KAILUA, KONA, Hawai'i — Two researchers plan to spend the next three years learning how growing up in windward Kohala influenced the life of Kamehameha the Great.

Michael Graves, a University of Hawai'i anthropology professor, and Kehaunani Cachola-Abad of the Kamehameha Schools will carry out the project.

Their work will be financed by $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The project will blend oral tradition and field studies of windward North Kohala, where Kamehameha was born, spent much of his youth and established himself as a leader.

"We're hoping to track and describe those earlier parts of his career where he built up his base of power," Graves said. "We know much more about the latter part of his life because of the various western observers in Hawai'i at the time. But we want to understand the period in which he grew up."

Kamehameha's story begins at 'Upolu, where he was born after his mother was spirited away from jealous chiefs who saw the highborn infant as a threat.

Kamehameha was hidden in North Kohala as a boy, spent some of his teen years there and regrouped after challenging the authority of the crown prince.

Cachola-Abad will collect oral traditions and other historical accounts detailing practices and strategies Kamehameha used.

The work builds on her dissertation research in anthropology at UH, where she used oral tradition to study sociology and politics of the Islands.

Cachola-Abad's father, longtime Kohala resident Fred Cachola, has collected stories about the area, some of which may have been orally handed down from the time of Kamehameha.

"There are many more stories like this than you would imagine," said Graves, chairman of the UH Department of Anthropology. "These are things that may not be found anywhere else."

Research will look at agricultural developments in the smaller valleys of windward Kohala.

"There are stories that describe Kamehameha's connection with these wetland systems and communities," Graves said. "He was known to dig a hole and weed, someone who led by example."

Graves said his research of wetland farming will fit well with the earlier study of the leeward side of the island. This found that large populations of Hawaiians were likely supported by sweet potatoes grown in dryland fields, and that famines, possibly caused by drought, may have played some role in the decision of chiefs like Kamehameha to conquer wetland areas.

Oral tradition says several wetland agricultural innovations in the area are associated with Kamehameha: ridgetop wetland systems and artificial taro fields created on the broad plateaus by diverting water from streams that would normally feed valleys.

"People were willing to work for Kamehameha to help him succeed," Graves said. "That speaks to his charisma to generate that kind of following.

"In essence, Kohala is where it all began." Graves said the New Moon Foundation, owners of the Bond Estate, and Kamehameha Schools, which owns land between Pololu and Waipi'o, may use the studies for community education programs.