Necker Island (Hawaii)

The names Native Hawaiians in Ancient Hawaii used for the various Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have been lost. When the French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse became the first European to sight the island in 1786, he named it "Necker Island" after Jacques Necker, a Genevan banker and statesman who served as finance minister for Louis XVI of France. Among its efforts have been the creation of Hawaiian names for geographical features bearing non-Hawaiian names (i.e., exonyms). Although the original Hawaiian name of Necker Island is unknown, ancient Hawaiian chants refer to a "branching island" or "pinnacled island" (mokumanamana). Among the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Necker Island best fits the physical description of a "branched or pinnacled island," and the committee therefore assigned it the Hawaiian name Mokumanamana on the assumption that the ancient chants referred to it. ==Administration==

Politically, Necker Island is part of the City and County of Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. However, as part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, it is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It has no resident human population. ==Geography==

The remnant of a volcanic cone, Necker Island is located about southeast of the French Frigate Shoals on the northwestern end of a large, shallow ocean bank. It is a hook-shaped rocky ridge about long and between wide. Composed of basalt, the island is steep-sided and barren, with very little soil, It is the second-smallest of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Northwest Cape is connected to the rest of the island by a narrow gap that is barely above sea level. Necker Island has an average annual rainfall of just under . ==Flora and fauna==

Vegetation on Necker Island is limited to low shrubs and grasses, none more than tall. during nesting season, an estimated 60,000 birds nest on the island, and their eggs cover virtually every piece of level ground. No land birds live on the island. ==Archaeology==

Necker Island is known for its numerous religious sites and cultural objects. The heiau on Necker Island and Nīhoa are unique in the Hawaiian chain, constructed as a raised pavement of basalt stones with upright stones placed across this pavement, often near the edges; this differs from the form common on other islands in the chain, where heiau were built as a high stacked stone wall enclosing a central space. Demarcated cooking zones with ash residues prove that the caves were inhabited at times. Parts of human skeletons suggest that at least one cave also served as a burial site. According to the oral traditions of the people of Kauai, which lies to the southeast, Necker Island was the last known refuge for a race of mythical "little people" called the Menehune. According to the legend, the Menehune settled on Necker Island after being chased off Kauai by the stronger Polynesians and subsequently built the various stone structures there. ==Gallery==

File:Ki'i pohaku, Hawaiian stone image from Necker Island, Bishop Museum, 07447.JPG|Figure in the Bishop Museum File:Ki'i pohaku, Hawaiian stone image from Necker Island, Bishop Museum, 07540.JPG|Another figure in the Bishop Museum File:Vesicular basalt head from Mokumanamana (Necker Island), Hawaii, 9th-11th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|Head of a figure in the Metropolitan Musueum ==History==

Geological research in the early 21st century indicates that Necker Island is about 10 million years old. While it rises only about 84 meters (277 ft) above sea level now, it reached in height earlier in its history and at one time was comparable in size to modern Oahu. Hawaiians appear to have started visiting Necker Island a few hundred years after they settled the main Hawaiian Islands. Archaeologists believe that the island's poor soil for farming and its small size and relative lack of rainfall made it uninhabitable, and that the Hawaiians visited from Nīhoa and other nearby islands to worship at religious sites without establishing any permanent settlements. In 1785, the French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse left France to circumnavigate the world on a mission of exploration for the French Academy of Sciences aboard the ships Astrolabe (under command of Fleuriot de Langle) and Boussole. The expedition had just discovered the French Frigate Shoals (Basse des Frégates Françaises) and La Pérouse's namesake rock, La Perouse Pinnacle, when on November 4, 1786, La Pérouse and his crews became the first Europeans to visit Necker Island. as part of the British Empire telegraph network known informally as the All Red Line. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 and replaced by the Provisional Government of Hawaii, and when the British corvette arrived at Honolulu in 1894, the provisional government's president, Sanford B. Dole, became concerned that the United Kingdom was about to establish a claim to Necker Island. Wishing to curry favor with the United States rather than the United Kingdom, Dole immediately dispatched an expedition under Captain James A. King to Necker to annex the island. On May 27, 1894, a landing party of 12 men led by King went ashore on Necker for four hours, raised the flag of Hawaii on what became known as Annexation Hill, and read an annexation proclamation. The move brought international disputes over claims to the island to an end and the island was included in the Republic of Hawaii when it was founded on July 4, 1894, although the British government continued to attempt to negotiate with the Hawaiian government over use of Necker Island and on September 24, 1894, Champion landed a British party on the island. On June 15, 2006, the United States established the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, with Necker Island within its boundaries. ==Access==

Access to Necker Island is by boat, and is quite difficult because of the island's nearly vertical coastline. Heavy surf usually precludes landings along the coast in Shark Bay, but a small lee exists west of Northwest Cape, and landing on rocky shelves there is possible in moderately calm weather but can be dangerous in high surf. Visits to Necker Island are permitted only for scientific, educational, and cultural purposes and require the approval of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which gives preference to scientific and cultural visits. ==See also==