Chief Keʻeaumoku ('Īo)

Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiahiahi

By Brooke K. Parker

Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiahiahi (1736–1804) was a Hawaiian high chief and the father of Kaʻahumanu. His father was Hawaiʻi island chief Keawepoepoe and his mother was Kūmaʻaikū. Keʻeaumoku was a warlike and ambitious chief of the Kona district of Hawaiʻi island. He was among the first of five Kona chiefs to back Kamehameha I against his cousin Kiwalaʻo. In 1782, at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai near Keʻei, Kona, Keʻeaumoku led Kamehameha's warriors to victory, and Kīwalaʻō was killed. Kīwalaʻō was wearing an ʻahu ʻula (red feather cloak), which then became the property of Kamehameha (this feathered cloak is now in the collection of the Bishop Museum). One account states that the injured Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiaheahe crawled to Kīwalaʻō, who also had been injured, and then Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiaheahe slit the neck of Kīwalaʻō with a leiomano (shark-tooth weapon). While preparing for an invasion of Kauaʻi island against King Kaumualiʻi, an epidemic called maʻi ʻōkuʻu (likely cholera) infected King Kamehameha and many of his troops, killing thousands. Many of Kamehameha’s warriors died from the disease. Among them was Keʻeaumoku on March 21, 1804.

Keʻeaumoku Pāpaʻiahiahi (1736–1804) was a Hawaiian high chief and the father of Kaʻahumanu. He was the principal agent in elevating Kamehameha I to the throne of Hawaiʻi and served in a capacity similar to commander in chief or Prime Minister. He is sometimes referred to as Keʻeaumoku II Pāpaʻiahiahi numbering Keʻeaumoku Nui as the first and his son as the third.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeaumoku_Pāpaiahiahi