I‘a, Loko, and Loko I‘a Kalo: The Riches of Pu‘uloa Lagoon and How They Came to Be

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Supporting Practical Inquiry: The Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Thomas Dye" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

I‘a (fish), loko (fishponds), and loko i‘a kalo (taro fishponds) represent the traditional riches of Pu‘uloa Lagoon, now called Pearl Harbor. With a single narrow entrance, the deeply indented and multi-lobed embayment cut 8 km deep into the central southern O‘ahu coastline, creating a calm, self-contained estuarine environment, where constructed fishponds (loko) lined the inner shoreline of the lagoon, and farmed fields of Hawaiian staff of life taro (kalo) in the river deltas were used as fish nurseries (loko i‘a kalo). The Pearl Harbor of today is a meager remnant of this traditional landscape. Only a few intact ponds, and even fewer agricultural fields, remain, impacted by development of the lagoon for civilian and military purposes. This paper focuses on one peninsula within the lagoon, using traditional, historical, and oral historical sources, combined with archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies, to examine the evolution of the Hawaiian use of this once rich and revered landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Supporting Practical Inquiry: The Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Thomas Dye   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36557.0