2024-11-11 PL-CRC-2024-000019 Draft Cultural Impact Assessment Report for Lāʻīpala Makai PUD

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2.Background Love remains close to Kona,who woos the calm. Kona is a land beloved for its calm and pleasant weather(Pukui 1983:290). While Pukui et al.(1974)do not offer a translation of Kapala`alaea in their book Place Names ofHawai`i,through a lexicological analysis, Pukui and Elbert(1986) defined kapala as "to paint, to print, or to smear" and `alaea as a "water-soluble colloidal ocherous earth,any red coloring matter."When combined,Kapala`alaea can be translated as stained or painted with red ochre.The act of painting with `alaea is often associated with certain religious ceremonies, dying kapa (cloth), and even medicinal uses (Kekahuna 1955). Furthermore, archaeological excavations conducted within the project area has identified nodules of `alaea at some of the cultural sites in the project area(Berrigan et al. 2018). Additionally,"Kapala`alaea"is the name of a god who is associated with the annual Makahiki procession that was painted on one half of its body with `alaea(Kamakau 1964;Mookini and Kirtley 1977). Lono: Association with Traditional Cultivation Practices and Makahiki Kirch(1985:215)states that"Hawaiians were first and foremost cultivators of the land"and over the generations,they adapted and intensified their agricultural production to levels unseen elsewhere in greater Oceania. Careful observation of their natural environment allows Kona's native farmers to successfully produce an abundance of crops across diverse ecological zones and evidence of their adaptive agricultural endeavors is still visible today.Known for their exceptional work ethic,Kona's native farmers are praised in some `olelo no'eau one of which states"Kona po'o kit`i"which refers to the farmers returning from the fields with a load on their shoulders and a child sitting atop the load(Pukui 1983:199).Handy et al. (1991)in referencing an article from the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Hoku O Hawai`i provided a general description of the vast and highly productive agricultural lands extending from Kailua to Keauhou during Kamehameha's reign: In the uplands above Kahalu`u,Keauhou,and Kailua,was a vast plantation named Kuahewa(huge), belonging to Kamehameha I. To protect these lands, which were cultivated for his people in the section,Kamehameha established the law that anyone who took one taro or one stalk of sugar cane must plant one cutting of the same in its place. Weary of war in 1812, Kamehameha went to Kuahewa and himself worked as a farmer. "This land that Kamehameha farmed is in the upland of Kailua, in Kaopua...on Honua`ula, on the hill called Paoloa and by the spring called Waiakauhi." (Hoku o Hawaii,May 3, 1927 in Handy et al. 1991:524) What Handy et al. (1991:524) described as "Kuahewa" is likely a portion of what has been referred to by archaeologists as the Kona Field System;an agriculturally fertile region that spans multiple ahupua`a across the North and South Kona districts and includes Kapala`alaea 2nd(Cordy 1995;Newman 1970;Schilt 1984).This predominately dryland agricultural complex has been understood to be a nearly continuous series of agricultural fields covering approximately 34,350 acres from Kau Ahupua'a in the north to Ho`okena Ahupua'a in the south(Figure 14),with an altitudinal range of 0-2,500 meters from the coastline to the forested slopes of Hualalai (Cordy 1995;Horrocks and Rechtman 2009).A large portion of the field system has been designated in the Hawai`i Register of Historic Places as Site 50-10-37-6601 and determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Drawing from archaeological evidence, Tomonari-Tuggle (1985) reported that by the 14th century, agricultural fields along with scattered residential areas in the adjacent ahupua`a of Kahalu`u were being developed about 4,000 feet inland at the lower edge of the hypothesized prime agricultural area and expanded further upland to its maximum limit.Tomonari- Tuggle (1985:22) added that the extent of the field system"was limited only by the barren expanded of aa lava that segregated the Kona slopes into productive and non-productive strips." The basic characteristics of this agricultural/residential system as presented in Newman (1970) have been confirmed and elaborated on by ethnohistorical investigations (Kelly 1983) and archaeological research(e.g., (Allen 2001; Burtchard 1995; Cordy et al. 1991;Kawachi 1989;Rechtman et al. 2001; Schilt 1984; Soehren and Newman 1968). Some of the defining features of the Kona Field System is the network of long field walls that extend in a mauka-makai direction. These walls are known by several names,all of which share a similar concept of the skeleton of the land, such as iwi `Dina(land bones) and kuaiwi(backbone) (Allen 2004; Cordy 1995).Handy et al. (1991:51) provided the following description of this concept, stating: Iwi(bone)or iwi kuamo`o (backbone)was the term applied to the line of rocks and refuse thrown up along the side of mo co `aina, or kihapai in clearing. These iwi or iwi `aina demarked the boundaries of plantations and arable holdings, and hence were also called palena,or bounds. They were not mere rubbish heaps,but for example on Hawaii,served for planting sugar cane round about the field of dry taro in upland Kona,Ka`u, and Kohala... In upland Kona they may be seen today buried in woods or occasionally bounding taro plantations still utilized. CIA for the Ld'Ipala Makai Planned Unit Development,Kapala`alaea 2,North Kona,Hawaii 13