S. Nuuhiwa, Famed Kauai Cowboy, Dies

SIMEON KIAAINA NUUHIWA

One more tie with the Islands’ colorful past was cut last week when 69-year-old Simeon Kiaaina Nuuhiwa, white-bearded old time cowboy of Kauai, died here.

Many remember Kiaaina, as he was better known, as the old man who thatched roofs on Hawaiian huts, chanted old songs of whaling days or outdanced younger men in the hulas after the luaus.

A few kamaainas remember Kiaaina as the guide who blazed the trail between Kalalau and Ha-ena on Kauai before any roads existed. The Rice and Wilcox families on Kauai remember him as a hard-riding cowboy who long and faithfully guarded their interests on the ranges.

Kiaaina did much to preserve Hawaiian customs and traditions, joining the Mossman Hawaiian School troupe in 1929 which toured the Islands to awaken interest in his native tongue and culture, fast passing into limbo.

[I could find no reference to the Kiaaina referenced in today’s Welo Hou post, but I did find a number in the English newspapers, including this one.]

(Advertiser, 7/5/1937, p. 5)

The Honolulu Advertiser, 82nd Year, Number 18,223, Page 5. July 5, 1937.