Kanaiolowalu and other peoples' credibility

As you decide for yourself whether you want to be a part of the thousands of Native Hawaiians who want to come together and work towards self-governance, make sure the people against Kana’iolowalu are credible.  Someone may have good intentions, but that does not necessarily mean they are credible or even qualified to help you make a decision.

For now I have a simple question for you, “if a blogger who professes to know Hawaiian history can get something basic like this wrong, what else could he be wrong about?”  

Below is a screen shot from a blog that basically discusses the name of “Kanaiolowalu” and the blogger’s thoughts on the word. 

Unfortunately, in explaining one meaning of Kanaiolowalu, the blogger’s posting is drenched in mis-information.  More worse, the mis-information is about Kamehameha the Great. 

You will notice above that the blogger wrote, “Kamehameha massacred the crew (of the Fair American).”   This is a really bad and a wrong version of history.  How do we know this?  For starters, the blogger didn’t cite any sources for this. 

The truth is, Kamehameha did NOT kill anyone on the Fair American.  Not only did Kamehameha NOT kill anyone on the Fair American, in fact he was very upset when he found out that the crew of the Fair American was killed. 

Stephen Desha gives the details of this story in the book, “Kamehameha and His Warrior Kekuhaupio".  In Chapter 9, there is a section titled, “Attack on the Fair American.”  Kame’eiamoku (NOT Kamehameha) is recognized for killing those people on The Fair American (page 235 of the paperback book).  “Kame’eiamoku seized the young Metcalf, the son of Captain Metcalf of the ship Eleanora, and threw him overboard.  Others sprang to kill those foreigners.”

But wait, there’s more.  On page 237, “Jarves, the historian, wrote in his history of Hawai’i Nei of the disapproval by the ali’i Kamehameha of Kame’eiamoku’s actions in plundering that ship and killing the foreigners on board . . . .”   Contrary to what this blogger wrote, the blogger is wrong about Kamehameha’s involvement in that murder. 

Again, if a blogger who professes to know Hawaiian history can get something like this wrong, what else could he be wrong about?

Stephen Desha is recognized as a credible historian and an advocate of Native Hawaiians.  Desha was a Native Hawaiian and a Territorial Senator.  He was also a reverend.  Over a period of 4 years, he wrote a newspaper series called,”Story of Kekuhaupio” for the Hawaiian-language paper called, Ka Hoku o Hawaii.  Desha wrote 174 articles during this period.