The ahupuaa of Kaupo

Kaupo, like the rest of Maui, was in ancient times divided into land sections called ahupuaa. Ahupuaa typically consisted of an area of land running from the mountains to the sea, containing most of the resources that its residents would need for their day-to-day life.

According to tradition, it was Kakaalaneo and Kakae, rulers of Maui in the early 1500s, who established the ahupuaa system on the island.

Names, location and other information about ahupuaa in Kaupo can be found in various records, including state maps, museum archives and property transfer documents. But perhaps the first question for many is: How many ahupuaa did Kaupo contain?

Number of ahupuaa

The first reference to the number of ahupuaa in Kaupo comes from the mahele land division of 1848. The mahele records note an impressive 89 ahupuaa in Kaupo, listed below along with the person who controlled the ahupuaa just before the mahele land reorganization:

• 66 unnamed ahupuaa, controlled by William Charles Lunalilo
• 19 unnamed ahupaa, controlled by Keahikuni Kekauonohi
• Alaakua and Puulani ahupuaa, controlled by Analea Keohokalole
• Nuu ahupuaa, controlled by Kalaimoku, a konohiki
• Kou ahupuaa, controlled by Hikiau, a konohiki

Apart from mahele records, Hawaiian Government Survey maps from the 1880s can be used to determine the number of ahupuaa. These maps of Kaupo contain labeling indicating the names and locations of ahupuaa in Kaupo. The maps depict 53 ahupuaa, starting from Waiopai ahupuaa in the west to Kalepa in the east.

In addition to ahupuaa listed on Hawaiian Government Survey maps, the names of 10 other ahupuaa are contained in other sources such as museum archives and land grant records. Thus, in total, there are 63 ahupuaa whose names are known.

Names of the ahupuaa

Listed below in alphabetical order are the 63 ahupuaa in Kaupo whose names are known. The source documents are listed in parentheses for the 10 ahupuaa not identified on the Hawaiian Government Survey map.

1. Alaakua
2. Hawelewele
3. Hikiaupea
4. Huakini
5. Huilua (1838 Lahainaluna map of Maui, "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
6. Hualele
7. Kaalelehinale
8. Kaeke
9. Kahuai
10. Kailiili
11. Kakio
12. Kalaeoaihe
13. Kalapakamalalo
14. Kalepa
15. Kalihi
16. Kalohelani (Royal Patent Grant 2825)
17. Kaniaula
18. Kaopala ("A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
19. Kaulanamoa
20. Kaumahalua
21. Keahu
22. Keahuloa ("A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
23. Keahuapono
24. Kepio
25. Kipapa (1838 Lahainaluna map of Maui, "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
26. Kou
27. Kukoae (Bishop Museum Hawaiian Ethnological Notes Collection and Land Commission Award 823)
28. Kukohia
29. Kukuioolu
30. Kumunui
31. Lamanui (A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
32. Lole
33. Maalo
34. Maipalaha (Bishop Museum Hawaiian Ethnological Notes Collection and "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
35. Makaakini
36. Mamalu
37. Manawaiapiki
38. Manawainui
39. Miana
40. Mikimiki
41. Mokuia
42. Mooiki
43. Naholoku
44. Nakula
45. Niniau
46. Niumalu
47. Nuu
48. Nuukalawa
49. Paiena (Bishop Museum Hawaiian Ethnological Notes Collection and "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
50. Papaauhau
51. Pauku
52. Poe ("A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker)
53. Pohoula
54. Popoiwi
55. Puu Maneoneo
56. Puualaea
57. Puuhelelupe
58. Pukaauhuhu
59. Puulani
60. Puuomaiai
61. Waiahole
62. Waiopai
63. Waipouli

Some of the names above have variant spellings. These are noted in the individual listing for each ahupuaa on the Places section of this website.

In addition, a few ahupuaa also appear with the suffix "iki" or "nui" in some records, for example "Alaakuaiki" and "Alaakuanui". These ahupuaa are Alaakua, Kipapa, Kakio and Papaauhau. Other ahupuaa may have had this suffix as well.

The iki/nui suffix may relate to upland (nui) versus seaward (iki) portions of each ahupuaa. This was the pattern Edward Smith Craighill Handy noted in his 1940 book "The Hawaiian Planter" for ahupuaa on Oahu.

Questionable ahupuaa

Although the ahupuaa list above contains 63 entries, there is uncertainty whether all of these are truly ahupuaa rather than ili, or portions of ahupuaa in in the traditional Hawaiian land system. There is also a question of whether some ahupuaa were in neighboring Kahikinui district rather than Kaupo.

Some of the ahupuaa in the list above were collected from "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" by Lorrin Andrews and Henry Parker. However, the dictionary only uses the term "land section", not ahupuaa, and the dictionary appears to use the term land section for both ahupuaa and ili. Some of the Kaupo "land sections" in the dictionary can be confirmed as ahupuaa through references in other documents. However four entries in the list above do not have any additional sources to confirm their status as ahupuaa rather than ili. These four are Kaopala, Keahuloa, Lamanui and Poe.

Regarding Kipapa, "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language", describes it as a Kaupo land section, and an 1838 map of Maui depicts Kipapa under the label of Kaupo, next to Huilua, but in an area that appears to be in Kahikinui. Also, Hawaiian Government Survey maps show Kipapa as being in Kahikinui.

Ambiguity is also present in the Hawaiian Government Survey maps due to the lack of the term ahupuaa except in one instance (Nuu). The maps label areas of Kaupo in large capital letters running from the shore to the mountain. Many, though not all, of these areas can be confirmed as ahupuaa through other documents. An assumption for the ahupuaa list on this site is that all such labeled area on these maps are ahupuaa.

Despite this assumption, there are some areas on the map that do not conform to the typical classification of an ahupuaa as running from the shore to the mountain. Some areas are labeled to indicate a region only in the shore area or in the mountain area. Moreover, a number of labeled regions appear to lie within what is labeled as the larger ahupuaa of Nuu. Based on these reasons, those whose classification as ahupuaa is most questionable are Hawelewele, Huakini, Kaeke, Kailiili, Kalapakamalalo, Keahu, Makaakini, Naholoku, Nuukalawa, Puuhelelupe and Puuomaiai.

All of this is to say that, in all, 17 of the list of 63 ahupuaa have questions surrounding their status as an ahupuaa or as to their being located in Kaupo. Conversely, we should feel confident that the remaining 46 were Kaupo ahupuaa in ancient times.

Ahupuaa location and boundaries

Below is the map displaying in yellow the approximate locations and boundaries of the 53 Kaupo ahupuaa identified on Hawaiian Government Survey maps.

The ahupuaa locations and boundaries were determined by drawing lines at the midpoints between labeled ahupuaa on the Hawaiian Government Survey maps and then overlaying the result on satellite imagery. For some, modifications were made to the boundary lines to follow topographical features that likely marked ahupuaa boundaries as well as to match land grant recorded as being located within specific ahupuaa. The upland boundary was drawn where the text ended.

Readers should not interpret the boundary lines as definitive but rather think of each marked ahupuaa area as lying within a zone of confidence, with the confidence highest at the center and lowest at the edges.

Comparison of ahupuaa areas

We only know the exact size of one ahupuaa, Nuu. This is because a survey was performed in the 1880s for the original land transfer. At that time, the surveyed area was calculated at 12,140 acres. The approximate acreage of other ahupuaa can be calculated from the boundaries developed using the process described earlier in this article.

One visible pattern is that ahupuaa are generally smaller in the eastern region of Kaupo and grow larger toward the drier western end of the district. This mirrors the decrease in rainfall between the areas. Simply put, ahupuaa in the west needed to be larger because the land was less fertile and so a larger area was needed to provide food for the population there.

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Editor's note: The article above was originally published in October 2019 and expanded and revised in May 2023.