The island of Maui with a relatively central location has given it a pivotal role in the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
Legend
According to legends, the hero Māui lived at Kauiki, across the bay from Hana. He caught the islands of Hawaii on a fishing trip with his magical fishing hook, but failed to pull them all together when his brothers quit paddling the canoe in which they were voyaging, so the islands were left spread apart from each other. Māui was later persuaded by his grandmother to slow the sun down, so she could grow more food and dry her tapa cloth. Māui agreed to help, so he stood on the summit of Mount Haleakala and lassoed the sun's ray legs and broke them off one by one, threatening to kill him if he didn't slow down. The sun obliged.
Maui legends include the magical deeds of the Menehune. Scholars disagree as to the origin of Menehune stories. One theory is that the stories were borrowed from European brownie and pixie stories told by sailors or settlers. Another theory is that the Menehune actually were the descendants of Hawaii's earliest settlers from the Marquesas who were pushed into the forest by Tahitian newcomers. The Tahitian word 'manahune' refers to low-class workers who did the most menial tasks which, the theory goes, the second-class original settlers were forced to perform. In time the Menehune became legendary and were given magical powers to help the helpless and to punish evil actions. A third possible explanation is that the Menehune were later, non-Tahitian immigrants who were not permitted to live with or intermarry with descendants of Tahitians.
Early settlement
The date when Polynesians first settled the island of Maui is uncertain. Early archaeological studies suggested that they came in multiple gradual waves, the earliest possibly from the Marquesas sometime before 450 AD., and the most recent from Tahiti sometime after 700 AD. Under this theory, the Tahitian arrivals introduced the core pieces of Hawaiian traditional culture: language, economic activities, the hereditary class system, land tenure, religion, and customs such as the strict kapu system that affected all aspects of life. However, later analyses suggest that the first settlers did not arrive until 900–1200 CE. Hawaiian oral tradition lists an unbroken chain of twenty-five rulers (the Moʻi of Maui) beginning with Paumakua the first Ali'i Nui of Maui.
Maui's oldest known temple enclosures (heiaus) are at Halekii and Pihana from about 1200. The structures were, according to legend, built by the Menehune in a single night from stones on Paukukalo Beach. More likely they began as small structures and were expanded as the prestige of the Wailuku grew. The last additions were thought to have been made by King Kahekili. Pihana, also called Pihanakilani and Piihana, was a luakini where human sacrifice was carried out. According to accounts written by outsiders, victims were most often kapu breakers or war captives.
Chiefdoms Until the 15th century Maui comprised three chiefdoms: Wailuku, Lele (Lahaina), and Hana. Eventually all of West Maui was consolidated at Wailuku, with Hana remaining an independent chieftaincy. West Maui and East Maui permanently merged about 1550 when King Piʻilani married the daughter of Hoolae, the 6th Alii Nui of Hana. From that time until conquest Maui was ruled by a single joint royal family (Hawaiian: alii). Piilani and his successors were known for the peace and prosperity that followed. They constructed a highway that circled the island along its coast; remnants of which still exist. They also built the island's and Hawaii's largest temple enclosure. Today it is called Piʻilanihale, built on an older temple site from about 1294. It is about high and long. Other heiau were constructed at Olowalu and Waianapanapa.
Heiau and other structures Many ancient structures on Maui are named in story but no longer survive. There was a fort at Ka'uiki Head at Hana which was the scene of several battles between chiefdoms on Maui or invasions from Hawaii. The last battle occurred when King Kahekili fought off a Hawaiian raid in the 1780s. On a small island at the tip of Kauiki Head a huge statue of Kawalakii was erected by King Umi of Hana to frighten off would-be invaders. The Hauola Stone in Lahaina Harbor was believed to have healing qualities; it is still there. Extensive archaeological research has been undertaken at Kahikinui on Maui's southeast coast. Several heiau have been located, as well as villages, and fields. Heiau in the Wailuku area include: Keahuku, Olokua, Olopia, Malena, Pohakuokahi, Lelemako, Kawelowelo, Kaulupala, Palamnaihiki, and Oloolokalani. There were at least three additional heiau between Kahului Harbor and Wailuku. There is a partially collapsed heiau at Keoneoio (La Perouse Bay.) In several parts of the island small shrines were set up, usually a single or cluster of standing stones where fishermen could pray and give offerings. Rarely walled canoe 'sheds' are still preserved. The Ke'anae Peninsula's taro field system is a prehistoric field system still in use.
Maui has several petroglyph sites that have been variously interpreted as ancestral voyages, historic events, and religious stories. One of the best remaining sites is in the cliffs above Olowalu. Nearby Maalea had an extensive panel which was destroyed by a developer. Kaupo has little 'footprints' across a lava flow said to be the prints of Menehune. The Kula area has several sites on private land. There are some at Nuu as well. Vandalism to these sites has led to their closure or limited access to permit holders.
Land tenure
Hawaiians developed a complex and effective land tenure system. The island of Maui was divided into twelve districts (Hawaiian: moku). with Lanai, Molokai, Kahoolawe constituted their own districts or were subdivided into many other districts. Each district was ruled from earliest times by a family and later by a chief's family. Each moku was divided into many community units (Hawaiian: ahupuaa) which ran from the top of the mountain to the ocean in a roughly triangular shape ruled by subchiefs. Boundaries were natural features such as streams, rock outcrops, or forest. Each community unit was subdivided into extended family units (Hawaiian: ili) that also ran from the mountains to the ocean, so each family had access to mountain forests, uplands, coast plains for farming, and ocean.
Each district had a sanctuary (Hawaiian: puuhonua) to escape vengeance or penalty. Maui's sanctuary was located at Kukuipuka on Maui's west side near Waihee. After fleeing there, making restitution and waiting a period of time, the offender could return home. During warfare, women, children, and elders could go there and not be harmed.
Kapu society The social system was called the kapu system. According to legend the system was brought to the islands from Tahiti by the priest Paao perhaps as early as 1300. The kapu system was rooted in the class system and religious practice. People were born into one of four ranks. At the top were the alii. Next were the kahuna, those of priestly rank who conducted religious ritual ceremonies, served as spiritual advisers, and healers. The third rank were makaaina, the commoners who worked the farms, built canoes, gathered wood, fished and performed labor. The fourth rank, kauwa or outcasts, were outside the system and lived outside the community much like 'untouchables' in traditional Hindu society.
There were three main kapu (rule) types: fixed kapu, flexible kapu, and temporary kapu. Examples of fixed kapu were the complete separation of men and women at meals and that menstruating women had to live outside the household. Other fixed kapu related to the alii which set them apart from commoners and maintained their status in a society with few material possessions. Flexible kapu could be altered by the local chief. For example, certain kinds of fish could not be caught at certain times of the year. Temporary kapus were invoked for a period of days. For example, following a funeral, no one could fish for a period of time. The effect was to maintain order in the community. Kapu also conserved the environment by protecting plants and wildlife from overuse. The result of the kapu system was to preserve the mana or sacredness of the totality of the environment which would bring about peace, harmony and stability. Kapu breakers disrupted the mana and jeopardized the entire community.
Early European encounters
Castaways Oral tradition indicates that castaways, most likely Spanish, shipwrecked on the islands sometime between 1521 and 1530. Versions of this story are found on Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui. In the Maui version several white men and a woman were shipwrecked during the reign of King Kakaalaneo at Kiwi near Waihee. The captain's Hawaiian name was Kukanaloa. The men married, had families, and became ancestors of some of the chiefs.
Spanish ships sailed between Asia and Mexico or South America regularly. Analysis of documents purporting to record a 'discovery' of Hawaii by Manuel Gaetan in 1555 show that whatever islands he noted in his log were too far east to have been any of Hawaii's main islands.
Captain Cook On November 26, 1778, Captain James Cook became the first European explorer to see Maui. Cook never set foot on the island because he was unable to find a suitable landing. The first European to visit Maui was the French admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, who landed on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay on May 29, 1786.
Simon and Thomas Metcalfe In 1790 an American maritime fur trader, Simon Metcalfe, anchored his ship, the Eleanora south of Lahaina. During the night, a Hawaiian named Kaopuiki and several accomplices killed a guard and cut the ships's cutter loose and ran it ashore. The next morning when the incident was discovered, Captain Metcalfe fired his cannon into the closest village and kidnapped several Hawaiians who told him that people from the village of Olowalu were responsible. Metcalfe moved his ship to Olowalu only to discover the village under a kapu for three days while the local chief celebrated a family occasion. As soon as the three days were over canoes from Olowalu flocked toward Metcalfe's ship to trade. Metcalfe, feigning peaceful intentions, waved the canoes around to his ship's landward side and then ordered broadsides of ball and shot fired at point-blank range, which blasted the vessels to pieces. About one hundred Hawaiians were killed and several hundred wounded.
Metcalfe then sailed to Hawaii and, at Kealakekua Bay, began what seemed to be friendly intercourse with the natives. Around the same time Metcalfe's son, Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, at Kawaihae Bay, in command of the , a small schooner owned by his father. His voyage to the Hawaiian Islands had been delayed because the Fair American and its crew had been seized by the Spanish Navy during the Nootka Crisis. The younger Metcalfe's vessel was captured by Chief Kameʻeiamoku, who had been insulted and flogged by Simon Metcalfe earlier that year. Kameeiamoku had vowed to exact revenge on whatever ship next came his way, and by chance that ship turned out to be the Fair American. Thomas Metcalfe and the entire crew were killed except for Isaac Davis, who Kameeiamoku sent as a captive to Kamehameha along with guns and cannons taken from the Fair American. Another American from Simon Metcalfe's ship, John Young, was also captured to prevent Metcalfe from hearing about his son's murder. The two Americans, Young and Davis, commanded the cannons at the bloody battle of Kepaniwai.
Unification of the islands