Pu‘ukoholā Heiau National Historic Landmark Nomination (Updated Documentation)
Pacheco R, Tomonari-Tuggle M, Bell M. 2024. Pu‘ukoholā Heiau National Historic Landmark Nomination (Updated Documentation). National Historic Landmark Nominations. 66000105_NHL, 07001173_NHL. National Park Service. Washington, DC
This document is updated National Historic Landmark (NHL) documentation for the Pu‘ukoholā Heiau National Historic Landmark in Kawaihae, Hawai'i County, Hawai'i. The updated NHL documentation for Pu‘ukoholā Heiau documents its national significance and as a unique convergence of key individuals and critical events that led to the founding of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and to events that transformed the kingdom in the nineteenth century, ultimately leading to the annexation of Hawai‘i by the United States. The property is nationally significant under multiple NHL criteria: • Criterion 1 as the location of pivotal religious and political events during the formative years of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. • Criterion 2 because of its strong association with the lives of three seminal figures in Hawaiian history: Kamehameha I, the first aliʻi nui (paramount chief) to unify the independent polities of the Hawaiian Islands into a single kingdom, and who is arguably the preeminent figure in Hawaiian history; John Young, an expatriate advisor to the king who was a key cross-cultural liaison between Hawaiian and foreign entities in the years following Western contact, and was the focal point for the landmark area as a major international diplomatic and trading center during Kamehameha’s reign; and Liholiho, Kamehameha’s successor and a key figure in ending the traditional Hawaiian religious system. • Criterion 4 because it contains the remains of pre-Contact and early historic structures that outstandingly represent traditional Hawaiian and early Western building styles and techniques. • Criterion 6 because it has yielded, and will likely continue to yield, archeological information of major scientific importance about Hawaiian patterns of life during the critical transition period from pre-Contact to the historic eras, particularly at the royal residence called Pelekane/Kikiako‘i. The period of significance is 1790 (when Kamehameha I is instructed by a kahuna to rebuild the heiau at Pu‘ukoholā inorder to take possession of the Hawaiian Islands) to 1835 (when John Young fals ill at Kawaihae and is taken to Honolulu, where he dies soon after).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Pacheco, Robert A.; Tomonari-Tuggle, M.J.; Bell, Matthew J.
- Date of Issue
- 2024-09-02
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Keywords
- Hawai'i, John Young, Kamehameha I, Kamehameha II, Kapoukahi, Kawaihae, Liholiho, National Historic Landmark, Native Hawaiian