126: The Menehune of Hawaii and the real Tangata Whenua
Is there a link? Yes. Not of race but of type, and how they were treated by the Polynesian immigrants. We once wrote an article about Raiatea and the origins of the fleet (when we say 'fleet', they did not all come at once but it is taught that they did). However, our theory was that they were kicked out of Raiatea, possibly for religious reasons as in they were too 'cult like'. In fact the reason may have been even more sinister than that. It may have been because those that arrived here were seen as a lower class with a differing religious view to the ruling hierarchy. Being kicked out this way and traveling to find a new home, you would think that you would treat others better than the way they had been treated elsewhere. This however is not the human way, regardless of race, as you will find out below. It is reminiscent of some vowing not to be like their father and then they end up being exactly like him. You know that statement is true. But first read this article below. In particular the 3rd paragraph after the first picture.
Then continue to read the story below about the Menehune - not the weird legend, but the likely facts.
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At certain times of year, the winds and currents from Central Polynesia would take a craft past the Southern Hawaiian Islands and land it at Kaua'i and Ni'ihau. This is exactly what happened to Captain Cook, who first landed in the Hawaiian archipelago at these two islands. Thus, Ha‘ena on Kaua'i has a very strong tradition of peoples living here before the "Hawaiians" of today. The most well known of these peoples go by the name "Menehune." While in popular culture in the Islands today these peoples have gained a mythological status, in Ha‘ena they form an important part of local historical tradition as well as legends and place names. But who were these people, and where did they come from?
The popular notion of the Menehune paints them as little people, similar to leprechauns. When and how this idea of the Menehune as small developed is uncertain, but it appears at least as far back as a 1908 local Hawaiian treatise on the subject. As Carlos tells it "the so-called 'king' of the Menehune tells his people he wants to get them all together and they're going to leave, because he doesn't like the idea of his Menehune men folk, marrying Hawaiian women and having children with Hawaiian women, which apparently they were doing in enough numbers to alarm him. At the same time, the Menehune are described as being between two and a half to three feet tall. Now, how are men two and a half to three feet tall (all these dwarves) going to marry regular Hawaiian women in such numbers? Why are these Hawaiian women marrying all these 'dwarves'? So, that's a question that remains unresolved.
There is also a Tahitian reference to Manahune, which seems to say that 'manahune' is a name given to people of a low social status, rather than low physical stature. being that small is ridiculous; they were nothing like Tolkien's hobbits. That is fanciful and an error in the interpretation of the word. It may be possible they were shorter than the Polynesians at say 5' but they're not little 3' fuzzy blonde haired individuals. According to Joesting, the Tahitians had once been known in their homeland as Manahune, a slight dialectical variation of Menehune: They bore the name with honor until Tahiti was conquered by warriors from Raiatea (where the war and oppression started), when it took on a very different meaning. Manahune became the name for a commoner and a term of derision. In the Hawaiian Islands, seizing the positions of leadership, the Tahitians labeled the original settlers Menehune, a repetition of what the Raiateans had done to them. The following Tahitian mele is in disdain of the Manahune.
Go to the mountains where you belong, Far, far away from there; Far away where the red skies lie, Away to the road of separation, Far away to the clustering yellow bamboos, Torch-fisher of the nato of Motutu, Picker of eels, Thou art the grandchild of the mountain, Thou slave of the Arii
The Marquesans had no such word as Manahune in their vocabulary. In the Marquesas the word for commoner was maka ‘ainana, which became the accepted word in Hawaii for a commoner, or a person who tended to land.
The combination of low social stature (or physical height) and living back in the mountains that this Tahitian mele suggests, also appears in the case of the Menehune of Kaua‘i. The census takers of Kaumulai‘i, ruling chief of Kaua‘i in the early 19th century, registered 65 persons as Menehune among the 2000 recorded inhabitants of Wainiha Valley. The record refers to "The 65 men of La‘au", which is the place in the very back of Wainiha valley, the valley next to Ha‘ena that extends so far back into the heart of the island. Carlos suggests that this location is not accidental, but that displaced peoples are pushed further and further inland.
The Menehune Fishpond (above) is near Lihu‘e. This is one of two man-made features on the Kaua‘i landscape that is attributed to the Menehune. The other is an irrigation ditch near Waimea, on the Southern shore. The stonework used in building that ditch is unlike anything found anywhere else in the Hawaiian Islands! That proves it was not built by the Polynesian immigrants and was unique to the original inhabitants.
The Menehune; some of them at least, went into isolation, Carlos says. And according to this census, in the time of Kaumuali‘i, which is the time of Kamehameha, of Captain Cook, there were 65 people who self-identified as Menehune. They were real flesh and blood people. So when you think about people who have been here for 2000 years, and people who are self-declared as Menehune who have been here even longer, there are definitely those who assimilated, who married and had children. So there is a whole group of people who have the genes and blood running through them of the people who have been here even longer than the Hawaiians have been here. The classic idea, the James Michener idea of bronze Polynesians coming here and settling this empty land, its not quite that simple.
Below is how that fish pond above looks today- with overgrowth and mangrove intrusion. Silt from regular river floods fills much of it now.
Below is how it would have looked in the past.
The Menehune tradition is but the oldest in the many layers of tradition at Ha‘ena on the northern coast of Kauai. By the time of Captain Cook's arrival in 1778, Ha‘ena was famous in the Islands for its place in the story of Pele, her lover Lohi‘au who was chief at Ha‘ena, and her sister Hi‘iakaikapoliopele. Their adventures here form part of the legendary setting of Ha‘ena.
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In the same way, it may be that the Polynesians that came here to New Zealand found an existing people whom as the Polynesians grew more numerous, treated those they found here the same way they themselves were treated in Raiatea. Even old stories of various tribes of the Maori confirm there were people already here - the real tangata whenua. Did the Polynesians embrace them? Maybe at first, but within a short time they could have done what the Polynesians (we now know as Hawaiians) did to those they called the Menehune; who were not a short hobbit-like people but a simple people, yet great builders of stone works, dams and ponds.
We believe our story of the treatment of the Menehune by the 'Hawaiians' is similar to the Polynesian 'Maori' treatment of the original inhabitants, the true tangata whenua. But why do we believe this? From old recorded stories, from Maori legend, and the belief of thousands of Maori even now. But to us the evidence is likely inside our cave. You see, if the archaeologists (on advice of certain Maori leaders), quickly covered up what they saw in the cave we are digging out and hushed it up for good, there was a special reason for doing so. Especially when they could have just put a locked grate across it, as occurs elsewhere in the country. It is obvious that what lies inside our cave is certainly not Polynesian but holds the key to those among the very first inhabitants of this land - and they are 'visibly' different too. Enough to be disturbing to those that saw them. We have recently learned of another site others have been in. Are those skeletons as tall as the ones we seek? We hope to find out. Eventually we will know in what way and we will change known history for a 'giant' race residing here for millenia may be proved. It may yet be the most important discovery since Tutankhamen... maybe even including...?
