Niihau
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox island NiTemplate:Okinaihau (Hawaiian: {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), anglicized as Niihau (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell), is the seventh largest island in Hawaii and the westernmost of the main islands. It is Template:Convert southwest of [[Kauai|KauaTemplate:Okinai]] across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is Template:Convert.<ref name="SizeRef">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland habitats for the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian duck. The island is designated as critical habitat for Brighamia insignis, an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid. The United States Census Bureau defines NiTemplate:Okinaihau and the neighboring island and State Seabird Sanctuary of Lehua as Census Tract 410 of Kauai County, Hawaii. Its 2010 census population was 170, most of them native Hawaiians. At the 2020 census, the population was reported to have fallen to 84.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Elizabeth Sinclair purchased NiTemplate:Okinaihau in 1864 for Template:US$ from the Kingdom of Hawaii. The island's private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons. During World War II, the island was the site of the [[Niihau incident|NiTemplate:Okinaihau incident]], in which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese navy fighter pilot crashed on the island and received help from the island's residents of Japanese descent.
The island, known as "the Forbidden Isle", is off-limits to all outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. From 1987 onward, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists. The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of NiTemplate:Okinaihau are noted for their gemlike lei pūpū (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian as a primary language. The island has attracted some controversy for the strict rules the Robinson family imposes on the island and its inhabitants.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
GeographyEdit
Template:See also NiTemplate:Okinaihau is located about Template:Convert west of [[Kauai|KauaTemplate:Okinai]], and the tiny, uninhabited island of Lehua lies Template:Convert north of NiTemplate:Okinaihau. NiTemplate:Okinaihau's dimensions are 6.2 miles by 18.6 miles (10km × 30km). The maximum elevation (Paniau) is Template:Convert.<ref name="ElevationRef">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The island is about 6 million years old, making it geologically older than the 5.8-million-year-old neighboring island of KauaTemplate:Okinai to the northeast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> NiTemplate:Okinaihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of what was once a much larger volcano. The entire summit and other slopes collapsed into the ocean in a giant prehistoric landslide.<ref name="soest.hawaii.edu 2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ClimateEdit
The island is relatively arid because it lies in the rain shadow of KauaTemplate:Okinai and lacks the elevation needed to catch significant amounts of trade wind rainfall. NiTemplate:Okinaihau, therefore, depends on winter Kona storms for its rain, when more southerly weather systems intrude into the region. As such, the island is subject to long periods of drought.Template:Sfn Historical droughts on NiTemplate:Okinaihau have been recorded several times, one in 1792 by Captain James Cook's former junior officer, George Vancouver, who had been told that the people of NiTemplate:Okinaihau had abandoned the island because of a severe drought and had moved to KauaTemplate:Okinai to escape famine.Template:Sfn
Flora and faunaEdit
As an arid island, NiTemplate:Okinaihau was barren of trees for centuries – Captain James Cook reported it treeless in 1778. Aubrey Robinson, grandfather of current owners Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, planted 10,000 trees per year during much of his ownership of the island; Robinson's afforestation efforts increased rainfall in the dry climate.<ref name="khon2009" /> Island co-owner Keith Robinson, a noted conservationist, preserved and documented many of NiTemplate:Okinaihau's natural plant resources. The island is designated as a critical habitat for the [[Brighamia insignis|Template:Okinaōlulu]], an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid. Pritchardia aylmer-robinsonii, a palm tree named for Keith Robinson's uncle Aylmer Robinson, is an endangered species native to NiTemplate:Okinaihau.
Several bird species thrive on NiTemplate:Okinaihau. The largest lakes on the island are [[HālaliTemplate:Okinai Lake]], Halulu Lake and Nonopapa Lake.<ref>Template:Hawaiian Dictionaries</ref> These intermittent playa lakes on the island provide wetland habitats for the [[Hawaiian coot|Template:Okinaalae keTemplate:OkinaokeTemplate:Okinao]] (Hawaiian coot), the [[Hawaiian stilt|āeTemplate:Okinao]] (Hawaiian subspecies of Black-necked Stilt), and the koloa maoli (Hawaiian duck). The critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) is found in high numbers on NiTemplate:Okinaihau's shores. Robinson states that NiTemplate:Okinaihau's secluded shoreline offers them a safe haven from habitat encroachments. According to Robinson, conditions there are better than the government refuges of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. When the Robinsons originally purchased NiTemplate:Okinaihau, no monk seals were present, because they lived in the northwestern part of the Hawaiian island chain, Necker and Midway islands. They have been relocated to the main Hawaiian island chain by NOAA fisheries over the past thirty years, and some have found homes on NiTemplate:Okinaihau.<ref name="khon2009" /><ref name="TavaKeale1990">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Big game herds, imported from stock on [[Molokai|MolokaTemplate:Okinai]] Ranch in recent years, roam NiTemplate:Okinaihau's forests and flatlands. Eland and aoudad are abundant, along with oryxes, wild boars and feral sheep. These big game herds provide income from hunting safari tourism.<ref name="khon2009" />
HistoryEdit
Prior to the unification of the Kingdom of Hawaii under Kamehameha I, NiTemplate:Okinaihau was ruled by the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Kahelelani was the first of the NiTemplate:Okinaihau aliTemplate:Okinai. His name is now used to refer to the NiTemplate:Okinaihau kahelelani, the puka shell of the wart turbans (Leptothyra verruca), used to make exquisite NiTemplate:Okinaihau shell jewelry.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> [[KāTemplate:Okinaeokūlani]] was a ruler of northern NiTemplate:Okinaihau who unified the island after defeating his rival, a chief named Kawaihoa. A stone wall ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) across a quarter of the island's southern end marked the boundaries of the two chiefs: [[Kaeo|KāTemplate:Okinaeo]]'s land was identified by black stones and Kawaihoa's by white stones. Eventually, a great battle took place, known as Pali Kamakaui. KāTemplate:Okinaeo's two brothers from the island of Maui, [[KaTemplate:Okinaiana]] and his half-brother Kahekili II, the King of Maui, fought for KāTemplate:Okinaeo, and NiTemplate:Okinaihau was united under his rule. Kawaihoa was banished to the south end of the island and KāTemplate:Okinaeo moved to the middle of the island to govern. KāTemplate:Okinaeo married the Queen Kamakahelei, and a future king of NiTemplate:Okinaihau and KauaTemplate:Okinai named [[Kaumualii|KaumualiTemplate:Okinai]] was born in 1790. [[Kauai|KauaTemplate:Okinai]] and NiTemplate:Okinaihau are said to have carried the "highest blood lines" in the Hawaiian Islands.Template:Sfn
Kamehameha managed to unify all of the islands by 1795, except for KauaTemplate:Okinai and NiTemplate:Okinaihau.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Two attempts to conquer those islands had failed, and Kamehameha lost many men: bodies covered the beaches on KauaTemplate:Okinai's eastern shores.<ref name="Gay-1981">Template:Cite book</ref> Finally, in 1810, Kamehameha amassed a great fleet, and KaumualiTemplate:Okinai, the last independent {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, surrendered rather than risk further bloodshed. Independence again became feasible after Kamehameha's death in 1819, but was put down when Kamehameha's widow [[KaTemplate:Okinaahumanu]] kidnapped KaumualiTemplate:Okinai and forced him to marry her. Thereafter NiTemplate:Okinaihau remained part of the unified Hawaiian Kingdom.
Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair (1800–1892) purchased NiTemplate:Okinaihau and parts of KauaTemplate:Okinai from Kamehameha V in 1864 for Template:US$ in gold. Sinclair chose NiTemplate:Okinaihau over other options, including Waikīkī and Pearl Harbor. By around 1875, NiTemplate:Okinaihau's population consisted of about 350 Native Hawaiians, with 20,000 sheep.<ref name="Bird-1875">Template:Cite book</ref> This era marked the end of the art of Hawaiian mat-weaving made famous by the people of NiTemplate:Okinaihau. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Cyperus laevigatus), a native sedge, used to grow on the edges of NiTemplate:Okinaihau's three intermittent lakes.<ref name="Joesting-1988">Template:Cite book</ref> The stems were harvested and used to weave {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (mats), considered the "finest sleeping mats in Polynesia". The mats were valued by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and foreign visitors alike, but by the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians had stopped weaving {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} due to changes in population, culture, economics, and the environment.<ref name="VanDyke-2001">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1915, Sinclair's grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission. Upon Aubrey's death in 1939 the island passed to his son Aylmer, and in 1968 to Aylmer's youngest brother Lester. Upon Lester's wife Helen's death, the island passed to his sons Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, the current co-owners.<ref name="khon2009" /> (See Sinclair-Robinson family tree)
The Robinson family has attracted controversy over the strict rules they have imposed on the island’s inhabitants, largely enforced by Bruce Robinson’s wife, Leiana Robinson. The rules include a ban on alcohol and cigarettes, being prohibited from talking about Ni’ihau to the media, a permanent ban from the island if a resident leaves for an extended amount of time, and a ban on long hair and beards for men.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The island lacks electricity and running water.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The NiTemplate:Okinaihau IncidentEdit
NiTemplate:Okinaihau was the site of an event not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor that has come to be known as the [[Niihau Incident|NiTemplate:Okinaihau Incident]] (or the Battle of NiTemplate:Okinaihau). On December 7, 1941, a Japanese pilot whose Zero had been hit crash-landed<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on the island hoping to rendezvous with a rescue submarine. The pilot was apprehended and later escaped with the assistance of local Japanese residents, but he was killed shortly afterwards.<ref>The NiTemplate:Okinaihau Incident serves as the backdrop for Caroline Paul's 2006 novel East Wind, Rain (Template:ISBN) and the opening chapter of Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment.</ref>
Despite its self-imposed isolation, NiTemplate:Okinaihau has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. military dating from 1924.<ref name="khon2009" /> There is a small Navy installation on the island. No military personnel are permanently stationed there, but the U.S. military has used the island for training special operations units, which included hiring Hawaiians who live on NiTemplate:Okinaihau as "enemy" trackers.<ref name="sommer">Sommer, Anthony. "Niihau: Opening Up." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. May 14, 1999.</ref>
SocietyEdit
PoliticsEdit
Template:See also The island of NiTemplate:Okinaihau was considered as a possible location for the United Nations headquarters in 1944 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had visited Hawaii in 1934.Template:Sfn Under Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, the State Department seriously studied the proposal.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Template:PresHead Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresFoot In 2004, President George W. Bush received all but one of the 40 votes cast on the island. The remaining vote was cast for Green Party nominee David Cobb. Fifty-one registered voters did not cast ballots.<ref>Hawaii 2004 election results for precinct 16-09. Hawaii.gov. Retrieved April 21, 2006.</ref> In 2006, Dan Akaka received 60% of votes in the 2006 Senate election to Cynthia Thielen's 36%.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2008, NiTemplate:Okinaihau's precinct was one of only three of HawaiTemplate:Okinai's 538 precincts to support John McCain over Barack Obama.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
PopulationEdit
The 2010 census states that there were 170 people living on the island.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, witness accounts estimate that the population actually ranges between 35 and 50 people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some support themselves largely by subsistence fishing and farming, while others depend on welfare.<ref name="crm">Langlas, Charles and Kehaulani Shintani. "Mälama ka ‘Äina: To Care For The Land" Template:Webarchive [review]. CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship. Vol. 3 No. 1 (Winter 2006).</ref> All residents live rent-free, and meat is free.<ref name="khon2009" /> NiTemplate:Okinaihau has no telephone services and no paved roads. Horses are the main form of transportation; bicycles are also used. There are no power lines; solar power provides all electricity. There is no plumbing or running water on the island. Water comes from rainwater catchment. The Robinson family established most of these conditions. There is no hotel, and barges deliver groceries from KauaTemplate:Okinai, often purchased by relatives, with free shipping.<ref name="khon2009" />
Residents generally speak the [[NiTemplate:Okinaihau dialect]] of Hawaiian as their first language, in part encouraged by terms in the original purchase contract which obligated the new owners to help preserve Hawaiian culture and tradition. The NiTemplate:Okinaihau dialect differs from modern standard Hawaiian in that, for example, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} are the most common realizations of the phonemes {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, respectively.<ref name="khon2009" /> NiTemplate:Okinaihau is the only island where Hawaiian is spoken as a primary language.<ref name="Olsen-2001">Template:Cite journal</ref> Oral tradition maintains that the NiTemplate:Okinaihau dialect is closer to the Hawaiian register spoken during the time of contact with Europeans; there is linguistic evidence to support this claim, such as the pronunciation of k as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="flame2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> English is the second language.
Some residents have radio and television sets, although limited reception effectively limits the latter to watching pre-recorded media.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> NiTemplate:Okinaihau is subject to regular droughts that occasionally force the population to evacuate to KauaTemplate:Okinai temporarily, until rainfall replenishes their water supply. Residents commonly also commute to KauaTemplate:Okinai for work, medical care, or school, and many of them call both islands home. To avoid a long boat ride, the island's owners maintain an Agusta A109 helicopter for emergencies and for transporting Navy contractors and residents to and from KauaTemplate:Okinai. Helicopter tours and safaris help offset the costs of this service.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A form of ipu art is known to have developed solely on the island of NiTemplate:Okinaihau.<ref name="Crites">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Bordessa">Template:Cite journal</ref> In this method, after a design is carved in the skin of a fresh gourd, it is filled with dye which, after several weeks, changes the color of the uncarved portions of the surface where the skin is intact. Hawaiian music plays a central role on the island, with a cappella singers making use of only two or three tones and changing rhythms. Ukulele and guitar playing is nearly ubiquitous among the islanders, and there are three separate styles of slack-key music, with an older style originating from Kohala.Template:Sfn
EducationEdit
The Hawaii Department of Education operates the [[Ni'ihau High and Elementary School|NiTemplate:Okinaihau School]], a K–12 school. Academic subjects and computer literacy are combined with teaching students to "thrive from the land".<ref name="khon2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The school is powered entirely by solar power.<ref name="Gehrlein-2007">Template:Cite news</ref> The number of students varies from 25 to 50 since families often travel between NiTemplate:Okinaihau and KauaTemplate:Okinai.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Schoolchildren may stay with relatives in west KauaTemplate:Okinai, where they attend one of two NiTemplate:Okinaihau-focused public charter schools. At the [[Niihau School of Kekaha|Ke Kula NiTemplate:Okinaihau o Kekaha school]], students speak primarily the NiTemplate:Okinaihau dialect through the early elementary grades, and then Hawaiian and English through grade 12. The school has a digital recording and video system, which helps to preserve and teach traditional NiTemplate:Okinaihau and Hawaiian culture. At the other west KauaTemplate:Okinai school, Kula Aupuni NiTemplate:Okinaihau a Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA), English is used in all grades, while still supporting the NiTemplate:Okinaihau dialect. Both schools foster the culture, values, and spirituality of NiTemplate:Okinaihau.<ref name="khon2009" /> Efforts to establish KANAKA began in 1993 and its current version was established in 1999.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EconomyEdit
Approximately 80% of NiTemplate:Okinaihau's income comes from a small Navy installation atop 1,300-foot-high cliffs. Remote-controlled tracking devices are used for testing and training with Kaua'i's Pacific Missile Range Facility. Modern missile defense tests are conducted at the site for the U.S. and its allies. The installation brings in millions of dollars a year, and provides the island with a stable economic base without the complexity of tourism or industrial development.<ref name="khon2009" />
The sale of shells and shell jewelry is an additional source of income.Template:Sfn Its beaches are known for their pūpū, tiny shells that wash onto shore during winter months. Species used for shell leis includes momi (Euplica varians), laiki or rice shells (Mitrella margarita) and kahelelani (Leptothyra verruca).<ref name="moriarty">Template:Cite book</ref> The shells and jewelry are so popular that Governor Linda Lingle signed a bill in 2004 to protect lei pūpū o NiTemplate:Okinaihau (NiTemplate:Okinaihau shell leis) from counterfeiting.<ref> H.B. No. 2569. See also: Template:Cite news</ref> A single, intricate NiTemplate:Okinaihau shell lei can sell for thousands of dollars.<ref name="khon2009" />
Many residents of NiTemplate:Okinaihau were once employees of NiTemplate:Okinaihau Ranch, farming cattle and sheep until the Robinsons shut down the operation in 1999. It had not been profitable for most of the 20th century.Template:Citation needed Honey cultivationTemplate:Sfn was also no longer viable by 1999.<ref name="sommer" /> Kiawe charcoal was once a large-scale export, but aggressive Mexican price competition ended that as well.<ref name="khon2009" /> Mullet farming has been popular on NiTemplate:Okinaihau, with ponds and lakes stocked with baby mullet, which reach Template:Convert apiece before being harvested and sold on [[Kauai|KauaTemplate:Okinai]] and [[Oahu|OTemplate:Okinaahu]].Template:Sfn
Bruce Robinson, NiTemplate:Okinaihau's co-owner, is seeking and considering new forms of non-invasive income generation. Depending on feasibility, impact, and ecological footprint on the ecosystem and culture, possibilities include JP-8 (jet fuel) generation by the lignocellulose process; military, including a possible runway; and windmill energy production. Robinson has declined offers to purchase sand from NiTemplate:Okinaihau's beaches, because of adverse environmental effects.<ref name="khon2009" />
TourismEdit
NiTemplate:Okinaihau's owners have offered half-day helicopter and beach tours of the island since 1987,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> although contact with residents is avoided and no accommodation exists.<ref name="owners">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since 1992,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> hunting safaris provide income from tourists who pay to visit the island to hunt eland, aoudad, and oryx, as well as wild sheep and boars. Any meat the hunters do not take with them is given to the village.
In popular cultureEdit
- The [[NiTemplate:Okinaihau Incident]] is portrayed in the 2019 film Enemy Within.<ref name="hawaiinewsnow.com 2019 r596">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
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Further readingEdit
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