HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 2001-4620, by Representatives Veloria, Pennington, Cairnes, Darneille, Dunn, Hatfield, Fromhold, Conway, Schual‑Berke, Murray, Kenney, Haigh, Simpson, Hunt, Eickmeyer, Ruderman, McDermott, Wood, Quall, H. Sommers, Miloscia, Edmonds, Dickerson, Santos, Edwards, Kirby, Van Luven, Lovick, Boldt, Tokuda, Fisher, Berkey, Doumit, Schoesler, D. Schmidt, Schindler, Roach, Crouse and Anderson

      WHEREAS, The first known Hawaiian to have visited the Pacific Northwest was a woman named Winee, a personal servant to the wife of Captain Charles Barkley, who in 1787 stopped at the Sandwich Islands before he sailed to the Northwest; and

      WHEREAS, Other Hawaiians became curious with the Western visitors and their tales of distant lands, thus Captain John Meares took a chief named Ka i'ana with him on a trip to the Northwest; and

      WHEREAS, By the early nineteenth century when the fur trade was firmly established along the Northwest Coast, the Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1821.  The Hudson's Bay Company recruited Hawaiians to work in this industry and this became common practice; and

      WHEREAS, The Hawaiians were trained as servants, mill workers, craftsmen, and fur traders, but it was their excellent canoeing skills that were used by the Hudson's Bay Company to explore and navigate the Puget Sound waters; and

      WHEREAS, John Kalama, who is a direct Hawaiian descendant to Queen Kalama, the wife of King Kamehameha III, left the Islands for the Northwest; and

      WHEREAS, John Kalama was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver, Washington, and married a Native woman named Mary Martin, a direct descendent of Chief Leschi; and

      WHEREAS, Chief Leschi allegedly led an attack on Seattle on January 26, 1856, after his mark mysteriously showed up on the treaty that put his people on reservations; and

      WHEREAS, The town of Kalama and the Kalama River are both named for John Kalama; and

      WHEREAS, Generations of the John Kalama family still live on the Nisqually, Quinalt, and Warm Springs Reservations;

      NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington recognize the contributions of the Hawaiians to Washington state history, and celebrate the Kalama family who could very well be the only descendants of a Native American chief and the relatives of Hawaiian royalty who came to live in what was then known as the Oregon Territory; and

      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington also recognize the research and documentation by Hale Halawai O Hawai'i for their work in bringing these stories forward, and bringing to our attention that the first documented Hawaiians lived and worked in King County in 1870 at a sawmill in Freeport, located on the Duwamish Head in West Seattle; and

      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Co-Chief Clerks of the House of Representatives to the Kalama family and Hale Halawai O Hawai'i.

      I hereby certify this to be a true and correct copy of

      Resolution 4620 adopted by the House of Representatives

                        February 20, 2001.

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Timothy A. Martin, Co-Chief Clerk  Cynthia Zehnder, Co-Chief Clerk