HAWAI’I IN 1852: THE MAHELE PERIOD CULTURAL LANDSCAPE PROJECT:

WAITITI-PALOLO, MAUI AND OTHER MOKU: THE KINGDOM IN 1850 AS SEEN IN THE MAHELE LANDSCAPE

R. Bordner, Anth/Geog, Chaminade Univ. of Honolulu (retired)

This project originally started in 2018 as the Behavioral Sciences program at Chaminade University became involved in the development of a comprehensive historical, biological or cultural study conducted by Saint Louis School and Chaminade University of Honolulu on Palolo Valley. Prior to this research the only summative work related specifically to Palolo valley was a collection of student papers published in 1993 (A Study of Palolo Valley: Ethnicity, class, and spatial identity (Katharine Tehranian ed., UH Manoa’s Dept. of American Studies.)).

The original goal was to provide the Palolo-Waititi community with a repository for information reflecting on the past, present and future of Palolo Valley specifically, and the ahupua’a of Waititi at a larger scale.

As the project developed it became more clear that there was a major need to make the period of the Mahele (1846-1852) Land Commission [the time at which Hawai’i moved from use rights of land to private land ownership] both accessible and visible. The project has shifted focus and is currently directed at building graphical information (in Google Earth) of the Mahele testimony and resulting descriptions of not only Waititi-Palolo (with Foreign Testimony data completed) but eventually all the rest of the islands. Because of the all-encompassing and detailed (and time-specific) nature of the Mahele Land Commission testimonies we have a unique historical snap shot of the Hawaiian Monarchy world, not only in land control, but also land use, political power and maybe most importantly in spatial patterns of social relationships.

The LCA testimony required not only boundaries, but also how the land was acquired, land use, and neighbors. Supporting testimony had to be by non-relatives. As all of the Hawaiian Kingdom was covered in the space of the 6 years of the Mahele, we have a very detailed view of many aspects of the cultural geography and perception of place, land and people here. We have completed mapping land boundaries, named places, streams and roads for the ahupua’a of Waititi (including Palolo, Makiki and Manoa)(this was the initial project goal). We have also completed the area of the district of Lahaina (including Lahaina-Olowalu) and are in the process of adding Pearl Lochs and central Honolulu-Kalihi (O’ahu). As a part of this work we have had to transcribe testimony from the volumes (which are in script) and have completed Foreign Testimony volumes 1 (Oahu), v. 3 (Oahu-Waititi), v. 7 (W. Maui), v. 8 (Maui), v. 15 (later-general) and currently am working on v. 2 (Honoruru). These transcriptions are available at the Testimony tab (at the top of this page) of this website.

Our goal is to build a visual reflection of the ‘world’ of Hawai’i as it existed in the eyes of its citizens in the late 1840s. The link to the data files are below, and are free to download. Remember you need to have Google Earth on your machine, and you will have to load the specific files (google kmz files) to view the material. You can try to view the material in Google Maps but you will loose much of the functionality (and graphics). If you want the Google Maps files download the “google kml” files instead.

HOW TO USE THE GOOGLE EARTH FILES:

Google Earth uses a unique file format called kmz files. These allow efficient compression of text and locational data for sharing with other users.

To Use kmz Files

download the kmz file(s) you want to view
open a copy of Google Earth (which is free)
In Google Earth, go to the upper left hand corner, click on files, and go down to the ‘Open’ option.
find the kmz file you downloaded and click for it to be opened.
Google Earth will load the file information into your copy of Google Earth.
If you have multiple platforms or copies of Google Earth, you will have to load the kmz file(s) into each copy.
To make life easier, you should probably go back and place all the new kmz files under a new topic heading such as Waititi or Palolo files.
When you go to close Google Earth, it will ask you if you want to save the ‘Temporary’ files [which is where it stored your downloaded files]. Click yes, otherwise when you open up Google Earth next time the new files will have disappeared and you will have to reload them.
As we update the kmz files for various categories or locations, we would recommend that you delete any older version of that file you have in Google Earth and replace it with the more recent version, otherwise you will end up with multiple sets of material.

PALOLO-WAITITI MAHELE LAND COURT AWARD TESTIMONY FILES:

These files below have been compiled from the Foreign Testimony volumes of the Mahele (Volumes 1-3 and 14, all the Waititi testimony) and the 1881 Bishop map for Waikiki and the 1881 Monsarrat map of Palolo (along with supplemental maps). We will start compiling Mahele Native Testimony for Waititi in the near future.

There are two options: The first is overall kmz file, the second are the individual files, all from a shared gdrive folder. First the overall Mahele Waititi Ahupuaa file [which includes all the individual files]:

Waititi Ahupuaa Mahele Period Google Earth (all late 2024 update)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UD3V6w0KqU-kAF1pM-DUVKvk50HHqTU0/view?usp=sharing

Individual File Downloads:

Palolo-Waititi Place Names (from historic maps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZIZA_T9pt_FIeYLiOqo__Hikp3hLzIaL/view?usp=sharing

Palolo-Waititi Historic Maps (warning very large file as scanned maps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1na6uvjZYTottyKE9miUhpIyaXpfT2HVO/view?usp=sharing

Palolo-Waititi Land Court Award Boundaries (estimated-all boundaries approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r2hUk1SfEM7z7v1dB6gjtZHAKWwVcFgO/view?usp=sharing

Palolo-Waititi Land Court Awardees with their Foreign Testimony entered [2024 update]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ObuY8vdXAwGiAaCTmxcCWp39mIu55mXQ/view?usp=sharing

Palolo-Waititi Historic Streams, Auwa’i, Lo’i and Roads (estimated): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TfFxyDyYh5jTiejFDne-GwPxdPc_SZy_/view?usp=sharing

LAHAINA-WEST MAUI MAHELE LAND COURT AWARD TESTIMONY FILES in GOOGLE EARTH (vol. 7, 14 and partial vol. 15 Foreign Testimony):

Maui-Lahaina LCA Project All (late 2024 version):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UD3V6w0KqU-kAF1pM-DUVKvk50HHqTU0/view?usp=sharing

Individual File Downloads

Maui-Lahaina Historic Maps (warning large file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/15OI88wzPOBnT7MMnMdcBOKMhLs9CrwSR/view?usp=sharing

Lahaina Place Names (from historic maps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fU2K_rvsG2WnHIUKtHna5fD7Pnxs2Yp5/view?usp=sharing

Lahaina Land Court Awards (with Foreign Test.-Vol. 2-3, 7, 14 complete, Vol. 15-16, late 2024): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TtKBFo96bFIvzKS-4bUkNiZn4ire6GP4/view?usp=sharing

Lahaina Land Court Award Boundaries (approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vSDdGFyHr-TUUhUkeWZwKkID-FssLE4v/view?usp=sharing

Lahaina Historic Streams-Roads (approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oXG41zp71xDq9mum0CObmO0wE7a6sJ3l/view?usp=sharing

Lahaina Historic Buildings-Walls (approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e3BA_MqwYy19JlRopftxncKlj36KXQaR/view?usp=sharing

PEARL LOCHS (O’AHU) MAHELE LAND COURT AWARD TESTIMONY FILES (vol. 1,3,7 Foreign test.):

Pearl Lochs LCA Project All (zip files):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wysTneBf_jPmm_c_miCXYDP7IH81Hhhs/view?usp=sharing

Individual File Downloads

Pearl Lochs Place Names (from historic maps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kf9JgH2ZEmR0YjutN5V8bj74JQJrs39z/view?usp=sharing

Pearl Lochs 1850 LCA: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbdNXjQtg620c4sLDQOCvQSsTZ3Va_d1/view?usp=sharing

Pearl Lochs Land Use 1894 (from historic maps-approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b0tcPtSgd4Vap5hmf25R0WfFzBsrOyS_/view?usp=sharing

Pearl Lochs Streams-Road-Rail 1894 (from historic maps-approximate): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-FhpaPIoTi2zCAL6ZgmPNQBCnDaqIx0-/view?usp=sharing

PROJECT PARAMETERS:

For those interested, our boundaries and physical features are based on the available maps generated for each region in the 1870-1910 period by the Government. Thus streams and roads reflect the time of mapping rather than their position today. We have tried to note the date of recording in the data for each entry.

Future work centers on the transcription and translation of the Native Testimony material. Current priority is to transcribe and input the Foreign Testimony material for the rest of the Kingdom as allows more efficient use of our very limited resources.

To load files into Google Maps you need to: