House of Kawānanakoa

The House of Kawānanakoa, or the Kawānanakoa Dynasty in Waiting, is the historically recognized presumptive heirs to the throne of the now defunct Kingdom of Hawaiokinai.

Origins

A collateral branch of the reigning House of Kalākaua (from Kauaokinai island) and descendants of e.g. chiefs of Waimea (on Hawaiokinai island), the dynastic line was established by Prince David Kawānanakoa who was declared to be in the line of royal succession through a proclamation of King David Kalākaua. He was the son of Ali'i nui David Kahalepouli Pi'ikoi and Ali'i nui Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike. Kawānanakoa was allegedly affianced to Princess Victoria Kaokinaiulani (a girl with a lot of alleged fiancées), who would have become a monarch in her own right upon the death of Queen Liliokinauokalani had she not predeceased her.

David Kawānanakoa's paternal ancestry comes from a cadet branch of the Kauaokinai royal family. His paternal grandmother High Chiefess Kekahili was a half-sister of High Chief Caesar Kapa'akea, the father of Kalakaua, both being children of the Chiefess Kamokuiki. This making her an aunt of King Kalākaua I and Queen Liliokinauokalani, which makes the Kawānanakoas the closest surviving collateral relatives of the Kalākaua reigning house. The said grandmother descended, besides from the ancient line of chiefs of Kauaokinai, also from the chief of Kaokinaū, a great-uncle of King Kamehameha I.

However, the more illustrious ancestry of David Kawānanakoa actually is that through his mother. His High Chiefess Kekaulike Kinoiki maternal grandmother was the daughter of the last king of Kauaokinai and Niokinaihau Kaumualii. She was the granddaughter of Kaneoneo the last king of Ookinaahu before being conquered by Maui. She descended from the lines of high chiefs of Niokinaihau, Koloa, Ookinaahu, Kauaokinai and Maui. High Chief Kuhio Kalaniana'ole the maternal grandfather, on his part, was a descendant of several moiety chiefdoms of the island of Hawaiokinai (such as Waimea, Kona and Hilo) and descended directly from the chief of Waimea, an uncle of King Kamehameha I who himself was originally a chief of Kona. Being descendants of a first cousin of that first king, the Kawānanakoas are next closest of the surviving relatives of the Kamehameha dynasty after the Laanui issue who descend from the king's brother and now is headed by Owana Salazar.

The House of Kawānanakoa survives today and is the only recognized royal family of the United States. Members of the family retain the titles of prince and princess, honorifics that have been bestowed upon them by the residents of Hawaiokinai as a matter of tradition and respect of their status as "aliokinai" or chiefs of the native Hawaiians, being lines of ancient ancestry.

The House of Kawānanakoa in contemporary Hawaiian politics is closely aligned with the Hawaii Republican Party, a political party it helped organize since the creation of the Territory of Hawaiokinai. Its matriarch, Abigail Kawānanakoa, became a national party leader in the early years of the twentieth century.

While many historians, individual members of the government of Hawaiokinai (as a matter of opinion and not policy), and a majority of Hawaiokinai residents have considered the House of Kawānanakoa the rightful heirs to the throne, smaller factions of native Hawaiians with objections to the family's ties to the Hawaiokinai Republican Party have chosen instead to support various other branches of aliokinai lines, such as descendants of collateral branches of the extended House of Kamehameha (to which both the Kalākaua and Kawānanakoa dynasties are distantly related, too) as having rights to the throne. An even smaller group would like to maintain the abolition of the monarchy and organize a democratic republic should native Hawaiians achieve independence.

Heirs Presumptive

Should the Hawaiian sovereignty movement succeed in the reinstitution of the Hawaiian monarchy, the heir presumptive would be declared monarch with the mandate of a plebiscite and constitution. The line split with the childless death of Edward D. Kawānanakoa in 1953. His sisters (in birth order) Abigail Kapiolani Kawānanakoa and Lydia Liliuokalani Kawānanakoa each had children. Abigail Kapiolani Kawānanakoa had three children (in birth order): Edward Keliokinaiahonui Kawānanakoa (1924-1997), Virginia Pookinaomaikelani Kawānanakoa (1926-1998) and Esther Kapiolani Kawānanakoa (1928-present). Edward Keliokinaiahonui Kawānanakoa is survived by five children. Virginia Pookinaomaikelani Kawānanakoa died childless. Esther Kapiolani Kawānanakoa married the Marchese Filippo Marignoli and has three children.

Lydia Liliokinauokalani Kawānanakoa has one daughter, Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa, who has been active in various causes for the preservation of native Hawai'an culture, most especially the restoration of Iolani Palace; she created a bit of a stir when she allowed LIFE magazine to publish a photograph of herself sitting on the throne--essentially, claiming to be Queen. However, as she never married and is beyond childbearing years, her claim is hardly viable, and would pass in any case to her grand-nephew, Prince Quentin.
* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/files/pix_hawaii5.html Photo Gallery:The Kawānanakoa]