Ali`i Report

Ali`i Report
By:  Nic, Malcolm, Roger, Kendall, Emma

    We’re the ali`i group.  We’ve been researching five questions about ali`i.  We went on field trips to learn more about our questions.     Have you ever wondered what an ali`i is? Well, if you have, this is what they are. They are the most important people out of all people in ancient Hawaiian times. They are rulers of the ahupua`a.  They are a chief, a highly ranked person with the most mana, and a king. No one can look at them, touch their stuff, or touch them.

  
    Ali`i owned many different things that other hawaiians could not have, or touch. They had a necklace that was called Lei niho palaoa. It was worn to war and made from whale teeth and cords. They had feathered capes and feathered helmets. They mostly wore them during war or special events. For example some of them were called Joy capes, mamo cloaks, kiwala`o cloak, and elgin cloak. They mostly used red and yellow feathers because it resembled royalty. They had long capes, short capes, and inbetween capes.

    Have you ever wondered how ali’i made there feather work? Well if you have these are some things about what they used and they used it. One thing that the ali’i owned were called kahili. They were long poles with feathers on the top. The pole of the kahili was made either from bones, shells, and wood. All the feathers mostly came from Mamo birds, Chickens, and Seabirds. They also had feather helmets. The frame of the helmet was from the net and hooked the feathers throw it. The feather part was like a mohawk and were ever the feathers weren’t the helmet part was. It was the same for the capes.
       
  



Click here to see more featherwork pictures:
.pdf


Do you ever wonder what kind of weapons the ali`i and their warriors use in battle?  Here is a list of the weapons they used:
The Tripping Cord
The Strangling Cord
Daggers
Clubs
Shark Toothed Weapons

    The ali`i were not trained by other people, they trained themselves.  Ali`i trained the most.  They trained by playing games such as having fake wars and throwing spears at each other.  They played the most games during a season called Makahiki at the end of October.  Men played games during Makahiki too.  Most men liked playing sports.  The ali`i played more than men though.  They learned how to wrestle, box, run, and dodge.
      During sea battles, ali`i were in the biggest canoes with the biggest amount of people.  During sea battles, the ali`i led the battle. They used sling shots to sink other canoes. They jumped on the other canoes if they were close.  

    In the ahupua`a, you can find our topic in the uka, the kula, and the kai.  The ali`i go everywhere.  They are mostly in the uka and the kula.

    In the ahupua’a our topic is connected to kai because they barley go to kai.  They need and connect to kai because they need fish, and all the other food in the ocean.  But the ali`i went to the kai sometimes to canoe because the ali`i had a special place were no one else could go. You could tell were it was because they had rocks and ali`i bone/mana so no one could go there. Only the ali`i and there men could go out if anyone else did they would get punished.
    
     This is what we learned over the second semester. We hope you learned something interesting and something you would like to learn about.  Thank you for reading our report.



Strangling Cords

The strangling cord was called ka`ane.  The mu used this weapon, he was in charge of killing people who had broken a kapu.  The cord was made from olana cord.  The cord was 30-50 inches long.  At one end of the cord was a wood or bone handle.  The Hawaiians would put the cord around the persons head and pull the handle to kill them.
    

The Tripping Cord

The Tripping Cord was called pikoi.  The cord was 10-15 feet long.  The cord had a piece of wood or stone tied to one end of it.  The warrior would throw the wood or stone part at the enemy and the enemy would trip over it.  The warriors did not often miss their enemy when they used this weapon.

Short Spears

Short spears were 5 to 6 feet long.  They were made from hard wood.  There were notches and barbs by the point.  The short spear was thrown more than long spears.  The warriors could throw the spear very far and they could dodge them too.  The short spear was called the ihe spear.


Daggers

The handles of daggers were made from hardwood.  Sometimes the blade was made from swordfish.  Some of the dagger blades were long and pointy, some of them were curved.  Some daggers had two blades.  Daggers sometimes had clubs on the opposite side of the blade.  All of the daggers had cords attached to them.  The warrior would put the cord around his arm so he wouldn’t lose the weapon.

This is a list of all of the Ali`i who ruled the island of O`ahu:         
    * Aliʻi nui Kumuhonua 1st Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu 1100-1300 ?
    * Aliʻi nui Elepuukahonua 2nd Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    *  ? 3rd Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Nawele 4th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Lakona 5th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kapae 6th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Haka 7th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Mailikukahi 8th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kalonaiki 9th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Piliwale 10th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kukaniloko (fem.) 11th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kalaimanuia (fem.) 12th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Ku a Manuia 13th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kahikapu a Manuia 14th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kakuhihewa 15th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kanekapu 16th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kahoowahaokalani 17th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kauakahi 18th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu
    * Aliʻi nui Kuali'i 19th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu (also of 20th Alii Aimoku of Kauai ? -1730) ?-1730
    * Aliʻi nui Kapionookalani 20th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu 1730-1737
    * Aliʻi nui Kanahaokalani 21st Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu 1737-1738
    * Aliʻi nui Peleioholani 22nd Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu (King of Kauai 1730-1770) 1738-1770
    * Aliʻi nui Kumahana 23rd Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu 1770-1773
    * Aliʻi nui Kahahana 24th Alii Aimoku of Oʻahu 1773-1783
    * Conquered by Maui and ruled by Kahekili II and Kalanikupule 1783-1795                            .
    * Incorporated into Kamehameha I's kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ali%27i_Aimoku_of_Oahu


Long Spears

Long spears were called pololu.  They were 9 to 18 feet long.  They were made from hard Kauila wood.  One end was sharp, and one end was carved into a handle.  Ali`i sometimes came into war with two or three long spears.  Ali`i and warriors used the long spear to poke and trip people, and to jump over holes.  


Battles at Sea

The warriors rode canoes in the battle.  They’re could have been over 100 canoes on each side.  The warriors threw spears from far away.  They also slung stones at each other.  When the warriors got close to their enemies, they used daggers and clubs to attack.  In sea battles, there was a special weapon, which was a rope with a stone tied to it.  The warriors would try to make a hole in the enemies’ canoe to sink it.

Posted on May 15, 2008 1:08 PM | Permalink