Nihoa from a distance. The island's likeness to a protruding tooth was probably the inspiration for its name. Nihoa means jagged or toothed. Photo: Sterling Wong

NIHOA

UH student seeks answers to island's
archaeological mysteries

By Sterling Wong | OHA Policy Advocate

I'm one of the lucky few to ever step foot on Nihoa – a remote, mysterious little island whose closest neighbor, Ni'ihau, lies beyond the horizon, about 120 miles southeast. The ancestors of my people, Native Hawaiians, somehow lived, farmed and worshipped on Nihoa – in the middle of nowhere – where their remnants still stand, frozen in time.

Accessing Nihoa – which lies within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument – is tricky. There's a tiny sandy beach in the south bay that may have once been used for access. But endangered Hawaiian monk seals currently haul out there, and federal laws protecting endangered species prevent people from using the beach. Inaccessibility combined with a stringent permitting process has prevented humans from visiting – and thereby impacting – the island. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, just 26 groups have been onto Nihoa in 28 years, and the vast majority of these visits were by U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff.

Above: UH doctorate student Kekuewa Kikiloi warns our education expedition members about Nihoa's crumbly soil and falling bird guano. Our expedition was one of just 26 groups allowed on the remote island in the last 28 years. - Photos: Sterling Wong

The result is an island landscape that looks like it was frozen in time. The hillsides of Nihoa are covered in a carpet of native 'ilima. Hundreds of flying seabirds create a floating canopy over the island. And the stone house sites, agricultural features and heiau, remain in an amazing state of preservation, as if its former inhabitants could return at any moment and pick up right where they left off.

Archaeologists theorize that the island's limited resources could have supported about 125 inhabitants, who probably collected potable water from three small seeps (producing less than the trickle typical of a small air conditioner) and pools that form during storms, grew sweet potatoes on 16 acres of terraced fields, and fished the rich offshore waters.

But several questions have perplexed researchers for years. First, from where did the island's inhabitants get their wood? (The loulu palms found on Nihoa are probably not enough to provide wood for fire, canoes and other implements.) And how long did the inhabitants live there and why did they leave?

Expedition member Kekuewa Kikiloi is trying to answer some of these questions on Nihoa and its neighboring island to the northwest, the 46-acre Mokumanamana, for his doctoral dissertation.

Kikiloi has done cutting-edge thorium-230 dating on coral heads found on shrines on Nihoa. His findings suggest that the initial colonization of the island was sometime in the 1400s. However, the settlement was abandoned by the time Westerners arrived in Hawai'i in the 18th century.

One theory explaining the abandonment suggests that as societies across the Pacific began to focus more on developing the resources on their main islands, there was a general decrease in voyaging and the maintenance of remote settlements.

Left: Mokumanamana is covered in Tahitian marae-style heiau with upright stones that are very rare in Hawai'i. - Photo: Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

But the most baffling question for me is: why would Hawaiians challenge themselves by living on this remote, resource-poor island that's so small it could fit within Diamond Head crater, with room to spare? It would have been a tough life – heck, I had a tough two hours there.

It's been suggested that Nihoa's settlement is connected with Mokumanamana. Located on the Tropic of Cancer, Mokumanamana may have been a critical place in Hawaiian religious practices, partly because during the summer solstice the sun hangs overhead longer here than anywhere else in Hawai'i. In Hawaiian culture, a person has the most mana when their shadow re-enters their body.

Kikiloi also believes that Mokumanamana marks the boundary between the spirit world of Pō, and the world of the living, called Ao – two realms mentioned in the epic creation chant, the Kumulipo. Bolstering the argument that Mokumanamana was an extremely important place is the island's high concentration of shrines, believed to be the highest concentration in Hawai'i. The island is covered in Tahitian marae-style heiau with upright stones that are very unique in Hawai'i and may be connected to the movement of the sun.

Kikiloi believes that Nihoa served as a staging area for religious pilgrimages to Mokumanamana, with people from the main Hawaiian Islands replenishing supplies on Nihoa during their long journey to Mokumanamana.

Nihoa is truly one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. Once I returned home, I immediately began to think of creative ways to get a permit to return to the island. That's when I realized one more thing about going there: it's even harder to return.

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Sterling Wong, of OHA's Native Rights, Land and Culture Hale, visited Nihoa in July as a media liaison of the International Year of the Reef Educator Expedition. As one of seven members of the Monument Management Board, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs represents the interests of Native Hawaiians. This is part two of a two-part series.