User:Kuauli/Kalaimamahu

Kalaʻimamahū (also Kaleimamahu and Kalanimamahu) was a royal chief in the early days of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Kalaʻimamahū’s date of birth is unknown, though it has been speculated that he was born about the 1750’s, one source says 1752 and another says 1764. His parents were Keōua and Kamakaeheikuli, thus making him Kamehameha’s half-brother. There is a discrepancy about whether he was Kamehameha’s older or younger brother; John Papa ʻĪʻī writes that “Kamehameha and his younger brother Kalaimamahu were the handsomest men of those days…” while Thomas George Thrum refers to Kalaʻimamahū as “The king’s elder brother…”

Kalaʻimamahū traveled with Kamehameha and Kalola with the god Kaili (called Kuʻui by King Kalākaua in his "Myths and Legends of Hawaii") from Kaʻū to Kohala under Kalaniʻōpuʻu recommendations.While in Kohala, Kamehameha the area of Waimea to Kalaʻimamahū. After Kalaʻimamahū died, his son Kahalaiʻa inherited the area. The area was then given to Kamehameha III in 1826 when Kahalaiʻa died.

When Kamehameha established the unified kingdom, Kalaimamahū became a kānāwai (law-giver of judge).

Abraham Fornander writes that “Vancouver had some difficulty in landing the animals, [referring to the cow and bull he brought in 1793] but having satisfied the greediness of Kamehameha’s brother, Kalaimamahu…” During Captain William Douglas’s second visit to Hawaii in 1789, Kalaimamahū was ordered to kill the Captain.

Kalaʻimamahū was married to Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and had one daughter Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi who became Kuhina Nui to Kamehameha III. He also married Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio and had a son, Kahalaiʻa. After Wahinepio left him, Kalaʻimamahū took Kekela-a-Manuia as a wife, but had to issue. It is also said that Kalaʻimamahū had an affair with Keōpūolani, but had no issue.