John Papa Īī
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John or Keoni Papa ʻĪʻī was a leading citizen of the Hawaiian kingdom during the nineteenth century. He was a politician and well know historian.
Īʻī was born in 1800 and raised under the traditional kapu system. He was the son of a chief of Kona and his wife. He was born at Waipio, Ewa, Oahu. [1] His father and mother were of petty minor chiefs destined to serve the higher chiefs as retainers and kahu (babysitter) for their children. Ii was raised and trained from his childhood for a life of servitude to the high chiefs. At the age of ten he was taken to Honolulu by his uncle Papa, a kahu, or attendant, of Kamehameha I, to become a companion and personal attendant to Prince Liholiho (later King Kamehameha II). Ii was close to Liholiho during the young heir's instruction in the conduct of government and ancient religious rites. His master died in 1823 in England.[2]
After Liholiho's death, Ii continued to serve the rulers of Hawai‘i and including being kahu for Victoria Kamamalu and hanai father of Mary Paaaina. Throughout his life he was in constant contact with the political, religious, and social concerns of the court. I'i was among the first Hawaiians to study reading and writing with the missionaries, yet although he adopted Christian teachings, he retained a profound love and respect for the culture of his ancestors.[3]
Ii served as a general superintendent of O'ahu schools and was an influential member in the court of Kamehameha III. In 1842, he was appointed by the king to the Treasury Board. He served as a member of the Privy Council and in 1845 was appointed to the Board of Land Commissioners. In 1852, Ii represented the House of Nobles in the drafting of the Constitution, and his service in the House of Nobels was from 1841 to 1854 and from 1858 to 1868. He served as a member of the House of Representatives during the session of 1855. He served from 1846 to 1864 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Hawai'i. He was reappointed for a second term and served from 1852 until he resigned in 1864.[4]
Ii died in May, 1870 and his death was a lost to the Hawaiian nation. He left a first-hand account chronicled in "Fragments of Hawaiian History", which describes life under Kamehameha, through his personal experiences and descriptions of the pattern of Hawaiian culture during a period of great significance in the history of the Hawaiian Kingdom.[5]
