Setting the stage for a historic battle

Looking ahead to “Chief of War’s” climactic battle in episode 9, a question remains: What's it about, really?

Copyright © 2025 by Stephen Shender 

In episode 8 of “Chief of War,” Keōua Kū‘ahu‘ula orders his warriors to chop down palm trees in Kamehameha’s sacred grove, kidnaps the grove’s kahuna (priest)—whom he later tosses into the Kilauea volcano’s seething caldera, kills Ka‘iana’s brother Nahi in a fight, and sacrifices Nahi’s bones. It’s a multiply aggressive act that finally provokes the peace-seeking Kamehameha to concede Ka‘iana’s point that he must fight his cousin, Keōua. It’s also riveting drama.

Keōua, who previously tried without success to draw Kamehameha into a fight by burning down his village’s food stores, needn’t have gone to all that trouble. Simply chopping down a palm tree or two would’ve been enough.

Palm trees, nui, were sacred to Hawaiians. It was forbidden, kapu, for anyone to chop them down. For one ali‘i to fell a palm tree within another ali‘i’s jurisdiction was a provocative act almost sure to draw armed retaliation. Historically, that’s what sparked a bloody fight between cousins that followed the death of the Big Island’s ruler Kalani‘ōpu’u. But the fight wasn’t between Kamehameha and his cousin Keōua.

In “Chief of War,” Kalani‘ōpu’u has named Keōua to succeed him as the Big Island’s ruler and made his nephew Kamehameha the keeper of his war god Kū, in hopes of preventing a fight between cousins. Keōua wants the war god’s idol for himself, and that’s sufficient reason for him to go to war with Kamehameha in the Apple TV+ streaming series.

Historically and years before Ka‘iana arrived on the Big Island, Kalani‘ōpu’u gave Kū into Kamehameha’s keeping and named Kiwala‘ō, Keōua’s older brother, his heir. As the Big Island’s new ruler, Kiwala‘ō controlled all the island’s aina—land—except for the lands of the Kohala District, which Kalani‘ōpu’u willed to Kamehameha. Kiwala‘ō was free to divide the rest of the island among his subchiefs as he saw fit.

Suspicious that Kiwala‘ō intended to redistribute the land they’d held under Kalani‘ōpu’u to the island’s “rainy-side” chiefs, the “dry-side” Kona chieftains, led by Ka‘ahumanu’s father Ke‘eaumoku, pressured Kamehameha to come out of Kohala to join them in a war against his cousin. Reluctant to resort to arms, Kamehameha tried to persuade Kiwala‘ō to conciliate the Kona chiefs, without success.

Meanwhile, unprovoked, Kiwala‘ō’s brother Keōua and his warriors chopped down Kamehameha’s palm trees and killed some of Kamehameha’s people. Keōua’s brash attack decided the matter for Kamehameha and was the opening act of the Battle of Moku‘ōhai, which culminated in Kiwala‘ō’s death at the hands of Ke‘eaumoku. The historic battle was not fought over a feathered idol on a stick as “Chief of War” would have it. It was first, last, and always a fight over aina.

Other than the brutal unseating of Kiwala‘ō as the Big Island’s ruler, Moku‘ōhai settled nothing. The Big Island remained divided after Moku‘ōhai; Kamehameha and his Kona allies held Kohala and Kona, Keōua held Ka‘ū, and the cousins’ uncle held the Puna, Hilo, and Hāmākua districts. It would be another nine years before Kamehameha finally unified the Big Island under his rule.  

As with so much of “Chief of War,” its creators, Jason Momoa and Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, have taken liberties with Hawaiian history in their lead-up to the series’ forthcoming climactic battle in episode 9. In this instance, they’ve cut out the unfortunate middleman, Kiwala‘ō, in favor of jumping years ahead to Kamehameha’s later fight with Keōua. This was inevitable once Momoa and Pa‘a Sibbett chose Ka‘iana as their protagonist, because Ka‘iana wasn’t on the scene when Kamehameha and Kiwala‘ō went at it.

“Chief of War” was billed as the story of the fight to unify—more accurately, the fight over who would unify—the Hawaiian Islands. Historically, that fight was mainly resolved by a bloody battle between Kamehameha and the late Kahekili’s son, Kalanikūpule, on O‘ahu. Will that be what “Chief of War’s” final battle is about? It’s hard to imagine at this point, but who knows? Stay tuned…

Stephen Shender is the author of  Once There Was Fire, A Novel of Old Hawaii about the life of  Kamehameha and the unification of the Hawaiian Islands.