How we know what this page says
Every dated claim on this site rests on a record you can open yourself. They are listed here, section by section, with the words each claim rests on.
Sources are primary documents and institutional archives, each one named: U.S. statutes and State Department records, the U.S. National Archives, the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, university archives, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian, and Hawaiian institutions including Kamehameha Schools, ʻAha Pūnana Leo and the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
Facts are stated and dated. Contested legal questions are left to those who argue them, and are not presented here as settled. Where records disagree, the disagreement is written down rather than tidied away — see the notes at the end.
Ke Aupuni
Dates and documents from the unification of the islands to the Bayonet Constitution.
The islands were unified under one government by 1810.
Records: Britannica, “Kamehameha I” (opens in a new tab) — Kauaʻi and Niʻihau were “ceded to him through peaceful negotiations in 1810.” Also National Park Service, Puʻukoholā Heiau (opens in a new tab). Neither supports a month, so the page gives only the year.
Kamehameha III signed a Declaration of Rights on June 7, 1839.
Record: Britannica, “Kamehameha III” (opens in a new tab) — “Declaration of Rights, called Hawaii’s Magna Carta, on June 7, 1839.”
A written constitution followed on October 8, 1840, with three branches of government.
Records: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Punawaiola (opens in a new tab) — “Enacted on October 8, 1840,” describing the king and governors, a house of nobles and elected representatives, and a supreme court. Also Britannica, “Kamehameha III.”
A British naval officer seized the Kingdom in February 1843. It was restored on July 31, after five months.
Records: Kamehameha Schools, Kaʻiwakīloumoku Hawaiian Cultural Center (opens in a new tab) — restored by Admiral Richard Thomas on July 31, 1843. Also Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes §8-34 (opens in a new tab), which designates July 31 as Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, recognizing “the accomplishments of King Kamehameha III in restoring the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii.” Records differ on the exact February day, so the page names only the month.
The words Kamehameha III spoke that day are now the state motto.
Record: Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes §5-9 (opens in a new tab) — “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono” adopted as the state motto.
On November 28, 1843, Britain and France jointly recognized Hawaiian independence.
Records: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian (opens in a new tab) — “a formal joint declaration with France on November 28, 1843, guaranteeing Hawaiian independence.” The proclamation itself, signed by Lord Aberdeen and the Comte de Saint-Aulaire, is reproduced by UH Mānoa, Punawaiola (opens in a new tab).
The Kingdom’s first treaty with a foreign power was with the United States, in 1826.
Record: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian (opens in a new tab) — the 1826 agreement “was the first treaty that the Kingdom of Hawaii signed with any foreign power.”
In 1887 a constitution was forced on King Kalākaua under arms. He signed it on July 6; it took effect on July 7.
Records: the constitution’s own text — “Granted by Kalakaua, July 6, 1887,” sworn “this sixth day of July, A. D. 1887,” and in force “from the 7th day of July, A. D. 1887” — presented by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Equality Before the Law (opens in a new tab). Also UH Mānoa, Punawaiola (opens in a new tab). For the armed militia led by Sanford Dole and Lorrin Thurston, U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives (opens in a new tab).
Bishop Museum was founded in 1889.
Record: Bishop Museum, About (opens in a new tab) — founded 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop “in honor of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family.”
The overthrow and annexation
Four claims, all resting on federal records.
The Kingdom was overthrown on January 17, 1893.
Record: Public Law 103-150 (opens in a new tab) — Congress apologizes “for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893 with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States.” The phrase quoted on the home page is taken from this statute.
In 1897, 21,269 people signed petitions against annexation — more than half of those counted that year. Four delegates carried the 556-page petition to Washington, and the annexation treaty was defeated in the Senate.
Record: U.S. National Archives, “The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii” (opens in a new tab) — the signature count, the “39,000 native Hawaiians and mixed-blood persons” counted that year, Hui Aloha ʻĀina and Hui Kālaiʻāina, the 556 pages, the four delegates, and the treaty’s defeat.
Annexation was then carried by a joint resolution, signed by President McKinley on July 7, 1898.
Record: the same National Archives page — “House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress, 2nd session, known as the ‘Newlands Resolution,’ passed Congress and was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898.”
Congress apologized in 1993.
Record: Public Law 103-150 (opens in a new tab), approved November 23, 1993.
Ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
The law that removed Hawaiian from the schools, and the work that brought it back.
An 1896 law made English “the medium and basis of instruction in all public and private schools.”
Records: Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, Mōʻaukala o ka Papahana Kaiapuni (opens in a new tab), quoting the Republic of Hawaii, 1896. The law itself is Act 57, Section 30, held by the Hawaiʻi State Archives and presented by the UH College of Education (opens in a new tab).
The 1978 Constitutional Convention made Hawaiian an official language of the state.
Record: Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, Mōʻaukala o ka Papahana Kaiapuni (opens in a new tab) — the convention “established the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and made Hawaiian an official State language (1978).”
ʻAha Pūnana Leo formed in 1983; the first Pūnana Leo preschool opened in Kekaha, Kauaʻi, in 1984.
Records: ʻAha Pūnana Leo, History (opens in a new tab) — “In January 1983, a group of Hawaiian language educators met…”; “The first of these preschools was established in Kekaha, Kauaʻi in August 1984.” The DOE also gives 1984 on Kauaʻi.
The first Hawaiian immersion schools opened within the state Department of Education in 1987.
Record: Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, Mōʻaukala o ka Papahana Kaiapuni (opens in a new tab) — families “lobbied the State Legislature to establish Ka Papahana Kaiapuni” in 1986, “with the first program schools opening in 1987.”
Voyaging
Hōkūleʻa, her voyages, and the figures quoted on the home page.
Deep-ocean voyaging fell away in roughly the 1400s.
Records: Barry V. Rolett, “Voyaging and Interaction in Ancient East Polynesia” (2002), UH Mānoa ScholarSpace (opens in a new tab) — “marked declines in voyaging and interaction after A.D. 1450.” The “six hundred years” on the home page is the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s own framing, from its account of the 1980 voyage.
The Polynesian Voyaging Society was founded in 1973 by Ben Finney, Tommy Holmes and Herb Kawainui Kāne.
Record: PVS archive, “The Founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society” (opens in a new tab).
Hōkūleʻa was launched on March 8, 1975, at Kualoa.
Record: Polynesian Voyaging Society (opens in a new tab) — “Kualoa is where Hōkūleʻa was assembled, blessed, and first entered the ocean on March 8, 1975.”
In 1976 she sailed to Tahiti, guided by Mau Piailug of Satawal. More than 17,000 people met her at Papeʻete.
Records: Polynesian Voyaging Society, History (opens in a new tab) for the voyage and for Mau. The crowd figure is from Smithsonian Ocean (opens in a new tab) — “More than 17,000 people attended to celebrate this historic landing.”
In 1978 she capsized off Molokaʻi, and Eddie Aikau was lost.
Record: Polynesian Voyaging Society, History (opens in a new tab) — the canoe “capsized in stormy seas off of Molokaʻi”; “crew member Eddie Aikau left on a surfboard to get help”; “Eddie was lost at sea.”
In 1980 Nainoa Thompson navigated her from Tahiti back to Hawaiʻi.
Record: Polynesian Voyaging Society, History (opens in a new tab) — “a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in 600 years.”
In 2007 Mau Piailug inducted five Hawaiians into pwo.
Records: Polynesian Voyaging Society, History (opens in a new tab) — “On March 18, 2007, Mau Piailug inducted five Hawaiians and eleven Micronesians into Pwo.” An eyewitness account on the PVS archive (opens in a new tab) names them — Nainoa Thompson, Shorty Bertelmann, Chad Paishon, Chad Baybayan and Bruce Blankenfeld — and dates the ceremony a day earlier.
The Mālama Honua voyage covered roughly 42,000 miles and more than 150 ports in 23 countries and territories.
Record: Polynesian Voyaging Society, “Hōkūleʻa Returns Home” (opens in a new tab) — “42,000-mile open-ocean journey around the world”; “more than 150 ports, 23 countries and territories.”
Hōkūleʻa has sailed nearly 300,000 miles since 1975.
Record: Polynesian Voyaging Society (opens in a new tab) — “has sailed nearly 300,000 miles and completed 15 deep-sea voyages.” This figure grows with each voyage.
The Moananuiākea voyage was extended by a year; the canoes stay in the southern Pacific before turning toward Northeast Asia.
Records: Maui Now, July 29, 2026 (opens in a new tab) — a year added; the canoes work the Pacific into early 2028, then head for the Philippines, Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan, South Korea and Hokkaidō. Nainoa Thompson’s words quoted on the home page appear there verbatim. See also the PVS 2026 update (opens in a new tab).
On July 30, 2026, the first pwo ceremony held in Hawaiʻi inducted six navigators, including the first Native Hawaiian women to hold the title.
Records: Big Island Now, August 31, 2026 (opens in a new tab) — the ceremony “was conducted July 30 in Niu Valley, Oʻahu,” naming all six. Also University of Hawaiʻi System (opens in a new tab).
Places
The three institutions named on the home page, described in their own words.
Bishop Museum, Honolulu — founded 1889, now the State Museum of Natural and Cultural History of Hawaiʻi.
Record: Bishop Museum, About (opens in a new tab) — “millions of objects, documents and photographs about Hawaiʻi and other Pacific island cultures”; “Serving and representing the interests of Native Hawaiians is a primary purpose of the Museum.”
Polynesian Voyaging Society, Oʻahu — founded 1973.
Record: PVS, About (opens in a new tab) — to “perpetuate the art and science of traditional Polynesian voyaging and the spirit of exploration through experiential educational programs.”
ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, Hilo — where Chad Kālepa Baybayan was navigator-in-residence.
Record: University of Hawaiʻi System, In memoriam, April 9, 2021 (opens in a new tab).
Notes
A record that hides its loose ends is worth less than one that names them. These are ours.