Akahi

ʻAkahi (died October 8, 1877) was a high chiefess and female landholder of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Also known as "Akahi-a-Kaleiwohi", she was named after her great-grandmother Akahi-a-Kuleana. ʻAkahi was also the name of Akahi-a-Kuleana, the mother of 15th-century Hawaiian king ʻUmi-a-Līloa. A relation of the ruling House of Kamehameha, ʻAkahi was married to Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II and Kalanimoku, two prominent Hawaiian high chiefs and politicians during the early 19th century. She lived most of her life on the island of Hawaii where she was allocated vast landholdings after the Great Mahele of 1848. After her death in 1877, these lands were inherited by her relative Bernice Pauahi Bishop and upon the latter's death became part of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, which now funds the Kamehameha Schools.

Life and family Born in the early 19th-century, her parents were Pauwelua and Kaluai. Both parents were from aliʻi (noble) lines of descent. Her mother Kaluai was descended from the high chiefs of Waimea, Hawaii. From her father's family descent, she was a great-granddaughter of Keōua Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui Ahilapalapa, the father of King Kamehameha I who was the progenitor the House of Kamehameha and the unifier of the Hawaiian Islands. Her father Pauwelua descended from Keōua's last wife Akahi-a-Kawalu (her great-grandmother and namesake), who became the mother of Kaleiwohi who married Kailipakalua and had Pauwelua.

By the time of Bernice Pauahi Bishop's death in 1884, her estate consisted of 485,563 acres of land across the Hawaiian Islands which she had either purchased or inherited from her parents Pākī and Kōnia, from ʻAkahi, from her cousin Keʻelikōlani and other relatives. These lands were incorporated after Pauahi's death into the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estates, a trust which funds the Kamehameha Schools to the present day. In her will, Pauahi also temporarily gave the ahupuaʻa of Kealia, on the island of Hawaii, formerly belonging to Akahi, and Lumahai, on the island of Kauai, to Queen Liliuokalani "to have and to hold for and during the term of her natural life". Liliuokalani died in 1917 and these lands reverted to the Trustees of the Bishop Estate.