Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole was born in the lands of Kukuiʻula, Kōloa, district of Kona, island of Kaua‘i, Hawaiian Archipelago, on March 26, 1871 to David Kahalepouli Pi‘ikoi—first cousin to Mōʻī (King) Kalākaua—and Kamāli‘i wahine (Princess) Victoria Kūhiō Kinoiki Kekaulike II—granddaughter of the former ruler of Kauaʻi, Kaumualiʻi. In the year 1883, Mōʻī Kalākaua bestowed the title of Kamāli‘i kāne (Prince) upon the 11-year-old Jonah, including him among those in line for the throne. Less than a year later, the young Prince’s mother died. As his father had already passed when Kūhiō was only seven, the King’s wife, Mōʻī wahine (Queen) Kapiʻolani, took legal custody of Kūhiō, and his two brothers—Kamāli‘i kāne David Laʻamea Kawānanakoa and Kamāli‘i kāne Edward Abnel Keliʻiahonui.
Kamāli‘i kāne Kūhiō received his initial formal education at the Royal School and Oʻahu College (later known as Punahou School). At 15, he and his royal brothers continued their education abroad at St. Matthew’s Military Academy in San Mateo, California, where, during a summer break in 1886, they introduced the sport of surfing to the west coast of the United States. The boys returned home after two years in America when Edward fell sick; he would die at ʻIolani Palace soon after returning home. Tragedy once again entered the life of the young Prince when, in January 1891, his adoptive father, the ruling Sovereign of Hawai‘i, died unexpectedly while abroad.
After a January 1893 coup that saw a minority white oligarchy take power in the Islands, Kūhiō joined the vast majority of Kanaka ʻŌiwi and their supporters in opposition to the new government and its attempts to have the independent Hawaiian nation annexed to the United States. In January 1895, the resistance launched an attempt to return the Hawaiian monarchy to power. The rebellion failed, and the 24-year old Kūhiō, along with more than four hundred others, was imprisoned. A military tribunal convicted the Prince of “misprision of treason”—knowing of a plot to overthrow the government and failing to inform the authorities—and ordered that “Jonah Kalanianaole be imprisoned at hard labor for the term of one year…” and pay a fine of one thousand dollars. In 1898, as fighting in the Spanish American War turned towards the Philippines, the United States took possession of the Hawaiian Islands.
In 1902, the Republican Party of Hawaiʻi chose Kūhiō as its candidate for territorial delegate to the House of Representatives and he was elected as Hawaiʻi’s second delegate to the US Congress; Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox was the first. Kūhiō served ten consecutive terms in the US Congress with his most significant accomplishment being the passing of the “Hawaiian Homelands” Bill in 1920. On July 9, 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act into law.
Another dedicated cause of Kamāli‘i kāne Kūhiō was the nurturing of Kanaka ʻŌiwi leadership and to that end, in 1903, he organized the re-formation of the Royal Order of Kamehameha, a civic organization founded by Mō‘ī Lota Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V) in 1865.
Kūhiō died of a heart attack at age 50 while at Pualeilani, the seaside home in Waikīkī given to him by his hānai mother Mōʻī wahine Kapiʻolani. After a State Funeral held at Kawaiahaʻo Church, Kūhiō was buried at Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu. In 1949, the Territorial Legislature of Hawaiʻi passed Joint Resolution 57 creating “Kūhiō Day” as an official government holiday.