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
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