Transcripts For CSPAN3 History Of Hawaii The Life Of Queen Liliuokalani 20240713

Actually, im part cherokee native, but im a mainland writer. And so my the time i will have to speak in hawaiian is thick. Well talk a bit about the hawaiian language. But the first thing i need to do is make some disclaimer of humility. Because captive paradise is intended to explain the essentials of how the United States, how we got our hands on the place. Ive never gotten such good well, im used to getting good reviews. But the reviews that i got from wall street journal all the way to honolulu magazine were just extraordinary. Really wonderful reviews. Which did not prepare me for the anger that i saw in the native independence blogs. They hated it. And hated me just another damn halely trying to make monday off our history. Parentally they think people make money off history which tells you something about their understanding of the publishing business. The there was on one of these hawaiian history and culture blogs a native xlor wscholar wh, yeah, hes whut, ite, he should have written i i bought a copy and i read it. Its really not that bad. Heres mainstream american publisher and a somewhat well known writer who agrees with us. Dont you think we should be able to use this . Well, she was shouted into silence within 20 minutes that people like me arent supposed to poke their nose into their business. Now, the first thing i need to say in their defense is that this is not anything like political yektnecorrectness run because its not. The combat over who gets to talk about the narrative is not new at all. In fact, the very first native language history of hawaii was written by samuel [ inaudible ] i practiced. And in fact, when i made this Research Trip to hawaii, ill tell you about that, oh, a lot of their Research Facility are privately owned and if they dont like you, they dont have to help you. But i even memorized the name of that famous fish, its the longest fish name in the world, the dreaded [ inaudible ] it impressed nobody. But when they published the history of hawaii, the reaction was furious. Our story is sacred. This can only come from the priests. Youre telling it throughout to everybody. The country people and the Common People, they dont have a right to know our story. There is a little some of that, i think, still today. This is an active war zone. Lets put that way. I come from doing Texas History for about 40 years and, believe me, of the degree to which Political Correctness has seized Texas History and people who are heroes for 120 years are suddenly, you know, these drunken land grabbing slave beating colonialists in bhawaii its eight times worse because we took their country. I understand that. Example, before i went over there, i was having wlunlunch wa professor friend of mine on the topic whether i wanted to come back to his university and finish many i phd in history. And he asked me how are you doing with the hawaii book . And i said, well, im not changing anything finding anything to change my opinion that the overthrowin 1893 was just a nasty piece of work. There is no defending it. It was just awful. But i am also becoming really troubled by the amount of oppression and violence against the Common People by their own chiefs and kings before we even showed up. And i gave him some examples of this. And he said, yes, thats very true. But, of course, if you write your book that way and you dont, his dont his word position the natives as victims of american race iism, he said, t wont help you get back into grad school. Well, i marinated in this for a few seconds, and i said, yes, well, that must be what they mean by academic freedom. So, i had the opportunity to go do research, and i discovered very quickly the local phenomenon known as stinkeye. This is the look you get from natives who find you researching their history, or otherwise, nosing into their culture. In fact, there was one lady, she was a dosenent kilauea. My Research Assistant let it drop that i was writing a book, and she gave me that look. And she said, well, of course, you realize youre not the person who should write it, but if you insist on it, the first thing you should do is submit yourself to the kupuna, the elders, and if they approve of you, then go to the Bishop Museum and ask their help, because theyre the ones that know the story the best. And i thought, well, lady, ive won the spirit award twice and the spirenbach award twice, and i dont really submit myself to anybody, but thank you. And the next day we had lunch with an Earth Science professor and he said to be in hawaii today and to be fired from the museum is a badge of honor. Active war zone. Now, having i also thought, if there is a native researched and there are increasingly more and more native language resources coming to the surface that need to be explored. And when somebody produces that book, i will be first in line to buy it, but theyve had 120 years. So, my whole take in captive paradise was to explain to a mainland audience how it is we got our hands on the place. And so, tonight were going to look at the life of i cant really call her liliuokalani before she was named that. She grew up as lydia. Well talk about that. But in a larger sense, were also going to talk about how her culture shaped her and how that should affect our understanding of her and the country. Now, i know that in a biography series, we really need to spend most of the time on the biography, but we have no hope of understanding liliuokalani without going a bit into the culture, so we just have to do some contexting here or we wont get it. So, i have prepared a powerpoint. Now, this is longer than the powerpoint that i did last year and ill have less than a minute on each of these slides. Dr. Crawley, where are you sitting . When i start getting to ten minutes, you need to give me a sign, because ive been accused many times you stand up to talk about history, ill keep you here until next tuesday. And its entirely true. So, modern hawaii began with kameha kamehai. He was a member of the alii, call the estimation of population 400,000 with about 400 chiefs. He was one. And when captain cooke stopped on the west coast of the big island at kalakaua bay, he was with him and looking around and everybodys trading and look at all the interesting things they have. He was checking out the cannons. Understand there was no iron in hawaii. A nail was worth a big pig, you know. They had no iron. And he thought, man, if i had these weapons, i could conquer the whole place. Kamehameha actually means the loneliness of a god and he was off by himself thinking of how he could do this. He asked the kahunas, the priests, how can i go about conquering the place . And they said you have to build a temple to the war god. And he built this, 100 feet wide, 220 feet long, up to 20 feet high. The lava blocks were passed by hand from the palolu valley, which is 14 miles away. It was a luakini heiau, which means that was a place where human sacrifices were performed. I hear gasps. A lot of us are unaware that human sacrifice was part of the kapu religious, but it was. In fact, when captain cooke got there in 1779, it was at the end of the makahiki season, which they fight, they war for eight months, then they have four months of peace and celebration. Thats called makahiki. And he got there at the end of that, and a lot of the polynesians thought that he was the storm god, lono. The end of makahiki, they had a big ceremony, and the end of it was when the priest first ate the eyeball of a tuna. And when that was done, he ate a human eyeball from a fresh sacrifice. Thats just what life was back in those days. So, he built this huge heiau to the war god. The hawaiian language is a dialect of polynesian, so what is t in tahiti is k in hawaii. So, if this was in tahiti, these would be tikis, like tiki torches, except these are kiki. Thats what they were worshipping before the missionaries came along. Now, it took him 30 years to conquer the place. He was kind of a middling successful warrior, lots of mayhem, lots of butchery. Tens of thousands of people died. Some escaped, including this fella. When he got to new england, they couldnt pronounce his name, so they called him henry obookiah. Now, he had seen his family butchered in a parade by some of the command soldiers. He jumped into the water, swam to an american ship, got away, went all the way around the world, settled in connecticut, went to yale, went to congregationalist seminary, and was imbued with the mission of spirit. Now, we did not send missionaries to hawaii because were americans and thats what they do. It took him years of yelling at them if you people really believe all this jesus stuff, you would send missionaries to my country and end this horror. It took him, i think it was seven years, and they finally said okay, okay, all right. So, they opened a mission school, and he started translating the bible. And they said, well, do you really know english that well . Who needs english . He went from hebrew to hawaiian. Because he said, there are grammatical and structural similarities that made hebrew very easy for him to his native language. These are smart people. Well, he got typhus and died. He never got to go back, so everybodys so sorry. We put together a mission that got there in 1820. While he was over here studying and translating the bible by the way, when i was at the Hawaii Historical Society in honolulu, i found his work where he actually started create a hawaii English Dictionary at the end. It was really quite moving. Well, while hes over here, kamehameha died, and his queen, who was the favorite of his 19 whilz he was not the favorite wife, but she was very sociable, very smart, very forceful. She got tired of this kapu religion for two reasons. The first one, she could see it didnt work, because all the prohibitions of kapu werent working. Women would be thrown off a cliff for eating a banana. Theres one punishment under kapu, thats deaf. Well, she could see all these western sailors coming to hawaii. They would break kapu left, right and center and the volcano didnt blow up, theres no typhoons. So, this isnt working. And my people, they had started dying of western diseases. So if its not working, why are we keeping this religion . Also, after he died, she would have gone to the back of the room. She had no intention of going to the back of the room. So, she ended kapu. She had the temples burnt, she had the idols pulled down. And there was a spiritual vacuum in hawaii that by the time we sent missionaries and this is hiram and sybil bingham, with the first contingent. Everyone in america thinks we sent missionaries and they destroyed the local religion. No, they sailed into the vacuum. The hawaiians are very spiritual people and they took very readily to christianity. In fact, there are well, there are stories i can tell you, but theres no time and its too polite in the audience. When they discovered what a wideopen place the pacific was, they were aghast. But the hawaiians took to it. In fact, this church that they built, it was built on a spring that belonged to a high chiefist, so its the waters of. Surprised of half blocks of coral cut by hand from the bottom of the Honolulu Harbor by the natives and lifted up by hand. So, kind of like the medieval peasants in europe who built the great cathedrals. Well, remember we showed you the heaou that this also built by hand, so theyre kind of used to this. Anyway, so, there was this period of transition between kapu, human sacrifice, women getting thrown over the cliff for eating a banana, all that, to american congregationalist way, very boston ways of doing things. That is what lydia was born into. These are her birth parents, Analea Keohokalole and cesar capoue. They think they gave them western diseases and took their fertility. Actually, the best thing you could do was marry your sister and they did this for centuries. Now, this is her birth parents. She was not raised by them. Among the hawaii ali i, a relative raised the kid. They had a kid, they gave it to you. Its called hanai adoption. And she grew up at the home of her hanai parents, abner paki and laura konia, who were very highly born, very high up. She loved this house. She always wrote very fondly of this house. She became the hanai sister of Bernice Pauahi, who was one of the last two kamehameha disrespect descendants. She and bernice were very close. They both married about the same time, different people. But Bernice Pauahi is the founder of the bishop foundation, Bishop Museum, the crownlands that wind up funding the kamehameha schools, the museum and all this. Now, one of lydias well, i guess i should explain her name. She was born and i know i wrote this down. This is what you get for giving me wine at your dinner. She was born as she was baptized as lydia, but in those days, the kohenanui, a high office in the kingdom, sort of a combination of Prime Minister and almost the coruler, but that was the half sister of the king, who named this child well, i have to find it. My hawaiian is too clumsy. But kenahu had an eye infection that was very painful, so she named the baby painful, tearful, sore eyes. Because if im going to suffer, by god, everybodys going to suffer. Here it is liliu, smart, loloku, painful, walania wewehi sore, kamakaeha, sore eyes. So, she was lydia liliu loloku walania wewehi kamakaeha, but baptized as lydia. Right. Now, this guy is one of my heroes. Forgive me if i start bawling. Kenahus half brother, kamehameha iii was the last son of the conqueror. He was born under immense privilege. He had lifeanddeath power over everybody, but he was torn between two worlds. He tried to commit suicide when the missionaries prevented him from marrying his sister. Now, to the native people, it would have been a brilliant match, because their mother was the product of a halfsister marriage and the granddaughter of another fullsister marriage, and if he and nahienaena had had a child, it would have been next to the gods, because they already had the falling down ka pp kapu and she had to stay out of the sunlight because she was so holy. Well, he tried to kill himself and settled for the high chiefest of malawi. And the missionaries by the time well, he became a very dedicated christian. His mother became an even more dedicated christian. And they dragged him kicking and screaming into the church. But by the time he was broken to the traces, he gave his people a declaration of human rights, he gave them a constitution, he gave them a legislature, and he surrendered half of his own lands so that the Common People could own land. I mean, he was a great, great king. Very close to liliu. He was aware of the lack in heirs. In fact, he and kalama were not that close. They had babies that died in ifsy. And here was a lesson for young lydia. He executed her grandfather, high chief kamanaii for high murder, which was unthinkable for a high chief. Her father, grandfather, wanted to get a divorce, and the missionaries wouldnt let him get a divorce until he was single again, so he said, fine, and he killed her. Well, he found out that you cant and he signed the death warrant. And so, there was a very stark lesson in the new morality for young lydia and her siblings, including her older brother, kalakaua, who became king. So, he also realized, okay, were not having kids and the throne has to go somewhere, so he enlarged the circle of succession. Now, liliu and her family were not born into the kamehameha royal. They were ascended from kamehamehas cousin, so he accepted them into the group of people who were eligible for the throne, and he founded the royal school to educate them in ways that the western world would expect of royalty. It began as the chiefs childrens schools. This is a later picture. You see that crowd up there on the ban cony . What was up in the attic was what they called the boston parlor. The missionaries all contributed their very best stuff furniture, silver, dishes, so that they could learn polite society. And well discover later in what go good stead that put them. As i was at the Mission House museum, i looked through some of the workbooks of the students at the royal school, and one of the things they did to learn english and i like this theres an exercise on english words ending in tion. And this is all written out. Mary moderations answer to timothy observation. Sir, i perused your oration with much deliberation and with no little consternation at the great infatuation of your weak imagination to show such veneration on so slight foundation. But after examination and serious contemplation, i suppose your admiration was the fruit of recreation. It went on and on and on. It was just hysterical. But another exercise that just floored me was that the students also learned and copied out the louisiana bell. In louisiana, dats the state where massa eba dwell. He had a lovely colored gal called du louisiana bell. What on earth . They thought the hawaii ali i children would ever have to do with louisiana bell or they also learned black jupiter. It must have come from the common assumption that the polynesians were african. They discovered to their cost, and it has a lot to do with why how they came to regard the United States. Thats the only explanation i could come up with. And here we have lydia at a very young age at the royal school. She was immensely bright. Now, she had three brothers. Her two older brothers were there. One died and then kalakaua became king. She was especially gifted in poetry. Now, you have to understand hawaiian poetry. It is not roses are red, violets are blue. The Hawaiian Culture produced an extraordinarily High Standard of chant that preserved their whole culture. Their whole story was conveyed in chant. And she mastered this. Now, one thing about the hawaiian language that makes it so difficult is that there is not every word has about three meanings. There is the exact meaning of what youre talking about, and then there is the kauna, the hidden meaning. In public speaking, i would be saying what im saying, but i would also be using hidden classical illusions that float somewhere way above that only the hawaiians would get. And somewhere down below it, theres some thoroughly irreverent sexual raspberry, because theyre polynesians and they make sex jokes out of everything. Lydia masters now, the hawaiian language by the way, it was the missionaries who gave them a written language, and they went from virtually a stoneage society. The missionaries standardized the language. Its when they changed the letters around and made everything compact. Within ten years, they had a Literacy Rate that was among the highest in the world. They had nativelanguage newspapers. They had nativelanguage public it was amazing these people were very bright, ready for learning. Lydia mastered this. Now, she also had an extraordinary musical talent. She became a near concertquality pianist, composing between 150 and 160 songs in her lifetime one of which you heard during the intro at which was elahaoi. Now, i have heard for many years in fact, in preparing this lecture, i discovered a new a modern website saying, oh, poor liliuokalani, after she was toppled from the throne and shes imprisoned in her bedroom in the palace, and she is so wistful about what shes lost, she writes this song, elahaoi, farewell to thee. You know, farewell my country, it was wonderful. No. Actually, she wrote this song in 1878 on a horseback riding expedition down to the winward side of oahu. Have you havent been to hawaii, there are trade winds. The northeast side of the islands is jungle and the mountains squeeze out all the rain, and the western slope is like mediterranean. It looks kind of like arizona on a good day. Well, she was on this trip and she saw one of their companions, j. H. Boyd, gavevery affectionate farrell well, probably to her younger sister, mrs. Myriam, likelike, and she began humming kind of this popular tune called the lone rock by the sea. And people said, that sounds like the lone rock by the sea, yeah, it does. But she composed this about a parting between two lovers. But she was an amazing student. She was also, unlike her brothers, very sincere in her profession of christian faith. She was actually a very persuaded churchgoer. In fact, when she got bigger, she played the organ at the church. She led the choir, which you know, the king thought was maybe beneath the dignity of a royal princess. But even at school, she was constantly exposed to these reminders of the old days. And the headmaster, amos cooke, he was constantly in a dither what to do with these 16 royal progeny. Now, you have to understand, in hawaii, an alii did not grow up to be chief, he was chief from birth. So they were powerful even as toddlers. When Alexander Liholiho shows up, hes 3 years old and shows up at school the first day with 30 servants. One guy to carry his umbrella, another to carry his spit box because in Hawaiian Culture, men never swallowed saliva. They spit constantly. And if you were high up, somebody carried your box to spit in. And cooke said, no, that will not do. I cannot educate all these kids when theyve got 30 servants each. And he insisted and the king granted him the right for absolute control over their kids. Meanwhile, his wife, juliette cooke, she was the one who was drying their tears because they were weeping the little ones were weeping and screaming from homesickness, and there, again, the polynesian culture in these kids she was kept busy trying to keep them apart, right . In fact, princess abigail maheha became pregnant. She was 14. By the prince who later became kameme i, who was 12. Well, he was given a beating. She was forced to marry her mothers gardener and exiled to kauaiie and told to behave herself. So when we read, as we do, that there were no more kamehameha descendants, descendants of the conqueror, thats not true, because abigail mahehas child had progeny and there are direct descendants on hawaii today but they were ruled out for being illegitimate, so they were never considered royal. Well, things were made even worse, by the way. Remember queen kalama of hawaii, wife of kameme iii. She made things worse because she showed up one day for a party and a musical concert and all that, and she saw older brother prince moses, thought wow, hes kind of cute. So, she the queen initiated an affair with her husbands nephew, which caused all kinds of ruckus at the school. Now, it is common in contemporary scholarship to really disparage the royal school. These american missionaries get there, and they break up the traditional culture, they ruin this paradisical life of theirs and it was all these americans. Well, thats not quite true, because the vice principal, who had been raised as a minder, a babysitter, to kameme ii. In fact, he was so per situated of the values of western life and religion and education that at one point, i guess it was lydias oldest brother, her grandmother held the kid back from school. She said, im told that you have the kids out there watering plants and youre calling that exercise. That is beneath our dignity. Well, they had a big fight, and papa ii put his foot on the high chiefests thigh and push away from her. He had have been killed on the spot. Well, he complained to the Prime Minister who said he has power from the king, there we are. Times are changing and thats just the way it is. Well, after a couple of abortive conquests of hawaii, one by the british, one by the french. They were very ashamed of themselves, apologizend gave the country back. Kamehameha iii went around the world to try to win recognition for hawaiian independence. And here is jarrett judd, who was his foreign minister. Actually, he had several different posts. And the foreigners who had missions in honolulu began calling the minister of everything. Here we have out on the left is alexander leholeho, who became kamehameha iv, the other guy who got with princess abigail became kameme v. They were welcomed into the Imperial Court in france, they were vetted by Queen Victoria and prince albert. They came to america, and they were thrown off a train for being black. Do we wonder why in their nine years as king, their Foreign Policy took a decidedly anglocentric turn . They kind of saw through our sham of equality and all this. In fact, ive looked at alexanders diary. He was 14 years old and he kept a diary all across america. And i found the page after this conductor tried to throw them off the train. His handwriting changed. It became slashes. He was so mad at this fool who didnt recognize. These americans need to question themselves about all this freedom talk when they treat people like dogs. Yeah. Oh, by the way, theres a very interesting memoir written by wife of judd, flora fish judd, very keen social observer. Just a little for you. Alexander grew up and became kamehameha iv. Now, lydia had been mentioned as his possible wife, because she was the highest born unmarried young lady in the kingdom. So, obviously, she should have been queen consort at that time. Well, he wasnt that keen on her. He fell deeply in love with high chiefest emanaeia of the big island, and in was a little bit of racism involved there because she was onequarter english. She was a granddaughter of one of kamehamehas captive english i should explain. No, that would be taken entirely wrong. I wont explain. Lydia got over it. She became queen emmas it has to do with Political Correctness and saying something about a Famous Museum and this is being taped and it will be on tv and i dont want to deal with that. So, she got over it. She became lydia became queen emmas lady in waiting. And in that court, she sort of performed a function sort of like a minor royal in the British Court today. She was sort of a Princess Alexandra or a duchess of kent. She had lots to do but not really a lot of the spotlight. Well, her hanai sister, Bernice Pauahi married an american banker, charles reid bishop. Now, that was one of the good marriages. In fact, theres a chapter in my book called useful marriages, because at this time that the sugar industry is beginning, there were all kinds of American Businessmen who were coming to hawaii and finding available chiefesses to marry who had thousands of acres of land, and they were willing to marry them because they had buckets of money. And anyway, bernice married bishop and they were very happy. Lydia married John Owen Dominis of schenectady, new york. And its the first introduction now liliuokalani, lydia, wrote a very famous memoir later called hawaiis story by hawaiis queen, and you have to read this with a good deal of caution, because she really softpedaled a bunch of stuff. In Hawaiian Culture, its extremely rude to dispute with somebody. You dont criticize somebody. You just praise something else. So, when she married dominis, she wrote, well, i had hopes for that, but he preferred to socialize elsewhere. Actually, it was the marriage from hell. He was the son of a widowed widow of a ship owner who built a mansion called Washington Place, very famous for many years. It was hawaiis governors mansion. Well, he married lydia, dumped her on his motherinlaw, who is one of the most errant racists of the 19th century, so he left his wife and his motherinlaw to live together and scratch each others eyeballs out while he went outda, dating other wom. By the way, in the spirit of aloha, you can turn that back like a mirror on people sometimes. She adopted his bastard as his hanai mother, which was really very embarrassing. I hope that wasnt a tenminute thing, dr. Crawley. Oh, telling me to speed it along. Oh, yeah. Well, she raised funds for the queens hospital. She helped bernice establish the society for the benefit of the sick and the elderly. She composed a new National Anthem for kamehameha v after he was named king. He was called the last of the great chiefs. He had all of the power, but he used it very responsibly. By the way, the next king, he is very interesting. He was brilliant. He had excellent liberal sensibilities. He had been betroethed from birth to the sister, but he was as high born as they were. In fact, he was the son of a [ speaking Foreign Language ] who knew how high he was. When she lifted him up, she said, oh, luna, luna higher, higher, disappears. And the brothers knew if he and victoria had children, they would outrank him, so they forbade her from marrying him. So he began courting lydia and the brothers broke that up and made sure that he was going to end as a lonely alcoholic bachelor, which he did. So, having died without heirs and kamehameha iii hadnt given them a constitution, theres an election for monarch. Because hes died, there are no heirs. The original claimant was the wife of kamehameha iv. She was immensely popular, people adored her. She had the blood line. She was the great granddaughter, i think, of the conquerors brother, the good chief. So, she was hugely popular. But kalako had been in the legislature for several terms and he knew about american politicking. He knew about making promises to people you probably couldnt keep, and never mind. So, he won the election and became king. And there he is. By the way, his family nickname was taffy for his love of sweets. Well, his brother leleiohoku became the crown prince. This gets interesting. April of 1877, lydia was made Crown Princess because he died and was only 23. Thats why she was finally given her established name of liliuokalani. Among her duties as Crown Princess, you know, the crown prince of england, you go around and do good things. She visited and was so moved that she decorated and convinced the landlord to give him land for some branch hospitals. Now, kalakaua got an urge, became the first monarch of anywhere that traveled around the world. Welcome into the Imperial Courts of china and japan, austria, germany, france, england. He was the guest of honor at the first state dinner ever given in the white house. Well, while hes gone, liliu becomes the regent. She is kind of mindful of her people, there is an outbreak of smallpox and she closes the port to prevent the spread of smallpox. That outraged the American Industries because they had them work in the sugar plantations and they marked her from that moment. She was also one of his hostesses. Here we have a luau given by kalakaua in the center. On the back row is robert louis stevenson, the novelist, and to the left is stevensons mother. You see what kind of spread they put. This is not in the palace. This is in kalakauas boat house. Well, as a Crown Princess, she earned a real hard name with the American Business community. This is one of my favorite pictures. In 1887, liliuokalani, who is standing by the way, that diamond butterfly in her hair is on display in the palace today. And kalakauas wife. Now, the british had long been friends of the hawaiian monarchy, and this is where that value of the boston parlor that is so criticized came in. There is a reception, and queen kpapeolani who didnt speak good english didnt realize shes the highest lady in the room and nobody could sit down. When liliu got there, she was asked, why doesnt she sit so we can sit down . Liliu would have known in an instant, if youre the queen, you sit down so other people can sit down. But she didnt know that. By the way, that dress that kapiulani is wearing every head at europe is at the queens jubilee. In the procession, lifeguards, the guys in the silver breast plates and helmets with the plumes, they escorted two carriages. One was victorias, and one was theirs. And they thanked her for it very professly, and victoria said, its the least dike when youve come so far. But at dinner that night and this is another place where we have to read the memoirs with caution at dinner that night and you know how carefully they seat everybody well, the imperial crown prince of prussia, who grew up to become skiesar willie of world war i, and the prince refused to sit with them because they were black. Queen victoria was not amused. She was not amused. And she found the prince of wales, pulled him out of what he was doing, and she found her second oldest son, the duke of edinburgh, and had them attend the hawaiian ladies in their stead. Queen victoria was she doesnt get enough credit, i dont think. By the way, that dress they didnt have the jewels. And you can imagine, every queen in europe is there in these immense sapphires and emeralds. And liliu said, ive never saw such jewels in my life because they didnt have those in hawaii. That diamond butterfly was the best they did. But kapialanis dress is trimmed in peacock feathers, which are just as pretty. When we were visiting the palace, they showed us a display case, and in there was like a Jackie Kennedy pill box hat. Looked more like the fashion you would see worn by the empress of russia, pill box hat, but it was all peacock feathers. And she said, this is the hat that she wore to victorias jubilee. Wouldnt you like to see the dress . And i said, well, ive got a picture of it right here in my computer. We parted friends, i think. Well, while theyre gone, disaster strikes, the American Community has been getting angrier and angrier at kalakaua spending money. Theyre scared of her. They waited until she was out of the country to have the bayo net by the way, thats the jubilee procession in london, 1887. He also built what is now a great tourist attraction in hawaii, the palace. It cost the entire annual budget of the kingdom. In european standards, its a music box, but had a was very enamortive of technology. It had a telephone before the white house did, electricity and Running Water before the white house did. Cost about 300,000 and really irritated the American Businessmen. Now, here is a hula performance on the grounds of the palace. Liliu was very concerned with preserving Hawaiian Culture, because under the missionary influence, hula had been banned. Now, this is very tame. See the long grass skirts theyre wearing. Originally, hula was something different. They had things like the hula mai, which was the hula in praise of genitals, which was pretty explicit. So, the missionaries were not entirely out of line in thinking we need to reform this. What they didnt realize is that hula is the preservation of the Hawaiian Culture. Their entire thing is performed in song and dance. Their whole story was oral, you know. They didnt have writing before the missionaries. And when they outlawed hula and of course, it was the queens who said yeah, we need to outlaw hula it struck at heart of their culture, which is one reason why there are hula schools and the whole thing is back on the surface now. Now, very quickly, all of this westernization that was not by common consent. And this is a very important lady. Ruth was the last surviving direct descendant of the conqueror and kind of a genetic throwback. Looks very much like him. 62, 440 pounds. Never became a christian. Preserved the old ways. She was the royal governor of the big island for 20 years. And when kalakaua became king, he was so jealous of her heritage, he stripped her of her royal titles, took away her governorship, which was extremely stupid because she wound up inheriting all of the land that was 10 of the kingdom. And she was also the hanai mother of his younger brother, the crown prince. So, if she had just treated her with respect, he would have inherited a vast fortune. He could have told the American Businessmen to put a sock in it and ruled by decree, but he just had to feel like he was getting the better of kaelikulani and insulted her and slighted her. She knew how deep in debt he went to build the palace, so she called somebody and said, ill build a nicer place than that. She just paid for it in cash because it was a minor expense to her, just to show him that he was no big deal. She remained, actually, quite close to liliu and to bernice as well. She was extremely popular. In fact, theres a great story in hawaii that in 1880, mt. Aloa erupted and there was a lava flow coming toward hilo and liliu went down there and she was hiring engineers. Maybe we can dig a ditch and have prayer services. None of it worked. Las veg lava was coming towards hilo. So she said governor, please save us because you never bought into this new religion. Well, she sacrificed a pig and threw some ohilo berries into the lava, and it stopped. Some faces launch 1,000 chips, some stop a volcano. If i was a volcano, i would not cross her. All right. And, in 1891 after the bayon bayonet when they were in london, the businessmen struck with what they call the bayonet constitution. They forced the king to sign a new constitution, stripping him of almost all his royal powers. They heard about it, they cut short their trip, went back. Another four years later, he was ruined, he was depressed. He went to california to see a doctor and died. She became queen. Here she is after her accession. But the fix was really in for her. She was one of the things first thing she did was preside over the opening of the Bishop Museum because bernice had died. She was a christian, but like her brother, she still had deep native superstitions. She went under the influence of a friend of hers, freiline gertrude woof, who became a fortuneteller and different lobbies would use her to get to her. She posed as a fortune teller and one night told liliuokalani, tomorrow a man will come to the palace with 100,000, you must take it, somebody from the lottery lobby, which did her no political help at all. By the way, theres an american journalist, mary crout, who said she had such a striking presence, you would not recognize her if you had seen all of the photos of her. You still wouldnt recognize her because she looked different from every angle. Enter Lauren Andrews thurston, a really nasty piece of work. He was the grandson of two missionary families. Now, let me tell you this. All this stuff that we hear today about american missionaries go to hawaii, they destroy the culture, and then they take over the country. No those missionaries taught and doctored and worked themselves to the bone. And in fact, nobody realizes this the home church in new england disciplined them, chastised them, and eventually cut them off for staying involved and helping the hawaiian people. You should preach and move on. What are you doing, establishing schools and hospitals . Thats not your business. Just preach and if they dont believe it, forget them they couldnt do that, and if they had done it, christianity never would have taken root in the way it did in hawaii. He was a missionary grandson. He went to law school in columbia, and like all these other missionary grandsons, came back to hawaii just imbued with 19thcentury american racism. Just plain old getdown racism. Well, they formed this hawaiian league, which is they begin thinking more revolutionarily, became the committee of safety trying to make a comparison to the American Revolution in 1776. There was at that time warships in Honolulu Harbor. Now, the japanese also had a big presence in hawaii. In fact, kalakaua in his waning years realized hawaii is too small and too weak to ever make a go of it as an independent country. It must one day belong to the United States or belong to japan. And here we have the japanese naniwa, the most powerful cruiser in the world when it was launched, and the uss boston next to it. You see the american cruiser still has sailing masts in case the engines failed. The japanese were past that. Boston had 8inch guns, naniwa had 10inch guns. If they had gotten into a fight, i dont think there was any question who would have won. Well, these are tough times in hawaii. The committee of safety is dealing with the Benjamin Harrison administration republicans in washington. Listen, if we have a revolution, could we depend on you to, like, take us in . Well, basically, yes. And here we have and this is in january of 1893. Liliuokalani, who is in the carriage there, has finally prologued the legislature. They had met for 173 days. The mckinley tariff was ruining the economy. There was a depression in hawaii. She was trying to figure out how to keep things paid for while she was supporting an odum tax so all of these chinese laborers could spoke opium, theyd get some tax money. Then there was the lottery. And the americans were all horrified. That legislature met for 173 days. And under the bayonet constitution, the only way she could control the politics was by governments rising and falling. So, as long as she could pick her ministers until they disfavored her and she did have enough legislators vote and shed get no confidence and get a government. Its a hell of a way to run a government. She find eed dismissed them and had been secretly working on a new constitution that would we store her royal powers, and she restored the constitution and that was the beginning of the overthrow. It set the annexation league. They had the honolulu rifles. They rose up. And by not by coincidence, the american minister to honolulu, john stevens worked it out with the captain of the uss boston that when this happened, marines would come ashore and sort of end any policy of active resistance. She was toppled. Now, what she did she wouldnt advocate, but under all kinds of threats, she ceded her government to the United States because remember, england apologized and gave the country back. Harrison approved a treaty of the annexation of hawaii but he had the bad taste to do this with days left in his administration. Hes replaced by democrat grover cleveland. He had hosted kapalani and liliu in 1887 and he is horrified by the business and withdrawals the treaty and leaves the bunch in the lurch. He sends a factfinder to honolulu to tell him what is really going on. Now, special minister james blount, he went with paramount power, so some people called m him they helped him prove that dark people cannot run their own country, because hes a confederate colonel, hes from georgia. Hell understand. He got there everybody tried to buy him off. The annexation league rented him a huge mansion. Said no thank you. Managed to really kind of he offered to get the messages home in code, and he didnt send them home through the navy because he expected those would go back to the rebel government, so he said, no, thank you. And his report just savaged the whole revolution thing. Cleveland disapproved of it. He tried to get liliuokalani back on her throne, and all these americans were saying, were americans, we ought to be free. All of a sudden, no, were hawaiians, were not going to give herr throne back. For president , they picked sanford dole. Another there werent pineapples yet. Its a cousin of his twod the pineapples, but theyre not into it yet. He had been a justice on the supreme court, and he was given charge of coming up with a constitution. Now, if youre doubting all this racism stuff, i want to read you when he was trying to decide, how can we put together a constitution that will sound very democratic but will keep power in our hands . Actually, another justice put a lot more succinctly when he said, the question is how to draw up a document that will look how to preserve an oligarchy with the forms of republican democracy. No, im not going to editorialize about that. By the way, when she pro rogged the legislature, there was an american lieutenant from the boston who had been quickly sent over there to find out what was going on, and i want to read you what he wrote about her ceremony in dismissing the legislature. First, supporting in front of him a large portfolio containing the queens message of prorogation. Next came forward duskyaged camp in full uniform. They were stiff and pretentious in exhibiting the air, fully realizing the importance of their exalted position. After them were the feathered kahili bearers thats the bottle brush looking things, emblems of Royal Authority kind of like roman officials had lectors in front of them. They were supporting the emblems of savage royalty. These were followed by her majesty, the queen, dressed in a lightcolored silk, which tended to add somewhat to her dark complexion and negrolike features. More plainly exhibiting in the facial outlines a look of savaged determination. Next came four homely ladies in waiting dressed in the loud colors so much admired by all darkcolored races. Then the two royal princes, her nephews, modest in demeanor but dudistish in appearance and that was the whole mode of american thinking about the hawaiian government. How much time have i got left, bill . None . Oh, damn okay. Enter very quickly abigail campbell. When the United States is going to annex hawaii, theres a treaty, she gets up an effort to defeat it with petitions. This is one of the this is almost entirely forgotten by history. These petitions, which were gotten up in less than three weeks. 21,000 native hawaiians signed it. Thats more than half the surviving population. In the United States, it would have been the equivalent of a petition signed by 37. 5 Million People at that time. They carried it to washington. Queen liliu went with them. By the way, this is after she serves term in the palace for a countercoup that failed. Here she is in the travel getup going to washington. Now, not all senators are whores, but this ones my favorite. He was a republican from massachuset massachusetts. He was antiimperialist. The hawaiian delegation began taking their petition around trying to get support. The treaty there were 90 senators. They needed 60 votes. Mckinley, hes got 58. He needs two more senators. Well, the delegation took it and recounted the whole thing about the revolution from the beginning. He started crying. And he said, you give me your petitions. You come to the senate tomorrow and watch. By the time he was done, that 58 senators had become 46. So, no annexation treaty. The hawaiians celebrate and then the main blows up in havana harbor. Well, they celebrated too soon. Theres mckinley. Hes worried about the japanese, because the japanese have ships like this that we dont. The fuji was built in britain because they didnt have a shipyard big enough. 7inch guns, 1,100 tons of coal. They had just kicked chinas butt in the japanese war. If they had seized hawaii as a coeling station and the ministry of war wanted to do it. The Foreign Ministry was saying, well, maybe we shouldnt. Those ships could have gone to california and bombarded for 1,000 miles and still had enough fuel to get back to hawaii. And mckinley told the senator, i dont know what i should do. I cannot let those islands go to japan. So, since the treaty failed, mckinley, whos old enough to remember how we got texas texas, the treaty failed, but they annexed it by joint resolution, which did not need a twothirds majority. A simple majority will do. So, they end up annexing hawaii. There is the hawaiian flag coming down. By the way, there were a couple of native bands and the remains of the Royal Hawaiian band played as the flag came down. And the native musicians couldnt take it. They dropped their instruments and just left. And it was only the american bands that played the starspangled banner. Liliu closed herself into Washington Place. They had kind of a mourning there during annexation day. There, seventh from the left is prince david, the heir apparent. And he did not live long. Here she is retired at Washington Place. She lived for almost another 20 years. In fact, she was always kind of a prickly personality. Jack met her once in london and charmeon wrote that she shook hands with us, but the look in her eyes, i could tell shed rather kill us. She died of a stroke in 1917. There are different pictures of her with territorial governors and ceremonies. During world war i, she did raise the American Flag over Washington Place when she heard that five hawaiian sailors had been killed in the sinking. She died, and at least they gave her a state funeral in the palace, which was not the seat of the legislature. Her funeral bury is pulled by 200 people pulling 1,200foot ropes and she was buried in the mana ala cemetery with her relatives. There we have it. And im sorry, i hope i didnt go too long, but that is my take on liliuokalani and why they feel the way they do. Liliuokalani today is regarded as a symbol of their independence, which a lot of them really would like to have back. Questions. There we have. Just remind you to come back and join us on tuesday. Ron powers will be here to talk about mark twain. All right, questions for our speaker . This one. So, i had a question about clevelands support for the restoration of Queen Liliuokalani to the throne. Like, who is the person who first sort of suggested that idea to him . Because i know that she had sent a letter to him like after the revolution asking for his support, and i also know that his secretary of state also supported the idea of restoring her to the throne. So, like, where did the idea sort of come from . They were already acquainted. And he was thoroughly against the takeover to begin with. So, there wasnt a lot of dickering to do for him to do it. Now, one of the things that she got herself in trouble with was he wanted amnesty for the coup plotters because they were not just hawaiian subjects, they had dual citizens. They were also american citizens. And there was a story she had threatened to behead them. She was not going to give them amnesty. That really wasnt true. She said she might execute him, but the beheading thing was just colorful press. Eventually, she did relent, said all right, ill give them amnesty, but she wrote that letter on the very day that cleveland gave up on her and sent the whole business to congress and said, you deal with it, ill tried. But there is very little convincing to do because cleveland thought the whole thing stank. Hawaii still exists . Im sorry . Does the royal family in hawaii still exist . Yes. They are all collateral descendants. Liliu did not have children of her own. What had been the house of kalakua became the house of [ speaking Foreign Language ] there are, among the independence movements, the different groups, theres about six claimants, so some things never change. Each one says, well, i would obviously be the best queen or king. Im not sure at this moment how many there are, but there are collateral descendants who would be happy to step in and be the monarch today, yes. You said American Businessmen came to hawaii and kind of took over the land and brought in chinese coolies, the people to work. Why didnt they get the wives to do the work . In the first place they tried that and they realized that hawaiians, like most polynesians, dont really recognize much need to work. Nature provides. And they were terrible laborers. Plus, the hawaiian population was being rapidly reduced. By the time of her reign, what had been about 400,000 natives had become 40,000. So, they imported chinese. They imported koreans. The japanese not so much because they werent that crazy about the whole idea. They even imported portuguese. Theyre european, but theyre dark, so they can labor, too. By the way, when i was at the honolulu historical society, i was reading the letters that kalakaua wrote home to liliu while shes princess regent. Hes around the world wasting money and the archivist was up at her table giving me stink eye. And i read one of these letters from china, and he was trying to work out a treaty to limit chinese immigration and he was working behind the sugar boys backs. And i took this letter over to the archivist and asked her to read it and she did. I said, people dont know this. We know. I said, theyre going to know it now im going to put it in my book. So, i think we parted friends. But it was simply a matter of trying to get more labor. Can you talk a little bit about the cohesiveness of the islands at that time . It seems like they wouldnt have been quite so cohesive because of the distances between them and the fact that they were basically two ships that would take people ships that would take people from one to the other. Thats a very good question. They were very distinct entities before the conquerors. The valley that goes up from honolulu ends in a 1,200 foot cliff down to the eastern shore. When they invaded, the local king opposed him. They kept losing and goes further up the valley until they got to the top. The 400 or so of the soldiers who survived got pushed over. Their skeletons were still there when mark twain took a hike down there 70 years later. No heads. They put them in the sacrifice. When he invaded, he never succeeded. He got beaten on the beaches once, normandy that didnt work. There were people that chuckled for a long time. He negotiated. It was only after the establishment of a unified kingdom. It took some years before they did feel like a unified kingdom. Its quite true. Last question. My question is, essentially the descendents of the missionaries in possession of the lands who have a responsibility towards Environmental Protection and taking care of the people, do you have especially as the sugarcane industry dies out in hawaii. Do you have any thoughts how to proceed . Not really. When i wrote this book, i wound up once i realized what i got into it nieeds to be twice a big as it is. Its not a history of the whole hawaii. This how is we got our hands on the place. I know theres an active environmental movement, independence movement. But what the decisiscendants fe and for all the danimage to the society, i cant speak to that. Several months after i finished the book, i got a pure pound of estate coffee from descendants that they had to do something for me. Like i said, the Political Correctness of the way history is approached there now i talked about things you are not supposed to talk about. I should be more up to date with what the politics are. But i dont have the heart. I dont have the heart. Its too sad. The hawaiians are waiting on some kind of justice. They havent gotten it. Until this year, the native hawaiians were in less of a position than American Indians on the continent. They had less pull with the government than that. They are still wait on justice and we owe it to them to do it. Join me in thanking jim for a great performance. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [ applause ] he will be signing books in the foyer when you leave. Thank you. Coming up on American History tv on cspan3, we begin with lectures hosted by the university of Mary Washington in fredericksburg, virginia, with an historian on american duelling culture and the contributions women have made with computer technology. Later, a Science Writer gives a talk about women mathematicians and engineers who in the 1940s and 50s worked at the jet propunpr Propulsion Laboratory in california. Next Joanne Freeman talks about the logic behind the american duelling culture. She describes a code of honor that led to duelling and explains the political strategies behind the confrontations. Shes the author of the field of blood, violence in congress and the road to civil war. This talk was part of the william b. Crawly great lives lecture series hosted by the university of Mary Washington