Archeology

The first people to arrive to Hawaii came from 2,000 miles south here, from the Marquesas Islands which is right in the middle of the poly triangle. The Polynesian Triangle encompasses a vast area of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii makes up the top corner of the triangle, New Zealand the bottom left, and Easter Island in the bottom right corner.

Archaeological evidence shows that people probably arrived in Hawai‘i between 800 and 1000 A.D. There are many similarities between language, tools, religion and other artifacts that indicate that the Hawaiians came from within the Polynesian Triangle. It is often believed that they Polynesians followed a bird, the Golden Plover to Hawaii. These first explores brought with them many important plants and animals to support their new life, culture, and religion. We refer to these plants as the canoe plants which include the Ti, Kukui, Taro, bananas, breadfruit, coconut and other foods. The Hawaiians were master fisherman and invented fishponds. When the Polynesians first arrived they practiced slash and burn agriculture where hillsides would be burned and re-planted with heir crops. Since the native Hawaiian plants are slow growing and non-competitive any type of plant introduced to the islands easily takes over and chokes out the native plants.