Bibliography and an assortment of my Hawaii pictures

Sources:

Answers.com: Naukane

Barman, Jean & Watson, Bruce. Leaving Paradise: INdigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest 1787-1898. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu 2006

Chinese Transformed 'Gold Mountain'

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: James Colnett

Duncan, Janet. Minority without a Champion: Kanakas on the Pacific Coast 1788-1850. Times-Litho Printers: Portland 1972

Hawaii: A History of the Big Island, Robert Oaks-Google Books

Hawaiian History in Vancouver-Google Newspaper: Vancouver Voice

Historylink.org essay number 8413

Kanaka Timeline-Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest

Koppel, Tom. Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacif Nothwest. Whitecap Books: Vancouver 1995

MythicHawaii.com: Captain Cook Discovers Hawaii

Territory of Oregon Map

Summary of Kanakas 1778-1850

From Salt Spring Archives

The Kanakas were without a doubt, an indispensable piece of the Pacific Northwest's history. Surveyors, explorers, pioneers, and entrepreneurs all relied heavily on the labor that these native Hawaiians were ready and willing to provide. Even the American Board of of Commissioners for Foreign Missions hired Kanakas to help build their churches, missions,and Christian schools. Methodist, Evangelists, Protestants and other Christian denominations can attribute much of their presence in the Northwest to the Sandwich Islanders.

It is not certain what led so many of them to our region, but we are fortunate they did. Unfortunately, as our state developed and became more populated and "civilized," our appreciation for the Kanakas dissipated. They, like the Native Americans, Chinese, and African Americans during that time frame became more and more inferior to the Whites they had previously had positive relationships with.

Kankas Head South to California-1849

By Ron Frenz & Charles Barnett III

The dream of striking it rich drew many of the Kanakas down to California once thier contracts with HBC expired. John Sutter publicly praised the Kanakas for their hard work and help settling the area of Sacramento. Though many of the Kanakas went to mind gold, salmon fishing was another service that Hawaiian workers often supplied in California. At one point in the mid nineteenth century, Kanakas made up a quarter of the population in San Francisco.

A few of some of the longest serving Hawaiians stayed near the forts of the HBC as free men, many had married Native American women and had several children. Those who remained became eligible to buy land in the same fashion as their white counterparts. The conditions were to improve the land, take an oath of loyalty to the government, and pay about a dollar per acre. For the most part, the Hawaiians stayed in mixed communities of Islanders and Native Americans. Even as they purchased land, the plots were adjacent to one another.

Sources: Gold Mountain

Google Books

Hawaiians as Contracted Workers of HBC-1823

Map of HBC's Territory 1830

Eventually, in 1821 the Hudson Bay Company acquired The Northwest Company and all of it's Kanaka laborers. New employees were being signed on as workers for the company. In 1825, George Simpson, the head of the North American division of HBC raised the Kanaka's wages to those equal of the Canadians. He considered them a highly valuable asset to the company's success.

In 1828, Simpson attributed the success of the new Fort Langley on the Frasier River mostly to a group, including 3 Kanakas who had been sent 4 years prior to scout out the best for it and begin to construct it. The records from Fort Langley all support the idea that Kanakas were both physically and mentally capable workers. According to John McLoughlin, who was responsible for hiring many of the Hawaiian workers, they tended to be harder workers than much of the French Canadian and Native American individuals they employed, and they seemed to be resistant to many illnesses.

The Kanakas in the NW helped to survey new land, clear it, and build new posts and forts. They helped to navigate journeys from Hawaii to the Northwest. They had great skill in canoe making as well as maneuvering ships through the harsh waters near the Columbia. Without them, the British exploration into the NW would have been severely delayed.

HBC set up an office in Oahu in order to help keep trade efficient from the islands to the mainland. Timber and salmon were some of the main exports from the NW forts to Hawaii, while sweet potatos, hogs and coconuts were the primary imports.

Sources: Leavings Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific NW

Kanaka Timeline *This is a great supplement to my timeline

Old John Coxe 1811

Photo from historylink.org

John Jacob Astor was a very wealthy and successful business man from New York who created the Pacific Fur Co. In 1811, he sent a crew of 33 men, and Captain Johnathan Thorn to the Northwest with a scheduled stop in Honolulu. When the boat made it's first stop, many of the crew were fed up with their captain, who ran his ship like a dictator, and deserted him. Thorn replaced many of his men with local Hawaiians and at least a dozen of them headed to the mouth of the Columbia later that year. Thorn and the origional crew were impressed with the Kanakas ablities both on deck and in the water, they were avid swimmers and were able to prevent losses of men and equipment.

King Kamehameha of Hawaii sent Nukane to be a royal observer of the happennings in Astoria. Soon, his took on the nickname John Coxe, which stayed with him for the rest of his life. At some point in his journey, Coxe was traded by the Paficic Fur Co. to the Northwest Trading Co. for a Canadian who was familiar with the Indian population in the area. Coxe became a companion with famous surveyor and map maker David Thompson. Together they reached the Spokane House in 1811.

Coxe became loyal to the British company, and when the war of 1812 broke out, he travelled to England to gather necessary supplies and men to take over the American fort in Astoria only to discover when he returned in 1813, that Astor had already made a business deal and sold the company to the British. He remianed at the fort for another year before returning to Hawaii.

In 1826, Coxe settled in the NW for good. He was the first Kanaka to travel the interior of Washington terriory. He helped famous He became a long time employee of HBC and ended up being a hog farmer and herder. He became a free man no longer employed by anyone in 1843, and stayed in the Vancouver area until his death in 1850.

Sources: Hawaiian History in Vancouver

Historylink.org

Answers.com

Koppel, Tom. Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. (21)

John Matauray-1789

By Raymond Massey: Princess Royal off Kuai Coast

John Matauray was part of the royal family of Ni'ihau. He came with Captain James Colnett first on the Princess Royal, and then on the Argonaut which he sailed to the Northwest on. He was not only a guest on the ship, but also a great deckhand, at one point, he actually dove off the boat into the ocean after it began taking on water and discovered the leak in it's side.
Matauray had only been in the Northwest for a small amount of time before Spaniards accosted him and all of Colnett's crew. They were brought to a Spanish fort in San Blas off the coast of Mexico. The Spanish assumed that Matauray was taken unwillingly from his home, so they attempted to hold him in their custody after the release of Colnett's men. Eventually, with the help of the captain, Matauray was able to personally negotiate with the Spaniards to let him sail back to his family and home with Colnett on the Argonaut.
He sailed back and reached Washington's coast for his third and final time in 1790. He died of unknown causes. Colnett held Matauray in the highest regards, and their mutual friendship did not go unappreciated by the Hawaiian Islander. Before he died, he wrote a note of gratitude to Colnett for "all the good I had done him, and meant to do him." (Barman & Watson, 25) Matauray was known for being a quick learner and having a gift with speaking multiple languages.

Timeline Link

Here is a timeline of some of the important points in the history between the Northwest and Hawaii. Click here.

Winee and Kaiana -1787

Winee sketched by a crew member of John Meares

Winee was the first Kanaka to be recorded visiting the Northwest. She came aboard the the Imperial Eagle, a British ship captained by Charles Barkley. She was a servant and companion to his wife Frances. She was also the first Hawaiian to be documented leaving their home in the Islands. Winee travelled with the ship north where they hunted for otter pelts in the Puget Sound Region. Once Barkley felt they had a substantial amount, they headed to China where the pelts were being exchanged nearly $100 each.

By the time they arrived, Winee was both ill and homesick and wanted to return to her home in the tropics, so the Barkleys left her in China as they sailed on to Europe. Fortunately, Winee managed to connect with another globe trotting Kanaka, Kaiana. (He was also referred to as Tianna.) Kaiana, who was a chief of the islands had arrived in China with Captain John Meares aboard the Nootka. Both Hawaiians followed Meares onto the Felice Adventurer in 1788 that would head for the Philippines, and then back to the Sandwich Islands.

Sadly, before returning home, Winee died of her illnesses. She left most of her belongings to Kaiana, and gave him specific instructions to return the rest of her possessions to her family. Kaiana continued on and ended up in the Northwest region essentially by mistake. On the journey from the Philippines to Hawaii, the ship had to stop for emergency repairs in Washtington territory.

Kaiana didn't reach home until December of 1788, where he was met with a very hostile reception. While away, "an inhuman proscription had been published threatening him with instant death." (Barman & Watson)The only reason he was not killed was because of an alliance previously formed with the prince of the big Island of Hawaii. Unfortunately, this alliance only lasted temporarily, because Kaiana was killed by the prince on Oahu in battle in 1795.

Sources: Duncan, Janice. Minority without a Champion: Kanakas on the Pacific Coast. Times Litho Printers: Portland, 1972.

James Cook-1778

(Death of James Cook National Maritime Museum)

~James Cook arrived in Hawaii in 1778 aboard the HMS Resolve along with the Discovery. They made their first contact with the island's natives off the coast of Kauai. This was the first European contact recorded, and the Hawaiians deemed Captain Cook and his crew as a non threatening. These were very fortunate circumstances as the 2 ships were running low on supplies, and their final destination, the Northwest Passage was still over 2,500 miles away.

~ While there, the ships crewman traded brass items for fish, fresh water, and other necessary supplies.

~Cook's previous travels though the South Pacific made him experienced with the ancestors of the Hawaiians. He regarded the native Polynesians in a generally positive manner and found the islanders too be similar in manner. He also found that they could be thieves.

~ Cook named the Hawaiian Islands the "Sandwich Islands" after an English Noble.

~ In 1779, Cook was killed by the Hawaiians after a ship of
his had been stolen and robbed. The exact incident seems to be still in debate.

~Sources: Mythic Hawaii
The World's Explorer

Early explorers of the Pacific Northwest Coast and Native Hawaiians

P1.

(Map of Hawaii 1837 from world maps online)

Since the late eighteenth century, Hawaii has acted as a mid point for
the Northwest's earliest explorers. The geographical location of the Hawaiian
Islands made it the perfect place for both European and American adventurers
to stop for supplies before heading north toward Washington Territory where the fur
trade soon exploded. Soon, Hawaiian natives became prime sources of labor for trading
company's. Whites referred to the Hawaiians as sandwich islanders, Kanakas and Owyhees.

(Photo by April, July, 2009. Kauai Coast)

First Hawaiian in the Pacific NW

The Imperial Eagle 1787 off Ka'ena Point

So, turns out that a Hawaiian woman named Winee was the first Sandwich Islander to be recorded in the NW around 1788. She arrived on the British Ship The Imperial Eagle, with captain Charles Barclay. Winee was aquired as a "companion/servant" for his wife Francis. Short post, but an important one. Winee was the first Native Hawaiian to be documented leaving the Islands.

Sources: Imperial Eagle

Duncan, Jamice. Minority without a Champion: Kanakas on the Pacific Coast

Pac NW and Hawaiian Connection

I decided it may be a good idea to revisit Fort Vancouver and the Hawaiians that inhabited. While searching, I learned that the Sandwich Islands were the mid point between Asia and the Pacific NW. During the exploration and settling of the area, one of the busiest ports in the world was in Hawaii. It was SO busy ,that the Hudson Bay Co. established an office in Oahu in 1829. There, they were able to manage the importing and exporting of goods, such as hogs, sweet potatoes, and sugar to the NW.

Fort Vancouver 1825

Much like the Native Americans, the Native Hawaiian's sufferred from disease as contact with Europe and Asia increased. This was part of the reason that many left the islands to explore abroad. Some however were forced or coerced into indentured servantry.

Source: Donna Sinclair