Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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Well, one Game Warden, Yap, Ernest Yap, he patrolled…pig hunters, they go check on
them. He saw one pig hunter coming out had one nënë, he never kill ‘um, the dog never
kill ‘em. He tied ‘em up, hang on his shoulder, he was bringing it over there. Ernest Yap,
“Hey, one nënë.” So he talked to the guy and the guy explained to him, the guy say, “Well
this is kapu you know.” He said, “I gotta take, and I gotta arrest you for catching.”
[chuckles]
All the guys, they was real happy, they got one live one.
Yes, yes.
So they have to arrest him, but they gave him one suspended sentence.
Yes, yes.
They bet that’s the first wild nënë that came to Pöhakuloa. It came before I got on the job.
That was a wahine, I think the first two years she never lay and then she laid and
crossed ‘em with the Shipman flock. She was an old bird already. But from that we had
three. She had three keiki so we can match ‘em with the birds from Shipman’s, bloodline.
They cross ‘em, it makes a difference.
Yes, yes.
Then Woodside went up Keawewai side, when they molt in the spring the nënë, they
cannot fly for about five, six weeks, so they go hide in the grass. Woodside caught one
pair of wild birds. He bring ‘em back in and then we have that and mix ‘em up with the
Shipman one. To me, to all those guys, that’s why we had a good start to raise more
nënë.
And this is in your time already
Yes.
You’re there and you were the one that’s overseeing the breeding or the hatching
Yes, breeding, match ‘em up. When we raise chickens we do the same thing because
Herbert Shipman had a brother-in-law called Harold Fischer.
That’s right. He had a big chicken farm down Kea‘au.
Yes, big chicken farm. He came up, he sold the chickens for us to start, he went to
Hartwell Carter.
At Waiki‘i
Yes, Waiki‘i. They came, he saw that I keep record. Then when I left, I went to Hilo, he
saw me, “AhFat what you doing here” “I left Waiki‘i, because of health business, so I
came back work.” He came in the store maybe eight, nine times, he tried to hire me.
Get you to go out to Kea‘au
Yes, Kea‘au.
Yes. Was a nice set-up kind of, that he had, you know. You saw his chickens
Yes. He took me, showed me all the place.
Pretty nice, eh
Yes. But, only thing the workers tell me, the hanahana men, they said, “Pilau buggah
that! He swear like hell…”
[chuckles] …You mentioned that his system, sort of the tracing the genealogies, the
birds…
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:407