January, 1895:
The Last of the Kama‘āina of Kalaupapa Evicted

 

As we learn more about the history of Kalaupapa through sources previously ignored, we are not only increasing our knowledge about the people who were taken from their families and sent to Kalaupapa because of government policies regarding leprosy, we’re also getting a better understanding about the significant roles played by the kamaʻāina and the kōkua.

For generations, a community of kamaʻāina -- original inhabitants -- lived on the Kalaupapa peninsula. Their compassion and aloha improved life for the early people affected by leprosy who had arrived with essentially nothing. Kōkua -- family members or close friends -- provided valuable assistance and support when they were allowed to accompany their loved ones.

In her award-winning book, “Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory,” author Anwei Law, describes how some family members came with the first 12 people who were sent to Kalaupapa on January 6, 1866. They were the first kōkua. In the first 10 months of that year, a total of 142 people affected by leprosy were sent to the peninsula -- along with 22 kōkua. They were living in Kalawao (on the windward side of the peninsula) and adjoining Waikolu Valley alongside or with the kama‘aina.

Records of kōkua were not kept as meticulously as records of the sick people who were admitted to Kalaupapa so we don’t have an exact number of how many family members accompanied their loved ones throughout history -- or their names. In addition, there were certain years -- 1873 for example -- when kōkua were not allowed because government policies were subject to change.

Welcoming the New Arrivals

Even when kōkua were permitted, most people came to Kalaupapa alone. However, it seems that most new arrivals were welcomed by the people who had earlier been sent to the peninsula: men and women who had gone through the same loneliness and uncertainty. The people of Kalaupapa were kōkua themselves.

Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa has compiled a partial list of records about kōkua who were at Kalaupapa -- and we have been able to help a number of descendants learn about their ancestors who served in this way. Ka ‘Ohana has also identified a few tombstones that mark the graves of people who went to Kalaupapa as kōkua.

While the kōkua at Kalaupapa were providing essential care and assistance for their loved ones in the settlement, family members who remained at home were doing their part, too. They continually wrote letters or spoke up about poor conditions at the settlement and the failure of the government to meet the needs of the people.

 

The kamaʻāina

 

The kamaʻāina came to the aid of those sent to Kalaupapa in a number of ways. Native Hawaiians had already established a thriving community on the peninsula and in Waikolu Valley. For hundreds of years, the Hawaiians fished and grew sweet potatoes, kalo and watermelons -- with some of these crops for sale.

Author John Clark has provided valuable reports about life before and after Kalaupapa was established as a leprosy settlement with his research of Hawaiian language newspaper stories that he had translated from ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i into English. These fascinating articles make up the bulk of his book, “Kalaupapa Place Names: Waikolu to Nihoa.” The earliest report or letter Clark came across about Kalaupapa was in 1836 in Ke Kumu Hawaii.

Clark also includes information from Ka Hae Hawaii about the visit of King Kamehameha IV to Kalaupapa in 1856. The King was married to Queen Emma whose cousin, Peter Kaeo, would later be isolated at Kalaupapa from 1873-76 because he had contracted leprosy.

 

The same newspaper reported in 1857:

 

“The school at Kalaupapa was the best at reading and writing. The students at that school excel at reading and their writing skills are great....”

 

We do not yet know how many kamaʻāina were living on the peninsula and in adjoining Waikolu Valley in 1866 when the first 12 people with leprosy arrived. There is still research being done into the lives of the kamaʻāina. Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa has heard from about 10 descendants of people believed to be kamaʻāina.

In the early 1860s, it was thought that leprosy could be yet another foreign disease that would have devastating impacts on the population of Hawaiʻi.

In 1865, King Kamehameha V signed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” which called for designating land to isolate people affected by the disease. The law did not state that people should be sent to Kalaupapa; it was the Board of Health that chose the peninsula because of its remoteness.

In late 1865 -- two months before the first people were sent to Kalaupapa -- Kalihi Hospital was opened to examine anyone who thought they had leprosy and to treat those who were found to have the disease. Those found to not have the disease were allowed to go home.

Kalawao in 1866

Meanwhile, the Board of Health purchased houses from some kamaʻāina at Kalawao in preparation for the transfer of people from Kalihi who had more severe cases of leprosy. But the government failed to provide medical care or sufficient food, supplies and assistance.

So it was the kamaʻāina who helped fill those needs. The healthier of the sick people also helped those less able: Already a sense of community that continued through the years.

Much of what we know about the first year when the government began isolating people with leprosy at Waikolu and Kalawao comes from the recently published memoirs of Kalaupapa leader Ambrose Hutchison who landed at Kalaupapa on January 5, 1879 and lived there for the next 53 years until his death in 1932. Ambrose married Mary Kaiakonui, a kamaʻāina who was born on the peninsula in 1857.

Because Ambrose was not at Kalaupapa when people affected by leprosy first arrived, it’s possible that his wife provided the details he writes about regarding those early years. Anwei Law also found letters in the Hawaiʻi State Archives written by some of those individuals who were sent in those first few months of 1866; she had these letters translated from ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi.

During that first year, the government kept sending more and more people to Kalaupapa. By the end of September, 20 ships had landed with 142 people who had the disease. The kamaʻāina were running out of housing and the government was not keeping up with other necessities. All of this was leading to great suffering from shortages of housing, food, medical care and other necessities.

The Kamaʻāina Are Told to Leave the Land of Their Birth

Ambrose Hutchison described how the kamaʻāina organized a group to meet with King Kamehameha V in Honolulu. His is the only written account we have at this point about what happened during this meeting and what followed.

Ambrose wrote how the King gathered the people and listened to them, then summoned his Minister of the Interior to ask about the situation at Kalaupapa. This official stated that he and his colleagues were simply carrying out the King’s law. According to Ambrose, the King then “bowed his head” and “realized the unpleasant truth which he had to tell those of his people present the matter of fact of his kingly act.”

As a result of this meeting, the kamaʻāina were told they would have to leave Kalaupapa – they would have to leave the land where their families had lived for generations, leave the bones of their ancestors, leave all that they had known.

Some of the kamaʻāina accepted the government’s offer to exchange their kuleana lands for parcels on the East End of topside Molokai – others simply did not leave. This was their home and they had become friends with the people who had been sent there. At different times, kamaʻāina would be told to leave the peninsula.

The final edict went out in 1894, a year after the illegal overthrow, that ordered all kamaʻāina to leave Kalaupapa. At that time, there were 39 kamaʻāina living at the base of the Kalaupapa pali, according to Dr. Arthur Mouritz, physician at Kalaupapa from 1884-1887. The last of the kamaʻāina had left by the following January.

The story of Kalaupapa is the story of two forced relocations – a still unknown number of families who had called Kalaupapa home for generations and nearly 8,000 people who were taken from their families and sent to Kalaupapa because they were thought to have had leprosy.

Most of these individuals affected by leprosy never saw their loved ones back home again.

 

-- Valerie Monson,

Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa