Monday, July 27, 2015

Ewa Plain Major Hawaiian Burial Place - Federal TCP Documents

Under Former Ewa Plantation Lands, Hoopili, And 

HART Rail Stations

 Are Tens Of Thousands Of Iwi Kupuna Burials 

 

Kanehili Cultural Hui Report - John Bond 

 

The Leina a ka ‘uhane And Association With Major Native Burials In West Oahu


“Maly reflected that, given the history of the countryside, it would be more unusual not to find iwi than to find them”. June 23, 2011, Section 106 Programmatic Agreement (PA) Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) Study Meeting

— William Aila, Hui Malama (before becoming DLNR Chair and now DHHL deputy.)
“People have estimated that there were 800,000 to a million people living here when Westerners arrived [in Hawaii in 1778]; some people estimate it was much higher—that’s one era,” says William Aila, a board member of Hui Malama. “You have many generations prior to that. A lot of people were born and died all over these Islands. They don’t just disappear.”

Figures from: IDENTIFICATION OF NATIVE HAWAIIAN TRADITIONAL CULTURAL PROPERTIES, Tuggles, Maly, etc., March 2001. (more documents further below)




IDENTIFICATION OF NATIVE HAWAIIAN TRADITIONAL CULTURAL PROPERTIES

by H. David Tuggle, Ph.D. M.J. Tomonari-Tuggle, M.A. with the collaboration of Maria E. Ka‘imipono Orr, Kepâ Maly Kumu Pono Associates, and Kalani Flores Mana ‘o‘i‘o Principal Investigator: Thomas S. Dye, Ph.D.
International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc.
Hawai‘i  March 2001

EXCERPTS:

“The main trail around O‘ahu passed through this populous area (‘I‘i 1869 [1959:96]). From the Waikîkî side, entering into ‘Ewa along the trail entailed crossing the leaping place of souls called Leilono, which was guarded by demons (see Kapûkakî, below). From the west, entering into ‘Ewa meant passing through the plain of Kaupe‘a, a place of wandering souls.”

Burials from the pre-contact and post-contact eras are known to occur over the entire ‘Ewa Plain, in sinkholes, platforms, and dune deposits (Tuggle and Tomonari-Tuggle 1997b). There is also a 19th century reference to chiefly burial that suggests there were places of interment for ali‘i at Pu‘uloa (Alexander 1906:27).

“The potential TCPs on Navy retained lands at former NAS Barbers Point include the plain of Kaupe‘a and the locale of Kualaka‘i. These places meet general NRHP criteria (see Section I.3.1). Connections can also be made among Kualaka‘i, the plain of Kaupe‘a, and Pu‘uokapolei, and their association with Kahiki(see Johnson 1988; Tuggle and Tomonari-Tuggle 1997b:27-29).

II.2.3.1. THE PLAIN OF KAUPE‘A 

The plain of Kaupe‘a was located on what is today called the ‘Ewa Plain. It probably includes the housing areas and the golf course in the Navy retained lands. Kaupe‘a (see Fig. 3 for location) has potential cultural significance under the following NRHP criteria:

(a) it is associated with traditional events and patterns of events, as expressed in its identification as the ao kuewa (place of homeless souls) for the island of O‘ahu; it is also identified as a place for the collection of plants used for a special lei.

(b) it is associated with the lives of persons significant in the past, as found in the traditions of Hi‘iaka.

It is associated with the lives of persons significant in the past, as found in the traditions of Hi‘iaka, has symbolic associations with Kahiki, ancestry, and the generations of ‘Ewa.

II.2.1.1. THE PLAIN OF KAUPE‘A AND KÂNEHILI

A place of many pits with human bones describes most of the great expanse of the ‘Ewa Plain, where limestone sinkholes were used for human interment over many centuries (including the post-contact period, see below). In many cases, human remains were placed on the floors of the sinkholes (not buried) with the bones thus visible when one looked into the pit, surely a setting to inspire association with spirits of the dead.

Each island had at least one place for wandering souls. For O‘ahu, this place was the plain of Kaupe‘a. Kamakau (1870 [1964:47], italics original) writes that Kaupe‘a was known as: …ao kuewa, the realm of homeless souls,…also called the ao ‘auwana, the realm of wandering souls. When a man who had no rightful place in the ‘aumakua realm died, his soul would wander about…

(The association of Leiolono with Kaupe‘a:)

According to Kamakau (1870 [1964:47-49]), the ao kuewa was one of the three places of the dead, the others being the realm of the ancestral spirits (ao ‘aumakua) and the realm of Milu, the place of endless night (pô pau ‘ole o Milu). Across the Pu‘uloa lagoon from Kaupe‘a was a place known as Leilono, which is located on the ridge dividing ‘Ewa and Kona districts (discussed below under Kapûkakî). It was at Leilono where the spirits of the dead leapt from the branches of a supernatural breadfruit tree, separating to go to one of the three realms. Those who had no help from ‘aumakua would end up friendless (po‘e ‘uhane hauka‘e), wandering the plain of Kaupe‘a catching moths and spiders.

Although the boundaries of the plain of Kaupe‘a are not clearly defined, it certainly occupied a substantial portion of the ‘Ewa Plain, including the area next to Pearl Harbor lagoon and the area of former NAS Barbers Point. Kamakau (1870 [1964:47-49]) describes the plain as “beside Pu‘uloa,” and as a place of wiliwili trees, which is a common tree on the dryland limestone of ‘Ewa. In the tradition of Pele and Hi‘iaka (Emerson 1915:167; Keonaona and S.L. Desha Sr. et al. 1927, in Maly Appendix B), the plain is described as extending from “the wiliwili trees…to Kanehili” (Ke Au Hou 1911, in Sterling and Summers 1978:44), and as back of Keahi and Pu‘uloa (Pukui 1943:59).

“At the same time, it is clear from Manu’s description quoted above, as well as many other references, that the plain of Kaupe‘a (and associated places of the ‘Ewa Plain) was much more than just a place of ghosts.”

“It is a place of stark beauty and great contrasts, captured in versions of the Pele and Hi‘iaka story” (Emerson 1915:166ff; Keonaona and Desha Sr. et al. 1927, in Maly Appendix B) and in the chant for Kûali‘I (Kapa‘ahulani, in Fornander 1916:390; 1919:458). Part of the beauty of Kaupe‘a is in the plants used to make a famous lei, as described in a song of Hi‘iaka “addressed to Lohiau and Wahine-oma‘o” (Emerson 1915:167.
 
It is possible that Kaupe‘a refers to the ‘Ewa Plain as a whole. This is suggested in a comparison of the repetition of place names and related features (primarily vegetation and springs) in the Pele and Hi‘iaka traditions, as well as in the chant for Kûali‘i (Kapa‘ahulani, in Fornander 1916:390; 1919:458). The following section from the tradition of Makanikeoe (Manu 1895, May 10, in Maly Appendix B) provides a substantial associative context for Kaupe‘a and the ‘Ewa Plain being synonymous:

Makanikeoe then departed from this place, turning to the plain of Puuloa. He passed many pits in this place where the bones of men have been left. He then followed the trail to the breadfruit tree, Leiwalu, at Honouliuli. This is the breadfruit tree of the expert sailor, Kahai, so told in his story:

There are also many pits in which were planted sugarcane and bananas, and planting mounds. He also saw manu oo (honey creepers) sipping the nectar of noni blossoms. There were also two ducks that had gone into a pit, and with a great strength, they were trying to push a stone over, to hide the pit. This Makanikeoe knew what the ducks were trying to do. They wanted to hide a spring of water which flowed underground there. It is this spring which in calm times could be heard, but not found by the people who passed through this area.

Parker and King (1990:9; emphasis added) elaborate on this by noting: Thus a property may be defined as a ‘site’ as long as it was the location of a significant event or activity, regardless of whether the event or activity left any evidence of its occurrence. A culturally significant natural landscape may be classified as a site, as may the specific location where significant traditional events, activities, or cultural observances have taken place…A concentration, linkage, or continuity of such sites or objects, or of structures comprising a culturally significant entity, may be classified as a district.

I.3.4.2.1. Place as Tangible Property

To qualify for the NRHP, a property must be a “tangible property—that is, a district, site, building, structure, or object” (Parker and King 1990:9). However, a tangible property does not have to be a constructed one, under the NR definition of “site” (from NR Bulletin 16, quoted in Parker and King 1990:9): …the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself possesses historic, cultural, or archaeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure.

Parker and King (1990:9; emphasis added) elaborate on this by noting: Thus a property may be defined as a ‘site’ as long as it was the location of a significant event or activity,

regardless of whether the event or activity left any evidence of its occurrence. A culturally significant natural landscape may be classified as a site, as may the specific location where significant traditional events, activities, or cultural observances have taken place…A concentration, linkage, or continuity of such sites or objects, or of structures comprising a culturally significant entity, may be classified as a district.








 
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