR3/4-2) silty clay loam with much in-
cluded charcoal (both small flecks and
larger pieces Il cm3). Some subrounded
gravel inclusions; limonite tubes present.
The boundary between layers VI and VII
45
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
Figure 11 The recorded stratigraphic section
(Section B) of Site WK- 1. See text for description of
individual strutigraphic units.
diffuse over 2-3 cm zone. Interpreted as a
pondfield cultivation horizon.
Layer VII. Dark brown (7.5YR3/2), massive
deposit of silty clay, devoid of larger gravel
clastics. Vague horizontal sorting/bedding
with sandier lenses (not clearly defined)
suggests multiple alluvial depositional epi-
sodes. Some charcoal was noted in the up-
per portion of the deposit, but none in the
lower part. Limonite tubes are present
throughout the deposit (color dark reddish
brown, 5YR3/4) but are more heavily con-
centrated in the uppermost 20-30 cm. This
deposit represents alluvial deposition, pos-
sibly through human agency (intentionally
in-washed fill during pondfield construc-
tion) rather than an over-bank flood of the
Waikolu Stream.
Layer VIII. This basal layer was not clearly
exposed in our cleared section, but ap-
peared to be a silty clay similar to Layer
VII in texture, but with large water-rolled
boulder clasts ( 20-60 cm diameter). This
deposit may represent alluvium deposited
over and incorporating an original boulder
beach.
The stratigraphic sequence can be interpreted
in light of what is known of the geoarchaeology of
Polynesian pondfield soils, where continual water-
logging under irrigation 'creates an eluviation, re-
duction state in the upper A horizon and an illuvia-
tion, oxidation state in the lower B horizon" (Kirch
1977:254). The geochemical process consists of
the downward percolation of water from the irri-
gated pondfield soil, transporting exchangeable fer-
rous and manganous ions (mobilized in the reduc-
tive A horizon) to the underlying B horizon, where
oxidation results in ion precipitation and the de-
velopment of iron-oxide (limonite) tubes around
the roots of taro (Colocasia esculenta) plants. As
first recognized by Yen et al. (1972) and by
Morgenstein and Burnett (1972) for a pre-contact
pondfield system in the upper valley of Makaha,
O'ahu, this creates a characteristic stratigraphy, with
an upper dark reduced horizon underlain by a
mottled, oxidation horizon with limonite tubes.
In Waikolu Section B, the basal Layer VIII may
represent a pre-human phase of alluvial deposition,
followed by a second alluvial event (Layer VII)
which was presumably within the period of
Polynesian occupation given the presence of char-
coal flecking. Indeed, Layer VII may represent an
anthropogenic, purposive deposition of alluvium
in order to form a base for construction of the
pondfield system. Layer VI is the first pondfield
(reduction) horizon, and during the period of its
use for irrigated cultivation extensive limonite tub-
ing developed in underlying Layer VII. This first
phase of pondfield cultivation was terminated by a
high-energy deposit (Layer V) of gravel and other
clastics, interpreted as a storm surge event. The
pondfield system was not abandoned, however, but
rebuilt, probably by anthropogenically-induced
deposition of additional alluvium (Layers IV-III)
upon which pondfield irrigation recommenced.
This resulted in a second phase of reduction-oxi-
dation development, with limonite tubing in Layer
IV and reduction in Layer III. Layer II represents a
small flooding event, and Layer I may then repre-
sent a terminal phase of pondfield cultivation. In
IV)
Ad .9Wit<> f jiS _ 5 >  7J 00
.      . . . .. . .   .
m d~~~~~~w
E,- - - - to   b.- h 1- 1d.,s- - Ib.- tdR m f*
t447<G.>  02 i5Q i<.i i 0  0i   203
Sedimen.,t s-mples    i      20 30 cm
46
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
sum, at least two and possibly three phases of
pondfield use are indicated in Section B.
Wood charcoal fragments were recovered from
several of the stratigraphic layers, and one of these
was submitted for AMS dating. The dated sample
came from the lowest of the pondfield cultivation
horizons (Layer VI), and was tentatively identified
by J. Coil as charcoal of the endemic Hawaiian
loulu palm (Pritchardia sp.). Pritchardia palms
have been identified by Athens (1997) as formerly
comprising a major component of the lowland for-
ests of O'ahu Island, and they may also have been
abundant in Waikolu prior to human occupation.
This sample was AMS dated by Beta Analytic (Lab
No. 153426), with a measured 14C age of 780 ? 40
B.P. (13C/12C ratio of -25.7 0/O), yielding a conven-
tional age of 770 ? 40 B.P. Calibrating this '4C age
yields a "true" age of 1240-1280 A.D. at one stan-
dard deviation, or 1200-1290 A.D. at two standard
deviations (95% probability).
We stress that this sample does not directly date
the earlier period of taro pondfield cultivation at
Site WK-1, as the palm charcoal must have derived
from a burning or land clearance event pre-dating
the construction of the pondfields. Nonetheless, in
this wet valley environment the burned palm wood
almost certainly represents human activity, and at
a minimum indicates a Polynesian presence in
Waikolu by the 13th century A.D. Construction of
the pondfield system may well have commenced
during the same period, but dating of additional
samples will be required to establish the age and
construction/use sequence of this large and impres-
sive pondfield system.
ETHNlOBOTANIICAL OBSERVATIONYS
Much of the vegetation now covering the lower
valley slopes and ridges consists of historically-
introduced species, such as lantana and Christmas
berry near the coast, and guava which forms ex-
tensive stands inland. However, various plants of
traditional Hawaiian significance were also ob-
served. These included some dense stands of
'awapuhi ginger along the eastern valley slopes,
Pandanus stands, and even small quantities of natu-
ralized Colocasia esculenta taro along the banks
of Waikolu Stream. The ki plant (Cordyline
fruticosum) is ubiquitous throughout the valley,
while kukui trees (Aleurites moluccana) form typi-
cal monostands in the narrow ravines, their light
colored foliage contrasting with the darker green
of surrounding 'ohia trees.
SUMMARY
Above all, our brief reconnaissance forays into
this dramatic and impressive valley confirmed that
it was a land once dominated by the irrigated culti-
vation of taro. With the exception of a single prob-
able house enclosure and the 'Ahina heiau near
the coast, all of the constructed features we encoun-
tered were unquestionably the remains of exten-
sive pondfield irrigation systems. The large Site
WK-1 pondfield complex at the mouth of the val-
ley is particularly noteworthy, having a stratified
construction history. Our analysis of the exposed
section and samples we collected from it are con-
tinuing, and will be presented in due course else-
where. However, the first radiocarbon sample that
we have dated yielded a surprisingly old result,
suggesting that the time depth for intensive taro
cultivation in Waikolu could be on the order of sev-
eral hundred centuries at least.
Waikolu Valley adds a remarkable dimension
to the archaeological landscape of KNHP, and could
not be more contrastive with that of the peninsula
proper. The valley and its sites exemplify the ex-
tremes of windward valley adaptation in the Ha-
waiian archipelago. Certainly, Waikolu Valley de-
serves a full-scale archaeological survey and in-
vestigation, but it is daunting to consider the re-
sources that this will require, given the valley's
extent, its rugged and heavily vegetated terrain, the
high rainfall, and general logistical difficulties.
WAI'ALE'IA VALLEY (WL-)
GENIERAL OBSER VA TION1S
Wai'ale'ia is the central of three valleys situ-
ated with the KNHP park boundaries, a classic "am-
phitheater-headed" valley some 2.5 km deep, with
very steep sides rising to heights of 900 m (Fig.
12). Wai'ale'ia Stream flows only intermittently, due
to the limited drainage basin from which it draws
water. During most of our stay in KNHP, Wai'ale'ia
Stream was dry, but it turned into a raging torrent
47
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
following heavy rains on the night of August 20,
2000. This hydrologic regime-dry stream condi-
tions alternating with flash floods-has probably
been a major factor conditioning Hawaiian land
use in Wai'ale'ia Valley, for it would have made
traditional irrigation difficult if not impossible.
Furthermore, during our reconnaissance foray
into the valley, we were impressed by the exten-
sive geomorphological evidence for rampant flood-
ing. The valley's colluvial slopes are dominated
by gravel screes (much of this in the form of un-
sorted, subangular pebble to cobble-sized material)
and rills indicating major surface water flow in times
of heavy rainfall. Indeed, in more than 30 years of
field experience in Hawaiian valleys, Kirch has
never seen a valley with such extensive surface
evidence of flooding and erosion. The implications
of such a hydrologic regime are at least twofold:
first, that Native Hawaiians would have found farm-
ing on the valley's slopes a risky proposition, for
one's crops would be likely to be inundated or
washed away during periods of heavy rainfall; and
second, many archaeological features, such as low
alignments or terrace walls, are likely to have been
destroyed or buried.
Wai'ale'ia Valley has also been significantly
affected by major earth-moving activities dating to
the late 19th and 20th centuries. As early as the
1870s, water supply for the Kalawao settlement was
being obtained from Waimanu Gulch via Wai'ale'ia
through one-inch iron piping (Greene 1985:130),
and this water system was expanded and further
developed over time, including access routes. Other
modifications to the landscape were probably as-
sociated with the construction of the Federal Lep-
rosy Investigation Station (begun in 1905), which
was situated on the plateau overlooking the mouth
of the valley. A 1908 map of the Station (Greene
1985, fig. 52) shows a "road to Waialeia Valley"
running from the Station inland on the plateau. We
found this bulldozed roadbed, now heavily over-
grown with rose apple and other plants, and traced
it well back into the valley, where it appeared to
have crossed the stream and continues for some
distance on the east side (in one area on the east
side, this road is supported by a high facing of
massive boulders, a fairly impressive construction).
Other earth-moving activities have taken place
across the Wai'ale'ia Stream mouth in connection
with building and maintaining the water supply line
from Waikolu Valley. All of these activities are likely
to have destroyed archaeological sites.
SITE5 RECORDED
During our one-day reconnaissance, which fo-
cused primarily on the eastern side of the valley
and reached the 200-m elevation about 1.2 km in-
land of the bay, we located and recorded nine ar-
chaeological sites (see the Appendix for a listing
of sites). Site WL-1, near the valley mouth, is a
small overhang shelter under a large boulder, with
an enclosing wall; the structure seems too small
for a habitation, but might have been used as an
animal pen. Upslope of WL-1 we also observed
some minor stone stacking (modified outcrops) and
possible dryland agricultural features, but this land-
scape was truncated about 100 m above WL-1 by
the historic-period bulldozed roadbed.
Sites WL-2 to -4 make up a small complex on
the western side of the valley. Site WL-2 consists
of two adjacent, rectangular stone-walled enclo-
sures, probably an historic period house site and
adjacent house yard (pa hale). The larger enclo-
sure surrounds a hala tree. Possible dryland agri-
cultural features are again found in the vicinity. Site
WL-3 is a U-shaped stone shelter about 20 m from
Site WL-2, and may be associated with the former
as a cookhouse or similar ancillary structure. About
10 m from Site WL-3, Site WL-4 is a rough terrace
of boulders with clinker fill, possibly a burial.
Sites WL-5, -6, and -7 are probable house ter-
races situated on the eastern side of the valley, all
associated with stands of hala trees. Site WL-7 con-
sists of two stone-faced terraces and a flat area
(probably artificially leveled) on a ridge which
would have had a good view out over the valley
when the terrain was more open. On this site we
found a mold-made bottle of amber glass, a small
volcanic glass core, and a basalt flake.
Site WL-8 is a substantial stone terrace built at
the base of a small slope, and with a wall extend-
ing to the south and upslope. On the slope above
the terrace, over an area of about 100 by 150 meters,
a mono stand of coffee trees (Cafe arabica) still
struggles to survive. The terrace may have been a
house foundation used by the farmer who culti-
vated this small coffee plantation.
48
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA    TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 12 View of Wai'ale'ia Valley from the taluvial slopes of Kalawao. This photo was taken on the morning
after a major rainstorm, during which the valley's waterfalls were at full force and the stream was in flash-flood.
The farthest inland site encountered was Site  on which an old, rusted iron cooking pot was sit-
WL-9, a large long free-standing wall some 3-9  ting; time precluded us from formally recording
courses high which parallels and then crosses the  this final site.
stream bed, at an elevation of about 690 ft asl. Next
to this wall we found part of a hand-blown glass  ETHNOBOTAPIICAL OBSERVATIOIYS
bottle (thick, light blue glass) with an embossed
"L" on it. In the course of retuming to the valley  Early historic photographs suggest that in the
mouth late in the aftemoon, we also passed by an-  late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of
other stone platform on the west side of the valley,  Wai'ale'ia Valley was fairly open, in grass or fem
49
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
lands. Today the valley floor and colluvial slopes
are largely covered in closed canopy secondary
forest, dominated by historically-introduced taxa,
although some of the ridges are still in
Dicranopteris fern with stands of Pandanus here
and there. The trees which dominate the valley to-
day include Java plum, Christmas berry, and rose
apple, the latter forming particularly dense stands
in interior portions of the valley. Mango trees are
distributed in parts of the valley. We also observed
significant numbers of sisal, introduced to the is-
lands for its use in rope making. To a large degree,
then, the exotic vegetation which today dominates
Wai'ale'ia Valley mirrors the major landscape trans-
formations associated with the period of the lep-
rosy settlement at Kalawao, and continuing on into
the 20th century.
Nonetheless, we did note two interesting asso-
ciations between plants and archaeological sites in
the valley. The first was a strong association be-
tween stands of Pandanus tectorius (hala) and habi-
tation sites, as at Sites WL-2, -5, -6, and -7. Our
impression was that these hala trees had probably
been planted by the former occupants of these sites,
and had survived to the present, rather than being
adventives.1 The second association was at Site WL-
8, where a mono stand of coffee trees still survived
in association with a stone terrace and wall. This
was doubtless an historic period Hawaiian coffee
plantation.
SUMMARY
Our overall impression, based admittedly on
just a single day of reconnaissance up and back
down this valley, was that there has been a great
deal of historic-period disturbance (road bulldoz-
ing especially), coupled with the evidence of mas-
sive slope wash and erosion, which combine to limit
the extent of archaeological remains. Large ex-
panses over which we struggled through oppres-
sively dense and dank stands of rose apple showed
no signs of stone constructions, while other areas
were active gravel screes clearly recently awash in
floods. We were surprised by the lack of evidence
for permanent irrigation on the alluvial flats, al-
though this may well be a function of the valley's
highly unstable (fluctuating) hydrological regime.
Nonetheless, we did find the habitation complexes
on both the west and east sides of the valley, and
there are doubtless other sites to be discovered.
KALAWAO TALUS-COLLUVIAL SLOPES
GENERAL OBSERVA TIONYS
Lying between the peninsula proper (formed
of volcanic flow slopes emanating from Kauhako
Crater) and the abrupt 600-m high cliffs to the south
is an extensive zone of talus and colluvial slopes,
approximately 300-500 m wide; this extends from
the plateau at the mouth of Wai'ale'ia Valley west-
wards to the area inland of Puwahi. As noted ear-
lier, soils in this zone consists of Kawaihapai/
Haleiwa type clay loams which have been noted to
be excellent for dryland as well as irrigated culti-
vation (Kirch 1977). Indeed, the potential impor-
tance of this zone in the overall Kalaupapa regional
settlement pattern is hinted at by the presence of at
least five ritual structures or heiau within the zone
(Summers' [1971] sites 288, 289, 292, and 302
plus a putative heiau recorded by Somers [1985]).
Some of these heiau may well have been agricul-
tural temples (heiau ho'o'ulu'ai) dedicated to im-
portant deities such as Lono or Kane. Their posi-
tion high on the talus slopes and overlooking the
peninsula is noteworthy, and is reminiscent of the
pattern of agricultural temples in Halawa Valley,
also found on the higher slopes within the dryland
agricultural zone (Kirch 1990).
SAMPLINYG AREA A (KA-)
Although time did not permit us to sample this
zone as extensively as we would have liked, espe-
cially in Makanalua and Kalaupapa ahupua'a, 2
we were able to spend two days in intensive recon-
naissance of the talus and colluvial slopes within
Kalawao ahupua'a, specifically in two sample ar-
eas. The first area selected is a 250 x 250 m area
(Sampling Area A) surrounding Summers' Site 289,
a substantial terraced heiau first recorded by pio-
neer archeologist J. F. G. Stokes in 1909. We re-
connoitered this 6.25 hectare block on the steep
colluvial slope south and east of the heiau, to de-
termine if other archaeological features were asso-
ciated with this large ritual structure.
The large heiau, Site 289, was reputedly named
50
FRom THE 'CLIFFS OF KEO)LEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
Kawaha'alihi according to Stokes, who described
it as "a terrace of waterworn stones, with a broad
slope to its retaining walls" (in Summers 1971:192).
Summers also cites a Hawaiian author of 1877,
Puna, as reporting that "the sacred heiau of Kapo
[sister of the volcano goddess Pele] stands here [at
Polapola] to this day. No woman is allowed to
climb onto it, only men" (1971:192). This is most
likely the same structure as Site 289. We remapped
Site 289 with plane table and alidade, as shown in
Figur'e 13. and described it in detail (see records
filed in KNHP archives). As can be seen in Figure
14. the heiau structure is quite impressive when
viewed from below, with the terrace surface stand-
ing some 6-7 m higher than the colluvial slope.
Not all of this is formally faced, as the builders
cleverly made use of the natural slope and talus
accumulation, but the upper 3 m or so has been
very well constructed, with closely fitted basalt
boulders. Certainly, when in the past this area was
devoid of large trees, the heiau would have com-
manded a superb view out over Kalawao, and in
turn would have been visible from much of the
eastern side of the peninsula.
The main terrace has been somewhat disturbed,
in part probably by ungulates and also by the ac-
tions of Java plum tree roots, but several internal
divisions are still evident. One upright stone, and
one piece of branch coral (presumably a ritual of-
fering) were noted in the central portion of the ter-
race along with some low facing alignments. On
the eastern end of the terrace stands a substantial
free-standing wall (Fig. 15), also noted by Stokes;
just west of the wall is what appears to have been
an enclosed space, possibly the location for an
aunu 'u or oracle tower. The northeastern corner of
the main terrace has also been purposively extended
and buttressed to the northeast, and the eastern face
has a secondary terrace supporting it. The massive
construction and elaboration of the eastern end of
the heiau, as opposed to the western end which is
low and amorphous, leaves little doubt that the
Figure 13 Plan map of Site 289, a heiau first recorded by J. F. G. Stokes in 1909.
1
o     5     10  IS m
--Inferred face
Steepslp
x                                                        X
BranchA         .~..
~~ \j  ~~~j.    A  7/A" ~coal  "  A -  A  A A A A A.
51
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
Figure 14 View of the main front facing of Site 289. Note how the well-constructed upper facing has been
positioned atop a steep natural talus of basalt boulders, to further elevate the plafform above the ground
level.
heiau was oriented to the east (its main axis is
roughly true cardinal east). This corresponds with
a pattern of east-oriented heiau in the Kahikinui
district of Maui (Kirch, in press), tentatively inter-
preted as indicating an association with the major
creator-deity Kane.
A steep mass of large talus boulders lies di-
rectly upslope of the heiau terrace, but a few meters
higher than the boulder concentration is another,
smaller structure not noted by Stokes, but which
we thought was quite likely an adjunct to the heiau
itself. Recorded as Site KA-5, and shown in plan
view in Figure 16, this consists of a set of three
stone-faced, earth-filled terraces surrounded by a
low enclosing wall of boulders, the whole struc-
ture covering an area of about 21 by 10 m. As this
52
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 15 The well-constructed eastern wall on top of the Site 289 plafform.
structure is both close to the heiau, and overlooks
it, we judged it unlikely to have had a strictly secu-
lar function, although it might possibly be the resi-
dence of a priest (kahuna) or guardian (kahu) of
the temple immediately below.
Downslope of Site 289, between the heiau and
the road to Kalawao, in a zone where the colluvial
slopes are relatively gentle, are a number of stone-
faced terraces and free-standing stone walls form-
ing a large, quadrangular enclosure (this is in the
area locally known as "Lang-lang"). We recorded
and mapped one wall complex (Site KA-1) in this
zone, shown in Figure 17, because this was associ-
ated with one of the few petroglyphs known within
the KNHP. The petroglyph itself (Figure 18), a single
anthropomorphic figure about 25 cm high and 17
cm wide, had been pecked into the face of a large
rectangular basalt boulder. This boulder is part of
what appears to be an older wall which had been
robbed of much of its upper courses when the
53
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
higher free-standing walls crossing it were con-
structed. It appeared to us that there was thus a
potentially complex sequence of wall construction
in this area, likely spanning the pre-contact to his-
toric periods, with the latest phase dating to the
period of the leprosy settlement at Kalawao. The
petroglyph itself, however, most probably dates to
the pre-contact period. Excavations in this com-
plex would be highly desirable to sort out the con-
struction sequence and to attempt to place the
petroglyph in a datable context.
Also notable within the general area of Kalawao
Sampling Area A, on the lower colluvial slopes,
are a number of extensive stone retaining walls and
terraces, as shown for example in Figure 19. These
terraces are likely to have been used in extensive
dryland cultivation, possibly of dryland taro, ba-
nana, and other crops.
Our Sampling Area A extended east and south-
east from Site 289, on the inclined colluvial slopes
Figure 16 Plan and cross-section of Site KA-5, a set of three stone-faced terraces up-slope from Site
289, and probably related to the heiau.
x
-x
I
Ix
0     2    4    6m
or!
54
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPAL
wall continues
I I
Terminalia -   a---v,
/tree
<3
wall continues
O Terminalia Tree
0    5    10   15 m
I    I     I    I
Figure 17 Plan map of Site KA- 1 a wall and terrace complex incorporating a petroglyphn
Remnant wall
foundation
'Aw
5
55
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
Figure 18 Scale drawing of the anthropomorphic petroglyph at Site KA-1. See Figure 17 for
the location of the petroglyph boulder.
which give way to boulder talus accumulations as
one climbs higher toward the cliffs. This slope was
shaded by large trees, mostly introduced Java plum
(Syzgium jambos) but also with some kukui
(Aleurites moluccana), false kamani (Terminalia
catappa), and kainani (Calophyllum inophyllum)
trees, the latter concentrated in the vicinity of the
heiau. The ground under this canopy was relatively
open (with the ethnobotanically significant excep-
tion of occasional large noni [Morinda citrifolia]
and ki [Cordyline fruticosum] plants), and showed
signs of active downslope transport of soil and
gravel; gravel screes and erosional channels were
noted throughout the area reconnoitered. There is
a good possibility that this active geomorphic land-
scape may have disturbed, obliterated, or buried
older archaeological features. Features recorded on
this slope include a rectangular enclosure about 9
by 7.5 m in size, with stacked walls, the eastern
side having collapsed (Figure 20). This was prob-
ably a habitation site, quite possibly of historic age.
Sites KA-3 and -4, near each other, consist of ter-
races which may have had either residential or ag-
ricultural functions.
SAMPLING AREA B (KBl-)
A second reconnaissance was carried out on
the gently-sloping colluvial slopes which form a
"bench" on the west side of Wai'ale'ia Valley, an-
other part of the zone which appeared highly suit-
able to dryland cultivation. We began our recon-
naissance at Summers' Site 288, a fishing shrine or
ko'a described by J. F. G. Stokes as "the most strik-
ing ko'a of any that I have come across" (in Sum-
mers 1971:189). We then reconnoitered the area
inland (south and southwest) from Site 288, dis-
covering 12 more sites in a zone extending about
300 m southwest from the ko'a. This area is cov-
ered today in densely-concentrated strawberry
guava trees (Psidium guajava), which made
progress over the terrain difficult, and reduced vis-
ibility. We were left with no doubt that there are
more sites on this extensive talus slope, and that
the entire area would warrant an intensive-level ar-
chaeological survey.
The kooa (Site 288), which Stokes so admired,
had been cleared of vegetation (mostly Christmas
berry in this area) a few years previously by Buddy
0    5    10   15   20 cm
I    I     I    I    I
56
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 19 View of stacked basalt retaining walls for probable agricultural terraces in the Kalawao Sampling
Zone A area.
Neller and we took advantage of this to remap it
with plane table and alidade at 1:100 (Figure 21)
and to photograph it (Figure 22). Comparing our
photo with those taken by Stokes in 1909 and pub-
lished by Summers (1971, fig. 84 a, b), it is evi-
dent that the structure has retained its integrity, al-
though the contrast in surrounding vegetation is
striking. As Stokes aptly put it, "the principal motif
for the selection of this site" was a main boulder
some 5 m long and 2 m high, to the west of which
was constructed a small, nearly square enclosure
with a stacked boulder wall. A kind of rough pave-
ment made up of large, subrounded stones with
smaller cobbles and gravel chinked in the inter-
stices adjoins the boulder on the inland (south) side.
We observed a number of fist-sized waterworn river
stones, one atop the large boulder, and the others
scattered over the slope immediately north
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
(downslope) of the boulder. These waterwom stones
were probably offerings.' When the area surround-
ing the site was clear of vegetation (as in Stokes'
1909 photographs), a commanding view of
Wai'ale'ia Bay would have been enjoyed by those
officiating or worshiping at this shrine. The loca-
tion would also have afforded an excellent van-
tage point to observe weather and sea conditions,
to spot schools of large fish or flocks of feeding
seabirds, or to watch for the movement of people
and canoes along the coast between Kalaupapa and
the windward valleys.
Stokes did not mention that only a few meters
southwest of the ko'a lies a rectangular enclosure
(Site KB-6) measuring about 5 by 8 m (Fig. 23).
The enclosure has a formal entryway on the south,
and may have an interior slab hearth. A core-filled
wall extends south from the enclosure, becoming
a terrace towards its end. This feature may possi-
bly predate the enclosure which appears to be built
Figure 20 Plan and section of Site KA-2, a possible habitation feature,
I x
Basalt Boulder
0    1    2    3m
x x
x -

Ilqlol-
'11-1 6D
07
e
4 
0

Tz

x
x'
58
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
rA1d
X
_X
0S     Rough
pavement
0                   5                  lomi
Contour interval 1 m               Waterworn Cobble
_                             fs                    _~~~~~7m
x-
Figure 21 Plan map and cross-section of Site 288, a ko'a or fishing shrine first recorded by J. F. G. Stokes in
1909.
over it; we surmised that the enclosure is likely to
be of historic age, but that the wall and terrace could
be substantially older, and possibly associated with
the ko'a. Excavation would, of course, help to
evaluate these hypotheses.
Other sites recorded on the gentle colluvial
slope inland of the ko'a included a small stone-
faced terrace (Site KB-7), a stone mound which
quite likely incorporates a burial (Site KB-8), a
simple stone alignment (Site KB-8b), a double en-
closed terrace complex (Site KB-9a) probably of
residential function (Fig. 24), a cluster of irregular
stone walled "clearings" probably of agricultural
function (Site KB-9b), parallel single-course stone
alignments (Site KB-10), a stone-faced terrace ad-
joining a boulder wall (Site KB-11), and a circular
Q-7
c
"..- I -
Q
0
59
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
terrace with stacked stone walls (Site KB-12). To-
ward the inland-most extent of the area reconnoi-
tered, we also came across several long parallel
stone rows, each about 30 cm high and 1 m across,
with some evidence of formal facing or edging in
places. Low stone mounds of pebbles and cobbles
are distributed between the stone rows. These fea-
tures, which we believe are more extensive than
just the small area we observed, gave the impres-
sion of a formal horticultural field system.
ETHNPOBOTANIYCAL OBSERVA TIOFS5
Sample Area B was largely dominated by his-
torically introduced vegetation, such as Christmas
berry, Java plum, and strawberry guava. However,
Figure 22 View of Site 288 from the southwest, showing the larger boulder and low stone enclosure on its
western side. Mokapu and 'Okala Islands are visible in Waikolu Bay.
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
gm~~
0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2
aD
3.:E Dm0                           4E
ol               7~~~~~~~0
a)
0
0
0
0
0
Ag~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~c
0
0
Uh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~a
LM       ~~~0)
C)
C0       0
m                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O
CD,.,,. v0
>'l0-S3 s0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~a
W: m                         U~~~~~~~~~~~~~
W                       o~~
60
61
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
I''
2'
N'
x 1
0    1   2   3 m
x
x
Figure 24 Plan and section of Site KB-9a, a possible residential site.
we did observe some Pandanus stands especially
in close association with stone structures (as is also
the case in Wai'ale'ia Valley). Sample Area A, while
also dominated by a forest canopy of Java plum,
exhibited several species of ethnobotanical inter-
est. This included the noni and ki plants on the ta-
lus slopes, both of these probably being natural-
ized survivals of former cultivation on the slopes.
Trees noted in this zone include kukui and the stand
of large kamani near Site 289. Kamani or
Calophyllum trees are relatively rare in the islands,
and produce a prized carving wood; they were also
known to have been associated with temples (Neal
1965 :584).
THE KAUPIKIAWA TKANSECT (KT-)
GENSERAL OBSER VA TIONS
One of the most remarkable features of the ar-
chaeological landscape of the Kalaupapa Penin-
sula is an extensive system of low, parallel stacked-
62
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
stone alignments which cover large parts of the
gentle slopes descending from Kauhako Crater.
These alignments, which are highly visible from
the air, as when approaching the Kalaupapa land-
ing strip, have been interpreted as the remains of
an extensive dryland field system, and some schol-
ars have associated them with a phase of intensive
sweet potato cultivation during the mid-19th cen-
tury (see Ladefoged 1990 for a literature review).
During this period, the Hawaiian Islands shipped
large quantities of both sweet potatoes and Irish
potatoes to San Francisco, in response to the needs
of the "49ers" and other immigrants into Califor-
nia (Morgan 1948:155-56).
In order to sample a portion of this intriguing
aspect of Kalaupapa's archaeological record, we de-
cided to survey closely a sample transect across the
eastern part of the peninsula, running from the coast
slightly south of Kaupikiawa Point, and continu-
ing westwards to the boundary wall between
Kalawao and Makanalua ahupua'a. Our transect
had a width of roughly 150 m, and a total length of
about 700 m (total survey area approximately 10.5
hectares). Because of the density of field system walls
within the transect, we decided to employ plane table
and alidade mapping of the field alignments and
site locations, combined with our normal method
of compass-and-tape mapping and recording of
stacked-stone architectural features other than field
boundaries. The plane table mapping was carried
out at a scale of 1:500, while the individual features
were typically recorded at 1:100 or 1:50 scale. The
overall transect map is shown in Figure 25.
The area covered by our transect runs from the
coast inland up gently-sloping, undulating terrain,
consisting of the lava flow slopes emanating from
Kauhako Crater. The transect thus spans an altitu-
dinal range from sea level to about 50 m asl. The
substrate consists of pahoehoe lava thinly overlain
with a reddish-yellow soil; the transect lies within
the Kalaupapa Series of soils defined by Foote et
al. (1972). Vegetation cover varies from the coast,
which is largely barren with only scattered bunch
grass and low herbs, with lantana becoming more
prevalent in the midsection of the transect, and with
relatively low but dense Christmas berry, Java plum
(here growing as a stunted shrub-like form), and
lantana in the upper reaches of the transect. In sig-
nificant parts of the transect the vegetation was
sufficiently dense to obscure the low field system
walls, and these areas could not be properly
mapped.
SITES RECORDED
A total of 38 architectural features were dis-
covered and recorded within the transect, along
with approximately 80 parallel stacked-stone field
alignments. The latter are of particular interest, as
they comprise part of the vast network of field walls
that covers much of the Kalaupapa Peninsula. The
walls run primarily in a north-south direction, which
is thus perpendicular to the dominant trade winds
that relentlessly sweep across the peninsula (Fig.
26); one surmises that a windbreak function was
thus a primary (though probably not exclusive)
function of the walls. The alignments are roughly
stacked (not core-filled), usually about 30-60 cm
wide and with an equivalent height. Some are more
substantial than others, but all appear to have been
constructed by simple heaping up of the abundant
loose pahoehoe and a'a rocks, without much at-
tention to careful placement or positioning of stones.
In this regard, they contrast strikingly with the more
substantial walled features scattered throughout the
area, which have generally higher and better con-
structed, core-filled, and faced constructions.
The lengths and spacing between walls varies
considerably over the area we mapped intensively.
A few run for more than 100 m, while others are
considerably shorter. Some sets of walls appear to
have been constructed at the same time, and abut
to a short segment of wall running east-west. One
example of this can be seen with a group of four
long north-south walls that all abut a short east-
west wall segment just inland (west) of Site 17.
Spacing between walls ranges from as great as 15
m to as narrow as 2 m.
One can envision at least four functions for these
walls, and these need not have been mutually exclu-
sive: (1) windbreaks; (2) soil retention; (3) stone clear-
ance; and (4) plot boundaries. The windbreak func-
tion seems particularly clear, especially after one has
spent a day exposed to the continual blast of-the
trade winds, and also observes how well the lan-
tana bushes grow in the immediate lee of the walls.
Likewise, soil retention seems to be enhanced on
the immediate lee side of the walls. Given the highly
63
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
29
*      27
Rockshelter
Dense."
,vegetation2
26
28 v
32
34        35
33
Dense lantana and.
Christmas berry .-
0    10    20   30   40   50m
X1'V                                                                       B
Figure 25 Map of the Kaupikiawa Transect, showing the stone field alignments and other
architectural features. Based on plane table and alidade survey at 1:500 scale.        C
37
Snh-
Sinkhole
38
Wall continues
Midden
scatter
30
4f -1
A- -1
/V -1
4 4/
-1
I I
11
. . . \
,
11111-/,
l

/ " z
I--,"/
I'll,
I
I
64
FRom THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
?15
.1.  Al~~~~~~~~~~~~~
44                9     10   2     30a40ana
Christmas berry ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
65
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
d/
Rock
mound
6
_J e e p r o a d
2
.%W
A
0     10    20    30    40    50 m
I     I     *  . - - I - - .  - I
X 10
I .
- +tX
B
.........
,
Xi''9.."
1
lgmmhl

3 1 - -
1%   0 --
46aw %4
66
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 26 View along one of the low stone field alignments in the Kaupikiawa Transect. Several other field
alignments are visible in the near distance. The valley in the center rear of the photo is Waihanau Valley,
stony nature of the peninsula, simply clearing away
a significant quantity of surface rock in order to
exposure more soil area for planting, would have
been another likely function of the walls. Finally, it
is likely that the walls served as individual garden
plot boundaries. The Mahele records give dimen-
sions for kula plots that are unusually long and
narrow (see above), and would seem to correspond
closely to the long north-south and narrow east-
west orientation of the field walls. Of course, an
individual kula plot probably included several par-
allel sets of fields, and may indeed correspond with
walls sets which terminate or abut to a common
east-west wall segment.
Distributed among the field system, either iso-
lated or as discrete cluster groups, are a number of
other architectural features, most of which appeared
to have a residential function. One group of struc-
67
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLtNG AREAS
tures is situated at the eastern end of the transect,
just above the rocky shoreline, and about 30 m
seaward of the first field system wall (Sites KT-1-
6). This cluster (Fig. 27) appeared to represent a
classic kauhale or household group comprised of
multiple structures, possibly with two or more
nuclear family groups. At the northern end of this
cluster, Site KT-I (Fig. 28) is likely a household or
fishing shrine (ko'a), based both on architectural
form (rectangular enclosure with attached exterior
pavement) and on the presence of branch coral.
Nearby Site KT-2 is a simple L-shaped shelter with
upright slabs facing a core-filled wall; a light midden
scatter extends in the lee of the wall. Sites KT-3, -4,
and -5 are larger and more complex architecturally,
and were probably all residential sites. At these struc-
Figure 27 View of the Sites KT-1 to -6 cluster in the seoward portion of the Kaupikiawa Tronsect. The plastic
fishing float lies on Site KT-1. In the distance, Waioale'ia Valley is visible on the left, and Waihanau Valley on
the right.
Small
, chamber
- Coral
68
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
x                                                                    x
x
x -
0  1  2  3 m
I   CoreI I I I
Figure 28. Plan and section of Site KT-1, a
tures we noted both basalt flakes and early post-con-
tact period artifacts (metal and glass fragments, and
a chert core), suggesting that the cluster may span
both late pre-contact and early historic times.
Between about 230-260 m inland of the jeep
road, another set of structures was encountered,
not tightly clustered but nonetheless also likely to
have comprised some kind of residential group-
ing. This includes a large L-shaped windbreak (Site
KT-18) with an enclosed space to the lee, situated
on a knoll; five pieces of branch coral were noted
at this site. Site KT-19 (Fig. 29) consists of a simple
L-shaped shelter with a free-standing stone mound
nearby. Site KT-20 (Fig. 30) is a typical C-shaped
shelter. Site KT-22 consists of a formal, U-shaped
enclosure with attached wall. Other sites making
up this loose cluster include C-shaped structures
and a stone mound. All of these features seemed to
us to be typical of pre-contact Hawaiian residential
architecture, based on our experience of excavat-
ing and dating such features at Kawela, Kahikinui,
probable fishing shrine (ko'a).
and other locales. Their integration into the field
system therefore suggests some pre-contact history
for this landscape.
The westernmost 100 m of the transect, which
lies just to the east of the long boundary wall di-
viding Kalawao and Makanalua ahupua'a, con-
tained a substantial number of stone structures,
perhaps representing two discrete residential clus-
ters or kauhale. The lower cluster has a rectangu-
lar enclosure (Site KT-26), and an L-shaped wind-
break shelter (Site KT-28), associated with three
smaller structures (Sites KT-33, -34, -35). A num-
ber of basalt flakes, branch coral pieces, and con-
siderable shell midden were noted on the surfaces
of these features (see Fig. 32), while no historic-
period artifacts were observed. A second, slightly
higher elevation cluster includes a substantial elon-
gated U-shaped shelter (Site KT-27) with a cupboard
built into one wall and a papamu stone with pecked
depressions for playing the traditional game of konane
(Fig. 31).
xI
- XI
69
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREA
Figure 29 Plan of Site KT-19, an L-shaped shelter
Figure 30 Plan and section of Site KT-20, a C-shaped shelter.
0    0.5    1    1.5    2 m
.TN                        I
MN
Stone mound
- Outcrop
70
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA    TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
4            0    La
Branch
coral
Branch
coral *
Deer bones
Ki
Q Q
)board
Upright
slab
Wall
continues
Natural basin
in flat rock
Wall
continues
TN
M FN
- X
inane
ioard
0             1           2           3m
I            I            I           I
Figure 3 1 Plan of Site KT-27, a stacked stone shelter incorporating a cupboard feature, and also with a
konone aamina stone (poaomu).
Just a few meters east of the boundary wall, we  shelter as I
also discovered a stone-faced lava tube sinkhole  want to dis
(Site KT-37), and a rockshelter (Site KT-38), both
of which are probably part of the same partially  SUMMARY
collapsed lava tube complex. The rockshelter ap-
peared to have considerable deposit in the floor  What r
with surface midden visible; we did not enter the  the Kaupik
the deposit looked soft and we did not
turb its integrity.
nost impressed us during our survey of
kiawa Transect, aside from the remark-
x
.
r'..r
71
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
Figure 32 Plan of Site KT-34, a possible residential or activity area with basalt flakes and branch coral,
able density of field system alignments (sometimes
only 2 m apart), was the close integration of archi-
tectural features apparently reflecting habitation
within the dryland agricultural zone. While the east-
ernmost cluster of features near the jeep road had a
few early historic period artifacts, the more inland
clusters lacked any historic artifacts. Indeed, these
sites displayed architectural forms (C-, L-, and U-
shaped shelters) which work elsewhere on
Moloka'i and Maui has generally shown to be pre-
contact in age. The presence of basalt flakes, branch
coral, and shell midden associated with these struc-
tures would also argue for pre-contact occupation.
Given the integration of such residential clusters
within the field system, we are skeptical that the
system represents simply a mid-19th century de-
velopment, in response to external trade opportu-
nities such as the San Francisco Gold Rush, as some
have proposed. While there is no doubt that the
Kalaupapa field system went through a short phase
of agricultural intensification in response to these
commercial opportunities, this may simply have
been a period of re-intensification of a pre-existing
system. Thus, we hypothesize that the Kalaupapa
field system was an indigenous development of the
pre-contact period, as with similar intensive agri-
cultural developments now well documented
throughout other parts of the Hawaiian archipelago
(e.g., the Kohala and Kona field systems on the
Island of Hawai'i; Kirch 1994). Testing this hy-
pothesis will, however, require more detailed field
studies, including excavation and direct dating.
KAUPIKIAWA FOINT (KC-)
While undertaking the re-excavation and sam-
pling of Kaupikiawa Rockshelter (or "Pearson's
Cave"), we decided to simultaneously record sur-
face structures within a radius of about 150 m of
the lava tube, in part because space limitations
within the site restricted the size of the crew that
could reasonably work together in the cramped
quarters. Aside from this practical consideration,
we wished to determine what kinds of structures
might be found within the vicinity of the lava tube,
and to record a sample of the archaeological record
Level area
Basalt
X-7                                                    flake
A              Basalt
flakes
0      0.5     1     1.5     2 m                                                             Branch
I       I      I      lI     |                                                              coral
72
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
on this northerly fringe of the peninsula. This is
the driest and most exposed of our sample areas,
with a substrate consisting largely of barely weath-
ered pahoehoe lava, with only pockets of aeolian-
derived soil here and there. This survey area falls
within the Rockland soil zone of Foote et al. (1972).
Vegetation is limited to stunted grasses and low
herbs, with a few Christmas berry shrubs or lan-
tana surviving in the lee of structures or natural
ridges.
Sixteen sites were recorded over a period of
four days. There is considerable variety in the stone
structures represented, with both habitation and
agricultural features being present. Some sites, such
as the well-constructed rectangular enclosure with
formal doorway that sits atop "Pearson's Cave" (Site
KC-1), are clearly historic period in age. This par-
ticular site had a small surface scatter of glass and
ceramic shards (as well as shellfish midden) in front
of the doorway. Other, less formal enclosures may
be pre-contact in age; excavation will be neces-
sary to test this. An example of such a possible
pre-contact habitation structure is Site KC-6 (Fig-
ure 33), a subrectangular enclosure measuring 7.9
by 5.8 m, with stacked walls about 70 cm high,
and lacking a formal entryway. This structure has
a "cupboard" built into one wall, a feature also
encountered in late prehistoric residential sites in
Kawela, Moloka'i (Weisler and Kirch 1985). The
presence of a hammerstone and absence of appar-
ent foreign artifacts also suggests a pre-contact age.
Yet another possible residential feature is Site KC-
9, a roughly L-shaped shelter with a possible slab-
lined hearth; a basalt flake was observed on the
surface (Fig. 34).
Despite the aridity and exposure of this part of
the peninsula, it is evident that attempts were made
to cultivate some crops, most likely sweet potato
but perhaps also gourds or introduced melons (af-
ter contact) in the area. Site KC-5 appears to repre-
sent a small gardening complex, almost a "mini
field system" (Figure 35); here seven parallel stone
rows were situated in a low soil-filled depression
bounded by pahoehoe flats on one side and a free-
standing on the other side. Another apparent gar-
dening site is Site KC-8, another soil-filled depres-
sion surrounded by outcrops and enclosed by a
free-standing wall with an average height of 85 cm.
Inside the walled enclosure are four stone rows or
alignments; pieces of coral and waterworn stones
were also observed inside the enclosure. Yet an-
other feature that may have been used for garden-
ing is Site KC-13, with a stacked stone wall sur-
rounding a natural depression (Figure 36).
Burial features are also possible in this area.
We observed one feature (Site 14) which is a
roughly constructed stone mound about 3 by 3.5
m, which may well contain an interment.
NIHOA LANDSHELF (NI-)
GENERAL OBSERVA TIOINS
The Nihoa landshelf occupies the westernmost
extension of KNHP, some 2.5 km west of the pen-
insula itself. The landshelf, as with similar geomor-
phological features along the northern coastline of
Moloka'i, was formed as a result of massive fault-
ing along the high cliffs, leaving a "shelf' or block
of land roughly 800 m long and 300 m wide,
perched some 20-30 m above the sea. Nihoa can
be reached during the summer months by hiking
along the narrow (and treacherous) boulder beach
that stretches from Puwahi to Kaluanui (Fig. 37),
and then scaling the 25 m cliff up to the landshelf
proper.4 Discussions with local Kalaupapa residents
suggested that Nihoa is visited only infrequently;
indeed, some old-timers told us that they had never
visited it.
Once one has scaled the escarpment, the sur-
face of the landshelf reveals itself as relatively level
and habitable, sloping up gently to the east and
south (towards the cliff). In the central part of the
landshelf is an extensive concentration of large,
angular boulders, some of which range up to 2-5
m in diameter. This pile of debris, evidently the
residue of a significant landslide, extends some
distance, and makes walking from the eastern to
the western sides of the landshelf difficult, as one
must climb over this boulder field in the process.
This is made all the more difficult by dense Panda-
nus and Thespesia groves which partly cover and
obscure the boulders. One major site complex (Site
NI-6) is located on the southern side of this b6ul-
der concentration.
The soil on top of the landshelf appears to con-
sist of a mixture of unsorted angular gravel and
debris flow from the cliffs, mixed with finer clay
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
Waterworn       _   I
cobbles  <         ''I
X -
UI
0   .75  1.5  2.25  3m
x m
w    a-
::
Figure 33 Plan and section of Site KC-6, a possible post-contact residential feature.
deposits that have been washed down from the
higher elevations during rainstorms. There is con-
siderable archaeological and ethnobotanical evi-
dence that much of the landshelf surface was culti-
vated in the past. Water sources appear to be more
limited. There is an intermittent stream channel on
the eastern side of the landshelf, which was dry
when we visited, but which may run during winter
months. (Site NI-1 is adjacent to this stream chan-
nel.) Other springs or water sources may exist along
the base of the inland cliff.
SITE5 RECORDED
Our team made two one-day reconnaissance
visits to Nihoa, recording a total of 10 sites. These
- Cupboard
X
TN
/ MN
/~l
74
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA T     THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
X Wall
X    continues
61 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~  A
I-PossiSbl
hearth
W                       i     w ~~~~~~~0 Wall
0   1  2  3m
x                                                  x
Figure 34 Plan and section of Site KC-9, a possible pre-contact residential feature.
sites include three major habitation complexes (Sites
NI-1, -6, and -10), each with evidence of traditional
Hawaiian occupation (i.e., probably of pre-contact
age), and one with additional evidence of historic-
period occupation (in the form of glass shards and
a brass ornament). Two of the habitation complexes
are quite extensive, with multiple terraces (Sites NI-
6 and -10), and these were mapped in detail with
plane table and alidade.
Site NI-1, a plan view of which is shown in
Figure 38, consists of two main stone-faced earthen
terraces and a smaller third terrace, adjacent to the
intermittent stream on the eastern side of the
landshelf. The site was largely devoid of vegeta-
tion, and numerous basalt flakes and cores were
observed scattered over the surface, along with shell
midden including Cellana sp. Pupura aperta,
Drupa sp, and CYpraea mauritiania.
Site NI-6 was mapped with plane table and al-
idade, and the resulting map is shown in Figure
39. This is a complex site, constructed on the in-
land side of the large boulder concentration in the
-
75
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAC
middle portion of the landshelf, and consisting of
several adjacent stone-faced terraces, free-stand-
ing walls, and large uprights. A cluster of three
upright slabs on the highest terrace may have com-
prised a small shrine. Extensive shell midden de-
posits cover several of the terraces, and it appears
that there is considerable depth of cultural deposit.
Basalt flakes are also numerous, especially on the
northern side of the long free-standing wall. We
also found several adz fragments.
Site NI-10 is situated to the west of the large
boulder complex incorporating Site NI-6, and be-
yond a basin-shaped swale filled with an extensive
stand of milo trees. This complex consists of a se-
ries of well-constructed, stone-faced terraces built
around and incorporating large natural boulders.
Figure 35 Plan and section of Site KC-5, a probable garden feature with parallel stone rows,
C   Kaupikiawa Cave 4
Wall
Continues
0     2     4     6m
KPA HOE HOE
,      ,7 Uprights
(*) Kaupikiawa Cave 2
1,                                                                    Wall                     k
- 
i' - - __ __77
 -- 'C- - - * TN
x                        
  Continues
I Q?.-
,0
,0 1v
76
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
* Branch
coral
x
IOutcrop.
0    1    2    3m
x
Figure 36 Plan and section of Site KC- 13, a possible garden feature.
This site was also plane-table mapped, as shown in  6 m long. The site seems to have been constructed
Figure 40. The highest terrace has a retaining wall  so as to incorporate this impressive boulder on the
ca. 1.3 m high on the south, whereas the north side  main (highest) terrace. When viewed from below
of the terrace is defined by the cliff edge. Situated  the cliff, the boulder has a shark-like appearance,
on this terrace, and overhanging the cliff edge  and may have represented an 'aumnakua or ances-
some 2-3 m is a rectangular, elongate boulder some  tral spirit. A distinct slab-lined hearth was noted on
-XI
Wall
continues
x
- |
77
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
the surface of the highest terrace, and the bevel
portion of a well-ground basalt adz was found some
2 m to the west of the hearth, on the surface. Sur-
face debris largely obscured the ground, but in ad-
dition to the adz bevel we noted another adz sec-
tion on a lower terrace, as well as shell midden
including Cellana and Nerita. South (inland) of the
terraces and extending to the east we noted that
there were some low stone walls which may be
part of a former dryland field system; these are largely
obscured by dense lantana. It was also in this area
that we saw five large noni (Morinda citrifolia) trees.
In the central portion of the landshelf, we also
recorded an extensive system of low walls and stone
alignments (Sites NI-4 and -7), which appear to be
a dryland agricultural field complex, suggesting that
the nearby habitation sites may have been perma-
nently occupied. Portions of this field complex were
Figure 37 View of the boulder beach approach to Nihoa. The Nihoa landshelf itself can be seen in the
distance.
78
FROM  THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA
D THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 38 Plan and section of Site NI-1, a set of probable habitation terraces on the eastern
side of the landshelf.
sketch mapped with compass and tape (Figures 41
to 43), but the complex extends further into dense
Christmas berry vegetation, which we lacked the time
and resources to clear. The mapped area included sev-
eral low stone alignments, one of which incorporates
a small rectangular structure. There are also a num-
ber of stone mounds, as are typically found in Ha-
waiian dryland agricultural complexes. Several other
structures, including small enclosures (Site NI-2a, 8,
9) and C-shapes (2c, 2d) are dispersed within the field
system walls, and may be habitation sites or tempo-
rary garden houses.
The landshelf also appears to have a number of
burial sites, especially in the central portion, asso-
ciated with a large natural boulder formation. There
are indications of rearrangement of smaller cobbles
between these large boulders, and the presence of
smaller water-worn pebbles and cobbles may be
an indication of burials within. We also saw what
appears to be a crypt-like burial constructed within
the larger boulders, which may be of historic age.
Site NI-3, next to an outcropping of large boulders
near the escarpment edge, is a low rectangular struc-
ture ca. 1.5 by 3 m is size. The edges are defined by
stones set on edge, and the interior is partly paved.
This site had the appearance of being a burial, as did
Site NI-5, another low rectangular structure ca. 2 by
2.25 m, with an intermal division. Site NI-5 is also
situated near the escarpment edge. None of these sites
has exposed human remains.
Heavy d eb it ag e
.      & light shell s ca tt e
Waterworn         @>BE
stones              cc
Jz             X
* :~-r-TN
0  1  2  3m
xj
X
79
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
ETHNOBOTArICAL OB5ERVATIOttS
Of particular interest to our team were the veg-
etation communities found on the Nihoa landshelf.
In particular, there are extensive stands of milo
(Thespesia populnea), a pre-contact Polynesian
introduction prized for its wood and extensively
used in carving bowls and other implements. The
central part of the landshelf comprises an almost
mono-specific stand of milo trees, many of them
with large trunks. It appears to us that this stand is
itself an artifact, the result of purposive planting
and tending of these trees. Given that we also ob-
served significant quantities of basalt flakes and
several parts of stone adzes on the three habitation
sites, we hypothesize that the inhabitants of Nihoa
may have had a particular economic specialization
in wood carving.
Other ethnobotanical observations of interest
on Nihoa include several dense groves of hala
(Pandanus sp.), scattered specimens of noaii
(Morinda citrifolia), and of another prized wood
tree, kaonani (Calophvllunt inophyllum). We were
particularly impressed by the tree-like size of sev-
eral noni plants near Site 10, with estimated heights
of 7 m, and basal trunk diameters of 20-30 cm.
This suggests these plants are quite old, possibly
survivals from indigenous Hawaiian cultivation.
Figure 39 Plan map of the NI-6 site complex at Nihoa. This large complex with dense midden deposits, lithic
scatters, and architectural features appears to have been a major locus of habitation.
Des veeato                                           Dens vegtaio
* +                                                           (.D Flat paving stone
ib~                                                        ,  Upright slab
0               10             20m
\sdet              I
60                 A A     ,, ,  ,  )   X                        |     010 0
be    .-5              t'0;;5g'XyP   tS,0000g0000000j0\ ,>B   o   u   I d   e  r  s
Milo <     Slope ot                X
0;; j;ij3W.,, 0 00gl0g0t ~~basalt flakes 00t0i 00 .-
Terrace        X           Basalt awl -
; 0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Basalt flakesX ;
tree~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flldae
Teirace &9 lithics                     ihis             r     +
Dense ,-     t                3        *--Adz       *
, opihi $ . \<OS               of
Dense vegetation
Dense vegetation
80
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
Banyan tree extent
Banyan E A < E , gz 9>,~~~~~~~nd idden
trunk                                                                                      soil
zSs \>   Eg                                                  S.=r 1  ,,             * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Adz s;ection
* f B ~~~~~~~~~Milo tree ..tent                                                X                        rH-at
X 29 t Xnks ' 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Datrk soil
and midden
Te r r a i      e
Level soil area
M Ino t re es
* Waterworn cobble
0                5              lom
Figure 40 Plan and section of Site NI- 10 at Nihoa.
SUMMARY
In sum, the Nihoa landshelf proved to have
extensive archaeological remains as well as asso-
ciated ethnobotanical features of considerable in-
terest. There was very limited evidence of historic-
period occupation (post-contact artifacts were
found only at site NI-6), and Nihoa was probably
abandoned early in the 19th century. There are sev-
eral habitation complexes which may have been
permanently occupied, as well as the remains of
dryland agricultural fields on the central part of the
landshelf. Given the numbers of basalt flakes, par-
tial adzes, and an extensive stand of the native
Hawaiian tree milo, Nihoa may well have been the
locus of a small community which specialized in
wood carving, while partly supporting themselves
through dryland cultivation. These are hypotheses
which deserve further investigation, and may be
testable through further field investigations.
Dark soil
I and midden
;
TIVATP
qv
F
. .1-
81
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
z
Possible-
platform -
,F--
u.J. .
(9 . .. . .
uJ. .
uJ
Cf)
z
Iw
lL0
0    5    10   15 m
I    I     I    I
Figure 41 Plan map of the Site Nl-4 complex, consisting of several low field alignments, stone mounds,
and a small rectungulur enclosure with upright stone.
OTHER SITES
Although our project was specifically focused
on the seven sampling areas just reviewed, we did
make a few observations of sites outside of these
areas, which are recorded here for the sake of com-
pleteness.
KALAUPAPA TALUS-COLLUVIAL SLOPES.
A brief reconnaissance was made on the collu-
vial slopes inland of the abandoned rock crusher
immediately south of Kalaupapa Settlement. Here
we observed numerous low stone-walled terraces
that appeared to be part of an extensive dryland
Uprights
Upright-
. J              Ruoted
t o.tal
B o u I d e rs
MN
TN*-_ { e_
1-           I   I   I  "
It.".j't2;
L - -,
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA To THE SEA OF PAPALOA
Figure 42 View of the Site NI-4 complex from the eost, towards the NI-6 residential site which lies in the middle
distance.
agricultural zone, along with small stone mounds
(some with waterworn pebbles on them). One ba-
salt lithic scatter with a single triangular-section adz
preform was noted next to a large kukui tree. The
higher part of the slope also had several rectangu-
lar stone walled enclosures which appeared to be
residential sites. We intended to return to this area
for more detailed reconnaissance and site record-
ing, but were unable to do so prior to the end of
our field season. This zone would be a high prior-
ity for continued research.
PROBABLE HEIAU 51TE A T KALA WAO
This significant site, which appears to be the
partially-robbed stone foundation for a substantial
structure, was first shown to Kirch by Buddy Neller
in 1993, who commented that the structure had
82
83
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAS
MI4
0     5     10    15 m
I     l   I        I
000      X.
,4  e~~~~~ 4 ~ ~ ~ S'
Kamani
, trees
a)
0
4)
2
0
- o
c
8)
E)
-o
x
-0
a)
Q
t
r0
-0
0
z
0)
0
0
a)
a
0)
:
z
0
U)
(L
U')
z
wi
0l
00,-
84
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE 'SEA OF PAPAL(
never been formally recorded. Situated at Kepono,
between the points of Makali'i and Mokio, the site
lies only a few meters from the cliff, and commands
a spectacular view eastwards down the windward
coast towards Cape Halawa. A photograph of the
massive, upright basalt slabs which make up the
eastern face of the structure was published in Kirch
(1996:44). Neller speculated, and Kirch concurred,
that the core-filled walls had probably been robbed
of most of their fill and higher courses, leaving only
the massive base slabs, which still sit firmly into
the ground (Fig. 44). This wall-stone robbing most
likely occurred during the construction of the long
enclosing walls around the cemetery at St.
Philomena Church, a short distance away.
As can be seen in the map, which was made
Figure 44 View of the eastern face of the probable heiau at Kalawao, showing the massive basal boulders with
which the wall was constructed. The original upper courses of stone appear to have been robbed.
85
OVERVIEWS OF SAMPLING AREAC
with plane table and alidade at 1:100 (Figure 45),
the structure is nearly square in plan view, measur-
ing about 15.5 m north-south and 16 m east-west.
It is noteworthy that the main walls are oriented
closely to cardinal north-south and east-west. Origi-
nally, the walls were well constructed with the core-
filled technique, the outer facing slabs in many cases
being a meter or more wide and up to 2 m high. An
extensive paving of rounded stone slabs covers much
of the interior on the southem side, and on the west-
em interior several very large boulders are set flush
with the ground level, with smaller cobbles and
pebbles chinked in around them. Throughout the in-
terior we noted a large number of both basalt flakes
and waterworn beach cobbles and pebbles; several
basalt cores and an adz preform were also noted.
There can be little doubt that this interesting
site is an unrecorded heiau, and that it deserves to
be properly recognized as such and protected. The
massive nature of the basal facing stones used in
its construction alone speak to such a ritualized
function, as do other details of architecture such as
the remnant pavings and incorporation of very large
boulders in the western part of the interior. Of par-
ticular note, however, is the structure's orientation,
with its walls aligned north-south and east-west.
As noted earlier, the structure lies only a few meters
from the cliff, commanding a view to the east, where
at the equinox the sun rises directly off Cape
Halawa. That the largest facing slabs are thus situ-
ated along the eastern face of the site is probably
significant, and may tentatively be interpreted as
indicating that the structure had a principal axis or
orientation to the east. Kirch (in press) has recently
synthesized data on heiau orientations in Kahikinui,
Maui, demonstrating a class of heiau with eastwards
orientations, which he hypothesizes are associated
with the principal akua or deity Kane. This previ-
ously unrecorded heiau at Kalawao may be such
an instance of a Kane temple.
One further note on the Kalawao structure: a
point of land situated roughly northeast of the site
Figure 45 Plan map of the probable heiou at Kalawao, based on plane table and alidade
survey at 1:100.
gRA           Adz preform
Basalt flake or core
-Fallen/leaning stone
Large boulder set into ground
Paving stone                                                                                     lOm
- Water worn beach cobble                                                   C
Contour Interval 50 cm
86
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
is named Makali'i, the Native Hawaiian name for
the star cluster Pleiades. The Pleiades are first vis-
ible after sunset in late November, at an azimuth of
about 70 degrees (i.e., northeast), and to the Hawai-
ians of old marked the onset of the Makahiki season.
Might it be more than a mere coincidence that this
particular point-which would have been in the cor-
rect position to mark the rising of the Pleiades by ob-
servers seated within the Kalawao heiau-is named
Makali'i?
STRUCTURES BELOW !WUPU UAO
At the suggestion of Dorothe Curtis, PVK made
a brief attempt to relocate a heiau site on the slopes
of Kauhako Crater below Pu'u Uao, a site she had
visited some years previously in the company of
Kenneth P. Emory of the Bishop Museum. A few
dozen meters to the west of the jeep road, at an
altimeter-derived elevation of 390 ft asl, PVK
found a complex structure consisting of a double
terrace, situated on a promontory with an excellent
view out over the peninsula (GPS position 7-11-
400E, 23-45-OOON, NAD83 datum). Continuing
north another 200 m on the same jeep road, a sec-
ond large structure could be seen only 20-30 west
of the road. In dense Christmas berry and lantana,
PVK could nonetheless make out that the site had
very high (1.75-2 m) stone walls of well-stacked
pahoehoe lava slabs, with vertical, well-constructed
facings on the leeward side. There were a series of
"rooms", or defined spaces, one of which had consid-
erable shell midden (especially Cellana exarata) on
the surface. One of these two sites probably corre-
sponds to the "heiau" seen by Curtis and Emory; fur-
ther survey work in this area is obviously warranted.
CHAPT'ER 6 ENDNOTES
I From a viewpoint out over the valley on the western side,
we also observed a number of stands of Pandanus situated
on ridge lines, and suspected that these might mark former
house site locations.
2We were particularly thwarted from studying this zone in
Makanalua and Kalaupapa because of active. deer hunting
in these areas; although we inquired of the local authori-
ties, they were unwilling to make any special arrangements
for the archaeological survey to proceed.
I In Kahikinui, Maui, our survey team has repeatedly found
associated waterworn stones and branch coral (either coral
heads and or branches) placed on the altars and elsewhere
on heiau structures. Waterworn fist-sized rocks also occur
individually on agricultural mounds otherwise made up
of rough a'a rocks on the landscape of the Greenwell Eth-
nobotanical Garden in Kona, Hawai'i, part of the Kona
Field System (Kirch 2001:56-57).
4 This cliff is an escarpment formed in the massive collu-
vial-talus deposit, through a combination of high-wave
action in the winter months, and mass-wasting of the un-
stable debris. It is quite precipitous and dangerous to climb
because of the loose boulders and crumbly matrix which
constantly threatens to give way beneath one. It is easier
to gain access to the landshelf at its far western end where
the escarpment is low and easy to climb, but this entails
walking farther along the boulder beach.
CHAPTER 7
RE-EXCAVATIONS AT KAUPIKIAWA
ROCKSHELTER
a The first archaeological site exca-
" vated within KNHP, and that
which subsequently yielded the
oldest radiocarbon date for the re-
gion, is Kaupikiawa Rockshelter
(also known as "Pearson's Cave", and as Site 312
[State of Hawai'i inventory]), which was first test
excavated by Richard Pearson of the University of
Hawai'i in 1966-67. Pearson and his students ex-
cavated two units in the mouth of this lava-tube
rockshelter (Pearson et al. 1974), recovering char-
coal samples which some years later were submit-
ted for radiocarbon dating by Marshall Weisler
(1989). The oldest of these dates, calibrated at A.D.
1070 + 70, is among the earliest radiocarbon ages
known for Moloka'i Island, and had been taken as
evidence for a long occupation sequence on
Kalaupapa Peninsula (Somers 1985).
As proposed in our scope of work, we wished
to re-study the stratigraphy of this rockshelter and
obtain datable materials to recheck the dates ob-
tained and interpreted by Weisler (1989), by using
a minimally intrusive procedure (rather than ex-
tensive re-excavations). We also hoped to obtain
additional information on prehistoric land use and
economic patterns through archaeobotanical and
zooarchaeological analysis of materials recovered
through fine-mesh screens, not used by Pearson.
Because laboratory analysis of the samples recov-
ered from our reinvestigations is still incomplete,
we present here only a summary overview of the
results obtained to date. A complete report on the
reinvestigation of the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter will
be published separately.
FIELD METHODS
Three days were spent working within the
Kaupikiawa rockshelter. The lava tube shelter was
first remapped, using compass and tape for the in-
terior portions of the cave, and plane table and tele-
scopic alidade for the exterior and adjacent archi-
tectural features (Fig. 46). Pearson's excavation units
had not been backfilled, and these were plotted
along with other surface features. In order to re-
sample the stratigraphy of the rockshelter, we then
cleaned two faces on each of Pearson's two exca-
vation units. This cleaning was done carefully us-
ing trowels, and all removed sediment was bagged
and labeled (these bags were left in the units after
completion of our work, although the research
value of the sediment they contain is minimal, since
it consists of disturbed materials). Once the faces
of Pearson's units had been thoroughly cleaned and
the intact deposits exposed, we photographed, drew,
and recorded the stratigraphy (Fig. 47).
88
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
A                                                       A'
-  .  f  '1 ~ ~ ~ ~
.nt           4                        t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1
7o
$3 )-Nerita shells
J-   Midden & historical
V - I'll          artifacts
10 m
Figure 46 Plan map and sections of the exterior portions of the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter and adjacent Site
KC-1.
I
* 1-
0
5
I                                                  ___j
89
RE-EXCAVATIONS AT KAUPIKIAWA ROCKSHELTER
After recording and interpreting the stratigra-
phy, we positioned two sampling columns against
the exposed faces of each unit (total of four col-
umns). Two 20 x 20 cm columns were then exca-
vated from the surface down to sterile, with the
contents bagged and transported back to our field
quarters, where they were wet-screened through
window screen (1/16") mesh. The screened resi-
due was shipped to the Oceanic Archaeology Labo-
ratory for detailed faunal, floral, and artifact analy-
sis. A second set of 10 xIO cm columns was also
excavated, and the removed sediment bagged in
its entirety. These sediment samples were not
screened in the field, but were retained for detailed
geoarchaeological analysis of the shelter's stratig-
raphy (including granulometry, organic content,
pH, and microconstituent analyses).
Following the completion of our column sam-
Figure 47. View of the interior of Kaupikiawa Rockshelter during cleaning of the stratigraphic profiles of
Pearson's original excavations,
90
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
pling, Pearson's excavation units were draped in
heavy polyethylene plastic sheeting, as a measure
of protection against further erosion or disturbance
by small animals. The double-bagged (and labeled)
disturbed sediment which had been cleaned from
the eroded faces was used to weight the plastic
sheets against the excavation unit walls.
SURFACE FEATURES
The exterior portions of the site were mapped
at 1:100 with plane table and alidade, with the re-
sulting map shown here as Figure 46. The lava tube
rockshelter is accessed from the eastern side of a
collapsed portion of the tube; the collapse itself has
been partially walled off on the south, west, and
north with a stacked boulder wall. A piece of branch
coral was noted in the collapsed area beyond the
wall. To the east of the collapse, about 7 m from
the dripline scarp, there is a well-constructed rect-
angular enclosure with a formal doorway on the
west. The walls of this structure are made of care-
fully stacked pahoehoe slabs. The architecture
strongly suggests a post-contact habitation, and this
interpretation is reinforced by a small scatter of shell
midden (Cypraea, Drupa, Conus, and Cellana
shells) and a number of historic period artifacts,
including shards of a cream-colored ceramic, poly-
chrome painted ceramic (possibly from the popu-
lar "Lokelani" pattern), a hand-applied glass bottle
lip, and a piece of copper. The presence of this
presumably historic-period (probably mid-to-late
19th century) house in close proximity to the
rockshelter is significant, as the house occupants
would presumably have made use of the shelter as
well.
The interior of the rockshelter was mapped with
compass-and-tape at a scale of 1:100, as shown
here in Figure 48. There is a slight slope down from
the open collapse into the shelter itself, which has
a ceiling height of between 1-2 m. The floor is rela-
tively flat, with an ashy grey deposit covered in
many areas by cobbles and boulders (much of it
roof-fall). Some of these rocks have been arranged
into an evident pavement about mid-way back from
the dripline. Towards the rear of the shelter there is
a stacked stone wall partly closing off access to a
small, cramped second chamber.
Pearson had excavated two units in the shelter's
floor in the portion of the cave just inside of the
dripline; neither had been backfilled, but several
decades of animal and probably human disturbance
and erosion had obscured the original faces and
exact shape of the excavations. Nonetheless it ap-
peared that Unit A (our designation) had perhaps
originally consisted of a 3 x 9 foot trench, while
Unit B was probably a 3 x 3 foot square. The faces
which we cleaned in order to record the stratigraphic
sections and to take our column and micromor-
phology samples are indicated on the plan.
STRATIGRAPHY
A detailed description of the visual stratigra-
phy of both Units A and B, along with analysis of a
micromorphology column and sedimentological
analysis of bulk samples, will be given elsewhere
(Kirch et al., in prep.). Here we briefly summarize
the visual stratigraphy of Unit A (Figure 49), from
which our three new radiocarbon dating samples
were taken:
Layer I: Reddish black (2.5YR 1) overburden.
Layer II: Black (5YR2.5/1) cultural deposit with
considerable shellfish midden and charcoal.
Layer III: Dark reddish brown (5YR3/2) cul-
tural deposit with shellfish midden and char-
coal.
Layer IV: Very dark gray (7.5YR3/1) deposit
of concentrated ash; probable combustion
feature or rake-out from combustion fea-
ture.
Layer V: Very dark brown (lOYR2/2) lens, ca.
2 cm thick.
Layer VI: Very dusky red (2.5YR2/2) deposit,
appearing to be culturally sterile (i.e., lack-
ing in shell midden), but with charcoal frag-
ments visible.
FAUNAL ANALYSIS
Zooarchaeological analysis of bulk and column
samples from both Units A and B was conducted
by S. O'Day; full quantitative results will be pre-
sented elsewhere (Kirch et al., in prep.). In brief,
the samples were dominated by invertebrate taxa
(NISP = 7,671, total weight = 2,248.2 g), followed
91
RE-ExCAVATIONS AT KAUPIKIAWA RoCKSHELTEF
To second
chamber
x
Dripline
_ XI
* Waterworn cobble
0     1    2    3m
Figure 48 Plan and sections of the interior portion of Kaupikiawa Rockshelter. The areas marked A and B
refer to the original units excavated by Richard Pearson.
#/ J 1
MN
TN
x
92
FROM THE CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA TO THE SEA OF PAPALOA
by vertebrates (NISP = 2,455, total weight - 103.02
g), primarily fish. Of the invertebrates, some 26
different species were identified, dominated by
gastropods, but also including 5 bivalve taxa, 2
sea urchin species, and a small amount of Crusta-
cea. Among the gastropods, the dominants were
Nerita picea, Littorina pintado, Cellana sp., and
Cypraea caputserpentis; this array is consistent
with the rocky intertidal shoreline near the
rockshelter. Vertebrate taxa included 21 kinds of
fish, the native Hawaiian bat (Lasiurus cinereus),
identifiable fragments of pig (Sus scrofa), and the
Pacific rat (Rattus exulans). The identified fish were
generally small-to-medium sized individuals, from
taxa typically inhabiting near-shore and reef envi-
ronments; most frequent were Labridae (Bodianus
sp. and Halichoeres sp.) and Scaridae (Scarus sp.
and Calotomus sp.). Important evidence for his-
toric-period occupation of the upper layers of the
rockshelter comes from the presence of bones of
both the horse (Equus caballus) and the European
house mouse (Mus domesticus), from Layers I and
II of Unit B.
Cl1ARCOAL ANALYSIS
After wet screening through 1/4 and V8 inch
mesh, visible charcoal fragments of sufficient size
to attempt identification were selected from the
dried sediment samples from the 20x20 cm col-
umns from Units A and B. Unit A yielded 8 char-
coal samples and Unit B yielded 9 samples. Identi-
fications were carried out by J. Coil, with methods
adapted from Leney and Casteel (1975). Complete
results will be presented elsewhere (Kirch et al., in
prep.); here we merely summarize the sequence of
change in charcoal types revealed by this analysis.
The 17 samples were arrayed in stratigraphic
order, following field correlations between the two
stratigraphic sections, and the identified taxa plot-
ted by frequency (Fig. 50). The resulting "char-
coal diagram" (similar in conception to a pollen
diagram) was interpreted in terms of three analyti-
cal zones. Analytical Zone 3, at the base of the sec-
tion (Unit A Layers VIa and VIb; Unit B Layers VII
and VIII) was dominated by arboreal taxa, with all
samples containing between 66-100% tree-derived
Figure 49 Stratigraphic section of Unit A, Kaupikiawa Rockshelter,
showing the locations of scrmpling columns.
UNIT A, SOUTH FACE             0    10   20   30 cm
I    I    I    I
0-
8 ,,   Column samples
E
?a  O1x 1O   20x20
E w  x5cm    x5cm
u7   ,     -
- - -  - -        - - - - - - -
93
RE-EXCAVATIONS AT KAUPIKIAWA ROCKSHELTER
charcoal. Dominant taxa include Antidesma sp. and
Diospyros sp.; also present are the native shrubs
Chenopodium sp., Osteomeles sp., Senna sp., and
Wikstroemia sp. Analytical Zone 2 is represented
by 9 samples in the middle part of the section (Unit
A Layers Ilb, Illa, IIIb, IV/V, Unit B Layers lIb,
lIc, Ild, Ile, Xa), a fairly homogenous shell midden
deposit. The charcoal samples from this zone are a
mix of arboreal and shrubby taxa, but with arbo-
real taxa representing 33% or less of the total iden-
tified fragments in all cases. Many of the taxa ap-
pearing here are typical of dryland region firewood
assemblages in Hawai'i. Dominant taxa in Analyti-
cal Zone 2 include Chamaesyce sp. Chenopodium
sp., Osteomeles sp., Senna sp., and Wikstroemia sp.
Also appearing here are wood charcoal of the
Polynesian-introduced economic trees Aleurites
moluccana (candlenut) and Artocarpus altilis
(breadfruit). At the top of the stratigraphic section,
Analytical Zone 1 is represented by four samples
(Unit A Layers Ia and Ila, Unit B Layers I and Ha).
Charcoal in these samples is almost entirely from
shrubs, with only one sample containing 25% tree
charcoal. Dominants include Chamaesyce sp., Che-
nopodium sp., and Senna sp., with the addition (for
the first time in the sequence) of Sida sp.
Tentatively, we would interpret this charcoal
sequence as reflecting several periods of vegeta-
tion change in the vicinity of Kaupikiawa
rockshelter. The earliest charcoal assemblages
(Zone 1) are, in our opinion, not derived from fire-
wood, but rather from anthropogenic burning
events outside (but in close proximity) to the shel-
ter. It is conceivable that charcoal from trees which
grew directly outside of the cave mouth, and which
were consumed by fire, washed directly onto the
previously bare floor of the shelter. Analytical Zone
2, on the other hand, appears to us to be a typical
firewood assemblage, representing wood burned
in hearths and earth ovens within the cave during
periods of human occupation. The preponderance
of shrubby taxa probably reflects a firewood gath-
ering preference, although it also possible that trees
had become scarce in the vicinity of the shelter. In
the uppermost zone, which probably corresponds
to the post-contact period, there is a complete ab-
sence of arboreal taxa, which would correspond
with the contemporary vegetation communities in
the site's catchment area.
RADIOCARBON DATING
As itemized in Table 7, three samples from
Kaupikiawa Rockshelter were selected for radio-
carbon dating. All samples were obtained from Unit
A, and each was identified to generic level prior to
submission to Beta Analytic Inc. All samples were
pretreated with an acid/alkali/acid sequence, and
were dated by the AMS method.
REINTERPRETATION OF THE
DEPOSITIONAL SEQUENCE
A definitive reinterpretation of the Kaupikiawa
Rockshelter sequence must await the completion
of all of our laboratory analyses; however, at this
juncture several points are evident. First, the basal
deposits (represented, for example, by Layer VI in
Unit A) do not appear to represent actual human
occupation of the site, although there is little doubt
that the charcoal fragments included in these de-
rived from anthropogenic burning in the site's vi-
cinity. AMS dating of a secure sample of Antidesma
sp. wood from the base of Unit A puts this initial
phase of (probably) natural deposition at about 670-
550 cal B.P., somewhat later than the date obtained
by Weisler (1989) and used by Somers (1985) to
argue for a thousand-year occupation of the pen-
insula. Actual human use of the shelter, and the
deposition of shell and bone midden, begins with
the Layer V and IV burn deposits in Unit A, fol-
lowed by the accumulation of the thick Layers III
and II midden deposits. Our new date from this
part of the sequence, on short-lived Chenopodium
wood, suggests that this phase is not older than
about 300 years cal B.P., i.e., within the final Proto-
Historic Period of the Hawaiian sequence as de-
fined by Kirch (1985). The uppermost deposits
(possibly the top of Layer II and certainly Layer I)
date to the post-contact period, as indicated by the
presence of foreign material culture and introduced
faunal taxa.
In sum, while the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter does
encapsulate a depositional sequence spanning
-500-600 years (i.e., beginning around the 14th-
15th centuries A.D.), it should no longer be claimed
as providing evidence for a millennium of human
occupation at Kalaupapa Peninsula. Rather than
providing evidence for a possible Developmental
94
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
U,)
w
w
Co
w x O
c  - 10
U- CW
IL11.
0
~C)
otf
Z ,
0
CWF
c
0
U,
._
0
-o
U)
U)
-4.
x
U)
a)
0
a)
0
U)
.._
Q
p
a)
-o
.__
0
0
-c
C)
L.-
95
RE-EXCAVATIONS AT KAUPIKIAWA ROCKSHELTER
Table 7 Radiocarbon Age Determinations from Kaupikiawa Rockshelter
Laboratory  Provenience      Material     Measured    13c/12c   Conventional   Calibrated
No. (Beta-)                              14C Age B.P.  Ratio    14C Age B.P.   Age (la) B.P.
(O/oo)
-155364      UnitA,        Sidasp.          200?40    -24.8        200 ?40      290-270
Layer IIA     charcoal                                             200-150
20-0
-155365      Unit A,       Chenopodium      240 ? 40  -26.4        220 ? 40     300-280
Layer IV/V    sp. charcoal                                         180-150
10-0
-155366      Unit A,       Antidesma sp.    670?40    -26.5        650?40       670-550
Layer VIB     charcoal
Period settlement, as suggested by Weisler (1989),
human activity in the vicinity of the rockshelter
seems to have commenced during the Expansion
Period, while actual occupation and deposition of
shell midden dates to the Proto-Historic Period. In
our view, this reinterpretation is more consistent
with the environmental setting of the shelter, at the
northerly, marginal extreme of the peninsula. Of
course, our re-dating of this site in no way negates
the possibility of a longer occupation sequence for
the Kalaupapa Region. Indeed, our AMS date of
1200-1290 cal A.D. on the loulu palm charcoal from
Waikolu Site 1 can be taken as an indication of
human presence in this large valley by at least the
13th century, or the early part of the Expansion
Period. In our view, the most likely localities for
early human settlement and land use in the region
would have been either in the large valleys such as
Waikolu, and/or along the colluvial slopes with their
richer agricultural soils.
CHAPTER 8
ETHNOBOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN THE SURVEY AREAS:
RELEVANCE FOR CULTURAL LANDSCAPE INTERPRETATION'
During our archaeological
fieldwork, J. Coil and P. Kirch
made observations and notes re-
garding the distributions of native
Hawaiian plants as well as natu-
ralized plant cultigens originally introduced dur-
ing the pre-contact and historic periods by
Kalaupapa's residents. We were interested in part
to determine whether such plant distributions might
contribute to our interpretation of the surveyed ar-
chaeological remains, or provide independent clues
for the nature of prior land-use practices. More-
over, we felt that recording the distribution of eth-
nobotanically significant plants was worthwhile in
its own right, as these plants comprise a biotic and
therefore fragile aspect of the cultural history and
resources of KNHP.
Distributions of particular plants discussed be-
low are summarized at each heading using the ini-
tials below for our various archaeological survey
areas:2
P = Peninsula (mainly the east slope);
V = Valleys (Waikolu and Wai'ale'ia);
T = Talus and colluvial slopes (interface of
peninsula and the cliffs);
C = Coastal (narrow interfaces of boulder
beaches and base of sea cliff pali to east
and west of peninsula); and
N = Nihoa land shelf.
NATIVE TAXA 3
TREE-S
Destruction of the native arboreal vegetation,
and its replacement by exotic, invasive plants
(Staples and Cowie 2001; Stone et al. 1992) has
been remarkably thorough in the surveyed areas.
While the Kauhako Crater area (not part of our ar-
chaeological survey and thus not included here)
has the best remaining examples of native plants,
including members of the genera Pleomele,
Reynoldsia, and Senna (Meideros et al. 1996), only
a scant few of these seem to survive elsewhere.
The few survivors seen during our reconnaissance
include only a handful of wiliwili (Erythrina
sandwicensis) trees along the base of the topside
trail, a few scraggly lama (Diospyros sandwicense)
trees along the west slopes of Wai'ale'ia valley, and
a few 'alahe'e (Psydrax odaratum) trees seaward
from the crater on the peninsula's summit ridge.
SHRUBS
'Akia (Wikstroemia uva-ursi) is common on the
peninsula, where it grows in association with the
historically-introduced lantana (Lantana camara),
both in a low, wind-stunted habit. The growth pat-
97
ETHNOBOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN THE SURVEY AREAS
tern of these shrubs demonstrates how the
peninsula's single-course field walls may have
worked to assist plant cultivation. Young plants
can become established in the lee of stones, then
grow continuously inland, with new growth shel-
tered in the lee of older growth. Lantana plants
can be seen using 'akia plants as windbreaks to
become established in this manner as well.
PRE-CONTACT, HAWAIIAN
CULTIVATED PLANTS
MILO (THESPESIA POPULNYEA): (N, C)
Present also along the white sand beach to the
west of the peninsula, milo finds its most extensive
manifestation at Nihoa, where large expanses of
the flat landshelf are densely shrouded with thick
shrubby groves. Milo seems to be able to outcompete
other post-contact invasive plants such as Christ-
mas berry, lantana, and Java plum on Nihoa; all of
these are well represented in the present Nihoa veg-
etation outside of milo-dominated areas. This sug-
gests that the wide distribution of milo trees at Nihoa
may reflect either past cultivation of this taxon there
with intentional human assistance of its spread
across the land shelf, or perhaps an earlier intro-
duction and hence longer time span in which to
attain this ecological dominance. A second line of
evidence suggesting an anthropogenic influence
in the spread of milo at Nihoa is the large quantity
of stone tool remains found on the surfaces of Nihoa
archaeological sites (including several adz sections).
The "beautifully grained wood was made into cala-
bashes for poi" (Neal 1965:564; Abbott 1992:87)
and probably was carved into other kinds of wooden
implements as well. This has helped to form our
present hypothesis that the cultivation and carving
of milo at Nihoa may have been a specialized craft
activity.
HA LA (PANIDANUS SP.) (N, T, V, C)
Pandanus trees are found in most of the sur-
veyed zones, and it is notable that they seem to
correlate strongly with the location of archaeologi-
cal sites, especially terraces or enclosures with prob-
able residential functions. Pandanus trees provided
a major source of leaves (lau hala) for plaiting mats,
canoe sails, and baskets, and thus were purpose-
fully cultivated around residential site areas in pre-
contact times (Meilleur et al. 1997). The groves
that we find in KNHP in association with stone
structures are thus taken to be survivals from in-
digenous plantings. However, hala trees are also
found in locations removed from archaeological
settlement, such as on steeper ridge faces in
Wai'ale'ia valley; these more extensive stands are
probably remnants of the Coastal Pandanus Forest
vegetation community described by Gagne and
Cuddilhy (1990). At Nihoa Site NI-6, dried Pan-
danus fruits ("keys") formed a thick layer on the
ground below hala trees.
KUKUI (ALEURITES MOLUCCArNA) (V, r, T)
As elsewhere in Hawaii, kukui trees have natu-
ralized in KNHP and spread upwards into Waikolu,
Wai'ale'ia, and Waihanau valleys, where their dis-
tinctive light-green foliage can be discerned in vir-
tually all of the higher ravines. In Waikolu and
Wai'ale'ia valleys, kukui trees can be seen grow-
ing atop steep, high ridges on the upper valley walls,
and this brings into question the nature of the dis-
persal mechanism which would transport the large,
heavy seeds ('kukui nuts') into such remote loca-
tions. Distribution to high ridge areas by either
pigs or people are the most likely explanation; if
the latter, this suggests a very conscious effort at
plant dispersal. This is not surprising, given the var-
ied uses of the plant, ranging from providing light,
to providing pigment for tattooing and kapa, to the
ingredients for a relish and for medicine (Abbott
1992). Athens (1997:268) reports that there is no
archaeobotanical evidence for Aleurites in the is-
lands prior to about A.D. 1 100 (either as pollen grains,
or the hard endocarps). Further archaeobotanical
research within KNHP could help to test this hy-
pothesis.
KP (CORDYLI/YE Sp.) (V, T).
Ki plants are found throughout the higher-rain-
fall areas of the park such as Waikolu and Wai'ale'ia
valleys, and on the colluvial-talus slopes. The ki
plant had several uses, including providing the leaf
wrappers for food bundles, and its root produces a
high sugar content after baking in the earth oven.
98
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
The plant was certainly extensively cultivated in
pre-contact times, but it also readily spreads and
even thrives without human attention. Its presence
throughout our more inland survey areas probably
reflects cultivation of the plant in these areas in
pre-contact and/or post-contact times.'2
KALO (COLOCASIA ESCULLENTA) (V).
Kalo, the most important staple crop in ancient
Hawai'i (Handy and Handy 1972), was as we know
from the Mahele documents raised extensively in
irrigated pondfield systems in the valleys, and in
dryland terraces or plots on the colluvial slopes.
Taro, however, does not naturalize well and is typi-
cally out-competed by weeds and other exotic veg-
etation if not regularly tended. Nonetheless, we saw
some feral taro in Waikolu Valley, naturalized along
the stream banks and at the stream mouth. As re-
ported above, there are remains of a large irrigated
pondfield system (Waikolu Site WK-1) nearby.
KAMANII (CALOPHYLLUM IIYOPHYLLUM) (T, N).
Two kamani groves were located during our
survey in the park. One grove is in the "Lang-lang"
colluvial slope area (Kalawao, Sampling Area A).
This grove consists of ' 12 mid-aged trees
(dbh=-50-60 cm), some already fallen, but with
others successfully reproducing. It is likely that
these trees are descendants of kamani trees planted
in the vicinity during pre-contact times. It may be
significant that the grove is located in close asso-
ciation with the large heiau Site 289. 5
A second kamani grove, this one consisting of
one very large diameter tree (- 2 m dbh) and about
a dozen younger, narrow-trunk trees ('20-30 cm
dbh), is found on the Nihoa landshelf, at the inland
end of the dryland field system recorded as Nihoa
Sites NI-4 and -7. Above the field system area,
the terrain becomes steep rocky talus and the
kamani trees are located at this juncture. We
searched in vain for the remains of a heiau associ-
ated with this grove.
Kamani trees, although prized for their excel-
lent timber and used to carve calabashes, were
nonetheless relatively rare in the islands, making
the presence of two groves within the KNHP of
some importance. Hillebrand (1888:40) observed
that "only a few old trees remained in 1870" when
he carried out his botanical work in the islands.
Neal (1965:586) confirms that "in many parts of
Polynesia the kamani was a sacred tree . . . and it
was much planted around temples." Thus the asso-
ciation between kamani trees and Site 289 prob-
ably dates back to the period of use of this heiau.6
HIAU (HiBIscus TILIACEUS) (T, V, P1).
Large shrubby stands of hau were observed
near the mouth of Wai'ale'ia Valley and on the col-
luvial slopes in the "Lang-lang" area. Interestingly,
although hau was seen at Nihoa, milo dominates
low-lying soil areas where hau expansion might
have otherwise have been anticipated. There has
been some debate over whether this plant, used for
a variety of purposes by the Hawaiians, was present
in the archipelago prior to Polynesian arrival, or
whether it was purposefully introduced; Athens
(1997:268) argues for the former, although with
caution.
A WAPUHI (ZINuGIBER SPP.) (V).
Patches of several kinds of 'awapuhi ginger
were found in more interior reaches of Waikolu
Valley. These include at least some 'awapuhi-
kuahiwi (Zingiber zerumbet), which was almost cer-
tainly a Polynesian introduction.
PNOrIi (MORINDA CITRIFOLIA) (V, T, C, 1).
Noni is a shrub or small tree commonly natu-
ralized in coastal and lowland areas in Hawaii,
mostly in areas where it was formerly cultivated.
The acidic fruit were used medicinally, while the
root yielded a yellowish dye used on kapa (Abbott
1992:57). We observed noni plants in all of our
survey areas, except on the peninsula where con-
ditions are too dry and open. Near Nihoa Site NI-
10, unusually large, arborescent noni trees were
observed in association with low field walls, sug-
gesting that these trees are remnants of previously
cultivated areas on the Nihoa landshelf.
99
ETHNOBOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN THE SURVEY AREAS
POST-CONTACT NATURALIZED PLANTS
(CULTIVARS AND/OR INVASIVES)
DATE PALM (PHOENYIX SP.) (V, P).
Date palms were apparently once planted in
the Kalawao area, and have now become natural-
ized and are spreading into the valleys. It is likely
that the Kalaupapa area is the only place in Hawaii
where this has happened, since this taxon was not
included as a naturalized plant in the Wagner et al.
(1990) flora. The mouth of Wai'ale'ia valley, for
example, contains many date palms. These have
probably been spread by pigs, since they grow on
the sides of sheer cliffs along the coast and valley
walls. Fruits on these trees are edible but small.
The old Federal leprosy research station area in
Kalawao has what appears to be a landscaped
grove, and may represent the original source of
the spreading palms.
TOBACCO (NYICOTIANIA GLABRA).
Tobacco plants are found naturalized along the
sea cliff faces where these intersect with boulder
beaches. These plants are most likely feral descen-
dants of tobacco originally cultivated by historic
period residents of the Kalaupapa area.
COFFEE (CAFE ARABICA).
A grove of coffee trees, -150 x 50 m in dimen-
sions, was found atop a colluvial bench in the east
slope of Wai'ale'ia Valley (above Wai'ale'ia Site
8). These are probably semi-naturalized remnants
from historic period coffee cultivation in this loca-
tion.
FALSE KAMA[I (TERMIrALIA CATAPA) (C, T).
This large tree is found along coastal areas and
naturalized within Java plum/strawberry guava
canopy forests along the colluvial slopes. It seems
likely that this taxon is spreading inland from origi-
nal plantings (?) or colonization events along the
coastal strip and in the Kalawao area. In one case
in Kalawao Sample Area A, a stacked stone wall
which forms part of a large enclosure bends to
avoid a large Terminalia tree, which strongly sug-
gests a historic-period construction age for this wall,
as well as perhaps demonstrating the long-lived
nature of individuals of this taxon.
INVASIVE FLORA
Many of the usual suspects occupy large terri-
tories in the surveyed area, the most common and
prolific include: strawberry guava (V, T), Christ-
mas berry (P, T, N) , lantana (P, N, V), and Java
plum (V, T, C). Large Terminalia (kamani haole)
trees are also spreading into areas containing an
otherwise Java plum and guava canopy. JC noted
a pattern where areas dominated by guava tend to
be more colluvial/mass wasting sediments, while
Java plum dominated areas tend to be more boul-
der-covered rock-slide areas. Thus each of these
taxa seems to possess a slight advantage in these
respective terrains and can therefore more success-
fully establish invasive dominance. Another spe-
cific relation involving guava was seen on the ta-
lus slopes just west of Wai'ale'ia Valley, where
Guajava cattleinum trees grow unusually tall. This
is the same area where pre-contact-looking field
system remnants were found, suggesting that in
addition to offering favorable growing conditions
for guava, the soils in this area may have been rec-
ognized by pre-contact Hawaiian cultivators as es-
pecially favorable as well.
INTERPRETATIONS/SUMMARY
Making concurrent ethnobotanical observa-
tions on plant distributions during the course of
archaeological survey not only added another layer
of cultural data, but in several cases provided clues
as to the function, chronology, and or distributions
of sites such as heiau, garden areas, and possibly a
specialized craft center. Of particular note were the
unexpected mono-stands of milo on Nihoa; the as-
sociation of kamani trees with the Site 289 heiau;
and, the presence of hala trees on a significant
number of putative habitation sites. Also, on a more
general level, because some plants can survive as
individuals or persist as a semi-naturalized popu-
lation in localized areas, they can help us recon-
struct the prehistoric and historic landscape. Other
plants, however, show no such tendency to stay in
one place, and the spread of invasive plants such
100
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
as Christmas berry, guava, Java plum, and lantana
is surely the most remarkable aspect of Kalaupapa's
20th century vegetation history. It is also clear that
the processes of vegetation change in Kalaupapa
are increasingly dynamic, and further invasions from
new exotic plants are likely to continue to occur in
the future, as well as changes brought by efforts to
control feral ungulates in the peninsula area.
CHAPTER 8 ENDNOTES
' A first draft of this section was authored by JC, and was
expanded and amended by PVK.
2 Our archaeological survey areas did not include the
Ka'uhako Crater area or developed areas such as Kalaupapa
town, so information on plant distributions in these areas
are not included. However, see Meideros et al. (1996) for a
report on native and naturalized plants in the crater area.
I This category includes both endemic and indigenous
plants native to pre-human Hawaii. Coil's ability to recog-
nize native grasses and some native herbaceous plants in
the field is relatively limited, so this section comments
mainly on tree and shrub taxa.
4In historic times, the juice of the sugar-rich ki root was fer-
mented and then distilled to make 'okolehao, a whisky much
consumed by the Native Hawaiians despite strong disapproval
of the missionaries. According to Greene, the consumption of
ki whisky was rampant among the Kalawao lepers at the time
of Father Damien's arrival; "this practice was illegal but diffi-
cult to stop because certain members of the police force were
themselves involved in the distilling operations" (1985:91).
5 S. Millerstrom (pers. com. 2000) has noted that in the
Marquesas Islands, trees of the same species (called tamanu)
are often planted in association with ritual and religious struc-
tures.
6 We would point out that there are cultural management
implications here, in that the kamani grove should be con-
sidered an integral part of the site itself. Currently the trees
are being choked by aggressive introduced species, espe-
cially Java plum.
CHAPTER 9
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
In the preceding pages we have
'   summarized the results of our re-
connaissance survey of archaeo-
logical sites within a sample of the
varied microenvironments encom-
passed within KNHP, as well as reviewing what is
known from the efforts of earlier investigators. In
addition, we have tried to extract from a range of
historical and ethnohistorical records (especially the
archival documents deriving from the Mahele) in-
formation pertaining to traditional Hawaiian land
rights and use on the peninsula and in the adjacent
valleys. Clearly, despite our efforts, we have only
begun to scratch the surface with respect to the tre-
mendous archaeological and culture-historical re-
sources contained within the KNHP. The follow-
ing paragraphs are an attempt-albeit tentative and
incomplete-to synthesize this diversity of evi-
dence. We have couched the discussion largely in
terms of a set of research problems requiring fur-
ther investigation, rather than as conclusions, to
emphasize that the archaeological study of the
Kalaupapa Region is still very much in its infancy.
We hope, nonetheless, that the research problems
outlined below will aid successive investigators in
developing a long-term program for Kalaupapa ar-
chaeology and culture-history studies.
VARIABILITY IN thE KALAUPAPA
ARCHlAEOLOGICAL RECORD
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Kalaupapa
regional archaeology is its tremendous variability,
an observation that should not surprise given the
corresponding variation in landscape and environ-
ment. Indeed, the range of variation in archaeo-
logical sites found within the KNHP could be said
to correspond with the broader range normally
found on an island-wide scale. Since at least the
late 1960s, archaeologists have recognized that a
major axis of variation in the Hawaiian archaeo-
logical record corresponds to the windward-leeward
gradient (in indigenous Hawaiian termninology, the
ko'olau-kona axis) which divides all of the major
islands into relatively "wet windward" and "dry
leeward" regions (Newman 1970; Kirch 1985).
Paradoxically, although the Kalaupapa Region at
first glance appears to lie exclusively within a typi-
cally windward zone, the low elevation and low
annual rainfall over much of the peninsula make
this zone essentially "leeward" in most environ-
mental characteristics. The deep valleys, on the
other hand, are quintessentially representative of
windward environmental zones. Thus, within a rela-
tively compact region-one that was certainly
102
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
spanned by a single sociopolitical community-
both dry, "leeward" and wet, windward landscapes
influenced the range of land use and resource ex-
ploitation strategies.
Both the ethnohistorical record (especially the
Mahele documents) and the surface archaeologi-
cal record reveal how critical this environmental
axis-ranging from the relatively arid conditions
on the mid-to-northern portions of the peninsula,
to the extremes of high rainfall in the valleys-was
to the formation of cultural landscapes. The penin-
sula exhibits one of the most formalized examples
of a dryland agricultural field system known any-
where in the archipelago. Indeed, the closest par-
allels are to be found on the leeward side of Hawai'i
Island, with the Kohala and Kona field systems
(Newman 1970; Ladefoged and Graves 2000;
Ladefoged, Graves, and Jennings 1996; Schilt
1984; Kirch 1984:181-94). The peninsular system
was developed for the intensive cropping of sweet
potato, a cultigen which responds well to low win-
ter rainfall. In Waikolu Valley, in contrast, one finds
extensive remains of the other major kind of inten-
sive Hawaiian agriculture, permanently irrigated
terraced pondfields for the cultivation of taro, the
other culturally dominant Hawaiian crop. Thus,
the Kalaupapa Region encapsulates the key con-
trast between "the wet and the dry", which has long
been identified by ethnobotanists and anthropolo-
gists as being of signal importance in the develop-
ment of Oceanic subsistence economies (Barrau
1965; Kirch 1994). The Mahele records of land
use, providing a "time-capsule" at mid-19th cen-
tury, reveal how both wet and dry systems were
critically important to the structuring of household
economies, and thus ideally at least, each house-
hold unit attempted to control and utilize resources
in both wet and dry zones.
In between these two major kinds of agricul-
tural zones with their corresponding physical in-
frastructures of field boundaries or pondfield ter-
races, lies another intermediate or transitional zone,
that of the extensive colluvial slopes running east-
west at the southern margin of the peninsula, be-
low the towering cliffs. This zone, which is neither
strictly "wet" or "dry" but is characterized by mod-
erate annual rainfall and a particular edaphic me-
dium highly conducive to horticulture, displays an
archaeological landscape marked by extensive dry-
land terracing and other agricultural features.
Equally significant, it is within this zone that many
of the large ceremonial structures or heiau are
found, suggesting that agricultural production
within the colluvial slope zone may have been es-
pecially important to the regional economy. The
Mahele documents are again instructive, for they
suggest that many of the narrow 'i1i land units,
within which smaller mo'o horticultural plots were
claimed, were situated on these colluvial slopes.
Variability in the archaeological record of KNHP
is not limited to these broad patterns of agricultural
systems and land use, but may be found as well in
patterns of household architecture. Residential sites
distributed over the peninsula-which, it must be
remarked, appear to be intimately integrated into
the extensive dryland field system-include a di-
versity of C-shaped, L-shaped, and linear wind-
break walled structures, as well as rectangular and
square enclosures. These types are thus similar,
though not necessarily identical in all architectural
details, with habitation features found in other lee-
ward localities, such as Kawela, Moloka'i (Weisler
and Kirch 1985) or Kahikinui, Maui (Kirch, ed.,
1997). We strongly suspect that there is some tem-
poral patterning in this diversity, with the fully en-
closed, high-walled sites (particularly those with
formal entryways) representing post-contact devel-
opments, and the windbreak structures represent-
ing pre-contact or early historic forms. This hy-
pothesis will need to be tested through a program
of excavations and dating. In contrast, residential
sites found in the valleys and on the Nihoa landshelf
typically consist of terraces, platforms, or pave-
ments, similar in all respects to the range of habita-
tion features known from other windward locali-
ties such as Halawa Valley (Kirch and Kelly 1975).
The known ritual structures of the Kalaupapa
Region (heiau and ko'a) are likewise notable in
their range of architectural variation.' They include
massive terraced stone platforms constructed on
the important colluvial slopes, exemplified by Site
289, as well as walled enclosures such as the par-
tially-destroyed heiau at Kalawao. Several of the
sites recorded and mapped by our team appear to
display orientations which may have cardinal geo-
graphic or astronomical significance, an aspect of
heiau orientation recently noted for the Kahikinui
district of Maui. If such preferred orientations are
103
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
confirmed for heiau within the Kalaupapa Region,
this might suggest a degree of cultural connection
between the late pre-contact polities of Maui and
Moloka'i.
Although plants are not usually considered as
an aspect of the archaeological record per se, the
vegetation communities associated with archaeo-
logical sites do constitute an aspect of the larger
legacy or record of human land use and of the cu-
mulative, historical enculturation of landscapes. In
our surveys, we therefore paid some attention to
the range of plants associated with archaeological
sites, and have provided information on our eth-
nobotanical observations throughout this volume.
Here too, we find aspects of variation with poten-
tial significance for understanding the diversity of
cultural practices within the Kalaupapa Region.
While the main crop plants themselves, such as taro
or sweet potato, have rarely survived since the aban-
donment of the dryland and irrigated agricultural
complexes (with the exception of some feral
Colocasia in Wailau Valley), other plants of eco-
nomic importance continue to persist in parts of
KNHP. For example, a close correspondence was
observed in Wai'ale'ia and Wailau valleys, as well
as on the Nihoa landshelf, between stands of Pan-
danus or hala and habitation terraces. As Meilleur
et al. (1997) have pointed out, such isolated stands
are likely to preserve a range of genetic variation
which may have disappeared elsewhere in the ar-
chipelago. They are thus a part of the larger cul-
tural resource base which deserves to be protected
and preserved every bit as much as inanimate ar-
chaeological features.
An ethnobotanical phenomenon of much in-
terest to our team was the discovery of an exten-
sive grove of milo (Thespesia populnea) trees in
the central part of the Nihoa landshelf. Virtually
monospecific in composition, this stand suggests
to us the possibility that the occupants of Nihoa
may have developed, as at least part of their local
economic strategy, a form of specialized silvicul-
ture possibly linked with production of milo wood
objects. The ubiquitous presence of basalt lithics,
including several adz sections, provides collabo-
rative evidence for specialized woodworking. In
this instance, a combination of archaeological and
ethnobotanical observations leads to a hypothesis
that might not have been evident otherwise.
To sum up, the Kalaupapa Region, as encom-
passed within the boundaries of KNHP, displays a
remarkable range of variation in archaeological
sites, in plant communities with ethnobotanical as-
sociations, and indeed in the diversity of cultural
landscapes as these can be inferred from historical
and archaeological evidence. In the senior author's
experience of nearly 40 years field research
throughout the Hawaiian Islands, it would be diffi-
cult to find another region of similar size display-
ing as great a range of variability and diversity as
Kalaupapa. Clearly, this presents both a challenge
and an opportunity-as well as a responsibility. The
challenge lies in seeking to fully discover, record,
and understand this unparalleled mosaic of cultural
landscapes, while the opportunity is that provided
to researchers who have the advantage of explor-
ing virtually the entire scope of traditional Hawai-
ian land use practices within the confines of a single
administrative unit (the KNHP). The responsibil-
ity, need we point out, is that of assuring that the
archaeological, ethnobotanical, and cultural re-
sources of the Kalaupapa Region will be protected
and preserved so that these may continue to yield
new insights into Hawaiian culture-history, continu-
ing to offer inspiration and enlightenment for gen-
erations to follow.
SOME MAJOR RESEARCH ISSUES
We turn now to a set of specific research issues
and questions arising from our reconnaissance work
in the Kalaupapa Region. We do not imply that
these are the only important questions, but they
seem to us to be among the core research prob-
lems calling out for continued and more intensive
investigations. Their resolution will require not only
more extensive surface survey of archaeological
sites in different part of the KNHP, but also tar-
geted excavations and innovative kinds of labora-
tory analysis.
L CHRONJOLOGY OF HUMANY OCCUPA TIONY
AIYD LAND USE
An enduring problem that has engaged several
generations of Hawaiian archaeologists is that of
the timing of initial Polynesian discovery and settle-
ment of the archipelago. The pendulum of schol-
104
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
arly opinion has swung back and forth several
times since Kenneth Emory obtained the first set
of radiocarbon dates from such sites as Kuli'ou'ou
Rockshelter on 0'ahu and the Pu'u Ali'i sand dune
site at South Point, Hawai'i (Emory, Bonk, and
Sinoto 1959), the latter at first thought to evidence
colonization as early as the first century A.D. Later
work suggested that initial Polynesian arrival in the
archipelago might not have occurred until perhaps
A.D. 750, and recent paleoenvironmental evidence
from 0'ahu (Athens 1997; Athens et al., 2002) sug-
gests that a date of ca. A.D. 800 is perhaps the best
estimate, at least for that island. However, prob-
lems with the dating of several early sites, includ-
ing Pu'u Ali'i and the Bellows Dune Site (018) on
O'ahu remain unsatisfactorily resolved (Dye 1992;
Tuggle and Spriggs 2000). Moreover, the question
of initial Hawaiian settlement is encapsulated within
a larger debate concerning the colonization of East-
ern Polynesia as a whole, in which proponents of
both a "long" and a "short" chronology have taken
what at times appear to be polarized positions (Irwin
1981; Kirch 1986, 2000; Spriggs and Anderson
1993). Those advocating a longer chronology find
the Hawaiian evidence for settlement by at least
A.D. 800 (if not slightly earlier) to be significant, as
this strongly contradicts the extreme short chro-
nologists' view that the whole of Eastern Polynesia
was not explored or settlement prior to about A.D.
1200.
Within this larger debate (which shows no signs
of resolution in the immediate future) the island of
Moloka'i has figured significantly. The Halawa
Dune Site, at the mouth of Halawa Valley and yield-
ing adzes, fishhooks, and other forms of material
culture distinctively different from later
protohistoric Hawaiian styles, was dated by Kirch
(in Kirch and Kelly, eds., 1975) to about A.D. 600,
and placed within his Developmental Period for
the Hawaiian cultural sequence (Kirch 1985).2 Syn-
thesizing a suite of 48 radiocarbon dates then avail-
able for Moloka'i sites, Weisler (1989:126, 137)
drew attention to one sample (Beta-9276) from the
Kaupikiawa Rockshelter in Kalawao ahupua'a, a
sample which had been excavated by Pearson in
1966 and subsequently submitted for analysis by
Gary Somers in 1984. Weisler commented that this
sample, with a conventional age of 880 ? 70 B.P.,
was the "2nd oldest date for Moloka'i," and "sug-
gests use of Kalaupapa Peninsula during the late
Developmental (A.D. 600-1100) to early Expansion
period (A.D. 1100-1650) for exploitation of marine
resources" (1989:137). The date has more than
once been cited in literature pertaining to
Kalaupapa, for example by Somers (1985:117), as
evidence that the Kalaupapa Peninsula has been
continuously occupied for as long as 1,000 years.
Our resampling and redating of the Kaupikiawa
Rockshelter, described above in this volume,
strongly suggest that the 1966 Pearson sample
yielded an age too old by two to three centuries,
and that initial human activity at the rockshelter
actually dates to the mid-14th century.3 Moreover,
this early charcoal deposition may reflect only in-
termittent and low-intensity human activity in the
site vicinity, with permanent utilization of the shel-
ter commencing even later in time, during the last
one or two centuries prior to European contact (e.g.,
the Proto Historic Period of Kirch [1985]). Our re-
vision of the depositional sequence and chronol-
ogy for the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter is more con-
sistent with the widespread pattern of population
expansion into ecologically marginal zones dur-
ing the later Expansion and even Proto Historic
Periods. Situated near the northern end of the pen-
insula, in an area dominated by bare pahoehoe lava
outcrops with limited soil, and where rainfall is the
lowest, the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter seemed an
unlikely choice for early settlement. Thus, revis-
ing the date of its use to the late Expansion and
Proto Historic Periods implies that the northern,
marginal fringe of the peninsula as a whole more
likely dates to this later time frame.
Revising the Weisler-Somer early chronology
for Kaupikiawa Rockshelter, however, by no means
negates the assertion that the larger Kalaupapa
Region has a lengthy settlement history, one that
could well date back into the Developmental Pe-
riod, or possibly even earlier. Here our new radio-
carbon date of 780 ? 40 B.P. from the lower
pondfield cultivation horizon in the Waikolu irri-
gation complex, calibrated to A.D. 1200-1290, is
most relevant. This sample-which, we stress,
needs to be confirmed with additional excavation
and dates-derives from an intensive agricultural
facility which bespeaks permanent and well-estab-
lished settlement. Situated on prime arable land at
the mouth of Waikolu Valley, this is precisely the
105
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
kind of landscape for which a generalized wet/dry
ecological model of Polynesian landscapes would
predict early settlement (Kirch 1984). The setting
is, in fact, quite comparable to that for the early
Halawa Dune Site, with the proviso that Halawa
Valley has better and year-round canoe landing
access than Waikolu (the latter having an exposed
boulder beach that can be impossible to land on
during winter storms).
Aside from the question of when the Kalaupapa
Region was first settled by colonizing Polynesians,
and in what specific ecological zones settlement
was first established, there is the larger matter of
establishing a chronological sequence for the re-
gion. At present, with six radiocarbon dates in evi-
dence, the Kaupikiawa Rockshelter is the only site
within KNHP which can be said to be relatively
secured dated. The single date from Waikolu hints
at a long sequence of agricultural intensification,
but needs to be confirmed and followed up by more
work. For the vast dryland field system that covers
much of the peninsula, we have only a single ra-
diocarbon date of 510 ? 80 B.P., obtained by
Ladefoged (1990:176) from a test pit on the pe-
riphery of the system, which might be taken to sug-
gest that at least some portions of the system be-
gan to be constructed by the 14th to 15th-centuries
A.D., within the mid-to-later Expansion Period.
Working out the chronology for. the development
of the field system will be a complex task, one re-
quiring extensive excavations and a larger number
of high-precision radiocarbon dates on specifically
identified materials (see below).
A long-established tenet of modem archaeol-
ogy holds that a robust chronology is the frame-
work upon which culture-history and interpreta-
tion (whether of so-called processual or post-
processual schools) must be based. For the
Kalaupapa Region, the work of establishing such
a temporal framework has only just begun, yet all
subsequent interpretation will depend upon it. In
our view, then, a program of carefully targeted ex-
cavations in a diversity of site types, including habi-
tation, economic, and ritual structures, coupled with
a program of radiocarbon dating of these sites, must
be one of the highest priorities for archaeological
research within KNHP. Moreover, such dating needs
to be executed using the most sophisticated tech-
niques available, which at a minimum should in-
clude specific-level identification of all samples (to
avoid the problem of "old wood" and similar
sources of in-built error), selection whenever pos-
sible of short-lived taxa to assure that the dated
event corresponds to the target event (Dean 1978),
and use of the AMS dating method to assure maxi-
mum precision.
2. ORIGINS AIYD DEVELOPMENT OF thE
KALAUPAPA FIELD SYSTEM
One of the large-scale processes that was inti-
mately associated with the rise, in the Hawaiian
archipelago, of the largest and most socio-politi-
cally complex of all Polynesian cultures, was the
intensification of agricultural production systems
(Kirch 2000:317-21). The issue as to whether such
intensification is ultimately to be understood as a
response to an underlying demographic causality,
or was itself a prime causal factor in allowing later
Hawaiian populations to expand at near-exponen-
tial rates of increase, depends on one's theoretical
position vis-'a-vis the Malthus-Boserup debate on
the linkages between population and technology
(Kirch 1994:15-20; Morrison 1994). Our own view
lies somewhere in the middle, with the suggestion
that causality is neither simple nor linear. Such theo-
retical debates to the side, however, there can be
no doubt that beginning in the Expansion Period-
around the 12th to 13th centuries A.D.-and con-
tinuing in some localities even after European con-
tact (e.g., the Anahulu Valley [Kirch and Sahlins
1992]), Hawaiian landscapes were remarkably
transformed through high levels of human labor.
Wherever flowing water was available, valley bot-
toms and alluvial plains were converted to exten-
sive systems of irrigated pondfield terraces, as for
example in Waikolu Valley. In dryland zones where
surface water was scarce, or seasonally limited,
other forms of agricultural intensification were de-
veloped, these largely emphasizing the cultivation
of sweet potato, but also dryland taro, Dioscorea
yams, and other secondary crops (Handy 1940).
The physical remains of such dryland cultivation
systems are more varied than those of wetland, ir-
rigated systems, and include several kinds of for-
mal "field systems" with permanent field divisions
(field walls) that variously run either along or per-
pendicular to the slope contours (such as the Kohala
106
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
and Kona field systems of Hawai'i Island), as well
as a host of minor features such as mounds, enclo-
sures, modified outcrops, low terraces and so forth.
The archaeological vestiges of such dryland agri-
cultural systems have been the subject of consid-
erable research, beginning with Newman's pioneer-
ing work in the late 1960s and continuing to the
present (e.g., Newman 1970; Rosendahl 1994;
Schilt 1984; Clark and Kirch, eds., 1983;
Ladefoged and Graves 2000; Allen, ed., 2001;
McCoy 1999).
Extending over much of the Kalaupapa Penin-
sula is one of the most remarkable examples of
such a dryland field system, and the only formal
system of this type known outside of Hawai'i Is-
land.4 By "formal system," we mean one in which
the individual cultivation plots or fields are defined
by boundary walls or divisions. In the Kalaupapa
case, these formal field walls or alignments have a
preferred north-south orientation, hence placing
them perpendicular to the dominant trade winds
and suggesting that one major function of the walls
was to provide a parallel series of windbreaks. The
close spacing of many of the walls, however, is
quite unlike the situation in either the well-docu-
mented Kohala or Kona systems, with distances be-
tween parallel stone rows often no more than 2-4
meters. Thus, stone clearance as well as wind pro-
tection may have been involved in the agronomic
functioning of the alignments. Then too, it is evi-
dent that these stone alignments, once created,
served to permanently define and demarcate plot
boundaries, conferring a kind of sociological grid
over the area of intensively cultivated land. We have
shown, for example, that in the Mahele land records
there is a tendency for kula or dryland claims to be
very narrow and long in their dimensions.
The Kalaupapa field system has yet to be
mapped in its entirety over the peninsula, or its
range of variation defined. Preliminary air photo
interpretation by the National Park Service (R.
Hommon, pers. comm., 2000) shows that the grid
of field walls is unevenly distributed, with sectors
of greater density of walls. Air photo interpreta-
tion, moreover, is reliable only for parts of the ter-
rain where vegetation cover is relatively low.5 In
our reconnaissance project, we focused on one
sample transect across the field system, the
Kaupikiawa Transect, using intensive ground sur-
vey (including plane table mapping of field walls)
to record not only the field system stone alignments,
but other kinds of stone structures dispersed within
the system. Aside from Ladefoged's limited work
on a peripheral part of the field system near the
Kalaupapa airport (1990), our transect survey rep-
resents the first attempt to study a portion of the
field system at close range.
One of the most important findings emerging
from our Kaupikiawa Transect survey is that a di-
versity of stone structures are indeed integrated
within the field system, and that these include nu-
merous features that are residential in function.
Some of these features, such as the KT- 1 to -6 sites
forming a cluster near the eastern coast, are cer-
tainly of post-contact age (based on the presence
of European type artifacts). Others, however, es-
pecially those situated on higher ground in the
western part of our transect, seemed to us to be of
pre-contact age, based on architectural form, ab-
sence of European artifacts, and presence of tradi-
tional Hawaiian artifacts such as basalt lithics. These
features also seem to form small clusters (such as
the KT-18 to -22 cluster) which may represent tra-
ditional kau hale or household groups. The appar-
ent integration of pre-contact residential structures
within the field system is significant, since this sug-
gests that the system itself is likely to have pre-
contact origins.
Historical records (e.g., Morgan 1948) make it
clear that Kalaupapa was a major source of sweet
potato and Irish potato exports to California dur-
ing the Gold Rush, and on this evidence Ladefoged
(1993) argued that the Kalaupapa dryland field
system may have seen a significant although short-
term phase of intensification in response to the Pa-
cific economy of the mid-19th century. However,
based on his work in the vicinity of the Kalaupapa
airport, where a 19th century sweet potato farm-
stead was identified and later excavated (Goodwin
1994), Ladefoged has gone farther in pushing his
view that the Kalaupapa field system may be largely
of historic period age: "The archaeological and
ethnohistorical evidence from Kalaupapa suggests
that the intensive field system found throughout
the peninsula was not primarily a prehistoric phe-
nomenon but was extensively elaborated during the
historic period" (1993:128, emphasis added).
Based on our own Kaupikiawa Transect sur-
107
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
vey, we are skeptical of Ladefoged's rather sweep-
ing claim, that the Kalaupapa field system is largely
of historic age. While concurring absolutely that
there was an important phase of reintensification
associated with the Gold Rush and the large mid-
19th century Pacific economy, we would pose an
alternative hypothesis: that the peninsular field sys-
tem developed more gradually and incrementally,
over a period of perhaps several centuries, begin-
ning during the mid-to-late Expansion Period and
extending on into the Proto Historic Period.6 The
history of its development, we suggest, was more
likely to have been parallel to those of the Kona
and Kohala systems, and linked (whether as cause
or effect, or some combination of both) to the high
rates of population growth and density which have
now been so well documented for the later phases
of Hawaiian prehistory. Most likely, given the sick-
ening demographic collapse throughout the islands
after European contact and introduction of foreign
diseases (Bushnell 1993), the Kalaupapa field sys-
tem underwent a phase of disintensification in the
early part of the 19th century, as did many indig-
enous Pacific agricultural systems (Brookfield
1972). However, the infrastructure of the system,
and the agronomic knowledge of how to produce
high sweet potato yields within its boundaries, were
still intact in 1849, when the influx of "49-ers" to
California suddenly sent a wave of demand for
foodstuffs out across the Pacific. That the Kalaupapa
system was able to respond to this immediate de-
mand so rapidly-within a single year increasing
production dramatically-is evidence in itself that
the system was fundamentally in place, and not
something created de novo.
To be sure, our alternative hypothesis now
needs to be tested in the field, and this can only be
accomplished through an intensive program of
detailed study, including excavations and dating
of both agricultural features and the associated resi-
dential sites. Working out the history of the
Kalaupapa field system, we believe, will in fact be
key to understanding much that was central to the
development of traditional life on the peninsula.
In drawing attention to the Kalaupapa field sys-
tem, we do not intend to underemphasize the im-
portance of the other agricultural systems whose
archaeological remains dominate the landscape of
the Kalaupapa Region. These include the zone of
colluvial slopes between the peninsula and the high
cliffs, which as we have already mentioned seem
to have been an equally important economic zone,
marked by extensive sets of dryland terraces and
also by a number of large heiau sites. Waikolu Val-
ley, for its part, was a major zone of wet taro pro-
duction, and we have partially recorded and dated
one irrigated pondfield system at the valley mouth.
Our brief reconnaissance forays into the interior of
Waikolu indicate the presence of extensive sets of
pondfields, some of which may have been modi-
fied and intensified in the 19th or early 20th centu-
ries under the economic incentives of taro produc-
tion for the leprosy settlement. Certainly, these col-
luvial slope and valley agricultural systems also
deserve intensive archaeological study, and will
contribute to the overall historical understanding
of the Kalaupapa Region.
3. RISE OF THE KOOLAU POLITY
Viewed within a broad, comparative Polynesian
context, the prehistory of the Hawaiian Islands
stands out for the degree to which this branch of
the Polynesian "cultural phylogeny" elaborated and
intensified its sociopolitical organization and struc-
ture. By the Proto-Historic Period, the final cen-
tury and a half prior to Cook's arrival, Hawaiian
society had undergone radical transformations from
its Ancestral Polynesian form. Within the range of
structural diversity exhibited by Polynesian
sociopolitical systems, Hawaii may arguably be
taken to represent a historical working out to its de-
velopmental endpoint, of the inherent possibilities of
the Polynesian chiefdom "type" of social formation.
In Stone Age Economics, Sahlins wrote that
... a few of the Polynesian societies, Hawaii particu-
larly, take the primitive contradiction between the
domestic and public economies to an ultimate crisis-
revelatory it seems not only of this disconformity but of
the economic and political limits of kinship society
(1972:141, emphasis added).
What is especially interesting-and of the greatest
possible import for understanding how a
"chiefdom" might be transformed into an "archaic
state", is the apparent sundering of the classic
Polynesian structure of land-holding descent (or
"ascent") groups.7 To again quote Sahlins:
Hawaii is missing the segmentary polity of descent
groups known to cognate Polynesian peoples:
108
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
organization of the land as a pyramid of embedded
lineages, with a corresponding hierarchy of ancestral
cults, property rights, and chiefly titles, all based on
genealogical priority within the group of common
descent (1985:20).
Tracing the evolution of Hawaiian sociopolitical
organization has been a concern of archaeologists
for several decades (e.g., Hommon 1986; Cordy
1974, 2000; Kirch 1984, 1985; Kolb 1994), both
from the perspectives of empirically documenting
various material changes in the archaeological
record reflective of sociopolitical transformations,
and of understanding the causal factors contribut-
ing to these changes. Recent efforts have attempted
to integrate archaeological evidence with the in-
digenous record of oral traditions pertaining to
chiefly genealogies, marriages, wars of conquest,
and other political affairs, such as Cordy's (2000)
reconstruction of Hawai'i Island ancient history and
Abad's (2000) study of Hawaiian sociopolitical
complexity based on the traditional histories of the
four major islands. These new studies have the
advantage of combining materialist archaeologi-
cal evidence for sociopolitical change (e.g., changes
in settlement pattern, or sequences of heiau con-
struction and elaboration) with an indigenous cul-
tural perspective that provides an emic or
"insider's" view of how the political process oper-
ated.
In these recent studies, Moloka'i remains
largely neglected, in part because the ethnohistoric
record of oral traditions pertaining to Moloka'i
chiefs is incomplete and less well documented than
for the larger islands of Hawai'i, Maui, O'ahu, and
Kaua'i.8 Summers (1971:4-20) syntheses the avail-
able genealogical and traditional accounts, which
indicate that Moloka'i was originally an indepen-
dent chiefdom polity, with Kamauaua as its first
recorded ali'i nui or paramount chief (dated by ge-
nealogical reckoning to the 13th century A.D.). Dur-
ing the late Expansion and Proto Historic Periods,
the island became entangled at various times in
wars and invasions featuring prominent ali'i from
the larger islands, such as the war between the Kona
and Ko'olau factions of the island in which Kuali'i
of O'ahu came to the aid of the Kona chiefs. On
the cusp of European contact, Moloka'i was sub-
jugated by the O'ahu paramount Peleioholani, only
then to be taken control of by the Maui king
Kahekili in 1785 when he invaded and conquered
O'ahu. Between 1790 and 1795, control of
Moloka'i shifted to the Hawai'i paramount
Kamehameha, then back to Kahekili, and finally
and decisively to Kamehameha. In short, what we
can glean from the oral traditions is a history in
which Moloka'i was originally an independent
polity, albeit with long-standing tensions between
two internal factions, the chiefs of the respective
Kona (dry, leeward) and Ko'olau (wet, windward)
sides of the island. Wars between the Kona and
Ko'olau factions more than once attracted chiefs
of the larger islands to join in support of one side
or the other, which may have heightened interest
in bringing the island under their sway. In the final
decades of the Proto Historic Period, Moloka'i had
become a prize claimed and fought over by the
larger and predatory Maui and O'ahu polities ly-
ing to the east and west respectively.
As sketchy as it is, this political history sug-
gests that an island-wide degree of political inte-
gration may have first been achieved around the
13th century A.D., or the early part of the Expan-
sion Period, a phase of key cultural changes
throughout the archipelago, including rapid popu-
lation growth and settlement expansion. However,
the traditions also suggest that internal tensions
between the leeward and windward parts of the is-
land were long-standing. In this history, the
Kalaupapa Region figures as part of the Ko'olau
or windward polity, which evidently incorporated
the peninsula with the four great windward valleys
of Halawa, Wailau, Pelekunu, and Waikolu. That
these locales should have been joined by a com-
mon identity is not surprising, given that they all
featured an economic infrastructure based on taro
irrigation, and were presumably linked by regular
canoe traffic between their bays. Indeed, with the
high productivity conferred by their extensive irri-
gation systems, along with the dryland field sys-
tem of Kalaupapa, the Ko'olau polity would have
had significant economic resources at its command.
Disadvantages lay in the paucity or absence of coral
reefs and inshore fisheries (in contrast, the Kona
chiefdom boasted the most extensive array of fish-
ponds in the archipelago), and in the difficulties of
inter-valley communication during the stormy win-
ter months.
Working out the history of the sociopolitical
109
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
development of the Ko'olau polity over the sev-
eral centuries spanning the Expansion and Proto
Historic Periods is a challenge that will have to be
addressed largely by field archaeology, as it seems
unlikely that new or expanded sources of traditional
history will be forthcoming. In such an endeavor,
the Kalaupapa Region will play an important role.
Among the key sources of material evidence are
the many heiau and ko'a, ritual structures, that were
constructed by and for the ruling elite, and where
the varied and elaborate ceremonies legitimating
the politico-religious system of domination over
land, labor, and resources were held during the
annual ritual cycles. As this system itself changed
and evolved in relation to the transformation of
social organization and the chiefship, the temples
themselves were changed and elaborated, so that
in their constructional histories they encapsulate a
key record of cultural change. Accessing this record
will require a great deal of careful field research,
beginning with detailed mapping and architectural
recording, and interpretation of temple sites within
their larger archaeological landscapes. Ultimately,
however, it will also be necessary to develop tem-
poral sequences for these sites, requiring excava-
tion and dating, as has been done for a few temple
sites on other islands (e.g., Kane'aki Heiau on
O'ahu, or several sites studied by Kolb [1994] on
Maui). The excavation of heiau is, -f course, a sen-
sitive matter which will require careful consulta-
tion with the Native Hawaiian community. Ideally,
such excavations could be undertaken in consort
with a program of stabilization and restoration of
heiau structures, as many of these sites have suf-
fered through partial collapse and weakening of
foundations by overgrowth of exotic vegetation.
In any event, unraveling the longer term
sociopolitical history of the Ko'olau chiefdom, and
Kalaupapa's role in this history, will only be pos-
sible when the material record contained within the
suite of heiau is itself revealed.
4. HISTORIC PERIOD TRArISFORMA TIONS
As noted in the Introduction, our 2000 recon-
naissance survey explicitly excluded consideration
of known 19th and 20th century archaeological
sites, although some of the structures we recorded
do clearly date to the post-contact era. While our
own emphasis was on the variability to be found in
the range of pre-contact sites, there is without doubt
tremendous scope for "historic archaeology" within
the KNHP. Indeed, the complexity and richness of
the historic-period archaeological record of the
Kalaupapa Region rivals its prehistoric-period vari-
ability, reinforcing the overall significance of KNHP
for understanding and interpreting Hawaiian his-
tory, both before and following European contact.
One major set of historic period transforma-
tions occurred between the phase of initial contact
with Europeans and ends prior to the conversion
of the peninsula to an isolated colony for sufferers
of Hansen's disease. From the final decades of the
18th century until the advent of the major changes
in land tenure-known collectively as the Great
Mahele-Hawaiian economy, society, and politico-
religious systems underwent a rapid series of
changes, in part as responses to the rapidly-expand-
ing Pacific sector of the so-called "World System"
(Wallerstein 1974). But, as Kirch and Sahlins
(1992) have shown in their integrated
ethnohistorical-archaeology study of the Anahulu
Valley, O'ahu, the nature of these changes was
strongly mediated by distinctively Hawaiian cul-
tural patterns, and thus not merely the local mani-
festation of an expanding, generalized world capi-
talism. For the Anahulu case, Kirch and Sahlins
outline a three-phase historical sequence: begin-
ning with the period of inter-island wars and con-
quests (A.D. 1778-1812), culminating in
Kamehameha's hegemony over all of the archi-
pelago excepting Kaua'i Island; continuing with a
phase of early mercantile developments marked by
the sandalwood trade, and also encompassing the
arrival of the first Protestant missionaries (A.D. 1812-
1830); and, culminating in the "Whaling Period"
(A.D. 1830-1860) when the expanding whale-ship
provisioning trade led to major economic
restructurings, and at mid-century, the Great Mahele
division of lands which forever and irreversibly
ended the relations of production upon which tra-
ditional Hawaiian society had been founded.
These same periods provide a guide for the
kinds of historical transformations that undoubt-
edly changed the Kalaupapa Region and its inhab-
itants' lifeways. Moloka'i was itself subject to the
inter-island rivalries of Kahekili and Kamehameha,
at the same time that its population was suffering
110
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
from the ravages of introduced diseases, leading
to a large-scale population decline. How such
changes are reflected in the archaeological record
of the region is a problem awaiting investigation,
but one likely consequence was a phase of
disintensification of the dryland field system on the
peninsula, and perhaps also of portions of the val-
ley irrigation systems. Religious conversion, of
course, had as one consequence the abandonment
of the temples, now becoming fossilized witnesses
of the final stage of the traditional ritual system.
The effects of the ever-expanding World System
were locally expressed in a most dramatic fashion
by the demand for potato exports occasioned by
the California Gold Rush in 1849, with Kalaupapa
becoming a major supplier, probably expressed
archaeologically by a reintensification of the field
system.
From 1846-52, the inhabitants of Kalaupapa
and the adjacent valleys participated in the various
phases of the Great Mahele, beginning with the al-
location of the principal ahupua'a to the ali'i, and
followed by the submission of claims on the part
of the maka'ainana or common people for their
customary agricultural lands and house lots, these
being only in part awarded by the Land Commis-
sion. It is probable that certain archaeological fea-
tures in the region reflect the consequences of this
land reallocation, such as enclosing walls associ-
ated with particular claims, and quite possibly even
the construction of the large boundary wall sepa-
rating Kalawao and Makanalua ahupua 'a.
Those maka'ainana who did receive their
claims, however, had only a few years in which to
enjoy the fruits of their new status as landholders,
for in 1865-66 the Kingdom acquired title of the
ahupua'a of Kalawao, Makanalua, and Kalaupapa
in order to create an isolation colony for the rap-
idly increasing population of persons who had been
diagnosed with ma'i Pake, leprosy, or Hansen's dis-
ease as it is called today. This conversion of the
Kalaupapa Region into a leprosy settlement resulted
in enormous changes to the local settlement pat-
terns, and to a significant restructuring of the ar-
chaeological record. Much of Kalawao ahupua'a
was converted into a formal settlement with houses,
churches, schools, a water system (which in turn
caused major land transformations in both
Wai'ale'ia and Waikolu Valleys), roads, and by the
early 19th century, a large U. S. Federal Leprosy
Investigation Station.9 In the early 20th century,
the settlement was moved to Kalaupapa, on the
westem side of the peninsula, where it remains to-
day. With the exception of the two churches, the
Kalawao settlement was abandoned and thus its
ruins today encapsulate a sort of "time capsule" of
the leprosy settlement between its founding in 1865-
66 and the movement to the new Kalaupapa settle-
ment after 1900. The potentials for historical ar-
chaeology here are, needless to say, outstanding.
CHAPTLER 9 ENDNOTES
I McCoy (MS) reports the discovery, or rediscovery, or sev-
eral additional heiau during his summer 2002 field season.
These include a "large heiau" on the colluvial slopes in
Kalawao, and another terraced stone platform which may cor-
respond to Stokes' hana aloha heiau (Summers' site 302).
2Weisler (1989:124) mistakenly referred to the Halawa
Dune Site as dating to Kirch's Colonization Period, but
Kirch (1985:302) was quite explicit in assigning it to the
succeeding Developmental Period.
I We suspect that the age of the 1966 Pearson sample cor-
rectly dates a large bulk sample of mature, dryland forest
wood, but does not correctly date initial human use of the
rockshelter; i.e., the dated event does not correspond to
the "target date" for human occupation, in the sense of
Dean (1978). It is therefore most likely an instance of the
"old wood" factor so pervasive in radiocarbon dating.
4Other extensive dryland agricultural zones have been iden-
tified, such as the dryland colluvial slopes of Makaha Val-
ley, O'ahu, portions of which were carefully mapped and
studied by Hommon (1969, 1970), but these lack the for-
mality of walls separating individual garden plots.
I Vegetation cover is much heavier on the western slope of
Kauhako crater, where the trade winds are less severe and
such exotic plants as Christmas Berry and Java Plum form
111
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
a closed canopy cover. Recent survey by Mark McCoy
(MS) has shown that dryland agricultural features are to
found under this canopy, yet are not visible in the aerial
photos.
6Ladefoged's single radiocarbon date from a buried fea-
ture, of 510 ? 80 B.P., provides some minimal evidence in
support of this hypothesis.
7 On the nature of Ancestral Polynesian social organiza-
tion, including land-holding ascent groups, see Kirch and
Green (2001).
8 As Abad (2000:36-45) points out, this reflects the geo-
graphic origins of the main 19th-century scholars who col-
lected and synthesized the extant body of Hawaiian oral
traditions: David Malo was of Hawai'i Island origins and
later lived and worked on Maui, while Samuel Kamakau
traced his descent to families of O'ahu and Kaua'i. Abraham
Fornander was a haole who married a chiefess, Alanakapu
Kina'u, of Moloka'i origins, and not surprisingly much of
the little we know of Moloka'i traditions derives from
Fornander's writings (Summers 1971:7).
9 The ruins of this federal station, consisting of rows of
concrete pilings and other features, cover a significant part
of Kalawao.
CHAPTER 1 0
A LONG RANGE PROGRAM FOR
KALAUPAPA ARCHAEOLOGY
The main contribution of our
_   2000 reconnaissance survey of
portions of the Kalaupapa Region
1   has been to add to our understand-
ing of the tremendous range of ar-
chaeological (and ethnobotanical) landscapes
within the Kalaupapa Region. Building upon the
pioneering work of Stokes and Summers, and of
the more limited studies by Somers, Ladefoged,
Goodwin, and others, we have been able to exam-
ine a greater range of microenvironments contained
within the boundaries of KNHP, from the deep am-
phitheater valley of Waikolu, to the colluvial slopes
of Kalawao, the field system of the peninsula
proper, and to the remote landshelf of Nihoa. As
this report was in the final stages of production, a
second University of California, Berkeley, field
team carried out a second field season at KNHP,
extending survey into new areas of the colluvial
slope zone, the Kaupikiawa Transect (extending
our 2000 transect farther to the west, across the
Kalawao-Makanalua boundary wall), and begin-
ning a new transect on the western slopes of
Kauhako Crater (Mark McCoy [MS], and pers.
comm., 2002). Their preliminary results confirm
that the full range of variability in the archaeologi-
cal landscapes of the Kalaupapa Region has yet to
be exhausted.
Without doubt, the Kalaupapa Region and the
KNHP hold an archaeological and historical legacy
rivaling any other part of the archipelago, collec-
tively a suite of "cultural resources" with great po-
tential to add to and enhance our understanding
and appreciation of the long sweep of Hawaiian
history, from the arrival of early Polynesian voy-
agers, through the development of hierarchical
chiefdoms and their intensive economic bases, to
the dramatic transformations of the post-contact era.
The 2000 and 2002 University of California, Ber-
keley, surveys have documented this archaeologi-
cal potential; what is now required is a long-term
program of research to extend our knowledge base
beyond a reconnaissance level, and to begin to
address the major research topics and issues just
outlined.
Kalaupapa is now in a major phase of transi-
tion. Still in part a Hansen's disease settlement, the
number of remaining patients is finite and decreas-
ing. Within a few years, the State of Hawai'i Health
Department is expected to relinquish administra-
tive control of the region, and the National Park
Service-which has already taken on significant
aspects of environmental and cultural resource
management-will become the primary if not ex-
clusive agency responsible for the area encom-
passed by Kalawao County (the present area of
KNHP).
In creating the Kalaupapa National Historical
113
DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS
Park, the U. S. Congress declared its intent that one
aim of the Park would be "to research, preserve,
and maintain important historic structures, tradi-
tional Hawaiian sites, cultural values, and natural
features" (Public Law 96-565, Section 102; 1980).
Given the extent to which the saga of the leprosy
settlement and of Father Damien have overshad-
owed the history of Kalaupapa, however, there is a
tendency in the minds of the public at large as well
as of those charged with administration and man-
agement of the Park, to emphasize those aspects of
Kalaupapa associated with its post-1865 history.
We can only reiterate and underscore the words of
NPS archaeologist Gary F. Somers, who conducted
the first intensive-level survey of a portion of
Kalaupapa, and who titled his report "Kalaupapa,
More than a Leprosy Settlement" (Somers 1985).
Indeed, our own research has convinced us that
Somers was not exaggerating when he claimed that
"the sheer number and types of archaeological re-
sources that exist today, the possibility that there
has been 900 to 1,000 years of occupation and use
within the park, and the excellent state of preser-
vation of the resources combine to make Kalaupapa
National Historical Park one of the richest and most
valuable archaeological preserves in Hawaii"
(1985:117).
Somers concluded his 1985 report with a set of
six specific recommendations, alH still relevant to-
day. In particular, he urged that "archaeologists
from other institutions . . . be encouraged to coop-
erate with the National Park Service and to con-
duct archaeological research at Kalaupapa to as-
sist the National Park Service in its attempts to un-
derstand and interpret the prehistory and early his-
tory of the park" (p. 119). It was with this recom-
mendation in mind that we undertook the 2000
survey, which was collaboratively financed and
supported by the University of California, Berke-
ley, and the NPS. Our fieldwork was continued in
2002, and plans are being laid for continued col-
laboration in the future. Given the extent and vari-
ability of archaeological resources within KNHP,
however, and the diversity of research problems to
be addressed, there is surely scope for more than
one university or institution to become involved
with the NPS in this long-term collaborative en-
deavor.
To conclude this report-on merely the first
phase of what we anticipate and hope will be a
long-term endeavor-we express our appreciation
to the National Park Service for inviting us to ex-
plore the archaeological landscapes of the
Kalaupapa Region. Our team has had the unique
prerogative and intellectual excitement of discov-
ering new sites hidden within thickets of exotic
Christmas Berry and lantana, of seeing first-hand
the diversity of archaeological remains that make
this such a remarkable region. We trust that our
initial results have added in some measure to our
collective knowledge of the archaeological re-
sources and culture history of the KNHP, and will
help to set the course of a continuing research en-
deavor. From the majestic valley of Waikolu, across
the broad sweep of the peninsula under the tower-
ing cliffs of Keolewa, to the sea of Papaloa, and
the fragrant hala groves of Nihoa beyond, the
Kalaupapa Region truly deserves not only to be
studied, researched, and investigated, but preserved,
protected, and treasured.
114
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA'
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LIST OF SITES RECORDED
APPENDIX
LIST OF SITES RECORDED
SITE NUMBER                        SITE TYPE                         GPS         GPS
EASTING    NORTHING
Pondfield terraces
Terraces
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
Terraced enclosure
Pondfield terraces
Pondfield terraces
715120
715139
715150
415141
715071
715044
715014
715214
2342021
2341846
2341775
2341683
2341604
2341542
2341370
2341003
WAI'ALE'IA
WL-1
WL-2
WL-3
WL-4
WL-5
WL-6
WL-7
WL-8
WL-9
713158
713125
713125
Walled shelter against boulder
Rectangular enclosure
Walled shelter
Filled terrace (probable burial)
Earth-filled platform
Stone-faced terrace
Habitation terraces, stone-faced
Stone-faced terrace
Free-standing wall
KALAWAO
Site 289 Heiau  Stone-faced terrace complex
KA-1            Petroglyph and walls
KA-2            Rectangular enclosure
KA-3            Terrace and enclosure
KA-4            Terraces
KA-5            Terraces
Site 288 Ko'a
KB-6            Rectangular enclosure and terrace
KB-7            Stone-faced terrace
KB-8A           Stone cairn (probable burial)
KB-8B           Stone-faced terrace
KB-9A           Rectangular enclosure with terraces
KB-9B           Stone-outlined clearings
KB-10           Parallel stone alignments
KB-1 1          Stone-faced terrace
KB-12           Stone-faced terrace
2342633
2342548
2342548
713050      2341771
712895      2341560
712543
712503
712590
712580
712580
712532
713327
713312
713307
713307
713228
2343308
2343403
2343242
2343210
2343210
2343264
2342380
2342370
2342334
2342334
2342255
713264      2342234
Enclosure with attached plafform
L-shaped shelter
Linear shelter and enclosure
L-shaped shelter
L-shaped shelter
Small shelter
Small enclosure
Circular enclosure
Ahu (cairn)
C-shaped shelter
WAIKOLU
WK-1
WK-2
WK-3
WK-4
WK-5
WK-6
WK-7
WK-8
WK-9
WK-10
WK-11
KAUPIKIAWA
TRANSECT
KT-1
KT-2
KT-3
KT-4
KT-5
KT-6
KT-7
KT-8
KT-9
KT-10
712010
711998
712017
711996
712015
711993
712015
712005
712113
711985
2345661
2345632
2345622
2345582
2345565
2345556
2345754
2345787
2345611
2345523
120
FROM THE 'CLIFFS OF KEOLEWA' TO THE 'SEA OF PAPALOA
KT-1 1           L-shaped shelter                                  711853      2345429
KT-12            Linear shelter                                    711795      2345444
KT-13            L-shaped shelter                                  711743      2345420
KT-14            U-shaped shelter                                  711812      2345519
KT-15            Small circular enclosure                          711821      2345521
KT-16            Rectangular enclosure                             711933      2345593
KT-17            C-shaped shelter                                  711911      2345598
KT-18            L-shaped shelter and enclosing walls              711704      2345563
KT-19            L-shaped shelter                                  711748      2345511
KT-20            C-shaped shelter                                  711753      2345517
KT-21            Stone mound                                       711955      2345506
KT-22            C-shaped shelter                                  711703      2345443
KT-23            C-shaped shelter                                  711684      2345543
KT-24            Linear shelter                                    711660      2345525
KT-25            Linear shelter and wall                           711609      2345391
KT-26            Rectangular enclosure                             711579      2345425
KT-27            L-shaped shelter with cupboard                    711538      2345392
KT-28            L-shaped shelter                                  711588      2345446
KT-29            C-shaped shelter                                  711510      2345388
KT-30            L-shaped shelter
KT-31            Irregular-shaped shelter                          711504      2345389
KT-32            C-shaped shelter                                  711590      2345438
KT-33            L-shaped shelter                                  711602      2345451
KT-34            Linear shelter                                    711597      2345443
KT-35            Linear shelter
KT-36            Core-filled wall                                  711677      2345479
KT-37            Stone-walled depression                           711510      2345443
KT-38            Lava tube shelter                                 711509      2345453
KAUPIKIAWA
POINT
KC-1             Rectangular enclosure with doorway                711759      2345984
KC-2             Circular enclosure                                711782      2346038
KC-3             Stone walled shelter                              711803      2346047
KC-4             Rough enclosure                                   711751      2346029
KC-5             Parallel field walls in depression                711756      2346039
KC-6             Rectangular enclosure                             711819      2346042
KC-7             Free-standing walls                               711738      2346025
KC-8             Parallel field walls within irregular stone enclosure  711784  2345959
KC-9             Stone-walled shelter (habitation)                 711702      2345960
KC-10            C-shaped shelter                                  711712      2346024
KC-1 1           C-shaped shelter                                  711679      2346034
KC-12            Circular enclosure                                711662      2346050
KC-13            Irregular enclosure                               711742      2345919
KC-14            Stone mound (burial ?)                            711824      2345997
KC-15            Rectangular enclosure                             711795      2346077
KC-16            Complex walled structure
NIHOA
NI-i             Habitation terraces (stone-faced)                 706076      2343803
NI-2A            Rectangular enclosure
NI-2B            Free-standing wall
NI-2C            C-shaped shelter
NI-2D            Semi-circular enclosure
NI-3             Burial (rectangular pavement)
NI-4             Field system complex
NI-5             Burial (rectangular pavement)
NI-6             Habitation complex (terraces)                     706115      2343714
NI-7             Agricultural field complex
NI-8             Rectangular enclosure                             7016214     2343650
NI-9             Rectangular enclosure
NI-10            Habitation terraces                               705869      2343754
Note: Detailed survey forms including sketch plans, dimensions, and descriptions of the sites listed here are on
file in the archives of the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, and in the archives of the Oceanic Archaeology
Laboratory, Berkeley. All GPS positions are given with reference to the NAD83 datum.