Hawaiian Place Names - Notes

1. Administrative history
a. Established – by Congress in Public Law 80-242 on 25 Jul 1947 in the Department of
Interior as an interagency board.
b. Predecessor agencies:
i. U.S. Board on Geographic Names (1890-1906) - created when President
Benjamin Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the Board and giving it
authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions.
ii. U.S. Geographic Board (1906-1934)
c. In the Department of the Interior:
i. Division of Geographic Names (1934-35)
ii. Advisory Committee on Geographic Names (1934-35)
iii. U.S. Board on Geographic Names (1935-47)

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2. Reason for creation – address the complex issues of domestic geographic feature names
during the surge of exploration, mining, and settlement of western territories after the
American Civil War. Inconsistencies and contradictions among many names, spellings,
and applications became a serious problem to surveyors, map makers, and scientists who
required uniform, non-conflicting geographic nomenclature.

3. Purpose - Standardizes and maintains geographic name usage throughout the Federal
Government by making decisions on name conflicts and on proposals for new names, in
cooperation with State, local, and foreign governments.

a. Usefulness – The USBGN serves the Federal Government and the public as a central
authority to which name problems, name inquiries, name changes, and new name
proposals can be directed. In partnership with Federal, State, and local agencies, the
Board provides a conduit through which uniform geographic name usage is applied
and current names data is promulgated.

b. Decisions of the Board were accepted as binding by all departments and agencies of
the Federal Government.

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3. Purpose - Standardizes and maintains geographic name usage throughout the Federal
Government by making decisions on name conflicts and on proposals for new names, in
cooperation with State, local, and foreign governments.

a. Usefulness – The USBGN serves the Federal Government and the public as a central
authority to which name problems, name inquiries, name changes, and new name
proposals can be directed. In partnership with Federal, State, and local agencies, the
Board provides a conduit through which uniform geographic name usage is applied
and current names data is promulgated.

b. Decisions of the Board were accepted as binding by all departments and agencies of
the Federal Government.

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1. Origin - Developed by USGS for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as
a. the official repository of domestic geographic names data;
b. the official vehicle for geographic names use by all departments of the Federal
Government; and
c. the source for applying geographic names to Federal electronic and printed products.

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2. What is it?
a. It is a database that contains information about physical and cultural geographic
features of all types in the United States, associated areas, and Antarctica, current and
historical, but not including roads and highways.
b.
b Composed of 5 separate databases - originally
i. The National Geographic Names Database (aka GNIS)
ii. The USGS Topographic Map Names Database
iii. Generic Database – Feature types (63)
iv. National Atlas Database - Gazateer
v.
v USBGN Database – GNIS associated information
3. What does it do?
a. Holds the Federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location
by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes
include names or spellings other than the official name, feature designations, feature
classification, historical and descriptive information, and for some categories the
g
geometric boundaries.
b. Assigns a unique, permanent feature identifier, the Feature ID, as the only standard
Federal key for accessing, integrating, or reconciling feature data from multiple data
sets.

c. Maintains data from a broad program of partnerships with Federal, State, and local
government agencies and other authorized contributors, and provides data to all levels
of government, to the public, and to numerous applications through a web query site,
government public site
web map and feature services, file download services, and customized files upon
request.

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1. Origin - created by Act 50 (Chapter 4E, Hawaii Revised Statutes) of the 1974
Hawaii State Legislature.

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2. Purpose – “..to assure uniformity in the use and spelling of the names of
geographic features within the State..”

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3. Membership
a. Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources or their representative
– Holly McEldowney
b. Chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs or their representative – Haunani
Apoliona,
Apoliona
c. Chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission or their representative –
William K. Mills
d. Director of the Office of Planning or their representative – Craig Tasaka
e. President of the University of Hawai‘i or their representative – Naomi Losch
f. State Land Surveyor or their representative – Gerald Goo
g. Bernice P. Bishop Museum – Betty Kam

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4. Responsibilities
a. Designation the official names and spellings of geographic features in Hawai‘i.
b. In its deliberations, the Board solicits and considers the advice and
recommendations of the appropriate County government officials and, as
appropriate,
appropriate other knowledgeable persons.
persons
c. Upon approval, the Board informs appropriate State and other agencies of
relevant name changes or decisions.
d. As appropriate, the Board’s name recommendations, together with information
regarding location, the original and meaning of names and alternative names
and spellings for the features named are sent to the U. S. Board on Geographic
Names (USBGN) for their review and consideration.
( )

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1. Origin – In 1999 the U.S. Geological Survey provided the HBGN and
opportunity to add diacritical marks to those place names currently on the
1:24,000 topographic quadrangle maps.

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2. Why is it important? - Diacritical marks are crucial to pronunciation and
meaning of Hawaiian place names. The place names ‘corrections’ will be
added to the official federal database known as the Geographic Names
Information System (GNIS). The names in GNIS are considered the ‘authority’
for all Federal Government publications including USGS topographic maps.
maps
This means that eventually all maps published by the Federal government will
include the Hawaiian orthography (diacritical marks) that reflect the meaning
the place names.

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Inspired by Coeur d`Alene (CDA) Native Names Project
Workshop Aug 19, 2007
a. Morning was background on the project
i. CDA Native Names Purpose – to preserve the place names, language, and history
of those locations
ii. In the 1960’s one of the last CDA elders, Filipe Aripa, recognized they were losing
their language. So he began writing down some of the place names and their
meanings in a booklet for the schools and community members.
iii. Frank Roberts, the GIS coordinator, had a college student needing a GIS project to
videotape Filipe talking about the significance of the places in the actual locations
and use a GPS to record the latitude and longitude
longitude.
iv. The data was further processed by one of Franks staff members and incorporated
into their GIS.
v. CDA worked out an agreement with the USGS to provide Native Names to the
National Map. When you check ‘Native Names’ on the National Map, you are
getting ‘data’ directly from CDA’s servers.
vi.
vi CDA Native Names Funding – U S Geologic S r e (USGS), ESRI, CDA Tribe,
U.S.Geologic Survey (USGS) ESRI Tribe
National Park Service (NPS), Foundation Northwest

b. Afternoon was review of project components
i. Editing tips for audio/video/database project components,
.
ii. Input our own d
pu ou ow data
iii. National Map data push before we the workshop ended

c. CDA Native Names Project Distribution
a. National Map
b. Google Earth
c. ArcIMS Webserver

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National Map – Small Scale w/Hawaii place names

Themes –> Geographic Names –> Native Names

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National Map – Large Scale w/CDA place names

Themes –> Geographic Names –> Native Names

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CDA GIS Web page – Small Scale w/ Hawaiian Place Names

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CDA GIS Web page – LargeScale w/ Hawaiian Place Names

Note – some correction is needed (diacriticals not input properly)

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Google Earth – Large Scale w/ Hawaiian Place Names

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Google Earth – Small Scale w/ CDA Place Names
See http://gis.cdatribe-nsn.gov/NativeNames/SearchNativePull.aspx

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Project scope –

a. Using as a model the good work that has been done by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, we intend to emulate and
build upon their efforts to be applicable to the similar, yet different Hawaiian situation.

b.
b To provide outreach assistance to the Native Hawaiian community by documenting the proper spellings
and pronunciations of Hawaiian place names.

c. To provide The National Map with Native Hawaiian ‘geographic names’ that are significant to the
Native Hawaiian community living in or with genealogical ties to the geographic region.

Project deliverables –

a. Phonetic digital audio clip (for pronunciation) with phonetic script - Source information is considered
integral and thus we will INCLUDE the name and other pertinent information of the person whose voice is
on the phonetic audio clip. Can sources choose to be anonymous?
b. Photo folder – photos will include metadata in captions. Can we create an interactive 3D landscape photo
‘framing’ where geocoded camera pushpins indicate photo direction and date taken?
c. Video presentation – digital video of knowledgeable, respected community members sharing their
knowledge of place name meaning, legends, etc. Again source information is considered integral since
different people relate to the cultural landscape according to their personal experiences. For example,
fishermen and women will have more intimate knowledge of place names in coastal and near shore
locations whereas farmer and cattle ranchers may have more detailed knowledge of inland place names.
Thus we will INCLUDE the name and other pertinent information of the person(s) sharing their knowledge
of place name meanings and legends.
d. Possible BONUS features -
i. Associated genealogies
ii. Associated gods/guardians/guides
iii. Video animation - Step back in time re-creation and animation of historic landscapes (VNS 2)
iv. Associated mele (songs – not a downloadable feature)
v. Associated oli (chants – not a downloadable feature)
( )
vi. Associated hula (dances – not a downloadable feature)

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a. Phase 1 – Assessment
i. Analyze work done by Coeur d`Alene (CDA) tribe to determine what elements could be used and what
elements can be added to enhance this project to make it culturally specific to Hawai‘i.
ii. Attend COGNA annual conference to engage with the USGS Domestic Names Committee (DNC) and
other State Naming Authorities (SNA) to inform them of the work being done by the Hawai‘i Board on
Geographic Names (HBGN) and determine other States’ methodology for collecting ‘field data’.
iii. Attend HBGN and HIGICC meeting to present findings from the CDA native names workshop and the
COGNA annual conference, propose an area of interest and a webpage design, and garner suggestions
and identify resources available to their respective membership that can be used in this project.
b. Phase 2 – Methodological development and field work
i. Conduct community presentations to familiarize community members with the HBGN and this project.
It is meant to ensure a level of trust between all parties and the research design allowing the community
to define both those specific cultural elements to be incorporated and identify key community members
with which to have directed dialogues for further data collection.
ii. Carry out directed dialogues with key community members to verify and/or correct Hawaiian place
names, learn the stories or reasons places were given names.
iii. Collect digital audio and/or digital video clips of the correct pronunciations and any stories or legends
associated with each place name.
iv. Record latitude and longitude in NAD83 for any place name not currently in the GNIS that the
community determines should be shared with the public.
v. Maintain a detailed metadata record of the dialogues and digital files collected.
c. Phase 3 – Incorporating storied place names
i. Provide digital data and metadata to the State Office of Planning (OP).
ii. Assist OP in developing and managing the HBGN website to accommodate the digital data collected.
iii. Conduct f ll
iii C d t follow-up community presentations to share data collected and get community support for all
it t ti t h d t ll t d d t it tf ll
names from their community being incorporated into the HBGN website.
d. Phase 4 – Follow through
i. Assist with future grant requests.
ii. Conduct follow-up presentations at HBGN and HIGICC meetings to present project progress report.
iii. Begin submission process for new names identified in the project area.
iv.
iv Write final pilot project report.
report

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Hawaiian Place Names - Notes

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