Hawaiian religion "Along with ancestors and gods, spirits are part of the family of Hawaiians. "There are many kinds of spirits that help for good and many that aid in evil. Some lie and deceive, and some are truthful ... It is a wonderful thing how the spirits ("ʻuhane") of the dead and the ‘angels’ ("anela") of the "ʻaumākua" can possess living persons. Nothing is impossible to god-spirits, "akua"." Kamehameha the Great died in 1819. In the aftermath, two of his wives, Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani, then the two most powerful people in the kingdom, conferred with the "kahuna nui", Hewahewa. They convinced
Hawaiian stilt Hawaiian stilt The Hawaiian stilt ("Himantopus mexicanus knudseni") is an endangered Hawaiian subspecies of the black-necked stilt ("H. mexicanus") species. It is a long-legged, slender shorebird with a long, thin beak. Other common names include the Hawaiian black-necked stilt, the aeʻo (from a Hawaiian name for the bird and word for stilts), the kukuluaeʻo (a Hawaiian name for the bird and word for “one standing high”), or it may be referred to as the Hawaiian subspecies of the black-necked stilt. The Hawaiian stilt is sometimes classified as a subspecies of the black-necked stilt, "Himantopus himantopus knudseni", or even as its