to disinter Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia posed the first instance where we had been called upon to remove an undisturbed burial for purposes of repatriation. On the phone, Henry Fuqua related the Lee family’s petition for the return of their ancestor; upon hearing the story, we were more than pleased to use our expertise to assist.
Pleased, but also struck by the intimidating responsibility of handling ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia’s skeletal remains, his iwi, which houses his spirit (‘uhane), his powerful mana. The archaeological treatment of the iwi required restraint, respect, and sanctity. We were cognizant that ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia’s ‘uhane would be near, and our commitment was to handle them reverentially.
The morning broke bright and windy although the seas were unusually calm in the late summer of 1796. The playful surf splashed gently over rocks, soaking the sand of Hilo harbor. Peace and serenity gave way when Kamehameha, believed to be in O‘ahu at the time, unexpectedly appeared amid his war canoes around Pepe‘ekeo Point from the north. Nāmakehā, a rival chief from the southern Ka’u district, had threatened Kamehameha’s hegemony and transferred his warriors and their families to the northeastern Hilo districts, invading Kamehameha’s territory. When the ali‘i nui heard of the threat, he quickly returned with his large peleleu fleet of battle-ready canoes which emerged in great numbers across the sun-swept waters.
Prepared to engage the enemy with all their strength, Nāmakehā’s warriors were hopelessly outnumbered by Kamehameha’s forces. The invading canoes were paddled by strong, young men bent forward, sweeping their powerful rowing strokes in unison, borne by the floodtide, moving the attackers at an amazing and deadly speed toward the beach near the mouth of the Waiākea River.30 The Battle of Kaipalaoa had begun.
The combatants were mostly comprised of commoners—fisherman and farmers whose duty was to support their ali‘i nui, though some were professional soldiers, trained from their youth in the art of warfare. Once the invaders were on the beach, the attack started with a massive missile bombardment composed of javelins, followed by pikers who formed in ranks moving as an advancing wall of sharp spears. Then hand-to-hand combat ensued featuring the deadly art of lua, which emphasized bone breaking, wrestling, and strangulation, sometimes followed by dismemberment. To defend themselves, common warriors lathered up their bodies with oil making it difficult for their enemy to grasp them. Chiefs wore feathered cloaks which served as battledresses more than garments of opulence, used for protection from stone missiles and to hurtle their enemy onto the ground to be finished off with a spear or dagger.31
The warring parties fought their bloody battle along the waterfront. Defenders and attackers punished each other. Nonetheless, Nāmakehā’s supporters were overpowered and horribly slaughtered by Kamehameha’s invaders. As one of the last rival chiefs to oppose Kamehameha’s rule, he was hunted down, killed, and sacrificed at the Pi‘ihonua Heiau.32 In their frenzy of revenge, the conquering forces turned on the villagers that supported Nāmakehā, continuing their reprisal on the families of the defenders. The alarm was sounded among the survivors; households fled.
When Keau, one of Nāmakehā’s warriors, recognized that his fellow-defenders were being overwhelmed and the battle lost, he withdrew from the beachfront, retreating toward the village to protect his young family. Gathering up his wife, Kamoho‘ula, their two sons, an infant and the adolescent ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia, the family fled into the mountains. Running desperately on top of and around molten flows of hardened black rock and dense vegetation, they quickly escaped inland and upland, seeking refuge from the carnage.
Finding a small lava tube cave in the higher elevations, they concealed themselves for many days until hunger and thirst sent them on a quest for water at a nearby stream. As they quenched their parched, dehydrated throats, a war party of the enemy surprised them, capturing Kamoho‘ula and the young boys while Keau, hoping the warriors would chase after him, was swift enough to escape.
To entice Keau from his nearby hiding place, the warriors began torturing their captives, knowing that the cries of his wife and children would bring the father/husband/warrior out of his concealment. And it did, though his initial efforts to free his family were unsuccessful, forcing Keau to flee a second time. The torture continued; with the cries of his family unbearable and their suffering intolerable, Keau made another futile attempt to rescue them, only this time to be captured.
Huddled together on the ground, Keau attempted to protect Kamoho‘ula by encompassing her with his arms and body, while a warrior’s leiomanō, a sharp-edged, shark-toothed sword, slashed away at them.33 ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia watched in horrid disbelief as the assailants cleaved unrelentingly at his parents until they were brutally dismembered; heads decapitated; arms and legs severed. Panic-stricken, in shock, the urge for survival took hold. As his parents’ blood splattered his body, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia gathered his infant brother, slung him over his back, and fled. His freedom was short-lived. A warrior’s pāhoa, or two-edged spear, impaled his infant brother, killing the newborn and toppling ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia to the ground. He was the lone family survivor of the torture and brutal onslaught.
With the blood of his parents and brother soaking into his skin, the boy was wrestled and subdued to the ground by the warriors. Being young and posing no threat to the enemy, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was hauled away as a prisoner of war while the corpses of his mother, father, and brother lay behind, exposed on the ground for feral pigs to consume. Despondent, the abducted ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was coerced into serving as the personal servant of the warrior who mutilated his parents, compelled to submit and live in the household of the murderer of his family.34
Big Island of Hawaii highlighting places associated with ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia.
‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was born in the shoreline village of Nīnole, in the District of Ka‘ū, near Punalu‘u along the southern coast of the Big Island of Hawai‘i, circa 1787–1792, though it may have been as early as 1785.35 ‘“Opū-kaha-‘ia” translates as “stomach cut open” and may suggest a caesarian delivery, a birthing technique that would have been unknown at that time and highly unlikely since his mother survived and had another child.36 Some have suggested that the name may have been bestowed in the tradition of inoa ho‘omana‘o to commemorate the event of a slain, dismembered royal person, maybe a chief during battle. However, ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia related a story to Thomas Hopu while they were sailing the Pacific Ocean onboard the Triumph: that he had received his name when a woman in his village died during childbirth. Her husband immediately cut open her stomach to save the infant and “ ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia” was chosen as his namesake in honor of the event.37
He was descended from a family of Hilo chiefs on his mother’s side, distant kin to Kamehameha.38 He was not a commoner, though not considered royalty; his pedigree derived from noble family lines in Maui and the Big Island.39 His childhood would have been as any traditional Hawaiian boy, predominately ‘ohana-centered, working together and sharing all aspects of social life from the physical land, food, and shelter to the spirit of Aloha. He would have had a far wider range of behavioral freedom than his restricted European/American counterparts since traditional Hawaiians raised their children in a far more relaxed and less constrained manner.
‘Ōpūkaha‘ia was nurtured by his parents and kūpuna (grandparents) residing in the same household. As he developed into boyhood, his grandfather carved a wooden bowl into which ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia would place a small stone as a form of confession if his behavior were not up to the family’s standard. He did this voluntarily when he knew he had disobeyed or was amiss in his actions. He did not have to be told. He would not lie or deceive his ‘ohana kinsman for they were his entire world.
