Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory

Chapter 1. Perhaps They Are Just Left There: The First Twelve People Arrive at Kalawao

3 1 PerhapsThey Are Just LeftThere THE FIRST TWELVE PEOPLE ARRIVE AT KALAWAO on january 6, 1866, J. N. Loe boarded the small sailing schooner Warwick, bound for the north shore of the island of Molokai. With him were eight men, three women, and a small boy whom they hid in their midst.1 Loe, Kahauliko, Liilii, Puha, Kini, Lono, Waipio, Kainana, Kaaumoana, Nahuina,2 Lakapu, and Kepihe were the first of an estimated eight thousand people who, over the next century, would be deprived of their rights, their families, their communities, and the lands of their birth because they were said to have leprosy. The small boy was one of four or five family members on board the Warwick that day.3 They were the first in a long line of mea kokua—people who helped, people who comforted, people who resisted the isolation policies by refusing to allow those who were sick to be sent away alone. That January, the voyage across the rough seas of the Molokai Channel must have been physically and emotionally overwhelming for people who were in the advanced­ stages of what was then an incurable disease and who were being taken so far away from their homes. Those who made the trip in later years, on boats far larger than the Warwick, described high waves, seasickness, and a constant longing­for home. Rudolph Meyer, agent of the Board of Health for the island of Molokai, had warned about the rough weather conditions at this time of year and noted that the Waikolu and Kalaupapa­ Kulili Kuula, age fifty-five, was one of an estimated eight thousand individuals separated from their families in Hawaii because they were believed to have leprosy. Adapted from photo, courtesy of Hawai‘i State Archives. PerhapsThey Are Just LeftThere    5 harbors were “generally inaccessible,” so it would sometimes take a vessel a month to make a landing.4 Despite Meyer’s warnings and concerns over the seaworthiness of the Warwick, she departed from Honolulu that day in what would mark the beginning­of a massive forced relocation of thousands of people, at least 90 percent of whom were Native Hawaiians. J. N. Loe and the others on board the Warwick had every reason to believe that they were being sent to a place where they would be treated and cared for. A public notice circulated on October 25, 1865, clearly stated that those with leprosy in whom “it is considered practical to effect a cure” would be required to remain at Kalihi Hospital in Honolulu. However, those in an advanced stage of the disease who were “liable to endanger the health of others” would be sent to the settlement on the Makanalua Peninsula, “where all possible care” would be extended to them.5 The Warwick landed its passengers on the Kalaupapa side of the peninsula rather than at Waikolu Valley, probably due to weather conditions. Louis Lepart, a Frenchman who was reported to be a former Sacred Hearts brother, had been appointed superintendent and was at Kalaupapa to meet them.6 While it is generally thought that people were routinely landed at Waikolu Valley, this is not the case. According to Lepart’s correspondence for the year 1866, passengers were landed sixteen times at Kalaupapa and four times at Waikolu.7 Another commonly held misconception is that people were simply “dumped overboard.” Bernard K. Punikai‘a: “One of the things I take exception to and, in fact, just a week ago, ‘The Hawaiians’ was shown on TV—you know, with Charlton Heston. They showed the shipment being brought here and people were just tossed overboard about a mile offshore, and that is not true. That is absolutely false. This was a Hawaiian government, the king and queen were Hawaiians and the kelamoku—the Hawaiian seamen—they were Hawaiians and they were the ones the least afraid of the disease. . . . There were times when the ocean was rough and they would come as close as they could and people had to wade in, but they weren’t dumped a mile off and had to swim for it. They didn’t do that. So, you know, Hollywood sometimes tends to change history. I guess it looks good on film but, as bad as it was, that was not one of the things that happened at that time.”8 The Board of Health fully expected those who were sent to...