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00:00Let's go.
00:52The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong.
00:56My name is Scott Wolter, and I'm a forensic geologist.
01:00There's a hidden history in this country that nobody knows about.
01:04There are pyramids here, chambers, tombs, inscriptions.
01:08They're all over this country.
01:10We're going to investigate these artifacts and sites, and we're going to get to the truth.
01:15Sometimes history isn't what we've been told.
01:35This is Scott Wolter.
01:37I'm on vacation this week.
01:39Leave a message and I'll call you when I get back.
02:14Look at Grant.
02:16He's followed like five times.
02:20It looks fun, though.
02:22I might go out there in a little bit and give it a try.
02:24I can do that.
02:26Well, I don't know.
02:28Excuse me.
02:29Have you seen any of these?
02:32Oh.
02:33Um.
02:34No, I haven't.
02:35Jan, have you seen anything like that?
02:37You know, I think I have.
02:38Over that way.
02:39Oh.
02:40Thanks.
02:41See you, guys.
02:45I think I'm going to get another drink.
02:46You want something?
02:47Nope.
02:47I'm good.
02:48All right.
02:49I'll be back in a little bit.
02:58My family and I are on vacation at Aulani, a Disney resort and spa, one of our favorite places to
03:05visit.
03:07There's no better place to sit back and relax.
03:11But as my family would be the first to tell you, that can be hard for me to do.
03:18Even on vacation, it seems like I always come across some intriguing aspect of American history yet to be explored.
03:33Hi, could I get a lilikoi, please?
03:40Excuse me.
03:41Do you know what the deal is with these little elves up here?
03:45You know, those actually aren't elves.
03:46They're menehune.
03:47They're mythical little people that have known to inhabit the Hawaiian Islands before the Hawaiians arrived here.
03:51Some kids came up and showed me a little interactive game with these elves or menehune.
03:57The game is a menehune adventure trail for the kids or the family to go learn about the menehune throughout
04:02the resort.
04:04Back when the idea of Aulani started, when Disney started this idea, they said we wanted to tell the true
04:09stories of white.
04:10And so they went out and did years of research.
04:12And the story of the menehune was just so intriguing, we realized that it was something we wanted to make
04:16sure that our guests got to learn about.
04:18So the menehune, this is mythical legend, right?
04:21Well, the Hawaiian culture, you know, it's a complex culture.
04:24There was the gods, the ali'i, or the royalty, and then the makainana, the common people who worked the
04:30land and fished and farmed.
04:32And that's always one of the questions.
04:33So where did the menehune fit within those classes and where did they fit within the Hawaiian culture?
04:38I just want to clarify one thing.
04:40You're saying that these menehune people, they're real?
04:43You know, it's interesting.
04:44There's myths, there's legends.
04:45But there's a lot of physical structures that are attributed to the menehune.
04:49Here in Hawaii?
04:49Here in Hawaii, especially on the island of Kauai, but throughout the state.
04:57There's over 200 of these menehune around the resort.
05:00I'd be glad to show you around if I'd take a look.
05:02Well, you have me intrigued, so I'd love to learn more.
05:14This is actually part of the menehune adventure trail, that game that we talked about.
05:18So as the story goes, the menehune were little people, so maybe two or three feet tall.
05:22They lived up in the forest, up in the highlands.
05:25And they only came out at night, so you never saw them.
05:27They probably inhabited these islands before the Hawaiians arrived here.
05:32What evidence do we have for this?
05:34You look at some of the stories throughout the Pacific Islands, and places like Tahiti and
05:38the Marquesas have similar stories about an ancient civilization, or an ancient people that were
05:44called the menehune.
05:45So as you put those things together, you start to see there's some evidence.
05:49These myths may be true.
05:50So really, you've got a couple of options.
05:52One is the menehune could have been the first people to inhabit Hawaii, or they could be these
05:58little people that you've talked about.
06:00Maybe it's both.
06:02Maybe it's both.
06:03And there's one of them hiding in the bushes right there.
06:06They're hiding everywhere, right?
06:07Yeah, that's why they're here.
06:12Todd, I'm a little skeptical.
06:14I'm a geologist, so I need some hard evidence.
06:18There's a number of these ancient, very unique walls, temples, waterways, and the stories
06:23are that those were built by the menehune.
06:25Looking at these stone walls and structures, there's a possibility I could put a timeline
06:29on it.
06:30Maybe they do go back to the time of these menehune people.
06:33The thing you've got to remember also is that the Hawaiian culture was an oral culture,
06:36so there is no written history.
06:38You have to rely on those oral histories to tell you the truth about the past.
06:42There are many cultures that have rich and deep oral histories, and they're all based
06:46in at least some facts, so I'm willing to go along with that.
06:50However, I'm really struggling with this whole Hawaiian hobbit thing.
06:54I'll tell you, menehune's are not hobbits, but hobbits are real.
06:57I've seen them at the University of Hawaii.
07:14While on vacation in Hawaii, I stumbled across legends of a tiny race of people once thought
07:20to inhabit the Hawaiian islands.
07:25They built large rock structures, and that's something I want to investigate.
07:31The menehune were said to have been about two to three feet tall and to have lived in the forest.
07:36Far beyond the stories of these little people is a Hawaiian history steeped in legend and lore.
07:45Hawaii, the northernmost outpost of the region known as Polynesia, became a state in 1959.
07:52By then, the island's population had already been thriving for hundreds of years.
07:58Their society was governed by a monarchy, of which King Kamehameha was the most well-known ruler.
08:06The Hawaiian people's legends were passed down over time that spoke of gods, goddesses, and menehune,
08:13and were similar to legends in other parts of Polynesia.
08:23I think that often in legend, there is truth, and I want to know, were these menehune real?
08:30While my family is back at the hotel, I'm headed to find out what the so-called hobbits at the
08:35University of Hawaii
08:36have to do with this mystery.
09:10Hi, Mike. Scout Walter.
09:11Hi. Nice to meet you.
09:13So I'm investigating the legends of the menehune people here in Hawaii,
09:18and I was told that you have evidence of little people or hobbits here at the University of Hawaii.
09:24Is that true?
09:25What we do have here is a cast of one of the so-called hobbits' skulls from the island of
09:31Flores in Indonesia,
09:33and the scientific name for this specimen is Homo floresensis.
09:40The term Homo floresiensis refers to an extinct group of people who were just three and a half feet tall.
09:47They had big feet, just like the hobbits in Tolkien's famous novels,
09:52and have been found only in Indonesia, where their skeletal remains turned up in 2003.
09:58The question is, could they have left Indonesia and made it to Hawaii, where they came to be known by
10:04another name, the menehune?
10:05That's a small skull. Is this a normal skull here?
10:09Yes. Right.
10:10That's half the size.
10:12It's one-third the size.
10:13One-third.
10:14Right here we have a sort of an artistic recreation of one of these four resensis specimens,
10:20and you can see that the arm actually extends quite well down the leg, perhaps below the knees.
10:27Well, how do we know that this isn't a juvenile, a child?
10:30It's quite interesting you ask that, because the original discoverer, his first impression was that it was, in fact, a
10:36child.
10:36But if you look at it more closely, compared with that of a six-year-old child,
10:41this is a child's skull and with baby teeth, two molars, canine, and two incisors.
10:47Adult teeth, you can see, are quite different.
10:50They have premolars and two premolars, which are completely lacking in the child's skull.
10:54So, for resensis, it says the typical adult teeth.
10:58So, no question that this is an adult.
11:00Well, there's no question about it.
11:01It's very obvious.
11:03Right.
11:04Okay, so we're talking about Indonesia here.
11:06We're talking about a race of small people.
11:07What would be the most recent time that we know they existed?
11:10They were around up until 13,000 to 12,000 years ago, and then they disappear.
11:17Perhaps a volcanic eruption occurred, and that wiped them out.
11:21And after that point in time, only anatomically modern humans like ourselves are found in that part of the world.
11:27Okay.
11:27That same eruption also wiped out quite a few other faunal animal species, including the dwarf elephant species, etc., that
11:35were also found on this island.
11:36Small elephants?
11:38Right.
11:38Is there something going on here with this small group of creatures living on this island environment?
11:44What's happening there?
11:44It's not unprecedented to have a dwarfing of species when they're on, perhaps, a situation, an environment where there's less
11:52food, less resources.
11:53So, the optimum to survive is to get smaller.
11:57So, we have hobbit people and hobbit elephants?
12:00Right.
12:00So, would we call this human, or is it a different species?
12:04Ah, that's a big question, because there are a number of researchers who have looked at this material,
12:09and they have suggested that it might be a dwarf species of humans.
12:14On the other hand, other people have suggested that it might have suffered from some sort of a disease, which
12:21could have been genetic in origin.
12:23This is new ground as far as evolutionary studies, is it not?
12:26Well, it really does throw a wrench into the whole picture about how evolution was explained up until this time.
12:33So, this is a pretty controversial skull we're holding, isn't it?
12:36Yeah, extremely controversial.
12:38Looking at the little people you're talking about here in Indonesia, is it possible that they may have come from
12:43Indonesia here to the Hawaiian Islands?
12:46And, if so, who would they have encountered, and what do you think might have happened?
12:51Well, I would say, first, they'd have to get out of Indonesia.
12:55They'd have to have sophisticated technology and navigation skills.
12:59Have you found any small bones here in the Hawaiian Islands?
13:01Yes, but they belong to children and infants.
13:04Certainly, we haven't found any small adult bones.
13:09Quite the opposite.
13:11The prehistoric Hawaiians and Polynesians in general were quite tall by even modern-day standards.
13:18Do you think there could be any truth to the myths and legends of the Menehune people?
13:22There could be.
13:23I'll leave open the door for that possibility.
13:25Until they find physical evidence, I guess I'm going to have to be a skeptic on this particular point.
13:32Yeah.
13:33Fair enough.
13:53Well, it's going pretty well.
13:59I learned that there was an ancient race of little people that lived in Indonesia about 12,000 years ago.
14:05Unfortunately, they haven't found any bones or remains of these little people in the Hawaiian Islands.
14:10Well, I found something interesting in our guidebook.
14:13Apparently, the Menehune were responsible for building a really big waterway on the island of Kauai.
14:19It's called the Menehune Ditch.
14:22You know what?
14:22That must have been one of the sites that Todd talked about.
14:25Yes, sir.
14:26It also says the island census recorded 65 Menehune living on the island in 1820.
14:3365 Menehune on Kauai?
14:36Pack your bags.
14:59Hawaiian lore tells of an ancient group of little people, just two to three feet tall, who lived in these
15:04islands long ago.
15:08I found evidence that little hobbit-like creatures really did exist 12,000 years ago in Indonesia.
15:15They completely disappeared, which makes me wonder if they came to Hawaii after being wiped out by a giant volcanic
15:22eruption.
15:35Of all the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai is the one with the most physical evidence that the Menehune existed.
15:44It turns out, the top of a massive stone ditch built by the Menehune is still visible.
15:51I brought my family along to help me examine it.
15:54So how do you know so much about the Menehune?
15:57I was working on the Nepali coast, training tour guides, and I ran across stories with the Menehune, and I
16:02just decided to find out more.
16:04And how did you learn about the ditch here?
16:06Well, the ditch is pretty famous.
16:08It's the one structure that you can point at and touch and say the Menehune built this.
16:15The Menehune Ditch is known locally as Kiki'a Ola.
16:20That means Wall of Ola.
16:22And Ola was an ali'i or a king in early Hawaii.
16:26It was built to bring water around the cliff for the people of Ola so that they could irrigate their
16:32fields.
16:33When was it first documented?
16:35The first written record of the ditch was back in 1790s when Captain Cook and his crew were here.
16:43And they recorded it as being 24 feet high and quite long.
16:47They never did get to the end of it.
16:50So the Menehune built this?
16:52That's all we see that's left.
16:54Do we know for sure?
16:55Are these pieces still original?
16:56As far as anyone has been able to tell.
16:59Okay.
17:00These are original.
17:00Well, whoever built this, and this is very skilled masonry work, the edges are nice and square.
17:06The corners, they're tight joints.
17:09They've even notched some of the pieces like this one right here.
17:12So you mean this notched part right here down here?
17:14Yep.
17:14This particular type of masonry construction is called dry stacking.
17:19They didn't use a mortar to hold the joints together.
17:22They just cut it tight enough and perfect so that everything fit together so it basically became an interlocking single
17:29unit.
17:30According to the legend, the Menehune built this in one night.
17:34There were thousands of them, and they passed the stones from seven miles away, hand to hand, down the mountain.
17:41One night?
17:42One night.
17:43Okay.
17:44Well, I can certainly appreciate and respect local legends and myths, but if this was 24 feet tall,
17:51and all this is hand-cut stone, and it came from seven miles away, I think that's a stretch.
17:58When I look at these rocks, and then when I look at the rocks here, these lava flows, that's vesicular
18:03basalt.
18:04This is vesicular basalt.
18:06Why would you carry these stones seven miles hand to hand?
18:10And these are huge blocks.
18:11I mean, look at these things.
18:12They weigh hundreds of pounds apiece.
18:15What I'd like to do is take a closer look at the stone itself.
18:19Here, Grant, why don't you take some measurements of some of the stones.
18:23Jan, do you mind taking some pictures?
18:29Turn on my microscope here.
18:30It seems crazy to me that anyone, small or big, would haul huge boulders for miles to build a wall
18:38that's made of the same material that appears to be right in front of them.
18:41Even though these rocks look the same, I need to know for sure.
18:45By examining this rock, I should be able to determine if the rock that's part of this volcanic deposit is
18:51the same as the rock used for the wall.
18:53Hey, Grant.
19:03You see the little gas bubbles all peppered through it?
19:06As the lava flows out, it generates these gas bubbles of water vapor and carbon dioxide, and they rise like
19:13carbonation does in a glass of pop or beer.
19:16Those are vesicles.
19:17And when I was looking up here at this rock, it's the same thing.
19:22I mean, you can even see them from here, peppered with those little vesicles.
19:26It's the exact same rock as this.
19:28Hey, Dad.
19:29How do you think they got them, like, cut so square like that?
19:32Well, they had to have used tools, and they were very skilled.
19:36I don't know if they had metal tools or not, but maybe they forged some metal tools.
19:40Based on what we found is that they didn't have metal tools in that day.
19:45We know that for sure.
19:46They had rock-cutting tools made of rock.
19:48That impresses me even more if they're using stone tools.
19:52That's a lot of work, but, boy, they sure did a good job.
19:55I can certainly respect the local legends, the whole seven-mile bringing the stone from a quarry there.
20:01As a scientist, that just doesn't make sense to me.
20:04It makes more sense that the rock is right here.
20:07It's the same in the wall as it is here.
20:10I got to go with they used the local rock.
20:13That's what I think.
20:13Well, there may be some basis to why the story says that they were carried from seven miles away.
20:20Okay.
20:21Because the Menehuni people were the stonemasons of the time.
20:25Okay.
20:26And the quarry, where they worked out of, traditionally, is up at the mountains, about seven miles away.
20:32So then it would make sense that they would want to build the wall from the stones from their own
20:37quarry.
20:37Well, that's possible.
20:39And if you look at sacred sites like Stonehenge, for example, the stones used to build it came from tens
20:44of miles away.
20:46They did it because these were sacred places.
20:48So if that's the case, that's interesting, and I can appreciate that.
21:02What can you tell me about Chief Ola, who commissioned this wall to be built?
21:06Well, pretty much doing genealogical studies have established that he lived around 1200 AD, and that he was a real
21:14person.
21:14And he also commissioned other works, not just the wall, but other works in this area.
21:19Sidney, in thinking about this legend of the Menehuni building this wall at night, a single night,
21:27could it mean that they were talking about at night as opposed to one night?
21:32It's got to be 90 here today, and it's like this probably almost every day.
21:36And so working at night, that might make sense.
21:39So maybe that's what it really means.
21:40I think you've got a point there.
21:42There's probably a good case that could be made.
21:44And this idea that they were little people, I'm struggling with that as well because these blocks,
21:50some of them are several hundred pounds apiece, and two to three foot tall people,
21:55I don't see them handling them at all like that.
21:58There's another theory about that.
22:00Menehuni is similar to the cross-Polynesian term that means lower class.
22:06So really what we're talking about is not so much the little people's stature, but their status.
22:13Yes.
22:13The Tahitians, they think they came over to Hawaii in about 1200 A.D.,
22:18which is about the same time as Chief Ola was doing all of these works in this area.
22:25And so it kind of fits that they would have applied the name Menehuni to these working people.
22:31You know, one of the things that I learned here just the other day was that there was a race
22:36of little people
22:37that lived in Indonesia that were about three and a half feet tall.
22:41But the idea that they would get all the way to the Hawaiian Islands and be the Menehuni people,
22:46they haven't found any bones or any other remains that indicate that they did get here.
22:50So the idea that it's not a stature thing, but a status thing really does fit together.
22:57Are there any other sites where I could possibly see more examples of stonework by the Menehuni people?
23:04Well, I'm not sure if it's the Menehuni people, but along the Nepali coast at Nualolokai,
23:09there's a lot of stonework there. You might want to check that out.
23:12There's no question that the Hawaiian people have a rich history and culture and legends.
23:18And I'm not leaving these islands until I get to the truth behind these mythical little people.
23:50I stumbled across evidence of an...
23:52ancient race of little people called the menahune while on vacation in hawaii legend says the menahune
24:00are responsible for building some of the oldest and most unique rock sites here and i'm kind of
24:06starting to believe it as the legend goes they only worked at night building these massive
24:13structures for things like irrigation and fish farming their only rule was that no one could
24:19watch them work if anyone saw them working the menahune would abandon the site whether or not
24:26they were small in size or small in terms of class i'm still not so sure
24:47i'm on my way to the nepali coast to look for more clues to who these people were
24:52but hawaiians take their legends seriously so if i'm going to figure out if there's truth behind
24:58this mystery which is embedded deep in their culture i'm going to have to immerse myself in it
25:10hi i'm scott walter aloha scott i'm saved roth
25:20hello i'm kiao oh oh nice to meet you i'm here investigating the ancient little people called
25:27the menahune and i just recently toured the menahuni ditch i saw very interesting styles of ancient
25:35construction that could possibly be related to these people so i'd like to learn more about the
25:40polynesians and their work we'd like to take you out to nualolokai on the nepali coast okay
25:46nualolokai is a very important cultural center for the entire island so we know that it was lived in
25:52that it was a pretty good-sized population they're not so sure if they were particularly menahune
25:57we're still looking into the function the uses of the place what we do know is that it's a place
26:03of a
26:03lot of manna mana what is mana mana is that energy that we have inside of us and then when
26:10there's a
26:10lot of human activity in a place it's what we leave behind this place sounds amazing should we shove off
26:16yep
26:54no way is that what i think it is yes it is is that an x normally when i've studied
27:01x carvings in the
27:02past it's been connected to templar symbolism since there is no evidence that the templars ever made it
27:08to the pacific this x may mark the spot of something completely different but also important
27:35our legends tell us of many migrations to these islands from the south pacific and among some of
27:40the most famous legends is the legend of pele pele was the goddess of the volcano the goddess of fire
27:46well when pele landed here she marked this place with an x that is our legend x marks the spot
27:52right
27:53here that's it what i see here is pele did a wonderful job with the geology causing two different
27:59fractures in this pile of volcanic rock and sediments to fracture in this x form and then fill with lava
28:08and if you look in the middle you can tell which one came first and which one came second the
28:13one
28:13that goes from the upper left to the lower right came first and then the one from the lower left
28:18to
28:19the upper right came next can you just imagine the incredible forces of nature that would have caused
28:24that to fracture and it would be probably earthquakes that caused that fracture to open up
28:29so maybe pele was upset about something oh she was always said to have a very fiery nature
28:34this is a great spot no question let's go over this way i'll show you some of the walls over
28:39here
28:39great
28:56now this is not an old historic structure this this has been restored correct
29:01yeah we restored this in 2007 there have been two tsunamis that washed away most of these rocks
29:07and when we came across it there were only the foundation stones that were there most of this was
29:12knocked over well this is different than what i saw at the menuhuni ditch you have multiple rock types here
29:22there are cultural reasons for the mix in rock type we call this type of stone a lot this is
29:29called
29:29paakea this is a product of the ocean which is a representation of kanaloa the god of the ocean
29:35and then this would be a representation of kane who is another god and he's represented in
29:41rock form basalt rock but what's unique about this here in the hawaiian islands is that you don't really
29:47see this kind of structure this type of architecture with the stand-up sandstone that's really reflective
29:53of the type of architecture that's done in the south pacific places like around tahiti marquesas
30:00to omoto islands these are different elements of different cultures from eastern polynesia
30:06so they brought that here that technology okay yes so how far back to these date
30:13probably as much as 700 years ago so my understanding is that the polynesians arrived
30:19in the hawaiian islands around 1200 or so ad do you think that there were people here when they
30:25arrived that go back much further it's very possible that there could have been many of our stories
30:30tell about a people who were shorter in stature and arrived earlier if people brought this rock technology
30:37from as far away as eastern polynesia roughly 3 000 miles away i wonder if the hobbits from indonesia
30:45could have traveled the 6 000 miles from flores island to hawaii
30:52some of the legends say the menehune were already here when the first polynesian voyagers got here
30:58around 1200 a.d oral histories support that legend
31:04oral histories also suggest the menahune were little but i'm still not sure if they were small in
31:10stature or status i recently learned that in the late 1800s the census for hawaii there were a few
31:18dozen people who actually claimed to be menahune were the menahune real yes we have too many stories
31:25about the menahune that described them in great detail to think otherwise they had their own ali'i their
31:32own uh kings they had their own professionals the menhune were a race to themselves we know about
31:39them in much more detail because there's much more engagement between them and us kanaka from way back
31:44when it seems that around 100 years ago people started to write about them and uh it was that time
31:53when hawaii was becoming really romanticized to the world and so there are these uh dreamy characters that
31:59were written about who were like fairies that lived in the forest i think a legend begins with an
32:06element of truth in it and over the years it's uh enlarged but i think there is an element of
32:12truth
32:12in the belief that there were many huni here in these islands
32:27this is a pretty extensive stone complex this area has references to ceremonies having to do with
32:35dedication of canoes before they get launched out for long voyages how did they make those trips
32:41what were they used to navigate well i think in order to understand polynesian navigation you need
32:46to go to koholavi has anyone ever found evidence of the menahune there i don't know but archaeologists
32:53have found over 500 sites of cultural importance on that island alone but i thought that island was
32:59off limits they used it as a bombing target for decades right oh yes they did and there's still
33:04many unexploded bombs there on the island and in the ocean so you have to be very careful we may
33:11be
33:11able to get you on a boat there but you might have to swim in part of the way that's
33:16okay with me
33:36my family vacation has turned into a quest to uncover the truth behind the legend of the menahune
33:42in hawaii i've been given special access to kaho'olawe a sacred cultural site that for many years was
33:50used as a bombing range for the u.s military no one has ever looked for evidence of the menahune
33:58there
33:58but if any evidence exists i want to find it and i'm going to get there any way i can
34:25when i first heard the legend of the menahune a supposed race of tiny people who built things for the
34:31hawaiian elite under the cover of darkness i thought it sounded far-fetched but what i've
34:37learned on my hawaiian vacation turned investigation is that the menahune were real and that part of the
34:43legend is true
35:02i've learned they might be small in size or small in status
35:06either way there's no question in my mind they did exist but i want to know how they got here
35:13and the final clue i need might be on the island of kaho'olawe
35:18kaho'olawe has had a long difficult past once a culturally sacred site years of ranching in the
35:261800s decimated much of the vegetation on the island it was used as a bombing test site after japanese
35:33forces attacked pearl harbor launching the united states into world war ii it continued to be a
35:39military training site for the next 50 years today many unexploded bombs remain on the island
35:46and in the process of restoring it people are discovering ancient sites never before seen
36:16so i understand you've done a lot of work with the archaeology here and the cultural studies on the
36:21island tell me about that since 1990 my family was involved with being here with the protect of
36:27olavia ohana were very passionate about stopping the bombing and at that time the bombing wasn't uh
36:34it was it was still going on still going on
36:39the island was bombed since 1939. do you remember the bombs oh i sure do i grew up on the
36:46island of
36:47maui and our houses would shake and our windows would rattle and at that time nobody really understood
36:53the impact of what was really happening here on this island and its importance to to our culture so
36:59what makes the island so important so sacred this island was the gateway for navigation lots of sites
37:06here are aligned to the movements of the stars the moon and the sun and this is where navigators
37:11would come to to basically learn about that we're far enough south that we can see the southern hemisphere
37:17stars from this area and that would train you to be prepared to go down south easily and then also
37:26vice versa to come back up to be able to return here to hawaii so in essence what you're saying
37:31is that this
37:31island was critical for the ancient navigators extremely critical to be able to leave and return
37:38i've learned an awful lot about the menehune most people think of them as hairy little trolls with
37:44the round bellies in our culture the menehune come with the migration of pele the volcano goddess
37:51pele brings with her the menehune who were given the task to watch over children of gods or children of
37:59uh chiefs and they actually maintained things they helped to build the older ancient type of sites
38:06that we have here in hawaii that's what their function was for us in in our society so you can
38:13see that it followed that movement of that migration all the ancient people who traveled to the hawaiian
38:19islands are said to have come here to kaho'olawe and that would mean that the menehune came here too
38:26it's possible they came from the island of flores in indonesia after they were driven out by a
38:32volcanic eruption flores is where evidence of little people with striking similarities to the
38:38menehune have been found it's also possible they came from somewhere else from this island you can
38:45see almost the entire hawaiian island chain and into the sea far beyond if the menehune did come from
38:53indonesia maybe this is where they landed after being driven out thousands of years ago
39:11wow look at these islands so this is where they brought the navigators to teach them about long
39:18range navigation is that correct if you look across the vista here we can see all of the major peaks
39:24that are very important for those who are navigating from the south up back to hawaii this is the spot
39:30that
39:30you'd want to be from this spot you can see lanai molokai maui the big island of hawaii and on
39:39a very
39:39clear day even the island of oahu just off the coast you can also see what is known as the
39:47road to tahiti
39:48an oceanic channel that ancient polynesian voyagers used to travel from tahiti to hawaii and back well
39:56this is amazing tell me about this place this is our bell stone it's got iron in it and if
40:03you bang it on
40:03the end there there's actually a sound you would use it to call this would be an ancient cell phone
40:08that you would use to dial into whomever it was that you were calling to do your ceremony
40:20so did the menehune come here and if they did did they use the island also for navigation
40:27and observation as of today there's really no stories that talk about that here we've got lots
40:32of research to do it's not saying that it doesn't exist it still may be out there and we still
40:37need
40:37to find information one thing i've learned in all my investigations is that the absence of evidence
40:49doesn't mean that evidence doesn't exist it just means it hasn't been found yet
40:56well i'm not ready to say the menehune were three and a half feet tall were members of a hawaiian
41:01lower
41:02class or descendants of the so-called hobbits from indonesia i am ready to say they were real
41:11the menehune are part of too many stories and connected to too many sites to think otherwise
41:18i think it's just a matter of time before hard evidence turns up
41:22offering more clues about who the menehune really were
41:27these ancient long-range trips across the ocean they really happened and they happened regularly
41:34regularly and repeatedly more than once well it is incredible and i think i have a better
41:41understanding of these menhune people they are part of our history and we descend from that history
41:49the legends that we have is the information that we need to restore some of the ancient knowledge
41:55and as we do that we can understand my ancestors a lot better and how they saw the world around
42:01them
42:01what you have shown me here today convinces me that an ancient race of people like the menehune
42:07could have made it here to the hawaiian islands thousands of years ago
42:19our hawaiian vacation which started with fruity drinks on the beach turned out to be a lesson
42:25into the power of legend the ancient polynesians used oral stories to record their amazing history
42:32and the menhune were part of that history
42:39there's no proof the so-called hobbits from indonesia traveled here and became the menhune
42:44but the fact that such a small race of people existed there proves it's possible a small race of
42:50people could have lived here too i think the menhune were part of a united group of oceanic voyagers
42:58who laid the foundation for what the hawaiian culture is today their story confirms that there
43:05is always some truth in legend all of polynesia is filled with stories of amazing people navigating
43:13their way toward new discoveries that we're just beginning to understand
43:26if you have a mysterious artifact or site i need to see i want to know about it go to
43:32history.com
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