Native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; Hawaiian: kānaka, kānaka ʻōiwi, Kānaka Maoli, and Hawaiʻi maoli) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesians who sailed from the Society Islands. The settlers gradually became detached from their homeland and developed a distinct Hawai'ian culture and identity in their new home. They created new religious and cultural structures, in response to their new circumstances and to pass knowledge from one generation to the next. Hence, the Hawaiian religion focuses on ways to live and relate to the land and instills a sense of community. Though a unique civilization, they have retained synergy with other Polynesian peoples across the Pacific. The Hawaiian language, for example, shares many similarities with other Polynesian languages. The Hawaiian Kingdom was formed in 1795, when Kamehameha the Great, of the then-independent island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the independent islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi to form the kingdom. In 1810, Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Kingdom, the last inhabited islands to do so. The Kingdom received many immigrants from the United States and Asia. The Hawaiian sovereignty movement seeks autonomy or independence for Hawaiʻi. In the 2010 U.S. census, people with Native Hawaiian ancestry were reported to be residents in all 50 of the U.S. states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Within the United States in 2010, 540,013 residents reported Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander ancestry alone, of which 135,422 lived in Hawaii. In the United States overall, 1.2 million people identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, either alone or in combination with one or more other races. The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population was one of the fastest-growing groups between...