*3.3. Kaumaha Inherited Throughout the Kamehameha Line*

As we began to understand kaumaha as a foundational concept of traditional ali'i stewardship, we wanted to determine how the ali'i who came before us demonstrated kaumaha in their 'a¯ina management and how kaumaha was transferred. At the start of this journey to (re)discover our function, the genealogy of Kamehameha Schools' lands was forgotten. We knew that lands originally were consolidated under Kamehameha I and eventually were bequeathed to Bernice Pauahi, yet we did not know which other ali'i had kaumaha for these lands, and thus how they stewarded. One of the first tasks taken on by our predecessors was to determine which ali'i are connected to lands in the over 70 ahupua'a we have tenure for today. This was done by looking through the institutions property title archives, historic maps, as well as Ma¯hele records (documents from land privatization in the 1840's), most of which are now electronically available online (see kipukadatabase.com, papakilodatabase.com, Avakonohiki.org). The results of this research are shown in Figure 4.

**Figure 4.** Map depicting 'a¯ina ho'oilina or inherited lands from Bernice Pauahi Bishop's ali'i. ancestors.

More recently, we have looked to specific ali'i predecessors to understand how they carried kaumaha to steward the same lands we manage today. We found that the kaumaha that the ali'i held to ensure the persistence and prosperity of 'a¯ina, including its flora, fauna, and human communities for generations to come are illustrated throughout the Kamehameha line of chiefs, starting with Kamehameha I. We found the principle of kaumaha evident even through Western contact and colonization, and the vast socio-ecological changes in Hawai'i. Stories of Kamehameha's life originally printed in Hawaiian language newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries, often layout his accomplishments in stewardship and restoration of biocultural integrity [64–67]. One mo'olelo found in multiple accounts showed us how he managed resources during his rule, at a time just after first Western contact. When seeing his people harvesting small sandalwood (*Santalum* spp.; 'iliahi) trees from upland forests in the early 1800's at the behest of other lower-ranking ali'i who were taking advantage of new capitalistic economies, Kamehameha said to them:

**"No ke aha la oukou i mana'o ai e kua i keia l ¯ a'au'ala li'ili'i, 'oiai e nui aku ana 'o ia ¯ ma keia mua aku? Ua pane mai la n ¯ a k¯ akau ali'i me n ¯ a k¯ anaka. Ua elemakule 'oe a ua ¯ kokoke mai na l ¯ a hope o kou ola 'ana, a na wai la ia mau l ¯ a'au'ala, 'a'ole m ¯ akou i 'ike i ka ¯ mea nana ia l ¯ a'au'ala ma k ¯ eia mua aku. Ia w ¯ a pane aku 'o Kamehameha i ¯ a l ¯ akou penei: ¯ 'A'ole anei 'oukou i 'ike i ka'u po'e keiki? 'O lakou auane'i ka po'e n ¯ ana ia mau l ¯ a'au'ala, ¯ aolakou n ¯ o auane'i ko'u po'e kaulana ' ¯ aina ma k ¯ eia hope aku, ke huli a'e n ¯ a l ¯ a o ko'u ¯ ola 'ana ma keia ao." ¯**

*Why did you folks think to cut these small sandalwood when it still has yet to grow? The royal scribe and the people replied, You are getting old and the end of your life is getting near, and for who are these sandalwoods? We don't see the ones who these sandalwoods belong to from here on out. Kamehameha responded to them: You folks don't see my future descendants? From this time, they are the ones these sandalwoods belong to, and they are indeed my land stewards hereafter, my living days are turning over in this realm.*

(Rev. J.F. Pokuea in Ke Aloha Aina 1896 [64]; Translated and diacriticals added by author)

This account suggests that Kamehameha may have instituted a kapu on sandalwood harvest during this time, as would be custom for an ali'i of his status. The story alludes to Kamehameha's (1) responsibility to manage of the forest resources at a landscape scale, larger than areas that are the responsibility of lesser ali'i; (2) recognition of the mutual dependence of ka¯naka and the sandalwood tree, (3) and that he is considering this mutla dependence not only in the current generation but for the numerous of generations of kanaka ' ¯ oiwi, even those still unseen to us today. ¯

Because ali'i, including Kamehameha maintained a close relationship with the akua, they were often called upon by their maka'a¯inana to serve as an intermediary in times of need [47]. Kamehameha exhibits his relationship during the 1801 lava flow in the Kekaha region of Kona, Hawai'i Island where he is asked by his maka'a¯inana to intercede with Pele (the Hawaiian deity of volcanism, fire, lava, eruption) as a lava flow was threatening the lands in the region. Even a century after Western contact, the people still looked to the ali'i as the social institution that communicated with natural phenomena, the akua. For example, the kaumaha to communicate with akua continues on to Kamehameha's great-granddaughter Ruth Ke'elikolani (Figure ¯ 5). In 1881, Ke'elikolani is also called upon by the ¯ people of Hilo to intercede with Pele in upper Hilo, where she successfully entreats with Pele to stop a lava flow heading towards Hilo [68].

**Figure 5.** Mo'oku'auhau showing the ancestry of kaumaha from Kamehameha to his great-granddaughters ¯ Ruth Ke'elikolani and Bernice Pauahi. ¯

In this same era of the 1800's, we see the kaumaha of the ali'i being passed down from chief to their heirs not just genealogically, but also through the land tenure. When Ke'elikolani, the largest ¯ landowner in Hawai'i, passes away in 1883, her land lineage from the Kamehameha line as well as the responsibility of the ali'i to be the link to akua is passed down to our organization's founder, Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Pauahi's name, inherited from her aunt (Ke'elikolani's mother) translated as ¯ "destroyed by fire" [69], suggests a relationship between her kaumaha as a Kamehameha ali'i and the fire or Pele [47]. In Hawai'i tradition, mele inoa (name chants) were created to honor a newborn's genealogy from the baby's human family to the ancestral deities that came before them [55,68] Pauahi's name chant (a portion below) provides information codifying her connection with the akua Pele as well as her kaumaha to protect and maintain the water, and her connection as an ali'i to the akua [47].

#### **He kapu he moe wai no ka uka**

*The taboo is the taboo of "water storage" for the uplands*

#### **Kahu ka 'ena, kai mu i kai ko'o, o Nauahi loa**

*Steward the heat, from silent seas to billowing seas, longevity of all manner of uahi (smoke)* (He Inoa No Pauahi -Birth Chant of Bernice Pauahi Bishop), Lines 12 and 81 [68]; Translated in [47])

#### *3.4. Kamehameha Schools Inherits Kaumaha*

Throughout her life, Pauahi inherited lands from her ali'i family members (Figure 4), with the largest set of lands from Ruth Ke'elikolani at her death in 1883. At that time, Pauahi was the last ¯ reamining heir of the Kamehameha line, and her estate of over 370,000 acres of land represented the lands once controlled by Kamehameha. In the same year, Bernice Pauahi completed her will, which bequeathed all of her estate to create and maintain the Kamehameha Schools. She died just one year later [68]. This relationship and responsibility of the ali'i is passed on even after the biological end of the Kamehameha line at Pauahi's death, through the creation of the Kamehameha Schools. In this establishment of the Kamehameha Schools as an "ali'i institution", as the steward and keeper of the Kamehameha line's ali'i lands, Kamehameha Schools serves the ali'i function, with the kaumaha to care for its resources and people in perpetuity.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, extractive land use practices were widespread across Hawai'i, and included largescale clearing of lands for pasture, sugar, and pineapple. Despite this, early Kamehameha Schools Trustees instead made decisions to ensure the protection of resources on the estate's landholdings. The quote below from Charles Reed Bishop, Pauahi's husband and one of the first Trustees of Kamehameha Schools, demonstrates his understanding of the ali'i kaumaha to maintain the natural resources, not only for the short-term utilitarian benefits to the institution, but more importantly also for the maintenance of climate regulation, erosion control, water supply and quality into the future.

*So much is already known regarding the great value of forests, not only for furnishing fuel, building material and furniture woods, but in preserving the rainfall, restraining the violence of freshets, perpetuating the springs and rivulets of water, tempering the atmosphere and preventing the waste of the soil... It would be well for large landowners to reserve suitable localities—hilltops* ... *for tree planting. The results, if not directly profitable in a pecuniary point of view, would be advantageous in the local effects upon the climate, and protection against landslides and storms. It has come to be a necessity.*

#### —Charles Reed Bishop, 1883 [69]

The actions of Kamehameha Schools' early Trustees recognize the ali'i responsibility of maintaining the water cycle, as explained earlier. Agents of the ali'i institution at that time voluntarily set aside vast tracts of native forest lands for the express purpose of watershed and forest resource protection. They chose not to convert lands to pasture by clearcutting, as many other large landowners were doing, and instead chose to maintain these forested uplands for generations to come. Beginning in the 1890's, they allocated resources to fencing, removal of livestock, establishment of nurseries, and replanting of trees, years before the creation of the United States Forest Service (1905) or the territory of Hawai'i's Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry (1903) [70]. The forethinking by these early Trustees has resulted in many native forested landscapes that serve as primary watersheds for many communities today. For example, in the leeward district of Kona, Hawai'i Island, we currently actively steward much of the remaining mesic and wet native-dominated forest in the region (Figure 6), which continue to serve as vital sources for much of the community's drinking water.

**Figure 6.** Results of early KS decisions to manage forests. An aerial view of KS forested lands in Honaunau, Kona, Hawai'i Island on the left, and neighboring lands that were converted to pasture use. ¯

In the same era, Charles Reed Bishop, as an agent of the ali'i institution, recognized that the lands held by Kamehameha's lineage hold arguably some of the most sacred and spiritual sites in all of Hawai'i. Yet, as culture, language and practices, were being extinguished across Hawai'i, and whole cultural landscapes erased by practices such as plantation agriculture and logging, he identified the ali'i Trust's responsibility to protect cultural resources. He wrote,

*There is a matter that should not be lost sight of. I mean the acquisition and control of the Heiaus [religious temples] and Puuhonuas [religious complex; place of refuge], say those of Mookini in Kahala [Kohala], of Puukohola at Kawaihae, of Pakaalana in Waipio, of Honaunau in Kona, and perhaps one of the Islets of Mokuola in Hilo Bay, and any others of interest and worth preserving* ... *once in the control of the Museum they should be protected perpetually* ...

—Charles Reed Bishop to Henry Holmes, 1897 [71]

The "museum" referenced here is the Bishop Museum, Hawai'i's largest museum today. Founded by Bishop at the request of his wife Pauahi as a perpetual place to house the many cultural items of her family, and as this quote suggests, maintain the wahi kupuna (ancestral spaces) that are ¯ critical to 'O¯ iwi identity. It is important to note is that Charles Reed Bishop was an American as well as a Hawaiian Kingdom citizen, however not Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi by ancestry. Yet, as a representative of the ali'i institution, he inherits and carries the kaumaha to maintain the biocultural health of Kamehameha Schools' resources in perpetuity. This idea is powerful. We are not biological descendants of the ali'i who originally held and cared for the lands we are responsible for today, but, we have inherited the kaumaha held in the mo'oku'auhau of the ' ¯ a¯ina. We carry the kaumaha of our predecessors irrelevant of our biological ancestry or cultural background. Our team has personally come to these realizations through our research and through our physical, mental, and spiritual work within these lands day in and day out, year in and year out.

#### **4. The 21st Century: Returning to Ancestral Principles**

#### *4.1. Remembering our Foundations*

Though we found references and examples of prudent management of natural and cultural resources and perpetual vision by early leaders at Kamehameha Schools, these concepts were not widespread within the institution for much of the 20th century. In fact, one of the main reasons we undertook this exercise to understand our function through genealogy is because there are even more cases in the recent memory of the institution's damaging decisions [72]. For example, long-term leases to vast sugar plantations (i.e., Kawailoa, O'ahu); transformation of biodiverse forests to pasture and agriculture (i.e., Keauhou-Ka'u, Hawai'i Island); residential developments in traditionally abundant ¯ agroecosystems and aquaculture areas (i.e., Ka'elepulu and He'eia, O'ahu), commercial and resort development in areas with widespread and important cultural sites (i.e., Ka'up¯ ulehu, Kahalu'u, ¯ and Keauhou, Hawai'i Island); legacy land sold then subsequently bulldozed (i.e., Kapu'a, Hawai'i Island which held one of the most diverse mesic forests in the area). Kamehameha Schools was "land rich, and cash poor", and at that time, and its 'a¯ina was viewed solely as an economic resource to fund the educational mission. Yet, this approach completely ignored the 'O¯ iwi worldview that ka¯naka and 'a¯ina are ancestrally and reciprocally connected and disregarded the mo'oku'auhau of Kamehameha ¯ Schools' ali'i lands including the kaumaha transferred within. There were many other Kamehameha Schools proposals to monetize ali'i lands for marinas, resorts, golf courses, gentlemen estates, and even an amusement park in the late 1900's, however, these were met with opposition from ka¯naka 'oiwi ¯ communities around the Islands. These communities are analogous to maka'a¯inana, as they continued to care for and live on their ancestral lands. Ultimately, it was the voices of the community that compelled Kamehameha Schools into transformative realignment evident in its 2000 Strategic Plan centered around Kanaka ' ¯ Oiwi community discussions and concerns [ ¯ 41].

*Goal 6: Kamehameha Schools will ma*¯*lama i ka 'a*¯*ina: practice ethical, prudent and culturally appropriate stewardship of lands and resources.*

*6.1—Manage lands and other resources to optimize their support of the educational mission.*


*6.2—Manage lands to protect and enhance ecosystems and the wahi kupuna (ancestral sites inclusive of all ¯ cultural resources and iwi [burials]) they contain.*


In this new era, decisions around lands and resources returned, for the first time in a generation, to the ancestral principle that ka¯naka are part of a larger "'ohana (family) that includes the rest of the universe: land; sky; fresh water; salt water; plants and animals" [73]. Around this time, the Kamehameha Schools leadership made successful financial investments, resulting in a shift from a land rich and cash poor entity, to a Trust that was "land rich" and growing a diverse endowment of real estate and financial assets. This wealth allowed Kamehameha Schools the opportunity to once again make strategic investments into the stewardship of its landholdings.

Today, Kamehameha Schools is an \$11.5 billion trust, and the organization as a whole recognizes that our institutional genealogy is deeply tied to our 'a¯ina, which we can directly attribute our current economic, educational, and biocultural wealth to [41]. We recognize that because of its inheritance from our ali'i (Pauahi, Ke'elikolani, to Kamehameha I and beyond), our landbase (ten percent of ¯ Hawai'i), and now our financial wealth, our kaumaha or profound responsibility to both steward 'a¯ina and reciprocally support community is even greater. Kamehameha Schools continues to be looked at by many beneficiaries to be the ali'i that provides for community in a modern context beyond just education, but for community and social programming, agricultural opportunities, natural and cultural resource management, publishing, political advocacy, and commercial real estate development.
