Maoli
Native Hawaiian schoolchildren, circa 1900
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
156,000 (Native Hawaiian only) 371,000 (NH in combination with others) (2010 census) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States(Hawaii, California, Washington, Utah, Alaska) |
|
| Languages | |
| English, Hawaiian, Hawaiʻi Sign Language (HSL), Hawaiian Pidgin | |
| Religion | |
| Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism,Hawaiian religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Polynesian peoples, Austronesian peoples |
Native Hawaiians (Hawaiian: kānaka ʻōiwi, kānaka maoli, and Hawaiʻi maoli) are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 401,000 people who identified themselves as being "Native Hawaiian" alone or in combination with one or more other races or Pacific Islander groups. 141,000 people identified themselves as being "Native Hawaiian" alone.
The majority of Native Hawaiians reside in the state of Hawaii (two-thirds), and the rest are scattered among other states, especially in the American Southwest, and with a high concentration in California.
The history of Native Hawaiians, like the history of Hawaii, is commonly classified into four major periods:
One hypothesis is that the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaiʻi in the 4th century from the Marquesas, and were followed by Tahitians in AD 1300, who then conquered the original inhabitants. Another is that a single, extended period of settlement populated the islands. Evidence for a Tahitian conquest of the islands include the legends of Hawaiʻiloa and the navigator-priest Paʻao, who is said to have made a voyage between Hawaiʻi and the island of "Kahiki" (Tahiti) and introduced many customs. Early historians, such as Fornander and Beckwith, subscribed to this Tahitian invasion theory, but later historians, such as Kirch, do not mention it.King Kalakaua claimed that Paʻao was from Samoa.
Some writers claim that other settlers in Hawaiʻi were forced into remote valleys by newer arrivals. They claim that stories about the Menehune, little people who built heiau and fishponds, prove the existence of ancient peoples who settled the islands before the Hawaiians.
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Wikipedia