Alpine / Aeolian

Traditional Hawaiian Significance

Keen observers of the islands’ natural communities, early Hawaiians identified twelve life zones that stretched from makai to mauka. Haleakalā and the surrounding ocean encompass all of these zones, many of which have been dramatically changed by human use. At the top of Haleakalā, however, are two zones where the natural communities are still largely intact the kuahiwi (backbone) and kuamauna (back mountain). These zones comprise what we know as the alpine/aeolian ecosystem.

In the traditional system of dividing the Hawaiian Islands into political regions, the ahupua’a was the most important land division. Ahupua’a usually extended from these upper reaches of the mountains to the outer edge of the reef in the ocean, cutting through all of the major environmental zones along the way. Each ahupua’a encompassed most of the resources Hawaiians required for survival, from fresh water to wild and cultivated plants, to land and sea creatures. Because of their dependence on the land’s resources, the Hawaiians developed a complex system of resource management and conservation that could sustain those resources over time. This system was tied intimately to the religious and cultural beliefs of the Hawaiian people.

In Hawaiian tradition, the upper reaches of the mountain are the sacred House of the Sun (a literal meaning of Haleakalā), where every day begins. Today, people still visit the summit just to see the moment when the sun rises above the distant horizon. This is the place where the demigod Māui snared the sun to slow its passage across the sky and make it easier for his mother to dry her kapa cloth.

At the height of Hawaiian society, this gathering place of the gods was visited by few people. Kāhuna, Hawaiian spiritual leaders and elders, went there for meditation and to receive spiritual information. The kilo hōkū (astronomers) brought young men training to be navigators up the mountain to teach them about the sky and the stars. Important people were buried up there, and there is a place where people buried the piko (umbilical cords) of their babies.

Hawaiians constructed shelters in the summit area, but no one lived there. Workers came to quarry rocks for making adzes and other tools. Hunters came to hunt ‘ua’u (petrels) for food. Travelers sometimes passed through while crossing from one side of the island to the other and perhaps stopped to collect a gift such as a bird feather before continuing on.

Before going to the summit of Haleakalā, Hawaiians had to ask permission from human authorities and from the gods. Among those who were given permission to enter this sacred place were men who quarried basalt rock for making adzes and other tools. Today, many Hawaiians continue to pray for permission before they go to the summit. This area is no less sacred today than it was in times past.