Kalanikauleleiaiwi

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Kalanikauleleiaiwi was Big Island Princess and the Co-ruler of Hawaii along with her brother Keaweikekahiali`iokamoku the 21st Ali'i Aimoku of Hawaii in the late 17th century and early 18th century. She was the great grandmother of Kamehameha I who became the first official King of Hawaii. She was daughter of Keakealani-wahine the ruling Queen of Hawaii and her half-brother Kaneikaiwilani, who was the son of Iwikauikaua and Kaukahikuaanaauakane. Both her parent shared the same father the High Chief Iwikauikaua of Oahu (whose celebrated kapu was the torchlight burnt at midday; later copied by his descendant Kalakaua).

There were little doubt that Kalanikauleleiaiwi, was, during the ancient regime considered as co-ordinate with her brother as the Ruler of the Big Island, though she is not known to have been actively occupied in any matters of government. Legends refer to her as Keawe's equal on the throne; and at the time, by posterity, she was held to be of higher rank than her brother, owing to her descent on her father's side from the Oahu dynasty of Kakuhihewa. Her son, Kalanikeeaumoku, by Keawe was considered of the highest rank of Pio and the rightful sucessor in rank to his father and mother. She was the Keopuolani one her days with the power and influence of Kaahumanu.

She had four husbands: Kaulahea II, the Moi of Maui. This union must have taken place in her early youth, and tradition is silent as to the causes which led to her leaving Kaulahea and returning to the Big Island. With him she had a daughter, Princess Kekuiapoiwanui or Kekuiapoiwa I, who remained on Maui and became the wife of her half-brother Kekaulike and mother the Kekaulike Dynasty of Maui from which many of the chief politicians and nobles belonged to in the early days of the Kingdom of Hawaii. On her return the land of her mother, she married secondly, her brother, Keawe, whom she bore a son, Kalanikeeaumoku, and a daughter, Kekelaokalani. Her third husband was Kauaua-a-Mahi, son of Mahiolole, the great Kohala chief of the Mahi family. With him she had two sons, Alapainui and Ha'ae-a-Mahi. Her fourth and last husband was the High Chief Lonoikahaupu, one of the kapu chiefs of Kauai, and a fifth generation descendant of Kahakumakapaweo through Ilihiwalani and Kealohikanakamaikai. With him she had her last children, Keawepoepoe and Kanonea, who were the parents Kameeiamoku and Kamanawa; another son of Keawepoepoe was the Keeaumoku Papaiahiahi, these three, together with Keawe-a-Heulu, were the four principal chiefs that assisted Kamehameha I, to conquer and consolidate the Hawaiian Islands under one dominion, and who became his counsellors and ministers after the conquest. Her descendants are among the forefathers of the five Hawaiian house, Kekaulke, through her eldest daughter Kekuiapoiwa; Kamehameha and Kalokuokamaile, through her son Kalanikeeauomku and her daughter Kekelaokalani; Kawananakoa and Kalakaua, through her son Keawepoepoe. ^[1]