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What Hawaiian island is no one allowed on?

Niihau, also known as the Forbidden Isle, is a beautiful small island in Hawaii spread across 180 sq km. The island is off-limits to outsiders and only the Robinson family, their relatives, invited guests, government officials and US Navy personnel are allowed here.



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Ni'ihau earned its nickname as “the Forbidden Island” in the 1950s when the Polio epidemic was raging. To visit Ni'ihau then, you had to have a doctor's note and quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease to the small population.

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Niihau, also known as the Forbidden Isle, is a beautiful small island in Hawaii spread across 180 sq km. The island is off-limits to outsiders and only the Robinson family, their relatives, invited guests, government officials and US Navy personnel are allowed here.

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Access to the Reserve (the island and the 2 miles of ocean surrounding Kaho'olawe) is restricted because of the continued danger of unexploded ordnance. Access to the Reserve is permitted only with authorization of KIRC for specific purposes, such as restoration, education, and culture.

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Archaeological evidence reveals that the island was inhabited for more than 1,000 years, but it is now uninhabited. Kahoolawe was originally named for the Hawaiian god Kanaloa. From 1826 to 1853 the island was used as a penal colony by Hawaiian monarchs.

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Residents live for free on the island, primarily in one very small village on the west side, and eat free meat. There is no running water or electricity. Yeah it is a privately owned island. The only way that you can live there is if your related to them or are very good friends with their family.

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The island of Kaho'olawe and the waters two miles from the shoreline are designated as the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve, owned by the State of Hawai'i. KIRC manages Kaho'olawe in trust for a future Native Hawaiian sovereign entity.

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Niihau, also known as the Forbidden Isle, is a beautiful small island in Hawaii spread across 180 sq km. The island is off-limits to outsiders and only the Robinson family, their relatives, invited guests, government officials and US Navy personnel are allowed here.

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No one is allowed to visit Hawaii's Forbidden Isle—the 70-square-mile island, which on a clear day can be spied from Kauai's west coast—unless they are invited by Niihau owners the Robinson family, or by one of its 70 full-time Native Hawaiian residents.

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Some locals, many of them of Native Hawaiian descent, have gone so far as to argue that travelers should cross Hawaii off of their future itineraries for good. Tourism is seen as one of several factors that allowed the Maui fire to become so deadly.

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What happens if you go to Niihau uninvited? Turns out that Ni'ihau is called the Forbidden Isle because it's private property owned entirely by the Robinson family. Showing up without an invitation is trespassing, and the Robinson family doesn't appreciate uninvited visitors.

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King Kamehameha IV sold it for $10,000 in 1863 to Elizabeth Sinclair of Scotland. Her descendants, the Kamaaina (meaning “Old-Timer”) Robinson family, continue to live on the island and have attempted to preserve Hawaiian culture there.

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The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of Ni?ihau are noted for their gemlike lei pupu (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian as a primary language.

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And while neighboring Maui sees roughly 2.6 million visitors per year, there are less than 1,000 tourists on Molokai per day (or 365,000 annually). To date, there are approximately 8,000 residents island-wide, 40% of which are native Hawaiians.

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