This project examines the transformation of water rights in Hawaii from 1820-1905 through in-depth interviews with local elders and systematic analysis of archival records and data (e.g., Water Commissioner Reports; Hawaiian and English language newspapers; District Court Records and Minute Books; Journals, Reports, and Letters of American Missionaries). The purpose of the study is to illuminate how state law affects indigenous legal systems and customary practices regarding the allocation of natural resources. Hawaii between 1820 and 1905 is an apt context for this research because customary practices of local people, imbedded within a world view of sharing and trusteeship over resources, clashed with a western view of resources and a western legal system of allocation based on ownership and contract enforcement. Also, Hawaii is a very interesting case since Hawaiians were in control of the government and themselves made many of the critical decisions to abandon local knowledge and embrace Anglo-American notions of the economy and law. This research should expand our understanding of the relationship between law and social change. In particular, it should add to knowledge of how the legal system affects culture in non-legal ways and how law silences certain voices and releases and encourages others in ways that go beyond a particular case or piece of legislation. Further, the study should contribute to our understanding of how major changes in the rules of resource allocation transform the social context and how vastly different belief systems as those of pre-contact Hawaiians and the Anglo- American common law merge to create new systems for resource use. Given the scarcity of environmental resources and the depletion of resources like water, it is especially important to learn more about how groups, communities, and nations arrive at arrangements and resolve disputes about ownership and usage rights.
