In early January 1975, a group of over 100 hippies from Los Angeles calling themselves Aquarians settled on leased land in Keapana Valley, Kauai, and soon aroused public concern by carrying bows and arrows and firing a .45-caliber handgun on their property. They were also accused of making threatening remarks to their neighbors.
“We are a nonviolent people,” countered Venus Aquarian, a spokesperson for the Aquarians, but their presence nevertheless continued to be the subject of harsh words, rumors, counter-threats and vandalism.
When Miss Aquarian later stated at a County Council meeting that “We are offering our energy to serve you,” Councilman Robert K. Yotsuda said her offer of help suggested that the people of Kauai were too helpless or ignorant to help themselves, and he asked whether the Aquarians had ever bothered to ask anyone on Kauai if they wanted help.
And, when she asked for county land so that Aquarians could farm for the people of Kauai, Council Finance Committee Chairman Jerome Hew responded by saying, “We ourselves do not have the land available for our own people.”
Councilman Louie “Smokey” Gonsalves then read a list of reports of related beatings in various areas, gunshots and other disturbances and shouted, “When that tribe breaks loose, I want to be ready!”
Aquarians even tried to win over the Kauai police with the gift of a television security scanner, which was immediately returned by Police Chief Roy K. Hiram.
Then county and state officials cited them for building and health code violations, and Vincente Regalbuto, the owner of the land they leased, filed an eviction notice for nonpayment of rent and property damage.
At the end of February, the Aquarians applied for state funds to pay their way back to California, but by mid-March, they’d withdrawn their application in order to halt investigations into their backgrounds.
After the final group of about seventy-six Aquarians left Kauai for San Francisco in early April, Mayor Eduardo E. Malapit admitted that he was happy to see them go.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com.
