What Pre-American Hawaii Was Really Like

Hawaiians are a proud people with strong traditions. But what was their country like before the United States showed up and took it away? Here’s a look at what pre-American Hawaii was really like.

According to legend, when the first Polynesian explorers discovered Hawaii sometime prior to 600 AD, they discovered a series of advanced temples, roads, dams, and fish ponds that had been built by the island's original inhabitants.

Just who those inhabitants were, though, is a mystery. Some believe they were a legendary race of little people called menehune who live deep in the forest and only emerge at night to build their fantastic structures in a single evening before returning to hiding.

Others think this legend is simply a recent construct. The name menehune seems to be a corruption of the less flattering manahune, which means "the lowly people" instead of "the little people." Some think Tahitian settlers around the year 1000 AD pinned this derisive nickname on the island's original inhabitants, while others think it was the Europeans in the 18th century, and that the whole little people legend was a corruption of European tales of elves and gnomes.

Whatever the case, it seems someone lived on Hawaii before the Polynesians arrived. Who they were and where they went, though, is something we may never learn.

Watch the video for more about What Pre-American Hawaii Was Really Like!

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Hawaii's legendary little people | 0:00
When it's time to find home, we know the way | 1:07
The caste system | 2:04
To Kapu (or not Kapu) | 3:08
Goodbye, Captain Cook | 4:08
King Kamehameha the Great | 5:06
Hot commodities | 5:37
Whalers paradise | 6:30
On a mission from God | 7:25
Sugar, sugar | 8:24
The legendary Queen of Hawaii | 9:32

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