I was born on the hill, right in Makua, and they call it Pu`upa’i. The place is a flat hill as you’re going up, away in the valley… You can see it from down the beach as you look up. You see a flat hill. My dad had his ranch house… He had cows… horses and… vegetables, too. And along side of his place was a stream. It was a beautiful place.1
You won’t find Pu’upa’i on a map of O’ahu’s Makua Valley today. But if you stand on the beach and look into the valley, you can see still a flattened rise on the southern slope of the ridge dividing the main valley from the smaller Kahanahaiki Valley to the north. Old maps that show the route of Kahanahaiki Stream suggest it cut through this area just before it joined with Makua Stream – a site slightly uphill and to the northwest of where the Army explodes its waste munitions today.
Perhaps this place is, or was, Pu’upa’i. With the destruction that has accompanied Makua Valley’s occupation by United States military forces, Pu’upa’i seems destined to be no more than a memory.
While the origins of the name are not recorded, Pu’upa’i can be translated literally. Pu’u means hill; pa’i is Hawaiian for clap (as a clap of thunder, or applause) or slap. Given the percussion blasts that accompany Army activities there – blasts that can rattle windows of houses in Makaha, miles distant – the ancient place of Pu’upa’i seems to have been prophetically named.
A Century of Loss
Abundant archaeological evidence suggests that Makua Valley was a thriving Hawaiian community in the days before Western contact. Off shore were choice fishing grounds, rich with moi, ‘ama’ama, aholehole, akule, ‘opelu, papio and a variety of shellfish, including ‘opihi, and limu, or seaweed. Salt was gathered from pans in the coastal area. The beach is thought to have been an important landing point for canoes going around Ka’ena Point.
Many of the legends associated with the place focus on Kaneana Cave, found at the southern edge of the valley. Hawaiian myth holds that the cave is the home of a shark god, Kaneana, who could change himself into a man at will. His lover was a mo’o, or lizard, who could transform herself into a princess and whose domain was the stream cutting through Ko’iahi Gulch, on the southern slopes of the valley.
Fishing shrines dotted the coastal areas. As late as the 1930s, the outlines of one large shrine (55 by 35 feet) could still be traced in the center of Makua Beach. Kelly reports it continued to be used up to that time.
As many as three heiau were built in Makua Valley. One was of the po’okanaka (translation: skull) class, reserved exclusively to the highest chiefs of the island.
At the time of the Great Mahele, in the middle of the 19th century, 19 kuleana awards, encompassing a total of more than 180 acres, were granted to Hawaiian families living in the joined valleys Makua and Kahanahaiki. Ownership of the remaining areas, however, remained with the kingdom. A few small parcels were sold soon after the Mahele, but starting in 1864, the government began leasing large parcels.
With construction of the railroad around Ka’ena Point in the early 1900s, ranching became the predominant activity in the valley. Hawaiians cultivating crops on the kuleana parcels experienced increasing difficulty with wayward cattle, and efforts to get the lessees to erect and maintain fences to keep cattle out were rarely successful. The beginning of ranching, in other words, was the beginning of the end of farming in Makua Valley.
In the early 1900s, L.L. McCandless took over the lease of government lands. McCandless, who was by training a hydraulic engineer, built an elaborate water works. Water from high springs in the valley was brought into cattle tanks by means of tunnels and channels he built. Continuing a process set in motion by previous lessees, McCandless consolidated his holdings in the valley by buying out kuleana owners who had grown weary of battling the cattle.
The Makua Church
Samuel Andrews, the first lessee, built the first church at Makua Valley and arranged a pastor for it. According to Kelly’s account, the church was a focus of community life. Church rallies were famous. Hawaiians from as far away as Kahana Valley would attend, arriving by train. Well into the 1940s, Kelly writes, “the Makua Church was well known for its bountifulness of food and good music.”
Church rolls were in gradual decline until the start of World War II. Attendance increased sharply then, with several dozen of the thousands of troops encamped at Makua Valley electing to attend Sunday services. The Army presence was not an unmixed blessing.
Following the war, during continued military exercises, the church was destroyed by bombing. The graveyard was bisected by a new road. Headstones were defaced beyond recognition by Army bullets.
‘Squatters’
For most of the time the Army has occupied Makua Valley, it has been annoyed by people living on the beach side of Farrington Highway. The beach area is owned by the state but is under lease to the Army. In fact, however, the beach area is rarely used by the Army; which instead confines almost all of its activities to the area mauka of the road.
In a letter dated September 10, 1992, Major General Robert L. Ord, commanding general of the U.S. Army, Hawai’i, complained about the homeless to William Paty, chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources. “Our Makua Range Safety Officer has advised that each day more people are taking up residence at Makua Beach. In addition to tents and lean-tos, concrete foundations are being poured on the property.
“We request that you expedite your coordination with the state Department of Human Services to determine the ‘homeless’ status of these people and initiate appropriate measures to relocate them from Makua Beach.” As of the end of October, the state had not responded.
1 A former resident of Makua Valley, as told to Marion Kelly. Quoted in Marion Kelly, “Makua Valley, O`ahu, Historical Research” (unpublished manuscript, 1976). Kelly’s report was prepared for the U.S. Army and is a remarkable, heartbreaking work. For a far greater account of the history of Makua Valley than can be presented here, readers are urged to turn to Kelly’s manuscript.
Volume 3, Number 5 November 1992