Wahine Piʻo

{{Short description|Hawaiian politician and royal consort (d. 1826)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}} {{infobox royalty | name = Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahine Piʻo | image = Wahinepio.jpg | image_size = 150px | caption = Illustration of a mourning Wahinepio from ''Memoir of Keopuolani, late queen of the Sandwich Islands'' by William Richards | issue = Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu<br />Kekauʻōnohi | spouse = Kamehameha I<br />Kalaʻimamahu<br />Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu<br />Kaukuna Kahekili | father = Kekuamanoha | mother = Kamakahukilani | death_place = Mokuʻula, Lāhainā, Maui | death_date = May 20–26, 1826 | burial_place = Mokuʻula then<br />Waineʻe Cemetery }}

'''Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepiʻo''' (died 1826) was a Hawaiian chiefess and member of the royal family during the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. ''Wahinepiʻo'' means ''captive women'' in Hawaiian.<ref name="Mookini">{{cite journal |title= Keopuolani: Sacred Wife, Queen Mother, 1778–1823 |journal= Hawaiian Journal of History |publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society |volume=32 |author= Esther T. Mookini |year= 1998 |hdl = 10524/569}}</ref>{{rp|5}} Sometimes she is called '''Wahineopiʻo''', or an extra ʻokina is added, calling her '''Kahakuhaʻakoʻi'''. She was also called '''Kamoʻonohu'''.<ref name="Fragments" />{{rp|53}} She was considered Kamehameha I's third favorite wife<ref name="Mookini" />{{rp|11}} and served as female Governor of Maui, an act unheard of at the time in the western world, but common in Hawaiian history.

== Life == She was born on the island kingdom of Maui. Her father was Kekuamanoha, and her mother was Kamakahukilani, the niece of her father. Through her father she was a granddaughter of Kekaulike, the King or Moʻi of Maui. Her mother was the daughter of Kauhiaimokuakama, the eldest son of Kekaulike, who was denied the right of succession to the throne of Maui due to his mother Kahawalu's inferior rank in contrast to Kekaulike's other wife Kekuiapoiwa I.<ref name="Fornander">{{cite book|author=Abraham Fornander|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcQNAAAAQAAJ|title=An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I|publisher=Trübner & Co|year=1880|editor=John F. G. Stokes|volume=2|pages=140–142, 211–212, 225|access-date=July 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629124735/https://books.google.com/books?id=tcQNAAAAQAAJ|archive-date=June 29, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|212}} Supported by King Peleioholani of Oahu, he fought against his younger half-brother Kamehamehanui Ailuau, who was assisted by the King of the Big Island Alapainui, at the Battle of Keawawa. The battle ended in a stalemate, but Kauhiaimokuakama was captured and drowned by Alapainui's orders.<ref name="Fornander" />{{rp|140–142}} Her siblings included Kalanimoku, Boki, Governor of Oʻahu, and Manono II, the wife of Keaoua Kekuaokalani. She was cousin of Kaʻahumanu, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, and Namahana Piʻia, Kuakini, Governor of Hawaiʻi; and Keʻeaumoku II, who later served as her predecessor as Governor of Maui.

Born Kahakuhaʻakoi, details of her early life are scarce. She grew up in the court of her uncle King Kahekili II of Maui. During her early childhood her father Kekuamanoha helped Kahekili conquer the island of Oahu, and was the chief responsible for the capture and execution of its King, Kahahana, who was his own brother-in-law.<ref name="Fornander" />{{rp|225}} Afterward Kahekili set up his court on Oahu. She probably stay on in Maui with her aunt Kalola, the most senior chiefess of Maui at the time, and her cousin Kalanikauikaʻalaneo (later named Keōpūolani), Kalola's granddaughter. When Maui forces under Kalanikūpule, Kahekili's son and regent in his absence, lost to Kamehameha I at the Battle of Kepaniwai, Kalola along with her family tried to flee to Oahu. They stopped in Molokai as sickness overcame the elderly Kalola, and were caught by Kamehameha's forces. The dying Kalola offered her granddaughter Keōpūolani as a future bride in exchange for peace. Other Maui chiefesses, including Kahakuhaʻakoi, also joined Kamehameha's court.<ref name="Kamakau" />{{rp|260}} She and her cousin both shared the new name Wahinepio (''captive women'') commemorating this event. Her cousin later adopted the name Keōpūolani, while Kahakuhaʻakoi is mainly called Wahinepio by historians throughout the rest of her life.<ref name="Mookini" />{{rp|5}}<ref name="Kamakau">{{cite book|last=Kamakau|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Kamakau|title=Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=chiefs&l=en|edition=Revised|year=1992|orig-year=1961|publisher=Kamehameha Schools Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=0-87336-014-1|pages=184, 197, 221, 251, 260, 274|access-date=March 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060523213704/http://ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=chiefs&l=en|archive-date=May 23, 2006|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{rp|}}

=== Marriages === [[File:Entrevue de l'expedition de M. Kotzebue avec le roi Tammeamea dans l'ile d'Ovayhi, Iles Sandwich.jpg|thumb|300px|Royal Court of King Kamehameha I at Kailua-Kona, c. 1816]] Kamehameha I married most of the women he took captive because they were the highest-ranking women in all the Hawaiian Islands and any children bore by them would hold the highest ''mana'' or spiritual power. Wahinepio married Kamehameha around that time. She was related to everyone of Kamehameha's wives; her cousins mentioned above were all married to the king, and her younger sister Manono was later to be one of two young women taken by Kamehameha "to warm his old age".<ref name="Freycinet">{{cite book |author=Louis de Freycinet, Marion Kelly |title=Hawaii in 1819: A Narrative Account |publisher=Dept. of Anthropology, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum |page=108 |year=1978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HtAvAAAAMAAJ |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511083252/https://books.google.com/books?id=HtAvAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=May 11, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|108}} She was considered to be Kamehameha's third favorite wife, after Kaʻahumanu and Kaheiheimālie,<ref name="Kamakau" />{{rp|184}} although Keōpūolani was his most sacred wife. Like Kaʻahumanu she had no children by Kamehameha.<ref name="Pio">{{cite book |author=William H. Davenport |title=Piʻo: An Enquiry into the Marriage of Brothers and Sisters and Other Close Relatives in Old Hawaiʻi |publisher=University Press of America |page=43 |year=1994 |isbn=0-8191-9395-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISsSAQAAIAAJ |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427030257/https://books.google.com/books?id=ISsSAQAAIAAJ |archive-date=April 27, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|43}}

She and Kamehameha separated in the early 1800s, around the time he married Kaheiheimālie. As a sort of compensation Kamehameha may have given Wahinepio to Kaheiheimālie's first husband, his half-brother, Kalaʻimamahu.<ref name="Fragments">*{{cite book|last1=Ii|first1=John Papa|author-link1=John Papa ʻĪʻī|last2=Pukui|first2=Mary Kawena|author-link2=Mary Kawena Pukui|last3=Barrère|first3=Dorothy B.|title=Fragments of Hawaiian History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcW0AAAAIAAJ|edition=2|year=1983|publisher=Bishop Museum Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-910240-31-4|pages=49–53|access-date=July 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101073536/http://books.google.com/books?id=qcW0AAAAIAAJ|archive-date=January 1, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|50}} Kamehameha gave many of his wives to his trusted friends and relatives. Remarriage was common among the chiefs of Hawaiʻi, and many chiefesses could even choose to have more than one husband at a time. She had a son Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu by her second husband. Some sources state he was the product of her third marriage and not her second marriages, but most historian agree that he was Kalaʻimamahu's son.<ref name="Fragments" />{{rp|50}}<ref name="Dibble">{{cite book |author= Sheldon Dibble |title= History of the Sandwich Islands |publisher= Press of the Mission Seminary |year= 1843 |location= Lahainaluna |url= https://archive.org/details/historysandwich00dibbgoog |pages= 227–231 |access-date= July 17, 2016 }}</ref> Kahalaiʻa would later be appointed Governor of Kauaʻi after helping suppress the Humehume rebellion in 1824.<ref name="Bingham">{{cite book |author=Hiram Bingham I |title=A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands |publisher=H.D. Goodwin |orig-year=1848 |year=1855 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1VFAAAAYAAJ |edition=Third |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513201647/https://books.google.com/books?id=T1VFAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|228}} He had a possible daughter Keʻelikōlani and an unnamed son from his fourth and fifth marriages, respectively.

Her second marriage didn't last long, and she remarried to Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu, the eldest surviving legitimate son of Kamehameha by his wife Peleuli.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} According to Hawaiian tradition Kīnaʻu would have been Kamehameha's heir to the throne as his eldest son,<ref name="Fornander" />{{rp|211}} instead his younger half-brother Liholiho was chosen to be Kamehameha's heir due to his mother Keōpūolani's higher rank. This is ironic considering Wahinepio's own grandfather had been denied his right to the throne because of the inferior rank of his own mother. Tradition tells of a story, recorded down by John Papa ʻĪʻī, that once while traveling with Kīnaʻu from Honolulu to Waikīkī, an offering of fishes were made to the couples by Kinopu from Moehonua's fishpond in Kālia. At the moment the sea came into the pond and fishes of every kind entered the sluice gate. Fish nets were cast and the harvest was so abundant ''that a great heap of fish lay spoiling upon the bank of the pond''. When word of this reached Kamehameha, instead of being pleased, was displeased at that their waste of food. Kalanimoku, who was by the king's side at the time, ordered that Kinopu release most of the fish. When Kalaʻimamahu heard of what his nephew had done, ''his anger was kindled against him''.<ref name="Wyban">{{cite book |title= Tide and Current: Fishponds of Hawai'i |page= 87 |year= 1992 |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |author= Carol Araki Wyban |isbn= 0-8248-1396-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mTvyMbXsYL8C |access-date= July 17, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190127032755/https://books.google.com/books?id=mTvyMbXsYL8C |archive-date= January 27, 2019 |url-status= live }}</ref>{{rp|87}} With Kīnaʻu she had a daughter named Kekauʻōnohi, who later became one of the five wives of Kamehameha II and later Governor of Kauaʻi. Kekauʻōnohi had a son, but he died young.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Kīnaʻu died around 1809 leaving her a widow.<ref name="Kamakau" />{{rp|197}}

Her final marriage was to Kaukuna Kahekili, who was descended from the Kings of Maui like herself<ref name="Stewart">{{cite book |author=Charles Samuel Stewart |editor=William Ellis |title=A Residence in the Sandwich Islands |publisher=Weeks, Jordan & Company | pages =[https://archive.org/details/aresidenceinsan01stewgoog/page/n101 98]–100 |year=1839 |url=https://archive.org/details/aresidenceinsan01stewgoog }}</ref> and had Spanish blood in his vein.<ref name="Jarves">{{cite book |title=History of the Hawaiian Islands |year=1843 |publisher=Tappan and Dennet |author=James Jackson Jarves |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BfooAAAAYAAJ/page/n245 213]–214 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BfooAAAAYAAJ |access-date=July 17, 2016 }}</ref> Her fourth husband had absolutely no power and served no post under Kaʻahumanu, although he had help lead an army of a thousand soldier to Kauai with Hoapili and Kaikioʻewa to assist her brother Kalanimoku and her son Kahalaiʻa put down the Humehume uprising in 1824. He was noted as a stern warrior with great strength and many battle scars.<ref name="Bingham" />{{rp|238}} No known children came from this union.

=== Governor of Maui === Wahinepio died May 26. She served as governor of Maui at one point as one of the few female governors in the kingdom's history.<ref name="HHSDates">{{cite web |url= http://www.hawaiianhistory.org/ref/chron.html#gpm1_3 |title= Significant Dates in the History of Hawaiʻi |work= Hawaiian Historical Society |access-date= March 25, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100124141942/http://www.hawaiianhistory.org/ref/chron.html#gpm1_3#gpm1_3 |archive-date= January 24, 2010 |url-status= dead |df= mdy-all }}</ref>

Like many Hawaiian chiefesses at the time, Wahinepio was a giant of a woman. Reverend Stewart observed that she weighed no less than four hundred pounds.<ref name="Evelth">{{cite book |title= History of the Sandwich Islands: With an Account of the American Mission Established There in 1820 |year= 1831 |publisher= American Sunday-School Union |author= Ephraim Evelth |page= 36 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9dBBAAAAYAAJ |access-date= July 17, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190127032754/https://books.google.com/books?id=9dBBAAAAYAAJ |archive-date= January 27, 2019 |url-status= live }}</ref>{{rp|36}} But like many females of rank, she became accustomed to Western dress and may have become self-conscious about her weight and thought of eating less poi, so her clothes could sit better. She became part of the first generation of Hawaiian women to be bothered by their appearance and inability to fit the mold of Western femininity. This came at the cost of lowering the status and right of Hawaiian women, and subsequent generations' only notion of being a woman was to follow their subservient Puritanic sisters.<ref name="Green">{{cite book |title= Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific |chapter= Colonialism's Daughters |author= Karina Kahananui Green |editor1= Paul R. Spickard |editor2=Joanne L. Rondilla |editor3=Debbie Hippolite Wright |publisher= University of Hawaii Press |year= 2002 |isbn= 0-8248-2619-1 |pages= 242–248 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lnIYIXyIP8QC |access-date= July 17, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190127032754/https://books.google.com/books?id=lnIYIXyIP8QC& |archive-date= January 27, 2019 |url-status= live }}</ref>{{rp|242}}

=== Christianity === [[File:Funeral procession of Keopuolani from her posthumous memoir.jpg|thumb|300px|Wahinepio in the Christian funeral procession of Queen Keōpūolani, 1823]] When the Christian missionaries arrived Wahinepio accepted Christianity along with Queen Keōpūolani, Hoapili, Nāhiʻenaʻena, Keʻeaumoku II, Kekauʻōnohi, Kahekili, and Kaiko and his wife Haʻaheo Kaniu who all attended classes set up by the missionaries.<ref name="Stewart" />{{rp|137}} After Keōpūolani's death in 1823, many of the chiefs returned to some of the old ways including Wahinepio, who allowed most of her subjects to do as they wish. She was said to have been the principal agent in leading the princess to return to worshipping the old Hawaiian gods in 1824, a year after the death of her mother. Wahinepio may have assumed a motherly role over the recently orphaned princess. Although not for long because Nāhiʻenaʻena return to the Christian faith the following year and forbade anyone to enter her house who could no read hymns, targeting Wahinepio who couldn't read. The angry Wahinepio likewise forbade any to enter her house who was not skilful in dancing, referring to the pagan hula forbidden by the missionaries.<ref name="Tracy">{{cite book |title=History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions |year=1842 |publisher=M. W. Dodd |author=Joseph Tracy |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica42trac/page/170 170] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica42trac |access-date=July 17, 2016 }}</ref>{{rp|170}} She may have eventually reconverted, but she was never considered a devout Christian and was clearly disliked by Reverend Richards and Reverend Bingham.<ref name="Bingham" /> Her refusal to bend to Western ways or submitting to Christianity and her strong belief in the old Hawaiian ways was identical to her possible granddaughter Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.

Reverend Richard tells of a change of heart by Wahinepio, in an account involving a Hawaiian girl Leoiki under her care. The sixteen-year-old girl Leoiki was an attentive student of the Christian missionaries. She had attracted the eyes of Captain William Buckle of the British whaleship ''Daniel IV'', who resolved to have her board his vessel. She pleaded to be spared, but Wahinepio allow her to be taken for the payment of sixteen doubloons, valued at ten dollars each, and Leoiki was taken on board for seven months, according to Richard's as a ''slave''.<ref>The popular slavery reference of Leoiki's condition is in conflict with British law at the time which outlawed the slave trade and made it a crime punishable by death.</ref> Wahinepio soon confessed that she had done wrong. She gave the coins to Nāhiʻenaʻena who refused them, and according to legends the coins were placed among the treasures left by Kamehameha II. Afterward laws were placed throughout the islands forbidding women to visit ships for immoral purposes much to the anger of visiting sailors.<ref name="Tracy" />{{rp|170}} Although, this might just be missionary propaganda.

Other accounts seems to suggest that Wahinepio took the payment as dowry and assurance of her return. And that Leoiki, instead of being sold, married Captain Buckle and had a son with him, born on February 5, 1826, as a British citizen on board the ''Daniel IV''. The boy was named William Wahinepiʻo Kahakuhaʻakoi Buckle in honor of her, and he served in King Kalakaua's privy council and was the first warden of Oahu prison. Leoiki's granddaughter Jane Kahakuwaiaoao Keakahiwalani Buckle Clark was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Liliʻuokalani during her 1895 imprisonment in ʻIolani Palace.<ref name="Waihona">{{cite web |url=https://www.waihona.com/articles/diminishment.asp |title=Early Western Diminishment of the Hawaiian Women's Rights |author=Victoria S. Creed, Waihona ʻAina Corp. & Cultural Surveys Hawaii and Isaaca Hanson, a descendant of Leoiki |publisher=Society for Hawaiian Archaeology Conference |date=Oct 17–19, 2008 |access-date=January 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127051819/https://www.waihona.com/articles/diminishment.asp |archive-date=January 27, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Death and legacy === In 1826, an epidemic of whooping cough and bronchitis swept across Hawaii, claiming the lives of many Hawaiians who lack natural immunity to the disease. Her son Kahalaiʻa and his son, her grandson, fell victim to the epidemic in April of that year.<ref name="Peterson">{{cite book |title=Notable Women of Hawaii |year=1984 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |author=Barbara Bennett Peterson |isbn=0-8248-0820-7 |page=221 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rFevAAAAIAAJ |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511150953/https://books.google.com/books?id=rFevAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=May 11, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|221}}<ref name="Keoua">{{cite book |title= History of Keoua Kalanikupuapa-i-nui: father of Hawaii kings, and his descendants |author= Elizabeth Kekaaniauokalani Kalaninuiohilaukapu Pratt |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UgouAAAAYAAJ |orig-year= 1920 |editor= Daniel Logan |location= Honolulu |publisher= republished by Kessinger Publishing |year= 2009 |isbn= 978-1-104-76661-0 |page= 31 |access-date= July 17, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160508121715/https://books.google.com/books?id=UgouAAAAYAAJ |archive-date= May 8, 2016 |url-status= live }}</ref>{{rp|31}} This double loss brought great sorrow to Wahinepio. Her grief weakened her constitution even further, and added with the rapid cultural change Hawaii due to the arrival of the missionaries, she succumbed to the epidemic.<ref name="Kamakau" />{{rp|274}} She died at Mokuʻula, the royal residence of Kamehameha III, in May 1826.<ref name="Kameʻeleihiwa">{{cite book |title=Native Land and Foreign Desires |year=1992 |publisher=Bishop Museum Press |author=Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa |isbn=0-930897-59-5 |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9W5AAAAIAAJ |access-date=July 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513195717/https://books.google.com/books?id=T9W5AAAAIAAJ |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|102}} She was given the honor of being buried at Mokuʻula, where Keōpūolani and Nahi`ena`ena had been interred and where Wahinepio's daughter Kekauʻōnohi would be buried too. Her remains along with other royals were assumed to have been transported to the Waineʻe Church, later renamed the Waiola Church, in Lāhainā.

Wahinepio Avenue in Kahului, next to Maui Community College and Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, is named after her.<ref>[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1366&bih=538&rlz=1R2ADRA_enUS430&q=Kahului+Beach+Road&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x7954d327ac0fd273:0x66ec0a35dabf8e05,Kahului+Beach+Rd,+Kahului,+HI&gl=us&ei=iTsqTp2fIIWosQO-5bnSCg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ8gEwAA Google Map]</ref>

== Ancestry == {{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio''' |2= 2. Kekuamanoha |3= 3. Kamakahukilani |4= 4. Kekaulike (=#12) |5= 5. Haʻaloʻu |6= 6. Kauhiaimoku-a-Kama |7= 7. Luukia |8= 8. Kaulahea II (=#24) |9= 9. Papaikaniau Lonoikaniau (=#25) |10= 10. Haʻae-a-Mahi |11= 11. Kalelemauliokalani |12= 12. Kekaulkie (=#4) |13= 13. Kahawalu |14= 14. Kainahopukahi |15= 15. Kauopuuikanuumealani |16= 16. Lonohonuakini |17= 17. Kalanikauanakinilani |18= 18. ʻUmi-a-Liloa II |19= 19. Kuihewamakawalu |20= 20. Kauaua-a-Mahi |21= 21. Kalanikauleleiaiwi |22= 22. Kaʻalo-a-Piʻi |23= 23. Kaneikaheilani |24= 24. Kaulahea II (=#8) |25= 25. Papaikaniau Lonoikaniau (=#9) |26= |27= |28= 28. Kookuiniaumakaokalani |29= 29. Kahoowaha |30= |31= }}

== References == {{Commons category|Wahinepio}} {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{succession box |title= Royal Governor of Maui |before= Keʻeaumoku II |after=Hoapili|years=ca. 1820s}} {{s-end}} {{Christianity in Hawaii}}

Category:House of Kekaulike Category:Year of birth unknown Category:1826 deaths Category:Hawaiian Kingdom politicians Category:Hawaiian royal consorts Category:Native Hawaiian women in politics Category:Governors of Maui Category:Converts to Christianity from Hawaiian religion Category:Women governors and heads of sub-national entities Category:Remarried royal consorts