Hawaiian Cowboys

Musical Accompaniment: Dust My Broom by Elmore James. One of the great underrated bluesmen.

 

I didn’t realize there was such a thing as Hawaiian cowboys! What a wonderful thing to discover!

Of course cattle weren’t native to the islands. Per the National Archives, cattle were introduced to Hawaii in 1793. In 1832 King Kamehameha III brought three Hispanic “vaqueros” from California to the islands to train Hawaiians to handle horses and cattle. Hawaiian cowboys, or “paniolos,” were soon riding the range much like their mainland counterparts.

This picture was taken by H.R. Hanna in 1899:

NARA.gov

8 thoughts on “Hawaiian Cowboys

  1. I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Hawaii back in the 90s. I remember going to the northern part of the Big Island to hike and see waterfalls. We found a little tiny diner in a basement in this town. The hamburgers were scrumptious and very cheap. What we learned was that the condiments like lettuce, tomato, ketchup, etc. were the expensive items to add onto our burger. We were told a little about the cowboy culture in hawaii and were directed to travel up to see large fields of cattle and cowboys. It was a lot of fun. I never imagined putting hawaii and cowboys together before that day.

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    • I never knew about cowboys in Hawaii! We cruised to and from Hawaii in 2005 and cruised around the different islands, renting a car on three, and seeing so many wonderful, different things about each island. I especially loved Maui! (Cruising across the Pacific is not for the faint of heart!)

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