Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Hawaiian History in Northern California (April 2004) (24 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 24
passed infancy. He also claimed that
when Manaiki became too old for
Sutter, she was given to Kanaka Harry.
This is not to be taken as the definitive
list of Kanakas who came with Sutterthere is confusion and contradiction in
the historical record on this subject.
When gold was discovered in
January of 1848 most of Sutter’s Indian
workers left him for better employment
or to mine for themselves. He was
“left with about one hundred and fifty
Indians and about fifty Sandwich
Islanders (Kanakas), which had joined
those which . had brought with me
from the Islands.”
The Ali’i who accompanied
Sutter was sixteen-year-old loan-a
Ke’a’a’la o’Ka’i-ana , the grandson of
Ka’i-ana, the High Chief of Maui. Why
would an Ali’i travel and work with
ordinary people? Some historians
speculate that loan-a Ke’a’a’la had
enemies because his grandfather
resisted Kamehameha’s efforts to unify
the Hawaiian Islands under his rule.
Ka’i-ana, chief of Maui, was
originally one of Kamehameha’s
counselors but unlike the others he had
traveled to foreign ports, including
Alaska and China. His sophistication
and ambition generated jealousy and
suspicion amongst some of
Kamehameha’s closet advisors.
Kamehameha’s plan to unify all
the Islands included attaching Maui.
Ka’i-ana had planned to attack Hawai’i
first, but Kamehameha, with the aid of
16,000 men, guns and a cannon,
surprised Ka’i’ana in a fight that
destroyed the entire western side of
Maui. Ka’i-ana and a number of his
men then joined forces with the chiefs
of Oahu who were also under threat.
When Kamehameha struck Oahu,
in the Battle of Nu’uanu, he brought
Sutter County Historical Society
News Bulletin
with him English weapons, including
cannons that could destroy stone
barricades. He also had the technical
advice of two British sailors. This
technology gave a tremendous
advantage to Kamehameha’s army.
Many warriors from the combined
armies from Maui and Oahu, including
Ka’i-ana himself, died in battle that
day. This was the decisive victory for
Kamehameha and his campaign to unify
the islands.
Depending on your point of view,
either Ka’i-ana was an independent and
conservative ruler who resisted western
influences or from the perspective of
those who were in favor of unification,
Ka’i-ana was a subversive.
The Governor and Chief of Oahu
(Mateo Kekuanoa, nephew of Ka’i-ana)
may have sent loan-a Ke’a’a’la 0’Ka’iana with Sutter for his own safety.
Then again loan-a Ke’a’a’la may have
been an exile by choice.
The Story of the Rainbow Bridge
History and archaeology are
ways to reflect on the meaning of past
events, but they are not the only ways.
People everywhere are far more
responsive to stories than to factual
information. Although there is no
known evidence of Kanakas in
California prior to 1775 there is the
story of The Rainbow Bridge. Pit River
elder Craven Gibson told this story to
Darryl Wilson of the Pit River people of
California in 1971. Videographer Kat
High (Hupa), has recoded Darryl
Wilson’s telling of the story.
The story goes something like
this: Long ago, the Sacramento and
San Joaquin Valleys were one huge,
shallow lake. At this time Hawaiians
sailed their canoe to the Coast of
California where it wrecked on the
April 2004