Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 8, 1 August 2006 — Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest

By Jean Barman & Bruce Mdntyre Watson University of Hawai'i Press; $45

IBetween 1787 Dand 1898, more than a thousand Native Hawaiians left the Islands and

ventured out into the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest. Many were recruited by fur trading eompanies, most notably the Hudson's Bay Company, for their water and wilderness skills. Some left to see the world, while others sought to escape their deteriorating conununities, wrought by

diseases and rapidly changing due to Western influences. There's no doubt that these Hawaiians left their marks on the areas they explored, with places in the Pacific Northwest still bearing their names, such as Kanaka Village, Fort Vancouver; Kalama City, Wash.; and Owyhee River, Ore. But mueh of their legacy has gone underappreciated. Thoroughly researched by two Vancouver-based historians, Leaving Paradise chronicles the stories of these settler Hawaiians as they tried to carve out lives in places that oftentimes refused to accept them. In 19th century Oregon, for example, Hawaiians were not allowed to be naturalized or vote, and up until 1951, it was illegal for a white person to marry someone with more than a quarter of "Kanaka blood." The book also features more than 200 pages of biographies of Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians who visited the Pacific Northwest prior to the 20th century.