Exploring the Mystique of Niihau: Hawaii’s ‘Forbidden Island’ and Its Rich Cultural Heritage

Introduction to Niihau Island

Niʻihau (; anglicized as Niihau, /ˈniː(i)haʊ/ NEE-(ee-)how), is the westernmost main and seventh largest island in Hawaii. It lies 17.5 miles (28.2 km) southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is 69.5 square miles (180 km²). Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland habitats for the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian duck.

Niihau sep 2007
Aerial view of Niʻihau looking southwestward from the northeast

It is identified as a critical habitat for the endemic and endangered Hawaiian lobelioid, Brighamia insignis. According to the United States Census Bureau, Niʻihau along with the adjacent island and State Seabird Sanctuary of Lehua are counted as Census Tract 410 of Kauai County, Hawaii. Its 2000 census population was 160 most of whom were native Hawaiians; its 2010 census population was 170. It had dropped at the 2020 census to 84 people.

Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau in 1864 for US$10,000 (approximately $190,000 in 2023) from the Kingdom of Hawaii. Her descendants, the Robinsons, inherited private ownership of the island. In World War II, the island hosted the Niʻihau incident, during which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese navy fighter pilot crash-landed on the island and was provided with assistance by the islanders of Japanese origin.

The island is forbidden to all outside visitors except the Robinson family and their kin, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. Since 1987, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have been open to tourists. Brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson now run the island. The people of Niʻihau are famous for their excellent lei pūpū (shell lei) making skills and speak only Hawaiian. This island has garnered some controversy from the strict rules that the Robinson family has in place for the island and the people who inhabit it.

Geographical

Niʻihau is approximately 18 miles (29 km) west of Kauaʻi, and the small, uninhabited island of Lehua lies 0.7 miles (0.61 nmi; 1.1 km) to the north of Niʻihau. The dimensions of Niʻihau are 6.2 miles by 18.6 miles (10 km × 30 km), and its maximum elevation, Paniau, is 1,280 feet (390 m). The island is approximately 6 million years old, making it geologically older than the neighboring island of Kauaʻi, which is 5.8 million years old. Niʻihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of a once much larger volcano. The entire summit and other slopes collapsed into the ocean in a massive prehistoric landslide.

Climate

The island is semi-arid in nature because it falls in the rain shadow of Kauaʻi and does not have the topography to generate adequate amounts of trade wind rain. Niʻihau therefore relies upon winter Kona storms for most of its precipitation, when systems have moved a bit farther north to reach the island. It has long intervals of drought due to this characteristic. Several historical droughts have been recorded on Niʻihau, including one in 1792 by Captain James Cook’s former junior officer, George Vancouver, who reported that the people of Niʻihau had abandoned the island due to a severe drought and moved to Kauaʻi to escape famine.

Plants and animals

Niʻihau has remained an arid island for centuries and was even described by Captain James Cook in 1778 as a place without trees. Current owners, Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, can thank the grandfather of their family, Aubrey Robinson, who planted 10,000 trees per year for most of his ownership of the island. These trees added to an increase in rainfall in an otherwise dry climate.

Niihau cliffs aerial
View of the rugged cliffs of windward Niʻihau (the northeastern shore)

Island co-owner Keith Robinson, a renowned conservationist, saved and recorded many of Niʻihau’s natural plant resources. The island is a critical habitat for the ʻōlulu, an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid. Pritchardia aylmer-robinsonii, a palm tree named after Keith Robinson’s uncle Aylmer Robinson, is an endangered species found only on Niʻihau.

Some of the bird species thrive on Niʻihau. The largest lakes found on the island are Hālaliʻi Lake, Halulu Lake, and Nonopapa Lake. These intermittent playa lakes are a wetland habitat for the ʻalae keʻokeʻo (Hawaiian coot), the āeʻo (Hawaiian subspecies of Black-necked Stilt), and the koloa maoli (Hawaiian duck). Along Niʻihau’s shores, there are a large number of critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi).

Robinson says that the isolated coastline of the island provides a refuge for seals from encroachment by habitats. According to him, conditions on Niʻihau are better than those in government refuges at the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

When Robinson and his wife originally purchased Niʻihau, there were no monk seals on it. They lived on Necker and Midway islands in the northwestern end of the island chain. NOAA Fisheries has translocated some of the seals over the past thirty years to the main Hawaiian island chain, and some have taken up residence on Niʻihau.

Big game herds, imported from stock on Molokaʻi Ranch within recent years, roam Niʻihau’s forests and flatlands. Eland and aoudad are abundant as well as oryxes, wild boars, and feral sheep. These big game herds give income through the hunting safari tourism.

Past events

Before the unification of the Kingdom of Hawaii under Kamehameha I, Niʻihau was ruled by the aliʻi. Kahelelani was the first of the Niʻihau aliʻi, and his name is now used to refer to the Niʻihau kahelelani, the puka shell of the wart turbans (Leptothyra verruca), which are used to make exquisite Niʻihau shell jewelry. Kāʻeokūlani was a ruler of northern Niʻihau who united the island after defeating his rival, a chief named Kawaihoa.

Map of Yam Bay and Niʻihau, Captain George Dixon ‘s Journal, 1788.

A stone wall, called Pāpōhaku, across a quarter of the southernmost part of the island marked the territories of the two chiefs: Kāʻeo’s territory, for example, used black stones, and Kawaihoa’s white ones. Ultimately, a fierce battle unfolded, which was named Pali Kamakaui.

Kāʻeo’s two brothers from the island of Maui, Kaʻiana and his half-brother Kahekili II, the King of Maui, fought for Kāʻeo, and Niʻihau was united under his rule. Kawaihoa was banished to the south end of the island, and Kāʻeo moved to the middle of the island to govern. Kāʻeo married Queen Kamakahelei, and a future king of Niʻihau and Kauaʻi, Kaumualiʻi, was born in 1790. Kauaʻi and Niʻihau are said to have carried the “highest bloodlines” in the Hawaiian Islands.

Kamehameha unified all of the Hawaiian Islands by 1795 except for Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. He made two attempts to conquer those islands but lost many men, with bodies covering the beaches on Kauaʻi’s eastern shores. Some years later, in 1810, Kamehameha put together a tremendous fleet. Kaumualiʻi, who was the last independent aliʻi, submitted to Kamehameha rather than risk additional bloodshed. Following the death of Kamehameha in 1819, independence was a possibility once again; however, this was shortly squashed by the widow of Kamehameha, Kaʻahumanu, who abducted Kaumualiʻi and married him. Since that time, Niʻihau has remained a part of the unified Kingdom of Hawaii.

Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair (1800–1892) acquired Niʻihau and portions of Kauaʻi from Kamehameha V in 1864, paying US$10,000 in gold (about $190,000 in 2023). Sinclair settled on Niʻihau over two other attractive alternatives: Waikīkī and Pearl Harbor. By the year 1875, there were approximately 350 Native Hawaiians and 20,000 sheep on Niʻihau.

Hawaiian Islands%2C Hale%2C Niihau%2C 1885%2C taken by Francis Sinclair
A group of villagers at Puʻuwai Beach settlement, Niʻihau in 1885. Photograph taken by Francis Sinclair, son of Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair.

It marked the end of a period for Niʻihau-made arts of mat-weaving that once made it renowned. Makaloa (Cyperus laevigatus), a sedge, also grew at the edges of three intermittent lakes within Niʻihau. The stems were harvested and used to weave moena makaloa, or mats, which were considered the “finest sleeping mats in Polynesia.” These mats were highly valued by aliʻi and foreign visitors alike, but by the end of the 19th century, Hawaiians had stopped weaving makaloa due to changes in population, culture, economics, and the environment.

The island was closed to most visitors when Aubrey Robinson, Sinclair’s grandson, took over the island in 1915. Relatives of the inhabitants could visit only with special permission. Following Aubrey’s death in 1939, the island passed to his son Aylmer. In 1968, it passed to Aylmer’s youngest brother, Lester. Currently, the co-owners are Bruce Robinson and Keith Robinson, sons of Lester after the death of Lester’s wife Helen.

The Robinson family has attracted controversy over the strict rules they have imposed on the island’s inhabitants, largely enforced by Bruce Robinson’s wife, Leiana Robinson. The rules include a ban on alcohol and cigarettes, being prohibited from talking about Ni’ihau to the media, a permanent ban from the island if a resident leaves for an extended amount of time, and a ban on long hair and beards for men. The island has no electricity and running water.

The Niʻihau Incident

Niʻihau was the location of an incident not much later than the attack on Pearl Harbor that has become known as the Niʻihau Incident (or the Battle of Niʻihau). On December 7, 1941, a Japanese pilot whose Zero had been hit crash-landed on the island hoping to rendezvous with a rescue submarine. The pilot was captured and later escaped with the help of local Japanese residents, but he was killed shortly thereafter.

Despite its isolation, Niʻihau has had a relationship with the U.S. military since 1924. There is a small Navy installation on the island. No military personnel are permanently stationed there, but the U.S. military has used the island for training special operations units, which included hiring Hawaiians who live on Niʻihau as ‘enemy’ trackers.

Society

Politics

Franklin D. Roosevelt seriously considered the island of Niʻihau as a potential location for the United Nations headquarters in 1944, two years after visiting Hawaii in 1934. The State Department seriously studied the proposal under Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull.

In 2004 President George W. Bush received all but one of the 40 votes cast on the island. The remaining vote was cast for Green Party nominee David Cobb. Fifty-one registered voters did not cast ballots. In 2006 Dan Akaka received 60% of votes in the 2006 Senate election to Cynthia Thielen’s 36%. In 2008, Niʻihau’s precinct was one of only 3 of Hawaiʻi’s 538 precincts to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama.

Population

According to the 2010 census, there are 170 people living on the island. However, the witnesses say that the population is between 35 and 50 people. Some of them survive mainly through subsistence fishing and farming, while others survive on welfare. All the residents live rent-free, and meat is free. Niʻihau has no telephone services and no paved roads.

Niihau helicopter
Navy contractors from PMRF arrive at Paniau Ridge on Niʻihau in an Agusta A109 helicopter. The seabird sanctuary island of Lehua can be seen in the background.

Horses are the main mode of transportation; bicycles are also used. There are no power lines; all electricity is from solar power. There is no plumbing or running water on the island. Rainwater is caught for use. The Robinson family developed most of these conditions. There is no hotel and barges bring in groceries from Kauaʻi, often bought by relatives with free shipping.

Residers generally speak the Niʻihau dialect of Hawaiian as their first language, in part encouraged by terms in the original purchase contract that obligated the new owners to assist in preserving Hawaiian culture and tradition.

The Niʻihau dialect varies from modern standard Hawaiian in a number of features, such that, for instance, the most common realizations of the phonemes /k/ and /l/, respectively. It is the only island where Hawaiian is spoken as a first language. Oral tradition suggests that the Niʻihau dialect is closer to the Hawaiian register that was spoken at the time of contact with Europeans; there is linguistic evidence for this, including the pronunciation of k as /t/. The second language is English.

Some of the inhabitants possess radios and television stations, although their limited reception reduces the latter to essentially a viewer for recorded broadcasts. Niʻihau faces recurrent droughts that compel its inhabitants to move temporarily to Kauaʻi as water replenishment from rains returns to their own supply.

Its inhabitants regularly move to Kauaʻi to seek employment, health services, or education and often have both as residences. The owners of the island maintain an Agusta A109 helicopter for emergencies and transporting Navy contractors and residents to and from Kauaʻi in case the boat trip is very long. Helicopter tours and safaris help offset the costs of this service.

There is a form of ipu art known to have developed solely on the island of Niʻihau. In this method, after a design is carved in the skin of a fresh gourd, it is filled with dye which, after several weeks, changes the color of the uncarved portions of the surface where the skin is intact. Hawaiian music plays a central role on the island, with cappella singers using only two or three tones and changing rhythms. Ukulele and guitar playing is nearly ubiquitous among the islanders, and there are three separate styles of slack-key music, with an older style originating from Kohala.

Schooling

The Niʻihau School is operated by the Hawaii Department of Education and is a K–12 school. It combines academic subjects with computer literacy and teaching to ‘thrive from the land.’ The entire school is run on solar power. The students vary between 25 and 50 because of family travel back and forth from Niʻihau to Kauaʻi. School-aged children may live with relatives in west Kauaʻi, where they attend one of two Niʻihau-focused public charter schools.

At the Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha school, students primarily speak the Niʻihau dialect until the early elementary grades, then Hawaiian and English through grade 12. The school has a digital recording and video system that helps preserve and teach traditional Niʻihau and Hawaiian culture. At the other west Kauaʻi school, Kula Aupuni Niʻihau a Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA), English is used in all grades, while still supporting the Niʻihau dialect. Both schools foster the culture, values, and spirituality of Niʻihau. Efforts to establish KANAKA began in 1993 and its current version was established in 1999.

About 80% of the income of Niʻihau comes from a small Navy installation atop 1,300-foot-high cliffs. Remote-controlled tracking devices are used for testing and training with Kaua’i’s Pacific Missile Range Facility. Modern missile defense tests are conducted at the site for the U.S. and its allies. The installation brings in millions of dollars a year, providing the island with a stable economic base without the complexity of tourism or industrial development.

Other income-generating activities include the sale of shells and shell jewelry. The beaches are well known for their pūpū, tiny shells which are washed onto shore during winter months. Species used for shell leis includes momi (Euplica varians), laiki or rice shells (Mitrella margarita) and kahelelani (Leptothyra verruca). Shells and jewelry are so popular that Governor Linda Lingle signed a bill in 2004 to protect lei pūpū o Niʻihau (Niʻihau shell leis) from counterfeiting. A single, intricate Niʻihau shell lei can sell for thousands of dollars.

Many of the island’s inhabitants were former ranch employees, where they worked farming cattle and sheep until the Robinsons closed it down in 1999. It had been unprofitable for most of the 20th century. Honey production had also become economically unfeasible by 1999. Kiawe charcoal had once been an important export; however, Mexican price wars quickly put an end to that, too. Mullet farming has been a popular endeavor on Niʻihau, with ponds and lakes stocked with baby mullet, which reach 9–10 pounds (4.1–4.5 kg) apiece before being harvested and sold on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu.

Niihau Trash Beach
Trash deposited by the ocean on a windward Niʻihau beach

Niʻihau’s co-owner, Bruce Robinson, looks for and evaluates new forms of non-intrusive income generation. Possibilities include these, according to their feasibility, impact, and ecological footprint on the ecosystem and the culture: JP-8 generation by the lignocellulose process; military, which could comprise a runway; and windmill energy production. He had turned down offers to sell sand from the beaches of Niʻihau, due to adverse environmental effects.

Tourism

The owners of Niʻihau allow half-day helicopter and beach tours of the island since 1987. However, as contact with residents must be avoided and no accommodation exists, people prefer not staying there overnight. The villagers collect an income from tourism as tours start from 1992 wherein tourists pay to hunt eland, aoudad, and oryx, which are in addition to wild sheep and boars. Any meat that the hunters do not take home is given to the village.

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