Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1987 — Hawaiian is Clark County Sheriff [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian is Clark County Sheriff

high school graduating class of 1956. Her business career has been in insurance but as well, she's had a background as kumu hula, kumu lio, pa'u draper, haku lei instructor and administrator for two pa'u organizations. Her daughters, Leiala and Ilima are following in her footsteps as horsewomen and musicians. Both Lita and John have served as officers of Hawaii Pa'u Riders; John as president, Lita as vice-president. As of Oct. 5, the organization elected new officers ( Angel Phillip, president and Wil Kaimikaua, vice-presi-dent) but John and Lita eonhnue to serve on the parade and publicity committees.

It is the Cooks' ambition to keep pa'u riding the fine professional tradition that it has been. Lita is a member in the Ahahui Kaahumanu Chapter 1, and is a former president of "Aloha Pa'u Riders" or "ladies of love," a non-profit organization whieh has since dissolved but whose original purpose was the teaching of horsemanship and parade pa'u riding to the members of the Ahahui Kaahumanu Chapter 1. Lita's taught her pupils skills such as body control, bridling, saddling, tacking, mounting, dismounting, grooming horse-hooves, haltering, making and using the bowline knot around the horse's neek, formation, flower making and of course that most important skill: the ability to project the charm and color of pa'u to the parade watcher. Both Lita and John are multi-talented performers but prefer to think of themselves as "horsepeople." The term describes a way of life demanding rigid integrity where horsemanship is concerned. Unfortunately, many pa'u riders cannot be described as "horsepeople," according to the Cooks. John comments with sadness on the decline of professional standards, especially among some of the younger folk who are not willing to put in the hours of practice needed to perfect the skill. "We've had some people who want very mueh to be pa'u riders and will go through everything, including the expense whieh is high. They'll do everything except leam to ride well. Beauty and actingability are nothingif the horsemanship isn't there. And it's not horsemanship when a pa'u rider can't mount her horse without using a stepladder, table, back of a truck, etc." Lita tells me that few riders are accepted either for stable work or for pa'u riding without some kind of offieial trial. In parade pa'u riding, the Kamehameha Day pa'u chairperson insists on trials; the Aloha Week pcirade administrator does not, allowing aspiring entrants to submit applications alone. The pa'u chairperson makes the ehoiee of princess and attendants. "You don't start off being a princess," says Lita. "First, you have to be an attendant." John frowns. "Well, it used to be that way. Nowadays, pa'u riding is so expensive that the only ones able to ride are those that own their horses. On that basis, you might get to be princess even without experience as an attendant." Lita continues. "It's so mueh work that people are reluctant to go to the expense. I mean, one year you ean be a princess. Then, the following year, you get put back to being an attendant. It's a rotation system and that part's fair, I guess, but look at the expense you went to the year before as princess! Lita and John admit that pa'u riding has undergone some changes. Daughter Leiala went to the 1984 and 1986 Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parades as banner girl, a recent innovation. Acutally, before the Cooks requested a change of rules in the 1980 Aloha Week Parade, the banner girl was always a banner boy in the pa'u parade unit. "Women's liberation?" I asked John. "Common sense. There are more girls than boys. And, of course, pa'u riding belongs to the girls. They're the stars of the show. No matter how good we escorts look, we don't forget that the most important parts of the show are the princess and her attendants. Pa'u units do have parade marshalls who are supposed to keep things under control. But they can't be everywhere so the escorts are constantly making sure that the girls' saddles aren't slipping or that their flowers aren't falling of that their formations are correct. The Cooks eall themselves "horsepeople" whieh means they don't only teach riders to be pa'u persons but to learn anything and everything connected with horsemanship. They encourage any of you out there who might wish to learn pa'u riding and to help them in their fundraising for the 1987 parades to eall them at 259-9250. They'll be happy to teach you horsemanship and the ancient arts and crafts of Hawaii, especially the art of making tileaves into leis, a successful fundraising project. Ho'olale i ka 'ai a ka u'i. Show what you ean do. — Maiy Kawena Pukui.

The sheriff of Clark County in Vancouver, Wash., a distinguished looking gentleman with a resonant voice and easy smile, is a full blooded Hawaiian named Frank Kanekoa. Originally from Maui, Kanekoa, as far as ean be determined, is the only Hawaiian sheriff in the United States. Last month he and Mrs. Kanekoa were back in the islands visiting friends and relatives. They also found the time to pay a courtesy eall on Office of Hawaiian Affairs Administrator Kamaki A. Kanāhele III along with his brother Ernest, sister Josephine Bird, her husband, Dr. Adren Bird and their daughter, Anela Smith. Sheriff Kanekoa, a former member of the Honolulu Poliee Department, left the islands in 1955. He went to Los Angeles where he worked for the telephone eompany, moved to Portland, Ore., in 1958 where he met his wife Leilani at a church dance. Despite her first name, Mrs. Kanekoa is not Hawaiian. She told Ka Wai Ola O OHA, "My family is a singing family and my father used to sing 'Sweet Leilani' all the time. So my mother decided if she ever had a daughter she would name her Leilani." The Kanekoa's eventually moved to Vancouver, Wash., where he first joined the city poliee department and then became a Deputy Sheriff. In 1978 he ran for sheriff beating his former boss, the incumbent sheriff. "The key to that race", he says, "is that the department personnel endorsed me over the sheriff". The population of Clark County is 205,000. As sheriff he is responsible not only for law enforcement, but for civil matters, the courts and the jail for the entire county as well. During the last General Election on Nov. 4, Kanekoa was elected to his third consecutive term as sheriff. When he completes that term he will have served a total of 12 years as the top law enforcement officer in Clark

County and he says he'll be ready to eome back home. As a matter of fact Kanekoa says, "My wife and children would move back tomorrow if I said OK". He already has applied for a Hawaiian Home Lands lease on Maui and hopes that in four years he will be able to have a plaee where he ean raise flowers or some other crop on the island of his birth.

Clark County Sheriff Frank Kanekoa