User:Kuauli/Kelou kamakau

Kēlou Kamakau (also Kamakaunui) was a chief and historian during the early period of the kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Kamakau was born around 1773 in Kaʻawaloa, in South Kona on Hawaiʻi Island. Kēlou was raised (hānai) by Keawe-a-Heulu and lived with his family.

His biological father was Kanuha, a chief under Kalaniʻōpuʻu, said to have been the Hawaiian warrior to first strike Captain Cook in the meleé that ensured before Cook’s death. The chief who is said to have delivered a final death blow to Cook was Kālaimanōkahoʻowaha. This was Kamakau’s grandfather thru his mother, Pāmāhoa. Kālaimanōkahoʻowaha was also known as Kanaʻina was a the namesake uncle of Charles Kanaʻina, father of William Charles Lunalilo. Kamakau is thus the second cousin to the sixth king of Hawaiʻi.

Kamakau married twice and had one son with each of his marriage. He first married Kepaʻalani and had Kapapaku Keawe-a-Heulu, who he named for his foster father. He later married Kaʻauamoku, a sister of Hewahewa, Kamehameha’s high priest, and had Kanihonimauʻole.

He was known to be a prominent chief of South Kona, specifically Kealakekua Bay and its environs. Around 1810, shortly after Kamehameha acquired Kauaʻi and Niʻihau through peaceful negotiations, chiefs began to obtain large tracts of land and loads of ammunition from the growing influx of foreigners to the islands. Afraid that these chiefs (who had sided with him from the beginning of his campaign through the Hawaiian archipelago) might plot against him, Kamehameha called a conference with the sons of these possible conspirators. After he told them of his fear, one of them offered a suggestion, to remedy his suspicions, which Kamehameha accepted and carried out. He loaded all of the guns and powder of his chiefs onto a ship Keōua, captained by David ʻŌpeʻaloa, while Kamehameha and the chiefs accompanied on a fleet of canoes and a ship owned by Captain Winship. When they reached the Big Island, half of the arms were delivered at Kawaihae and placed under the care of John Young, while the other half was delivered to Kamakau at Kaʻawaloa.

When William Ellis visited Kealakekua in 1823, Kamakau was his major source of knowledge of the various rites and prayers that took place at Hikiʻau Heiau. He was been placed along with David Malo, S. M. Kamakau (no relation known), Kepelino, John Papa ʻĪʻī and others, as being Hawaiʻi’s greatest and most valuable native historians and scholars.

He, along with other Kona chiefs were educated in the Christian religion and English language through Asa Thurston and his wife when they came to Kona in 1823.

He met Kaʻahumanu in February of 1832 when she came to pay her respects to Nāʻihe, the great orator chief and his hānai brother, who died on December 29, 1831 at Hanamua in Kaʻawaloa. At one point he moved to Oʻahu and joined the rapidly growing Christian congregation of chiefs their.

He wrote and originally published his manuscript on ancient Hawaiian religious civilization, “No na Oihana Kahuna Kahiko”, on Oʻahu. After he died, it was acquired by W. D. Alexander, translated by John Wise and published as a part of the 6th volume of Fornander’s Hawaiian Antiquities in 1919-20.

It is not known when he died, but it is known that he help sing Kamehameha III's funerary hymnals.