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THE NATIVE HAWAIIANS

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The Hawaiians are a Polynesian people. Most scholars agree that they probably came to the Hawaiian Islands from Tahiti and the Society and Marquesas Islands. Hawaiian culture reached its high point after its first contacts with the Europeans (which came in 1778 with the landing of Captain Cook, British explorer of the Pacific). Using some of the technology gained from the Europeans, including the use of firearms, one of the most important Hawaiian chiefs was able to unite the islands into a single nation with himself as king. In this effort he was backed by Christian missionaries mainly from the New England states, who saw this as an opportunity to recreate the theocracy – or nation under religious law – which had originally been established in New England, but which had long since failed there.

In 1893 Hawaii became a nominal republic under the influence of U.S. commercial interests, and in 1898 it was annexed by the United States at the request of the pro-U.S. government installed after the coup d´etat (державний переворот).

The Native Hawaiians suffered great population losses owing to uncontrollable epidemics of European diseases and today the number of “pure” native Hawaiians is estimated at only 10 000. As was the case with the Aleuts in Alaska, there has been extensive intermarriage of the native Hawaiians with the rest of the population of their state, which is in part why the number of pure-blooded native Hawaiians reside on the island of Nihau. One of the smallest of the major islands, Nihau is privately owned by the Robinson family, who have set it aside as a refuge for native Hawaiians. The Hawaiian language is still spoken there, and many traditions and customs are preserved.

Some of the most commonly held ideas about the native Hawaiians are the most inaccurate. Take, for example, the picture of a grass-skirted native dancing the hula to the sounds of the Hawaiian guitar while others feast on foods flavoured with pineapple. Of these elements only the hula is traditional. Grass skirts, the guitar, and the pineapple all had their origins elsewhere, and didn’t become part of Hawaiians culture until the coming of the whites.

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