Unit Author: Nicholas Bellantoni, Emeritus; Connecticut State Archaeologist, University of Connecticut
Repatriation of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia
Case Study
Deborah Li’ikapeka Lee, a young adult Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) woman, woke in the wee small hours of an October night in 1992 far from her homeland in Seattle, Washington, to an inner sensation, impossible to define and equally impossible to ignore. Alone and unsure of what was happening to her, she feared illness and anxiously rose from her bed, searching for the comfort of her Bible. She felt as if she were being called to do something, but what? The sensation continued to well up inside her, forcing its way up and out, yielding a voice that spoke as clearly as if its source were standing in front of her. She heard five words: “He wants to come home.”
The “He” of her revelation was Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia, Debbie’s cousin seven generations removed. ‘Ōpūkaha’ia considered leaving the Big Island in the first decade of the 19thcentury “rather than live without a mother and father”[i]who had been brutally slain before his childhood eyes by Kamehameha’s warriors. As a teenager, he secured passage onboard an American merchant ship, sailing halfway around the world, hoping to replace pain and memory, attempting to outrun his survivor’s guilt, seeking peace from the violence he experienced in his youth with its resultant despondency. His journey would take him to Connecticut where he was given the Anglicized name “Henry Obookiah,” introduced to Christianity, experienced a St. Paul-type revelation accepting Jesus as his personal savior, leading to his Bible study in hopes of returning home as a missionary to convert Native Hawaiians to the Gospel, but tragically dying of typhus fever in Cornwall, Connecticut, on Feb. 17, 1818 and buried under frozen New England earth.
On his deathbed, Henry burst out into tears and raising his hands heavenward lamented, “Oh, how I want to see Owhyhee!” Considered the first Christianized Native Hawaiian, Henry’s journey stalled far from his birthplace until Debbie Lee heard in the still of the night his desire to come home and began the process for his return in fulfillment of his dying wish.
As the Connecticut State Archaeologist, a position I held for almost 30 years, I had the responsibility of supervising, in hopefully a professional and respectful manner, the archaeological removal and the forensic identification of the surviving skeletal remains of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia. On two days of excavation, July 12-13, 1993, we disinterred Henry, whose skeletal remains were the best preserved we have ever recovered from Connecticut’s typically acid soils. Debbie Lee and her family traveled to Connecticut to escort ‘Ōpūkaha’ia home.
In excess of 200 descendants and friends crowded into Kahikolu Congregational Church, the site of ‘Ōpūkaha’ia’s resting place overlooking Nāpo’opo’o harbor on Kealakekua Bay, in the late afternoon of August 15, 1993 as the final service and re-interment of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia took place. Colorful native plants and flowers set next to an easel with ‘Ōpūkaha’ia’s portrait enfolded by plumeria leis surrounded the koa casket. To all assembled, the occasion was joyful and yet solemn.
On conclusion of the church service, family members privately viewed the remains of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia for the last time, placing personal mementos and assorted leis into the casket to accompany him into eternity, while friends and well-wishers filed out of the church forming two parallel lines for the casket to be carried between in passage to the monument and final resting place. Soil taken from Cornwall Cemetery, drawings made by children of his ‘ohana and a bright Hawaiian shirt were placed inside the casket. The beloved remains of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia were escorted out of the church and towards the cemetery. Voices sang “Aloha O’e” as they made their way to the open monument overlooking the harbor from which he had set out on his journey to find peace and self-fulfillment. Ropes lowered the casket amid a ceremony called “Kao he olahou,” the bamboo lives again.
The repatriation of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia did not fall under NAGPRA review because they represent the private actions of an individual family requesting the disinterment and re-interment of a genealogical ancestor. Had the reburial come under NAGPRA jurisdiction, consent would have been required from tribal governments, including lengthy reviews and a six-month wait after publication in the Federal Register of the intent to repatriate. The process would have been more formal and protracted. Be that as it may, all families have the right to disinter and re-inter the remains of their ancestors. The death and burial of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia, far from his homeland, was the result of historical happenstance. In returning him home, the completion of their journeys has significant personal meanings for their families and Native Hawaiian communities, and, subsequently, special and surprisingly emotional connotations for the research teams that assisted in their repatriations. Although ‘Ōpūkaha’ia will persevere in Connecticut history, Hawai’i will always be “home” and where his mortal remains should rightfully reside. Through ‘Ōpūkaha’ia, I witnessed firsthand the allegiance and dedication of a Hawaiian family, strengthened by their love of God and their heritage, emulating their strong faith and revered kinship through the power of his repatriation.