Hawai`i’s First People
Before the Tahitians landed in Hawai`i, the Marquesans found a home.
When the Tahitians laid eyes on the Hawaiian archipelago for the first time in 1200 A.D., they didn’t find an isolated, tropical paradise. Scattered across the islands were expertly crafted temples, fish ponds, dams, and roads. Their neighbors from the Marquesas Islands had arrived here long before them, setting their roots in Hawai`i.
Scholars estimate that the Marquesans arrived sometime between 0–400 A.D. With long-distance voyaging canoes, they sailed from the eastern edge of the Polynesian triangle. A journey that would be 2,000 miles. Winds were in their favor as they followed stars they had charted in their memories, the swells that surged under their boats, and the land birds that flew to sea to hunt.
Little is known about their time spent alone on the island. When these Marquesans disembarked from their homeland, — though scholars aren’t indubitably certain what finally pushed them out — they left behind a land of droughts and strife. In Hawai`i, however, they found fertile lands and settled down on the windward-facing sides of the islands. It’s assumed they lived relatively peaceful lives once they settled, propagating breadfruit and taro, as well as raising animals — many of which they brought with them — and primarily worshiped the Kū and Lono, the gods of war and prosperity respectively. They would have brought their own system of laws, called tapu in Marquesan, but ethnologist Abraham Fornander wrote their tapu laws “were few and the ceremonials easy; that human sacrifices were not practiced, and cannibalism unknown; and that government was more of a patriarchal than of a regal nature.”
By 900 A.D., the Marquesans had settled every major island at the northernmost point of Polynesia.
The Polynesian Odyssey
The great human migration begun in Africa, but the expansion across the vast Pacific is an unparalleled feat across all history. When early people arrived in Australia and New Guinea 50,000 years ago, man had only walked by foot or sailed short distances, and the still uncharted Polynesian Triangle covers a surface area of 10 million square miles.
The different peoples all across the triangle can be traced back to Tonga and Samoa, which is where the unique farming and fishing practices originated. Pacific islanders share commonalities from the way they designed tools like fish hooks and adzes, and pendants and jewelry. Polynesian culture begun to distinguish itself between 1600–1200 B.C.E. Tongans and Samoans would go on to put down roots in the Cook Islands (the early Māori people), Tahiti-nui, Tuamotu, and the Isles of Hiva (now the Marquesas Islands). After the Marquesans settled Hawai`i, settlers from Tahiti, Bora Bora (the Society Islands), and Cook Islands arrived on Aotearoa (modern day New Zealand) in 1,000 A.D.
While European sailors continued to hug their coastlines, awaiting the invention of navigational tools that would make long ocean voyages possible, the Polynesians were able to find islands scattered across the Pacific — some as small as a mile across. They did it without tools or a writing system, and islands were marked in their minds by a point in the sky. In addition to being able to discover it, these voyagers were able to sail to and from it with ease.
People of the Marquesas
The Marquesas are geologically young islands without the same reef systems as its neighbors in French Polynesia to protect it. It is a remote location, farther from any continental land mass than any other island.
The indigenous people of Hiva are renowned for their craftsmanship. Their signature style is remarked in their architecture, geometric tattoos (tatu in Marquesan), and adornments. The practice of carving tiki was implemented here.
Proof suggesting that it was the Hivans who first arrived in Hawai`i include: The Marquesan language is the closest related language to Hawaiian, and 56% of the most essential words are either the same or similar. Archaelogical evidence found at Ka Lae (South Point), Hawai`i Island are also distinctly similar to artifacts found in the Marquesas Islands.
During the period of early settlement, they remained near the sea and relied on fishing. Inland was a dangerous terrain, and archaeological evidence doesn’t suggest they begin to rely more on agriculture until much later. Conflict between tribes was commonplace, typically over food scarcity, and when Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña found the islands, he noted they had a propensity for eating the victims to assert dominance. (As a trail of bloodshed tends to follow European explorers, by the end of Mendaña’s visit, he and his crew killed over 200 Hivans, a count which includes men, women, and children. The European discovery of the islands was the precursor for centuries of hardships.)
The Arrival of the Tahitians
Legend tells of Pā`ao, a priest, navigator, and chief who would arrive in Hawai`i with the Tahitians (some sources say he was Samoan). With him, he brought Tahiti’s own code of conduct — the kapu system. Much like the Hivan’s tapu, it dictated taboos, societal roles, laws, politics, and religion. Pā`ao’s rigid kapu system introduced human sacrifice, strict stratification system founded on royalty and chiefdom, and a more extensive worship of the full Polynesian pantheon.
Tahitians didn’t assimilate into the Hawai`i that they found. Instead, they named this new place Havaiki, after their mythological homeland of heaven, and reduced the Hivans to lowly people and branded them manahune. Once, the Tahitians referred to themselves as manahune with pride, until warriors from Raiatea conquered them and the word became synonymous with commoner or peasant. Before the Tahitian landing, the Hivans called people who worked the land (similar to commoner under their tapu system) maka`āinana.
Mystification and Lore
Eventually, after the arrival of Europeans, stories of the Hivans, the manahune, would turn be twisted into folklore. Hawaiian mythology spoke of dwarf-like people who were expert builders that sequestered themselves away deep in forests and valleys. These were the menehune. These lowly people became small by the most literal definition of the word.
Menehune legends describe them tiny architects capable of mastering great feats overnight or in a matter of hours. If they failed to do so before the sun rose, they would abandon the project and never return again. They would be credited for the construction of many great architectural feats. (Some believe that the chiefs would credit the menehune so commoners did not receive credit for constructing the temples.)
Kaumuali`i, Kaua`i and Ni`ihau’s last reigning ali’i nui before the kingdom’s unification completed, would conduct a census in 1820 that counted 65 self-identified menehune living in La`au, the deepest part of Wainiha Valley. Scholars use this as proof that the menehune were real and that Hivans had been pushed further and further inland.
These shy forest dwellers are said to enjoy singing, dancing, and cliff jumping, and practiced a magical form of archery that pierced their enemies with arrows that would instill them with a feeling of love. Many Hawaiian locals to this day still say mysterious happenings or sudden, unexplained solutions are the work of the menehune.
