Where did the Natives of Hawaii come from and how did they get to Hawaii?

Question

I don't think they had a boat that can carry them from mainland to islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Answer 1

They came from the other islands. The Hawaiiands are polynesian. It's not that hard to imagine them going from one island to another. I mean, honestly. It's not that hard to imagne the ancient settlers of england, scotland, and wales just riding across the sea to ireland.

Answer 2

Excellent question... some came from the Samoan islands and other islands in the South Pacific.

Answer 3

They swam?  j/k  The Soamoen (sp) islands?

Answer 4

Yes they did have very large boats and they had the knowledge to build them and build sails as well. From around 1500 b C Polynesians started building catamaran like vessels, double-hulled sometimes 50 to 60 feet long, capable of carrying explorers and domesticated animals.

They built their sails from matting, designing an inverted triangle sail. They soon used star positions to navigate, but they were able to use sea currents and counted on bird behavior as well.

They had also domesticated a few plants, but even just with taro, a tubercle used as basic staple, would be enough, since it will not rot for weeks.

Nevertheless, this is the last part of the globe to be colonized by human beings, so it wasn't easy.

Check

http://www.bishopmuseum.org/

Answer 5

Polynesians and others from the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and other Pacific islands via canoe.

Answer 6

No actual record exist from this time period so the belief is pieced together from archeology, linguistic evidence and oral story telling passed down through the generations.  But is believed that the first Hawaiian settlers navigated across the ocean from the Marquesas Islands.  These Polynesians where skilled navigators and astronimers and arrived sometime between 300 and 800 AD.  See the link below for more information.

Answer 7

There are some excellent books on the subject of travel by boats, including the chinese in 500 bc, so yes I think it is possible, as the Hawaiian mythology chronicles this.  The interesting thing about the story was that when the present Hawaiian's arrived, they found buildings and encampments, all empty, but that would be interesting to see who was there before the present day Hawaiians!

Answer 8

Probably the Polynesian.  They had been navigating the S. Pacific for centuries.  There are many many small island from micronesia all the way to chile.  They probably island hopped.

Answer 9

The Polynesians migrated east and north from their original range.  Yes, they did this in boats.

Andrew Sharp's Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia is available on-line and contains more information that you probably want to know.