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Reviews
LEAVING PARADISE: INDIGENOUS HAWAIIANS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, 1787–1898
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by Jean Barman and Bruce McIntyre Watson
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University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2006.
Illustrations, map, glossary, notes, bibliography,
general index, name index. 512 pages. $45.00 cloth. |
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| A neglected contribution to Pacific Northwest history has been the role Hawaiian Islanders played in the regional histories of the nineteenth century. The University of Hawai'i Press and authors Jean Barman and Bruce McIntryre Watson deserve commendation for addressing this neglect. By an arduous search through fur trade documents, government files, church records, and other arcane and widely dispersed primary sources, the authors have been able to piece together a narrative of Hawaiians' arrival and subsequent experience in North America's Pacific Northwest. Developing a coherent story line could not have been easy, given the skimpy mention Hawaiians receive in the source material and the fact no written or oral tradition exists linking the migrants to their native land. These difficulties notwithstanding, Barman and Watson succeeded in weaving together a well-written and informative account of these interesting but overlooked people. |
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Leaving Paradise is organized into nine chapters of narrative covering more than a hundred years of what might be called the Hawaiian diaspora. The authors begin in 1787 when the first known Hawaiian — a woman — agreed to serve as a personal servant for the wife of a British merchant captain sailing to the northwest coast of America. They conclude in about 1898 when settlement patterns had been well established in both the British and American Pacific Northwest. The 218 pages of narrative is followed by a lengthy section of biographical sketches detailing what the authors found out about the 850 migrant Hawaiians they were able to identify. |
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For most of this period, the fur trade acted as a magnet attracting Hawaiians to the Pacific Northwest. Initially, curiosity and a sense of adventure drew Polynesian sojourners to sail aboard visiting merchant ships. Eventually, curiosity gave way to economic opportunity as the prime motivating force for "leaving paradise," especially as the fur trade shifted from a maritime to continental base. Valued for their skill around water and for being tractable and loyal workers, Hawaiians were soon hired as crewmen and laborers on American and British trading vessels bound for the Columbia River. Beginning with the first twenty-four Hawaiians contracted by Pacific Fur Company traders aboard the Tonquin in 1811, hundreds more would make the oceanic crossing as employees of one of the three fur companies that traded in the Pacific Northwest. Contracts were typically for three years, with wages commensurate with those paid other common laborers. |
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Although, like other manual laborers, Hawaiians faced a drudge-filled and dangerous life in the fur trade, many made a career of it. Workers who returned to Hawai'i after the completion of their initial contract often found conditions changed so much that economic opportunity was more attractive on the Northwest coast, and they returned either to reemploy with a fur company or to strike out on their own. Most who did so married local women and raised families at or near the trading posts where they spent their working days. |
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With the settling of the border issue by the ratification of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, Hawaiian settlers faced intensified discrimination. While they continued to experience de facto racial hostility on both sides of the new boundary, another form manifested itself south of the border in de jure racist legislation denying Hawaiians (and other nonwhites) the right to become citizens, own property, or testify in court against whites. This prompted a number of Hawaiians to move north to the Gulf Islands, Victoria, or the Fraser River area, where legislated civil rights restrictions did not exist. Not all left, however. In some cases, family ties anchored them in places where they endured despite the social and legal climate. Their presence as contributors to American history is seen today in such place names as Friday Harbor in Washington and the Owyhee River in Oregon and Idaho. Descendants of these nineteenth-century sojourners continue living in the Pacific Northwest, exhibiting a renewed interest in their ethnic roots. |
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Although Barman and Watson's efforts add considerable insight regarding indigenous Hawaiians' place in Pacific Northwest history, they do stumble, occasionally, when providing historical context. Inevitably, dates become transposed. Cook visited Hawaii in 1778, not 1787 (p. 2). Attoo returned to his home in 1792, not 1892 (p. 26). The Oregon Provisional Government was established in 1843, not 1848 (p. 137). Other misstatements of fact crop up here and there. Modeste Demers was a secular priest, not an Oblate (pp. 103, 127). David Thompson did not complete his traverse of the Columbia River until after his visit to Astoria (p. 42). Donald McKenzie was not a Nor'Wester in 1813 (p. 52). The Treaty of Ghent said nothing about returning by 1818 all land seized during the war (p. 59). Jason Lee was not an American Board missionary (p. 111). Robert Ball, not Jason Lee, began the school that enrolled Japanese castaways (p. 112). It will be noted these slips involve mere detail in providing context and in no way alter the main story told in the narrative. Should the book go into a second edition, these errata, no doubt, will be corrected. |
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Leaving Paradise will reward historians, genealogists, and general readers who are interested in studying the varied ethnic fabrics found in the history of the Pacific Northwest. |
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| Lloyd Keith
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| Arlington, Washington |
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