The Great Mahele Of 1848 Summary

The Great Mahele of 1848 was one of the most important and life changing time for the native Hawaiians. It was an event that the Hawaiians walked into hoping to gain some rights to the land but ended up walking out with nothing. Mahele in Hawaiian means to divide, so the “Great Mahele” was the the division of the Hawaiian lands. The lands were divided because there was outside sources pressuring the the Board of Commissioners to look into going though this action. The businessmen and traders wanted to the land and from an economic standpoint, Hawaii was heading down hill. The land was separated multiple times before the final decision was actually established in 1854. The first division was divided by the Land Commission themselves and they gave a third of the land to each of the three main groups; the king, Chiefs and the Maka‘ainana. This proposal was not accepted and the King decided to split it up himself, King 60% and the Chief 40%. Notice he left no land for the maka ‘ainana, he felt it would
The Land Commission originally gave them a third of the land but the ended up seeing none of that. So they created the Kuleana Act of 1850. This authorize the Land Commission to reward fee-simple title to native hawaiians who lived or planted on the lands. They had to go through a process to receive the award. They had to have their land surveyed, file a claim and support their claim by proving their land would be used for the right purposes. If they were rewarded the land and they succeeded going through the process, the land became their kuleana. Since some Hawaiians were receiving their own piece of land, the Konohiki began losing their workers, so they tried to stop the Hawaiians from filing the claims. In the end the only amount of land the the maka'ainana were able to get was equivalent to about 1% overall. Although this is not what they wanted, it was better than what they had in the