David Kawananakoa
Prince of Hawaii
David Laʻamea Kahalepouli Kinoiki Kawananakoa (February 19, 1868 – June 2, 1908) was a prince of the Hawaiian Kingdom and founder of the House of Kawananakoa. Born into Hawaiian nobility, Kawananakoa grew up the royal court of his uncle King Kalakaua and aunt Queen Kapiʻolani who adopted him and his brothers after the death of their parents. On multiple occasions, he and his brothers were considered as candidates for the line of succession to the Hawaiian throne after their cousin Princess Kaʻiulani but were never constitutionally proclaimed. He was sent to be educated abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom where he pioneered the sport of surfing. After his education abroad, he served as a political advisor to Kalakaua's successor, Queen Liliʻuokalani until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. After Hawaii's annexation to the United States, he co-founded the Democratic Party of Hawaii. Kawananakoa was born February 19, 1868, at Kaʻalaʻa at the mouth of the Pauoa Valley, in Honolulu, on the old homestead of his aunt Queen Kapiʻolani. Kawananakoa was the first child of his father David Kahalepouli Piʻikoi from Kauaʻi island, and his mother Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike, a noble from the district of Hilo who was later the royal governor of the island of Hawaiʻi. His younger brothers were Edward Abnel Keliʻiahonui (1869–1887) and
Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaʻole (1871–1922). Both his parents were linked to the reigning House of Kalakaua. Kawananakoa's mother was the youngest sister of Queen Kapiʻolani, consort to King Kalakaua, who ruled from 1874 to 1891. Kawananakoa's father was also King Kalakaua's paternal first cousin. His family was of the aliʻi class of the Hawaiian nobility and traced their descents to the ruling lines of each of the Hawaiian Islands prior to conquest. His mother's paternal line goes back to the ruling families of the island of Hawaiʻi while her maternal grandfather was King Kaumualiʻi, the last ruler of an independent Kauaʻi before its cession to King Kamehameha I who united the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1810. Kaumualiʻi was also descended from the ruling families of Maui and Oʻahu. Kawananakoa's father's paternal line was descended from a junior line of Kauaʻi while his father’s mother maternal line also originated from the ruling line of Hawaiʻi Island. His name Kawananakoa translates as "fearless prophecy" in Hawaiian. Born with the surname Piʻikoi, Kawananakoa and Kalanianaʻole (more commonly referred to as Kuhio) later adopted their given Hawaiian names as their surname. Sources state the brothers either changed their names in 1883 or 1891. At a young age, Kawananakoa and Kuhio were hanai (informally adopted) by the childless Kapiʻolani and Kalakaua while the second brother Keliʻiahonui was hanai by their other maternal aunt Poʻomaikelani. After their father's death in 1878, his mother Kekaulike brought Kawananakoa and his brothers to live in Honolulu. The family split their times living with the king and queen on the premise of the old ʻIolani Palace or at Kapiʻolani's private residence Pualeilani in Waikiki where the Hyatt Regency Waikiki now stands. After the completion of the new palace in 1882, they occupied a in large second floor bedroom, which later became known as the "Imprisonment Room" because it was where Kalakaua's successor Queen Liliʻuokalani was imprisoned in 1895. On February 10, 1883, Kawananakoa was granted by letters patent the title of Prince and style of His Royal Highness by King Kalakaua along with his mother, brothers and aunt. On February 14, Kawananakoa served as bearer of the crown and Kuhio as either the bearer of the palaoa or the consort crown during Kalakaua's and Kapiʻolani's coronation ceremony at ʻIolani Palace. After the death of Kekaulike in 1884, Kalakaua and Kapiʻolani assumed legal guardianship over all three boys. In Kalakaua's will drafted in 1888, Kawananakoa and his brother Kuhio (their other brother Keliʻiahonui was deceased by this point) were included in a proposed line of succession after Liliʻuokalani, the king's niece Princess Kaʻiulani, Queen Kapiʻolani, and Princess Poʻomaikelani. The king also furthered outlined that he wished in the case that the throne passed to Kawananakoa or his brother that they "assume the name and title of Kalakaua, and to be numbered in order from" him. On Article 22 of proposed 1893 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Liliʻuokalani outlined the succession to include Kaʻiulani followed by Kawananakoa and Kuhio and their legitimate heirs. Hawaii was annexed via the Newlands Resolution, a joint resolution of Congress, on July 7, 1898. The annexation ceremony was held on August 12, 1898, at the former ʻIolani Palace, now being used as the executive building of the government. President Dole handed over "the sovereignty and public property of the Hawaiian Islands" to United States minister Harold M. Sewall. The flag of Hawaii was lowered, and the flag of the United States was raised in its place. Liliʻuokalani with Kaʻiulani, Kawananakoa and Kuhio, their family members and retainers boycotted the event and shuttered themselves away at Washington Place, the private residence of Liliʻuokalani, in mourning. Many Native Hawaiians and royalists followed suit and refused to attend the ceremony.
The Honolulu Rifles were the name of two volunteer military companies of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The second company was organized in the spring of 1884 with the approval of the cabinet and King Kalakaua who gave the group its name. The organization's first use was on April 26, 1885 at the death of the Dowager Queen Emma, to stand guard at her residence after her passing. The organization held little prominence until after 1886 when the company came into the leadership of Volney V. Ashford, who had extensive military experience with the United States during the Civil war and later with the Canadian Militia. The company began its rise when it won a drill competition at Kalakaua's 50th birthday celebration. The Rifles were a part of the social community of Hawaii and in 1887 hosted an exhibition and dance for the community, attended by most of the political figures of the day, where the king presented them with the flag of the Kingdom. The ranks of the organization grew significantly after January 1887 when it adopted a resolution to become subject to an act of 1886 "To organize the military forces of the kingdom". By March of that year it split into two companies, A and B, forming a battalion. The following month, Portuguese residents formed another company that became company C by May 25. The act of 1886 required a Commander-in-Chief of the rank of lieutenant general to oversee the military forces
of the Kingdom. John O. Dominis was given this position while the King himself, under this act, was the Supreme Commander, referred to as Generalissimo. Eventually the act of 1886 would be deemed unconstitutional. The Honolulu Rifles were disbanded on August 23, 1890. At what point the Rifles became part of the Hawaiian League known as the Committee of Safety is still somewhat unclear. More than likely the expansion of the company coincided with the formation of the Hawaiian league
The House of Kalakaua, or Kalakaua Dynasty, also known as the Keawe-a-Heulu line, was the reigning family of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi between the assumption of King David Kalakaua to the throne in 1874 and the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893. Liliʻuokalani died in 1917, leaving only cousins as heirs. The House of Kalakaua was descended from chiefs on the islands of Hawaiʻi and Kauaʻi, and ascended to the royal throne by election when the males of the House of Kamehameha died out. The torch that burns at midday symbolizes the dynasty, based on the sacred kapu Kalakaua's ancestor High Chief Iwikauikaua. The dynasty was founded by Kalakaua when he ascended the Hawaiian Kingdom throne in 1874 but included his brothers and sisters who were children of Analea Keohokalole (1816–1869) and Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea (1815–1866). Their family was of the aliʻi class of the Hawaiian nobility and were collateral relations of the House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from the early 18th-century aliʻi nui (supreme monarch) Keaweʻikekahialiʻiokamoku. The family traces their descent from
Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of the five royal counselors of King Kamehameha I during his conquest of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kameʻeiamoku, the grandfather of both Keohokalole and Kapaʻakea, was depicted, along with his royal twin Kamanawa, on the Hawaiian coat of arms. Liliʻuokalani, in her memoir, referred to her family line as the "Keawe-a-Heulu line" after her mother's side of the family. With the deposition of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893 the House of Kalakaua ceased to reign, and the death of the Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani in 1899 meant the loss of the last direct heir of the siblings of the reigning monarchs of House of Kalakaua. The main line of the dynasty thus ended when the deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani (who had abdicated and renounced) died in 1917. Their cousins came to be known as the House of Kawananakoa, a branch of the House of Kalakaua, since they are relatives of King Kalakaua, descended from Prince David Kawananakoa, eldest son of the princess Kuhio Kinoike Kekaulike, who had died in 1908.
Awards: Collar, sash and star of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, Stars of the Royal Order of Kalakaua I, the Royal Order of Kapiʻolani, the Royal Order of the Crown of Hawaii and the Royal Order of the Star of Oceania.
