How we lost our lands

In 1848, King Kamehameha III and his chiefs bowed to the unrelenting pressure of their haole advisors to alter the traditional Hawaiian land tenure system to a more Western way of fee simple ownership.  This event became known as the Great Mahele.  In hindsight, the Great Mahele wasn’t so great after all—as this was the “beginning of the end” for Kanaka Maoli and ownership and control of their aina.

In the Mahele, the King retained all of his private lands as his personal and individual property, subject only to the rights of the native tenants (eventually, these lands would be called “Crown Lands”).  The remaining lands in the Hawaiian Kingdom were then divided into roughly three parts.  1/3 was allocated to the Government (these lands, along with the aforementioned "Crown Lands" are now erroneously called “Ceded Lands”—more about this in a later posting).  1/3 was awarded to lesser alii and a select few haole individuals who the King and chiefs felt were instrumental in forming or administering the Kingdom.  The final 1/3 was to be given to the maka’ainana, or commoners of the Kingdom.

The maka’ainana were dealt a serious blow—for they were given

only the land their houses sat upon, as well as any land that were actually being cultivated at that time.  The 8,000 or so maka’ainana that received lands in the Mahele, were given a “manini” share of less than 3-acres a piece (on average) — all totaling to less than 1% of all land in the Kingdom!

In 1850, the Kanaka Maoli were dealt another blow when a Law was enacted that now allowed foreigners to own land.  Where two-years earlier the maka’ainana were handed out “manini parcels of land” averaging less than 3-acres apiece, haole were now being handed parcels of over 500-acres each!  To add salt to the wound, haole could now also purchase land—if they wanted more land than they were awarded.  A vast majority of the Kanaka Maoli lived off the land—more of a sustinance & bartering society, rather than a capitalist society.  The Kanaka Maoli didn’t have the money to purchase land… the haole did.  Haole Capitalists took full advantage of this new law and purchased vast tracts of land.  Thus, even more of the aina slipped through the Kanaka Maoli hands and into the haole hands.

Stay tuned.  In future posts, I’ll discuss more about the stealing of Hawaiian lands—in detail.  I’ll be giving examples…dropping names (who the most prolific land-grabbers were)…how they stole the land…providing documentation (much to the dismay of some of these current landowners—CERTIFIED documents from the Hawaii State Archives and the Bureau of Conveyances)…I’ll even let some families in on “secret lands” that they own, unbeknownst to them!  Again, stay tuned!