Niihau

Coordinates: 21°54′N 160°10′W / 21.900°N 160.167°W / 21.900; -160.167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Niʻihau
Nickname: The Forbidden Isle
County
Kauaʻi
Owner(s)Bruce Robinson
Keith Robinson
Symbols
FlowerPūpū keʻokeʻo (white shell)[1]
ColorKeʻokeʻo (white)[2]
Largest settlement
Hawaiian Time

Niʻihau (

2010 census population was 170. At the 2020 census, the population had fallen to 84.[5]

Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau in 1864 for US$10,000 (equivalent to about $190,000 in 2023) from the Kingdom of Hawaii. The island's private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons. During World War II, the island was the site of the Niʻihau incident, in which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese navy fighter pilot crashed on the island and received help from the island's residents of Japanese descent.

The island, known as "the Forbidden Isle", is off-limits to all outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives,

U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. From 1987 onward, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists. The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of Niʻihau are noted for their gemlike lei pūpū (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian
as a primary language.

Geography

See also:
List of beaches in Niihau

Niʻihau is located about 18 miles (29 km) west of Kauaʻi, and the tiny, uninhabited island of Lehua lies 0.7 miles (0.61 nmi; 1.1 km) north of Niʻihau. Niʻihau's dimensions are 6.2 miles by 18.6 miles (10 km × 30 km). The maximum elevation (Paniau) is 1,280 feet (390 m).[6] The island is about 6 million years old, making it geologically older than the 5.8-million-year-old neighboring island of Kauaʻi to the northeast.[7] Niʻihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of what was once a much larger volcano. The entire summit and other slopes collapsed into the ocean in a giant prehistoric landslide.[8]

Climate

The island is relatively

trade wind rainfall. Niʻihau, therefore, depends on winter Kona storms for its rain, when more northerly weather systems intrude into the region. As such, the island is subject to long periods of drought.[9] Historical droughts on Niʻihau have been recorded several times, one in 1792 by Captain James Cook's former junior officer, George Vancouver, who had been told that the people of Niʻihau had abandoned the island because of a severe drought and had moved to Kauaʻi to escape famine.[10]

Climate data for Puʻuwai
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) 79
(26) 		79
(26) 		81
(27) 		82
(28) 		83
(28) 		85
(29) 		86
(30) 		87
(31) 		87
(31) 		86
(30) 		83
(28) 		81
(27) 		83
(28)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) 65
(18) 		65
(18) 		65
(18) 		66
(19) 		67
(19) 		69
(21) 		70
(21) 		71
(22) 		71
(22) 		70
(21) 		68
(20) 		66
(19) 		68
(20)
Average rainfall inches (mm) 2.96
(75) 		1.48
(38) 		1.53
(39) 		0.75
(19) 		0.63
(16) 		0.33
(8.4) 		0.50
(13) 		0.62
(16) 		0.84
(21) 		2.35
(60) 		2.74
(70) 		2.78
(71) 		17.51
(445)
Source: The Weather Channel [11]

Flora and fauna

View of the rugged cliffs of windward Niʻihau (the northeastern shore)

As an arid island, Niʻihau was barren of trees for centuries – Captain

Aylmer Robinson
, is an endangered species native to Niʻihau.

Several bird species thrive on Niʻihau. The largest lakes on the island are

NOAA fisheries over the past thirty years, and some have found homes on Niʻihau.[12][14][15]

hunting safari tourism.[12]

History

Map of Yam Bay and Niʻihau, Captain George Dixon's Journal, 1788.

Prior to the

Kaumualiʻi was born in 1790. Kauaʻi and Niʻihau are said to have carried the "highest blood lines" in the Hawaiian Islands.[18]

Kamehameha managed to unify all of the islands by 1795, except for Kauaʻi and Niʻihau.[19] Two attempts to conquer those islands had failed, and Kamehameha lost many men: bodies covered the beaches on Kauaʻi's eastern shores.[20] Finally, in 1810, Kamehameha amassed a great fleet, and Kaumualiʻi, the last independent aliʻi, surrendered rather than risk further bloodshed. Independence again became feasible after Kamehameha's death in 1819, but was put down when Kamehameha's widow Kaʻahumanu kidnapped Kaumualiʻi and forced him to marry her. Thereafter Niʻihau remained part of the unified Hawaiian Kingdom.

A group of villagers at Puʻuwai Beach settlement, Niʻihau in 1885. Photograph taken by Francis Sinclair, son of Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair.

intermittent lakes.[22] The stems were harvested and used to weave moena makaloa (mats), considered the "finest sleeping mats in Polynesia". The mats were valued by aliʻi and foreign visitors alike, but by the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians had stopped weaving makaloa due to changes in population, culture, economics, and the environment.[23]

In 1915, Sinclair's grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission. Upon Aubrey's death in 1939 the island passed to his son Aylmer, and in 1968 to Aylmer's youngest brother Lester. Upon Lester's wife Helen's death, the island passed to his sons Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, the current co-owners.[12] (See Sinclair-Robinson family tree)

Niʻihau played a small role during the

Japanese pilot whose Zero had been hit crash-landed[24] on the island hoping to rendezvous with a rescue submarine. The pilot was apprehended and later escaped with the assistance of local Japanese residents, but he was killed shortly afterwards.[25]

Despite its self-imposed isolation, Niʻihau has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. military dating from 1924.[12] There is a small Navy installation on the island. No military personnel are permanently stationed there, but the U.S. military has used the island for training special operations units, which included hiring Hawaiians who live on Niʻihau as "enemy" trackers.[26]

Society

Politics

See also: Politics of Hawaii

The island of Niʻihau was considered as a possible location for the United Nations headquarters in 1944 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had visited Hawaii in 1934.[27] Under Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, the State Department seriously studied the proposal.[28]

In 2004 President

Dan Akaka received 60% of votes in the 2006 Senate election to Cynthia Thielen's 36%.[30] In 2008, Niʻihau's precinct was one of only 3 of Hawaiʻi's 538 precincts to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama. McCain received 35 votes, Obama received 4, and Cynthia McKinney received 1.[31] In the 2016 presidential election, 34 votes were cast for president, of which 20 were for Donald Trump and 10 for Hillary Clinton.[32] In 2020, Donald Trump won 43 out of the 43 ballots cast in Niʻihau against Joe Biden.[33]

Population

Navy contractors from PMRF arrive at Paniau Ridge on Niʻihau in an Agusta A109 helicopter. The seabird sanctuary island of Lehua can be seen in the background.

The 2010 census states that there were 170 people living on the island.

rainwater catchment. The Robinson family established most of these conditions. There is no hotel, and barges deliver groceries from Kauaʻi, often purchased by relatives, with free shipping.[12]

Residents generally speak the

phonemes /k/ and /l/, respectively.[12] Niʻihau is the only island where Hawaiian is spoken as a primary language.[38] Oral tradition maintains that the Niʻihau dialect is closer to the Hawaiian register spoken during the time of contact with Europeans; there is linguistic evidence to support this claim, such as the pronunciation of k as /t/.[39]
English is the second language.

Some residents have radio and television sets, although limited reception effectively limits the latter to watching pre-recorded media.

Agusta A109 helicopter for emergencies and for transporting Navy contractors and residents to and from Kauaʻi. Helicopter tours and safaris help offset the costs of this service.[41]

A form of

Hawaiian music plays a central role on the island, with a cappella singers making use of only two or three tones and changing rhythms. Ukulele and guitar playing is nearly ubiquitous among the islanders, and there are three separate styles of slack-key music, with an older style originating from Kohala.[44]

Education

The

Hawaii Department of Education operates the Niʻihau School, a K–12 school. Academic subjects and computer literacy are combined with teaching students to "thrive from the land".[12] The school is powered entirely by solar power.[45] The number of students varies from 25 to 50 since families often travel between Niʻihau and Kauaʻi.[46] Schoolchildren may stay with relatives in west Kauaʻi, where they attend one of two Niʻihau-focused public charter schools. At the Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha school, students speak primarily the Niʻihau dialect through the early elementary grades, and then Hawaiian and English through grade 12. The school has a digital recording and video system, which helps to preserve and teach traditional Niʻihau and Hawaiian culture. At the other west Kauaʻi school, Kula Aupuni Niʻihau a Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA), English is used in all grades, while still supporting the Niʻihau dialect. Both schools foster the culture, values, and spirituality of Niʻihau.[12] Efforts to establish KANAKA began in 1993 and its current version was established in 1999.[47]

Economy

Approximately 80% of Niʻihau's income comes from a small Navy installation atop 1,300-foot-high cliffs. Remote-controlled tracking devices are used for testing and training with Kaua'i's Pacific Missile Range Facility. Modern missile defense tests are conducted at the site for the U.S. and its allies. The installation brings in millions of dollars a year, and provides the island with a stable economic base without the complexity of tourism or industrial development.[12]

The sale of shells and shell jewelry is an additional source of income.

Leptothyra verruca).[49] The shells and jewelry are so popular that Governor Linda Lingle signed a bill in 2004 to protect lei pūpū o Niʻihau (Niʻihau shell leis) from counterfeiting.[50] A single, intricate Niʻihau shell lei can sell for thousands of dollars.[12]

Mullet farming has been popular on Niʻihau, with ponds and lakes stocked with baby mullet, which reach 9–10 pounds (4.1–4.5 kg) apiece before being harvested and sold on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu.[52]

Bruce Robinson, Niʻihau's co-owner, is seeking and considering new forms of non-invasive income generation. Depending on feasibility, impact, and

lignocellulose process; military, including a possible runway; and windmill energy production. Robinson has declined offers to purchase sand from Niʻihau's beaches, because of adverse environmental effects.[12]

Tourism

Niʻihau's owners have offered half-day helicopter and beach tours of the island since 1987,

boars
. Any meat the hunters do not take with them is given to the village.

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ Shearer 2002, p. 99.
  2. ^ Shearer 2002, p. 230.
  3. ^ "Table 5.08 – Land Area of Islands: 2000" (PDF). 2004 State of Hawaii Data Book. State of Hawaii. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
  4. ^ Census Tract 410, Kaua'i County Archived copy[dead link] at WebCite (January 17, 2010). United States Census Bureau
  5. ^ "Niihau CCD, Kauai County, Hawaii". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 23, 2024. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  6. ^ "Table 5.11 – Elevations of Major Summits" (PDF). 2004 State of Hawaii Data Book. State of Hawaii. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
  7. ^ Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (January 7, 2016). "Volcano Watch — A geologic tour of the Hawaiian Islands: Kaua'i and Ni'ihau". U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  8. ^ "GG 103 Class 26: Regional Geology of Kau'i, Ni'ihau and NW Hawaiian chain". School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. April 10, 2004. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021.
  9. ^ Tabrah 1987, pp. 10–11.
  10. ^ Tabrah 1987, p. 49.
  11. ^ "Puuwai, HI Monthly Weather Forecast". The Weather Channel. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Mangieri, Gina (June 22, 2009). "Niihau: Past, Present and Future" (Television production). KHON-TV (report with video). Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2010. Partial transcript/monograph online in 12 parts
  13. ^ Lloyd J. Soehren (2010). "lookup of Nonopapa Lake". in Hawaiian Place Names. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  14. OCLC 21275453
    .
  15. ^ Mooallem, Jon (May 8, 2013). "Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?". The New York Times Magazine.
  16. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, p. 13.
  17. ^ Kam, Nadine (May 17, 2004). "The real deal: Genuine Niihau shells have lasting quality". Features. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Archived from the original on August 19, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  18. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, pp. 13–14.
  19. JSTOR 1794586
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  20. ISBN 0-914916-43-2
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  21. ISBN 1-4264-4990-9
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  22. ISBN 0-8248-1162-3
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  23. ^ Van Dyke, Peter (June 2001). "Growing Makaloa (Cyperus laevigatus L. ) in Constructed Wetlands for Weaving and Treating Wastewater: Final report for U.S. Geological Survey Grant No. 99CRGR0003" (PDF). Bishop Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2007.
  24. ^ Nieuwint, Joris. "War History Online". Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  25. ISBN 0-06-078075-4) and the opening chapter of Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment
    .
  26. ^ a b Sommer, Anthony. "Niihau: Opening Up." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. May 14, 1999.
  27. ^ Tabrah 1987, p. 1.
  28. S2CID 144530543
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  29. ^ Hawaii 2004 election results for precinct 16-09. Hawaii.gov. Retrieved April 21, 2006.
  30. ^ "General Election 2006 – State of Hawaii – Statewide Final Summary Report". November 7, 2006. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  31. ^ "Office of Elections" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  32. ^ "Who Voted For Donald Trump In Hawaii?". Honolulu Civil Beat. November 18, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  33. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  34. ^ "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data" (PDF). US Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 26, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  35. ^ "That's Just How I Rule". This American Life, 2017. March 3, 2017.
  36. ^ "Ni'ihau Island Today – Learn about the Forbidden Island of Ni'ihau". November 17, 2020.
  37. ^ Langlas, Charles and Kehaulani Shintani. "Mälama ka ‘Äina: To Care For The Land" Archived February 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine [review]. CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship. Vol. 3 No. 1 (Winter 2006).
  38. ^ Olsen, Eric P. (October 2001). "Paradise Preserved". World & I. 16 (10): 108.
  39. ^ Hitt, Catherine (May 13, 2016). "Keepers of the Flame: How cultural practitioners are preserving Niihau's unique traditions". Hawaii Magazine. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  40. ^ Enomoto, Catherine Kekoa (1997). "Niihau: Island at a Crossroad". Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
  41. ^ "Niihau – Hawaii's "Forbidden Island"". Kauai Visitor Magazine. Archived from the original on December 30, 2006. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
  42. ^ Crites, Jennifer (October–November 2007). "The Ipu Guy". Hana Hou!. 10 (5). Retrieved October 18, 2007. This method developed [circa AD 1600] only on Niʻihau – nowhere else in the world – and then vanished at the end of the 19th century," explains Harburg. "It was lost until Dr. Bruce Kaʻimiloa Chrisman figured out how it was done.
  43. ^ Bordessa, Kris (2007). "The Lost Ipu Art of Niʻihau". Craft:. 4. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  44. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, p. 105.
  45. ^ Gehrlein, Rachel (December 15, 2007). "Niʻihau school first in state on solar power". The Garden Island. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
  46. ^ Hawaii State Department of Education. "Niʻihau School". Archived from the original on July 26, 2012.
  47. ^ "Bilingual Education At KANAKA" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  48. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, pp. 36–37.
  49. ISBN 0-8248-0998-X
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  50. ^ H.B. No. 2569. See also: "Governor signs Niihau shell bill". American City Business Journals. May 24, 2004.
  51. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, p. xv.
  52. ^ Tava & Keale 1998, pp. 66–67.
  53. ^ "Flying visitors can catch glimpse of "The Forbidden Isle"". The Globe and Mail. August 15, 1987.
  54. ^ "Niihau Island". Archived from the original on December 1, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  55. ^ "Niihau, Hawaii's 'Forbidden Island,' is closed to outsiders". The Boston Globe. November 17, 2012.
  56. ^ "Controversial film about Native Hawaiian war hero set for release". hawaiinewsnow.com. April 2, 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2023.

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