PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER IX:
PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (continued)

F. Description of Resources: South Keokea (continued)

     l) Individual Sites

Frances Jackson associated four house lots with individual owners with the help of some of her informants:

(1) Kahikina House Lot

This was located on Halakahi Point and was the house site of several of the informants, it contains a platform paved with 'ili'ili. The former residents disagreed about whether the original structure had been pili grass or lumber with a tin roof. It had comprised one room with a door in the middle of the wall facing west. Cooking took place outside the house in a ring of stones. Eating transpired on the platform in front of the house. The walled area back of the house served as the garbage dump. The yard was walled, with access over the top, and contained a yellow plumeria, monkeypod trees, and other plants.

(2) Ahu House Lot

According to an informant, John Ahu was a "Pake"-Chinese (meaning a foreigner or possibly that he was part white) and formerly a whaler. After the Ahus moved away, the Kahikina family moved into their house. (Frequently after a family abandoned their land and improvements, the house, if in good shape, was appropriated and occupied by remaining individuals.) This wooden house with tin roof was built (ca. 1890s?) over a slight depression that formed a cellar. Cooking took place north of the house next to the concrete grave vault. The vault, which the NPS has repaired, was built for the remains of the father of John Ahu, Jr. A large kettle for whale blubber was kept on the southwest side of the house. A concrete-lined cistern held the water supply. Steps from the house platform lead down to the Ki'ilae landing, but some are damaged. The site was walled, but the back of the house platform opened to the trail mauka. This house was rebuilt north of Honaunau Bay in the 1930s.

(3) Pipi House Lot

This residence, located in the lot next to the Ki'ilae-Keokea boundary, was a wood house according to one informant, although others stated only pili houses existed mauka of the main trail in the 1890s. This site had been recently occupied, as evidenced by modern artifacts.

(4) Manunu House Lot

This high stone platform held a pili house that was evidently still occupied ca. 1913. Artifacts suggest recent occupation. [245]

Illustration 203. Map 6, "Keokoa . . . South Section." Survey and map by Bishop Museum, 1957. From Emory, "Hinterland and Keamoali'i." (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

     m) Kenneth P. Emory's Fieldwork

Emory noted several interesting features as he walked along the cliff toward Ki'ilae Village in 1957 (Map 6). On the outskirts of the settlement he identified numerous house lots enclosed by stone walls. Before reaching the boundary line between Keokea and Ki'ilae ahupua'a, Emory recorded five house lots on the mauka side of the trail. Little was evident on the first two, but the third contained two old house platforms and a concrete tomb. The fourth contained a typical house platform, while the last one, abutting the boundary, had supported a more modern establishment as shown by later historical-period artifacts. Also on the property, however, were signs of ancient paving and the foundation stones of an old house. This lot had been in family ownership since 1819. [246]

The chiefess Kekela-o-ka-lani, mother of Kamehameha IV's wife Queen Emma, lived at Ki'ilae Village in the early to mid-1800s. Her house platform (Map 7) stood just above the well, mauka of the main road. Emory believed it to be one of the finest remaining examples of an early Hawaiian house foundation, with a paving of large, flat, waterworn stones and beach pebbles. [247] An ancient legend connected with the well states that a couple found out about the water available here by watching their dog going into a certain cave and then reappearing with wet fur. Kekela directed that the cave be enlarged until water was reached, and the residents accomplished this by pounding through the rock to the spring. Emory and his party explored the Cave of the Dog ('Ilio Cave) leading from the well and found it to be a refugee cave with three entrances inland. The passage into the uppermost eastern entrance had been artificially narrowed by a stone wall. It is outside the park boundary. [248]

Other features noted by Emory in this part of Ki'ilae Village included two small structures east and south of Kekela's house site that Henry Kekahuna had labelled as heiau, one named Pua-hala and used to increase the food bounty and the other used as an astronomical temple. Emory believed the one farther south might have been a ko'a, or fisherman's shrine.

Across the highway from the well and proceeding north (Map 7), Emory noted Pa-wai's house site with a poi pounder in front; an ancient terrace faced with heavy boulders; another small enclosure fronted by a paved terrace that Kekahuna called a ku'ula (fisherman's shrine); a platform with an upper terrace and a pathway on a lower terrace of waterworn slabs, which was given the name Heiau Ka'akapua by Kekahuna's informant; an artificial basin for watering stock; and other remains of ancient house platforms, some occupied into historic times. Turning east inland and crossing the road, Emory followed along a wire fence marking the boundary line. South of the fence he found house pavements, a small cave shelter, and finally a rough pavement Kekahuna designated as Kumu-ko'a Heiau, where men received advanced training for the priesthood. East of this was a smaller platform named Kole-aka Heiau by Kekahuna, who was told priests here received preliminary training before advancing to Kumu-ko'a. Nearby to the southeast was a burial platform. [249]

Coming back down the mauka Ki'ilae trail toward the main road (Map 7), Emory passed large walled pasture enclosures. On the north were a group of three small platforms rising in two tiers and marking recent graves; through a gate were a pen and a house site. Across a wall to the north was an ancient platform paved with waterworn stones and rising in three terraces. The lower platform had most recently supported a frame house. To the north of that was the frame house site of Manunu (mentioned also by Jackson), with an old platform similar to that of the residence of the chiefess Kekela. It had a concrete tomb on its north side. South of the mauka Ki'ilae trail, Emory found in the first lot an enclosure behind a paved terrace, which Kekahuna was told was a kapa-making shrine (heiau kuku-kapa). Also in this lot were two paved areas and, facing on the main road, a two-level house foundation facing a wide terrace. The next lot to the south contained in its mauka half a rough platform and two small pens, and in its makai half, separated by a stone wall, an old two-level house platform. Concrete tombs in the southwest corner of the enclosure were not identified. [250]

Illustration 204. Map 7, "Kiilae." Survey and map by Bishop Museum, 1957. Emory, "Hinterland and Keamoali'i." (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

     n) Edmund J. Ladd's Fieldwork

The test excavations that Edmund Ladd performed were done because a portion of the village was slated for restoration. It was hoped the archaeology would provide insight into total occupation patterns and the extent and duration of occupation. In addition the crew intended to examine some of the house compounds in detail to acquire data to guide restoration. Ladd rediscovered many of the sites the Bishop Museum found in 1957 and discovered many more that had been covered by dense vegetation. Twelve sites representing a cross-section of type sites in the village were selected for excavation or study, including house platforms, house enclosures, grave sites, and midden areas. Attempts were made only to sample each site. [251]

One of Ladd's most important finds was a holua in the Keokea ahupua'a about 240 feet north of the Keokea-Ki'ilae boundary line. The slide, almost 300 feet long and about 6 feet wide, extends outside the east boundary of the park. Its walls are fairly well preserved in some sections, but most of the surface paving stones are missing. [252] Ladd has suggested that this sport was in vogue between 1793 and 1840, and that the use of stone tracks was a late development of that period. It should be noted that none of the interviewees mentioned this slide, suggesting that its use may go farther back in time.

Ladd found that the house compounds, or pa hale, between the 1871 trail and the ocean and those closest to the Keokea-Ki'ilae ahupua'a boundary were in the best state of preservation, with nearly intact boundary walls between lots. The area farther north and mauka of the trail was more chaotic, containing a jumble of short wall sections, terraces, platforms (some of which were grave sites), and animal pens. Many different grave types were represented in Ladd's sampling. He found the largest number of graves toward the north end of the village, indicating this area might have been used as a cemetery after abandonment of the house lots there. [253] Two house enclosures, one in Keokea and the other in Ki'ilae (Manunu house site), were cleared of vegetation and their features located and mapped as being typical of the house complexes in the village.

The first lot excavated lies just mauka of the 1871 trail and just north of the Keokea-Ki'ilae ahupua'a dividing line. Excavations there seemed to bear out Jackson's oral history that only pili houses existed mauka of the trail in the 1890s. [254] Structures in that complex included three house sites, three grave sites, two possible graves, and a possible garden terrace. The second lot had been identified by the Bishop Museum in 1957 as Manunu's house site. That complex included a goat pen, a possible grave site, an "ancient" stone platform, possibly for a pili house, and several concrete grave crypts. The house sites sampled were classified as the platform type with lanai (site D-140), an ancient style also used into modern times; the walled, or enclosure, type (D-160), also an ancient form used into modern times; and the platform type without a stone platform (D-162 and 163), which is a purely modern style. [255] Ladd's conclusion, based on artifacts found, house types, and grave sites, was that Ki'ilae Village was not that old, possibly having been settled as early as the late 1700s, but more likely not until the early 1800s. [256]

Illustration 205. Archeological site plan of Ki'ilae Village. Figure 2 in Ladd, Ki'ilae Village, p. 7. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Illustration 206. Conjectural drawing of House Site D-140 (Manunu's House), Ki'ilae Village. Figure 33 in Ladd, Ki'ilae Village, p. 50.

Illustration 207. Conjectural drawing of House Site D-160, Ki'ilae Village. Figure 30 in Ladd, Ki'ilae Village, p. 46.

Illustration 208. Conjectural drawing of typical historical-period house (Site D-163), Ki'ilae Village. Figure 31 in Ladd, Ki'ilae Village, p. 47.