Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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Even in your area
Yes.
In the Honoköhau lands
Yes.
You’re kidding, wow!
Every Christmas, the ‘alalä would come down to a couple of big mango trees around
back, at my father’s house.
You’re kidding, so, right on Mämalahoa basically
Yes. Today, I think they’re wasting tax money on trying to raise these damn birds. Put
‘em in the zoo, have a zoo up Pana‘ewa, let people go look. There was some disease I’m
sure, that killed the birds.
An avian disease.
Yes.
Because all of a sudden Kepä, they disappeared.
Yes, it happened very fast.
You know Billy Paris was talking about that also. From Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a, and he attributes
a quick demise. I think around ‘28 or ’29 there was a big earthquake or so
Yes.
And all the stone walls around the ranch came down, and he says they got a bunch of
Päkë and Japanese stone masons to come in. They brought with them their chickens
and stuff up there. He said, that he thinks, that may be how the avian disease got into the
mountain lands like that. Interestingly to me, is he says, when they were gutting animals
and stuff like that, these ‘alalä would be all around just cawing, begging for some food.
No, I remember dogs used to catch a pig. The dogs would be barking at the pig and the
pig would be squealing and all the ‘alalä would come around.
Wow!
You know, when Carlsmith bought all those birds to Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a, they brought in all
kinds of birds. I think that that’s when the avian disease came in.
Yes…
There’s the kahawai [pointing out Pöhakuloa Gulch].
Yes. Right above the tree line, there’s a little clump of green right there
Yes. The thing that I could never understand, Willie told me. I’m not sure where we went
up, on the side of the ‘auwai some place. When they catch an animal up above, they
bring it down. It’s just like that, steep coming down, how could they ever keep ahead of
the animal without the animal hooking them or something. I don’t know, they must have
been real good cowboys.
Boy you know it, because those steer, wild, yeah! Wild, ‘ähiu!
Yes…
[recorder off make preparations to have lunch]
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:108