Honouliuli Ewa's Makakilo Kalo'i Gulch - A Rare In Depth Survey Of This Important Cultural Property
Compiled by John Bond - Kanehili Cultural Hui
The information provided below helps to understand the historic and cultural landscape which includes rare native trees, springs and a Hawaiian trail- likely the Palehua trail.
There is also a list of Honouliuli Ewa place names by Kepa Maly.
Excerpts From: Cultural Impact Assessment for the Approximately 23-acre Makakilo Drive Extension Project, Honouliuli Ahupua‘a, ‘Ewa District, O‘ahu Island November 23, 2008
The area is located in the Kalo’i Gulch floodplain, which includes the Kalo‘i Stream channel. Kalo‘i, which translates as “the taro patch,” was a well-known place of Native Hawaiian activity from before the historic era. The presence of several small fresh-water springs in the general gulch system, as described in historic accounts, suggests Hawaiians used at least portions of the area as agricultural gardening sites.The Makakilo Kalo'i Gulch area also contains remnants of one or more old Hawaiian trails.
Some participants stressed the importance of not losing any additional Hawaiian features of the landscape, such as trails, to development in and around the project area, which has experienced substantial losses in historic and more recent times.
One participant talked about the cultural significance of wiliwili trees (Erythrina sandwicensis), which are closely associated with “ao kuewa,” a kind of Hawaiian purgatory.
It is important to highlight the presence of mature healthy Wiliwili and ‘Iliahi (sandalwood) trees, both of which are rarely seen in developed and populated areas in O‘ahu. Both of these trees are culturally significant to Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians).
Ancient and Historic Trails
One of these major trails passed from West Loch (western side of Pu‘uloa, or Pearl Harbor) through the Honouliuli lowlands—relatively close to the subject project area and in the general vicinity of the H-1 highway, past Pu‘u Kapolei and onto the Wai‘anae coast, eventually circumscribing the entire shoreline of O‘ahu (‘Ī‘ī 1959:96-98).
Another trail, possibly known as the Pālehua Trail, oriented roughly northwest by southeast and traversing the middle of the project area, appears to date from historic (late 19th century) times, and perhaps represents an earlier pre-Contact Hawaiian trail.
Historic accounts of a Mr. Harry von Holt (Superintendent of the O.R. & L Ranch Department in the 1890s) describe his efforts to find water in the foothills of the Wai‘anae Range. Part of this search led to the description of the Pālehua Trail, along which were noted several small fresh-water springs that doubtless were known to local Native Hawaiians at that time.
Finally, several participants described an ancient Hawaiian trail within the project area that runs from the bottom of Kalo‘i Gulch up towards the connection point of Makakilo Drive. The trail runs adjacent to the proposed project below the Wai‘anae side ridgeline of Kalo‘i Gulch. Part of the trail has been destroyed in previous development projects.
Shad Kane: “The thing in my mind that’s most important is that Hawaiian Trail. Because this is it, this is the end of it. We actually have given it away for past projects for people to have beautiful homes. There’s only one piece of the trail left. It’s right there where Makakilo Drive ends. So, hopefully they don’t destroy what’s left.”
Douglas McDonald Philpotts: “At a certain point, there may be 5 to 10 percent of the population left. Honouliuli was the major population center for the surrounding area. If the population had survived the massive outbreaks of diseases, or even if the surrounding communities had survived or were more intact, we would have so much more mo‘olelo to give us all the clues to this.”
“I really feel we got to put together every little drop from the physical evidence to looking at the alignments, looking at chants and things that have been recorded, newspaper clippings that mention this place in relationship to all the places around our state and it gives you an idea of the importance of this place. It makes you want to go farther. This community went out in a flash. So that whole oral tradition of passing it on it just wiped out right there.”
DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Archaeological Inventory Survey for the Makakilo Drive Extension Project, Honouliuli, ‘Ewa, O‘ahu November 23, 2008
The lower potion of Honouliuli Valley in the ‘Ewa plain offered rich level alluvial soils with plentiful water for irrigation from the stream as well as abundant springs. This irrigable land would have stretched well up the valley.
An extensive upland forest zone extending as much as 12 miles inland from the edge of the coastal plain. As Handy and Handy (1972:469) have pointed out, the forest was much more distant from the lowlands here than on the windward coast, but it was much more extensive. Much of the upper reaches of the ahupua‘a would have had species-diverse forest with kukui, ‘ōhia, ‘iliahi (sandalwood), hau, ti, banana, etc.
John Papa ‘Ī‘ī describes a network of Leeward O‘ahu trails which in later historic times encircled and crossed the Wai‘anae Range, allowing passage from West Loch to the Honouliuli lowlands, past Pu‘u Kapolei and Waimānalo Gulch to the Wai‘anae coast and onward circumscribing the shoreline of O‘ahu (‘Ī‘ī 1959:96-98).
Pu‘uokapolei was also the primary landmark for travelers between Pearl Harbor and the west O‘ahu coast, with a main trail running just inland of it (‘Ī‘ī 1959:27, 29). Pu‘uokapolei was probably the most common name used as a reference for the area of the ‘Ewa Plain in traditional Hawai‘i (cf. Nakuina 1992:54; Fornander 1916-20, II: 318; E.M. Nakuina 1904, in Sterling and Summers 1978:34).
Various Hawaiian legends and early historical accounts indicate that the ahupua‘a of Honouliuli was once widely inhabited by pre-Contact Hawaiian populations, including the Hawaiian ali‘i. This substantial population is attributable for the most part to the plentiful marine and estuarine resources available at the coast, along which several sites interpreted as permanent habitations were located.
Other attractive subsistence-related features of the ahupua‘a included irrigated lowlands suitable for wet land taro cultivation (Hammatt and Shideler 1990), as well as the lower forest area of the mountain slopes for the procurement of forest goods.
The political and cultural center of the ahupua‘a is understood to have been the relatively dense settlement and rich lands for irrigated taro cultivation at the ‘ili of Honouliuli located where Honouliuli Stream empties into the north portion of West Loch (east of the present study area).
The name of the ahupua‘a, translated as “dark bay” (Pukui et al. 1974:51) may refer to the nature of the waters of West Loch at the mouth of Honouliuli Stream. Early accounts and maps indicate a large settlement at the ‘ili of Honouliuli and it may well be that the political power of this village was so great that it was able to extend its jurisdiction well to the northwest into an area which might have been anticipated to fall under the dominion of the Wai‘anae ruling chiefs.
The traditions of Honouliuli Ahupua‘a have been complied and summarized numerous times, in studies by Sterling and Summers (1978), Hammatt and Folk (1981), Kelly (1991), Charvet-Pond and Davis (1992), Maly et al. (1993), and Tuggle and Tuggle (1997). Some of the themes of these traditions, include connections with Kahiki (the traditional homeland of Hawaiians, probably in reference to central Polynesia) and the special character and relationship of the places known as Pu‘uokapolei and Kualaka‘i.
McAllister (1933:108) records that a heiau, or temple, was located on Pu‘uokapolei, but was destroyed before his survey of the early 1930s. The heiau may have been associated with the sun (Fornander 1916-20, III:292). The hill was used as a point of solar reference or as a place where such observations were made. Pu‘uokapolei might have been understood as the gate of the setting sun. It is notable that the rising sun at the eastern gate of Kumukahi in Puna is associated with the Hawaiian goddess Kapo (Emerson 1978:41).
Dillingham’s mauka lands in western Honouliuli that were unsuitable for commercial sugar production remained pasture for grazing livestock. From 1890 to 1892 the Ranch Department of the O.R. & L. Co. desperately sought water for their herds of cattle by tapping plantation flumes and searching for alternative sources of water. Ida von Holt leaves this account of her husband Harry’s (Superintendent of the O.R. & L Ranch Dept.) search for water in the foothills of the Wai‘anae Range:
One of those places is on the old trail to Palehua, and had evidently been a place of which the Hawaiians had known, for its name is Kalo'i (the taro patch), and even in dry weather water would be standing in the holes made by the cattle, as they tried to get a drop or two. (Von Holt 1985:136)
It is believed that the spring depicted in this account may have been located during an inventory survey of the adjacent Pālehua East B project area (Tulchin and Hammatt 2005). The spring was located along the upper slopes of the southern face of Kalo‘i Gulch. A second account is given of the discovery of spring water in an area over the ridge on the north side of Kalo‘i Gulch:
Following the discovery, two old Hawaiians began to ask Von Holt about the spring:
Finally he [Harry von Holt] got them to explain that the spring, called “Waihuna” (Hidden Spring) had been one of the principal sources of water for all that country, which was quite heavily populated before the smallpox epidemic of 1840… A powerful Kahuna living at the spring had hidden it before he died of the smallpox, and had put a curse on the one who disturbed the stone, that he or she would surely die before a year was out. (Von Holt 1985:138-140)
Centered around the west side of Pearl Harbor at Honouliuli Stream and its broad outlet into the West Loch are the rich irrigated lands of the ‘ili of Honouliuli, which give the ahupua‘a its name. The major archaeological reference to this area is Dicks, Haun and Rosendahl (1987) who documented remnants of a once widespread wetland system (lo‘i and fishponds), as well as dryland cultivation of the adjacent slopes.
Carol Silva has conducted “Historic Research Relative to the Land of Honouliuli” (Dicks et al. 1987) and the reader is referred to this work for an overview of the history of Honouliuli.
The area bordering West Loch was clearly a major focus of population within the Hawaiian Islands and this was a logical response to the abundance of fish and shellfish resources in close proximity to a wide expanse of well-irrigated bottomland suitable for wetland taro cultivation.
The earliest detailed map (Malden 1825) shows all the roads of southwest O‘ahu coalescing and descending the pali as they funnel into the locality (i.e. Honouliuli Village) which gave the ahupua‘a of Honouliuli its name. Dicks et al. (1987:78-79) conclude, on the basis of 19 carbon isotope dates and 3 volcanic glass dates, that “agricultural use of the area spans over 1,000 years.” Undoubtedly, Honouliuli was a locus of habitation for thousands of Hawaiians.
Honouliuli Ewa Was Important Native Hawaii Food Producing Land
‘Ewa was at one time the political center for O‘ahu chiefs. This was probably due to its abundant resources that supported the households of the chiefs, particularly the many fishponds around the lochs of Puʻuloa (“long hill,) better known today as Pearl Harbor. (Cultural Surveys) ʻEwa was the second most productive taro cultivation area on Oʻahu (just behind Waikīkī.) (Laimana)
“This district, unlike others of the island, is watered by copious and excellent springs that gush out at the foot of the mountains. From these run streams sufficient for working sugar-mills. In consequence of this supply, the district never suffers from drought, and the taro-patches are well supplied with water by the same means.” (Commander Charles Wilkes, 1840-1841, Maly)
An 1899 newspaper account says of the kāī koi, “That is the taro that visitors gnaw on and find it so good that they want to live until they die in ‘Ewa. The poi of kai koi is so delicious”. (Ka Loea Kalai ʻĀina 1899, Cultural Surveys) So famous was the kāī variety that ‘Ewa was sometimes affectionately called Kāī o ‘Ewa.
‘Ewa was known for a special and tasty variety of kalo (taro) called kāī which was native to the district. There were four documented varieties; the kāī ʻulaʻula (red kāī), kāī koi (kāī that pierces), kāī kea or kāī keʻokeʻo (white kāī), and kāī uliuli (dark kāī.) (Handy)
The salient feature of ‘Ewa, and perhaps its most notable difference, is its spacious coastal plain, surrounding the deep bays (“lochs”) of Pearl Harbor, which are actually the drowned seaward valleys of ‘Ewa’s main streams, Waikele and Waipi‘o…The lowlands, bisected by ample streams, were ideal terrain for the cultivation of irrigated taro. (Handy, Cultural Surveys)
Kāī is O‘ahu‘s best eating taro; one who has eaten it will always like it. Said of a youth or maiden of ‘Ewa, who, like the Kāī taro, is not easily forgotten. (ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, 2770, Pukui)
“Rev. Artemas Bishop, in the summer of 1836, removed with his wife and two children from Kailua, Hawaii, to Ewa, Oahu. … Throughout the district of Ewa the common people were generally well fed. Owing to the decay of population, great breadths of taro marsh had fallen into disuse, and there was a surplus of soil and water for raising food.” (SE Bishop, The Friend, May 1901)
HART TCP Management Summary for Sections 1 through 3 (7.9.2013)
Inoa ‘Aina of the Honouliuli Ahupua‘a – Trails – KumoPono, Kepa Maly
Keoneae Honouliuli
A place situated along the old trail between Honouliuli and Wai‘anae, on the Pu‘uloa side of Pu‘uokapolei.
“Alahula Pu‘uloa, he alahele no Ka‘ahupahau.”
Everywhere in Pu‘uloa is the trail of Ka‘ahupahau (Said of a person who goes everywhere, looking, peering, seeing all…Ka‘ahupahau is the shark goddess of Pu‘uloa (Pearl Harbor) who guarded people from being molested by sharks. She moved about, constantly watching.) (Pukui 1983:14 No. 105)
Keahumoa Honouliuli
Kula (plains) on the inland slopes of ‘Ewa, within which is found Kunia, and continuing up to Lihu‘e on one side; bounded by Kipapa on the other side. The area was once extensively
cultivated with native crops, planted originally by Ka‘opele. The fields could be seen when looking makai from the mountain pass at Pohakea. Cited in the traditions of Hi‘iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele and Kalelealuaka.
Pu‘u-o-Kapo-lei Honouliuli
This hill was named for the goddess Kapo, an elder sister of Pele. It was also the home of the supernatural grandmother of the demigod, Kamapua‘a (He Moolelo no Kamapuaa, 1861). S.M. Kamakau recorded the tradition that Pu‘u o Kapolei was used by the people of O‘ahu to mark the seasons of the year. When the sun set over the hill, it was Kau (summer). When the sun moved south, setting beyond the hill, it was Ho‘oilo (winter). (Kamakau, 1976:14)
Pe‘ekaua Honouliuli
Situated on the plain between Pu‘uokapolei and Waimanalo. A place famed in the tradition of Hi‘iaka’s journey across ‘Ewa. Pe‘ekaua is found on the mauka side of the trail, where there is a large rock standing on the plain. Cited in the tradition of Hi‘iaka-ika- poli-o-Pele.
Pohakupalahalaha Honouliuli
A “well known rock along the trail” between Honouliuli and Ho‘ae‘ae. (1873, Boundary Commission Proceedings) “Large terrace areas are shown on the U. S. Geological survey map of Oahu (1917) bordering West Loch of Pearl Harbor, the indication being that these are still under cultivation. I am told that taro is still grown here. This is evidently what is referred to as ‘Ewa taro lands.’ Of the Honouliuli coral plains McAllister (44, site 146) says:
‘…It is probable that the holes and pits in the coral were formerly used by the Hawaiians. Frequently the soil on the floor of the larger pits was used for cultivation, and even today one comes upon bananas and Hawaiian sugar cane still growing in them.’”
(Handy 1940:82)
Guidance from National Register Bulletin 15 (NRHP 2002) is provided below:
Location - Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred. The relationship between the property and its location is often important to understanding why the property was created or why something happened. The actual location of a historic property, complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of historic events and persons. Except in rare cases, the relationship between a property and its historic associations is destroyed if the property is moved. (See Criteria Consideration B in Part VII: How to Apply the Criteria Considerations, for the conditions under which a moved property can be eligible.)
Design - Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure, and style of a property. It results from conscious decisions made during the original conception and planning of a property (or its significant alteration) and applies to activities as diverse as community planning, engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture. Design includes such elements as organization of space, proportion, scale, technology, ornamentation, and materials.
Setting - Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played its historical role. It involves how, not just where, the property is situated and its relationship to surrounding features and open space.
Setting often reflects the basic physical conditions under which a property was built and the functions it was intended to serve. In addition, the way in which a property is positioned in its environment can reflect the designer's concept of nature and aesthetic preferences.
The physical features that constitute the setting of a historic property can be either natural or manmade, including such elements as:
Topographic features (a gorge or the crest of a hill);
Vegetation;
Simple manmade features (paths or fences); and
Relationships between buildings and other features or open space.
These features and their relationships should be examined not only within the exact boundaries of the property, but also between the property and its surroundings. This is particularly important for districts.
Materials - Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveal the preferences of those who created the property and indicate the availability of particular types of materials and technologies. Indigenous materials are often the focus of regional building traditions and thereby help define an area's sense of time and place.
Workmanship - Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. It is the evidence of artisans' labor and skill in constructing or altering a building, structure, object, or site. Workmanship can apply to the property as a whole or to its individual components. It can be expressed in vernacular methods of construction and plain finishes or in highly sophisticated configurations and ornamental detailing. It can be based on common traditions or innovative period techniques.
Feeling - Feeling is a property's expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the property's historic character. For example, a rural historic district retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will relate the feeling of agricultural life in the 19th century. A grouping of prehistoric petroglyphs, unmarred by graffiti and intrusions and located on its original isolated bluff, can evoke a sense of tribal spiritual life.
Association - Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a property's historic character. For example, a Revolutionary War battlefield whose natural and manmade elements have remained intact since the 18th century will retain its quality of association with the battle.
