Kehow

Kehow, a native of Hawaii, entered service with the Hudson’s Bay Company at O’ahu in 1845 and began as a labourer at Fort Vancouver. In 1849, he was sent to Fort Victoria, where he was recorded in the Journal as being one among four Hawaiians who deserted from the Cowlitz on 22nd April, 1850. He was identified as among “two Islanders [Hawaiians]” along with Maaro and Pakee (variants ‘Malo’ and ‘Pake’) in the Nisqually Journal. Kehow worked as a labourer at Fort Vancouver between 1850 and the following year, when he deserted on the 30th June, 1851. Barman and Watson suggest Kehow may be the same individual as ‘Kahua’, a sawmill worker at Nanaimo between1856 and 1859.

Sources:

  • Barman, Jean and Bruce Watson, Leaving Paradise: Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006).
  • Farrar, Victor J., “The Nisqually Journal, Continued from Vol. XI, Page 149, [April, 1850],” The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3, (July, 1920): 218-229. http://journals.lib.washington. edu/index.php/index/search/titles?searchPage=174 .
Frederick Gentz