Kūmahana

Kumahana the 22nd Alii Aimoku of Oahu (1770-1773). He ruled as titular King or chief of Oahu.

Early Life

He was born the son of Peleioholani, 22nd Alii Aimoku of Oahu and 21st Alii Aimoku of Kauai, by his first wife Halakii, of Kauaian aristocracy. His full sisters were Kaapuwai and Keelaniihonuaiakama, his half sister was Kapueo, and a brother Keeumoku, of whom nothing further is known.

Reign

Kumahana followed his father as Moi of Oahu. He appears to have been an indolent, penurious, unlovable chief, and for these or other reasons incurred the illwill and estranged the loyalty of the chiefs, priests, and commoners to such a degree that, after enduring his rule for three years he was formally deposed from his office as Moi by the chiefs of Oahu in council assembled. According to legends, his offenses were that he slept late, was stingy, penurious, deaf to the advice of others and used to take himself off to the plains to shoot rats. [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ka_hooilina_the_legacy/v001/1.1kamakau.pdf] So thoroughly had he succeeded during his short imcumbency of office, to make himself hated, that, in an age so peculiarly prone to factions, not a voice was heard nor a spear was raised in his defence. It was one of those few bloodless revolutions that leave no stain on the pages of history. THere was no anger to appease, no vengeance to extract, it was simply a political act for prudential reasons. His desposition atoned for his imcompetency.

Though Kumahana had grown-up children at the time, yet the Oahu nobles passed them by in selecting a successor to the throne, and fixed their eyes on young Kahahana, the son of Elani, one of the powerful Ewa chiefs of the Maweke Lakona line, and on his mother's side closely related to Kahekili II and the grandson of Kualii making him Kumahana's cousin.

Kumahana and his family were freely allowed to depart for Kauai, where they found refuge among their kindred in Waimea. We know that Kumahana, was desposed after three years' reign and that he was permitted to return with his family to Kauai, where probably he still held lands from which to maintain himself. But it has never been asserted on his behalf, and nowhere is it intimated, that Kumahana ever was, or was considered to be, the Moi of Kauai as his father was, or his grandfather Kualii before him. A farther confirmation of the above proposition may be advanced from the well-known fact that Kamakahelei's first husband was Kaneoneo. Some give Kumahana's death as 1773 but that was the day of his overthrow and not the day of his death.

Marriage

His wife is unknown and the only son of his to whom history refers was Kaneoneo, who married Kamakahelei, the sovereign chiefess of Kauai and Kumahana's niece by his reputed sister Kaapuwai. His son was killed in a fruitless attempt to recover the kingdom of Oahu by joining the insurgent chiefs under Kahekili's iron rule.

References

* Abraham Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations, Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1969. Page 217, 290-291, 297-298.

Monarchs of Oahu