What Is a Paniolo? Hawaiian Cowboys, 1793 to Today

Paniolo are Hawaii's cowboys. They have been roping cattle on Hawaii Island since the 1830s, decades before the cattle drives of the American West, and they did it their own way — with lei on their hats, slack key guitar by the fire, and a plaid work shirt called palaka. Here in Waimea, the Paniolo are still at work.

1793: A gift of cattle

The story starts with a gift. In 1793, the British captain George Vancouver landed a handful of cattle on Hawaii Island and gave them to Kamehameha I, and he brought more the next year. The King placed a ten-year kapu on them, a sacred ban that made it forbidden to kill them, so the herd could grow.

It grew. With no predators and plenty of grass, the cattle went wild in the uplands around Mauna Kea and Waimea. By the mid-1800s, tens of thousands of wild cattle roamed the island, trampling crops and charging anyone who got in the way. Somebody was going to have to handle them.

1832: The vaqueros arrive

Around 1832, Kamehameha III brought vaqueros, Spanish-speaking cowboys from California, then part of Mexico, to teach Hawaiians how to ride, rope and work cattle. Hawaiians called them Español, and the word became Paniolo.

The students quickly became masters. Paniolo learned to rope from the saddle and to work the steep, rocky slopes of a volcano, ground that no mainland cowboy had ever ridden. With no deep-water harbor, they swam cattle through the surf to boats that carried them out to steamers waiting offshore, at Kawaihae and Kailua-Kona, until the 1950s. They made the saddles, the gear and the style their own.

Historic photos: Hawaii State Archives

Waimea and the ranches

John Palmer Parker, a young sailor from Massachusetts, jumped ship on Hawaii Island and stayed. He married Kipikane, a granddaughter of Kamehameha I, and in 1819 he got the King's permission to hunt the wild cattle and sell the beef to visiting ships. In 1847 he bought two acres at Mana, near Waimea, for ten dollars. That was the start of Parker Ranch, which grew into one of the largest cattle ranches in the United States.

Waimea grew up around the cattle. Ranches spread across the grasslands between Kohala and Mauna Kea and onto Maui, Oahu, Molokai and Kauai, and the town became Hawaii's cowboy capital. It still is.

Lei, slack key and palaka

Paniolo culture mixed the West with Aloha from the start. A Paniolo might wear a felt hat, or pāpale, ringed with a lei of flowers or feathers. Around the fire, Paniolo played Spanish guitars in open tunings, and that became kīhoʻalu, or slack key, one of Hawaii's great musical traditions.

And for work they wore palaka, the blue and white plaid that became Hawaii's original work shirt, worn on ranches and plantations all over the Islands. (Read more in Palaka, Hawaii's Original Work Shirt.)

1908: Hawaii's cowboys win in Wyoming

In August 1908, three Paniolo traveled more than 3,000 miles to Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming, the biggest rodeo in the West: Ikua Purdy, Archie Kaʻauʻa and Jack Low. The trip was the idea of Jack's brother, rancher Eben "Rawhide Ben" Low, who sponsored them. Nobody there expected much from cowboys from an island.

Purdy, who was born in Waimea and grew up on Parker Ranch, won the world steer roping championship. Kaʻauʻa took third and Jack Low sixth. When they came home, Hawaii threw parades and feasts, and people wrote songs and hula in their honor.

In 1999 Purdy was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. Today a bronze statue of a Paniolo roping a bull stands in his honor at Parker Ranch Center in Waimea, ringed by a bronze lei of ranch brands. Waimea and Cheyenne are sister cities.

Paniolo today

Ranching is still a way of life on Hawaii Island. Families work cattle on the same land their great-grandparents rode, and rodeos in Waimea, Honokaʻa and Makawao on Maui draw crowds every year. Paniolo still wear lei on their hats.

Western Aloha is based in Waimea, in the middle of it all, and our shirts are a tribute to the Paniolo: the spirit of the West and the spirit of Aloha in one shirt.

Shirts for Paniolo country

Frequently asked questions

What does Paniolo mean? Paniolo is the Hawaiian word for cowboy. It comes from Español, meaning Spanish or Spaniard, after the Spanish-speaking vaqueros who came to teach Hawaiians to work cattle in the 1830s.

Were there cowboys in Hawaii before Texas? Yes. Paniolo were working cattle on Hawaii Island in the 1830s, more than a decade before Texas became a state in 1845.

Where can I see Paniolo country? Waimea on Hawaii Island is the center of it, with Parker Ranch, the Ikua Purdy statue at Parker Ranch Center and rodeos through the year. On Maui, Makawao and Upcountry are ranch country too.

What did Paniolo wear? Felt hats with lei, and palaka, the blue and white plaid work shirt. Western Aloha makes palaka and Western snap shirts in Waimea's ranching tradition.

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More from Talk Story: Our Story · Palaka, Hawaii's Original Work Shirt · The History of the Aloha Shirt