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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Claire Wang

Lahaina, site of incalculable Native Hawaiian importance, reels from cultural losses

The destroyed Waiola Church on Friday in Lahaina.
The destroyed Waiola Church on Friday in Lahaina. Photograph: Rick Bowmer/AP

A week after wildfires ripped through western Maui and killed at least 99 people, residents and historians are still processing the full scope of destruction in Lahaina, an 18th-century coastal town that was, for a time, the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Designated a national historic landmark in 1962, Lahaina is a place of incalculable importance for Native Hawaiians. In 1810, King Kamehameha I unified all the Hawaiian islands and made the town his royal residence for the next three decades.

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