Janet Bolchalk, age 10, of Youngstown, Ohio, for her question:
HOW DID HAWAII GET ITS NAME?
Hawaii is called the Aloha State. Aloha means ''greetings'' in the Hawaiian language. When vacationers arrive in the island state, they often receive wreaths of
flowers strung together that are called leis. The visitors are treated with feasts, folk dancing and many special events.
And they often learn to do a hip swaying Hawaiian dance called the hula.
About 2,400 miles west of the United States mainland is aawaii, the youngest state to join the Union. Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959.
The first people to live in the Hawaiian islands were the Polynesians who sailed there in large canoes from other Pacific islands about 2,000 years ago. A second group of Polynesian people moved to the islands from Tahiti about A.D. 1200.
Legend says the Polynesian settlers named the group of islands Hawaii in honor of their chief named Hawaii loa. This chief supposedly led the Polynesians to the tropical islands.
The name Hawaii is also a form of Hawaiki, the legendary name of the Polynesian homeland to the west.
A British navy explorer named Captain James Cook reached Hawaii in 1778. Cook named the land the Sandwich Islands in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the British admiralty. The British name didn't stick for very long, however.
In the early days Hawaii was a kingdom. Then in 1894 it became the Republic of Hawaii but it was annexed to the United States in 1898. In 1900 it was established as the Territory of Hawaii. Statehood came 59 years later.
Hawaii is made up of a chain of 132 islands that stretch out for 1,610 miles. Eight main islands are located at the southeastern end of the chain. All of the people in the state live on seven of these eight islands, with about 80 percent of the population living on Oahu, the most important island. The remaining 124 minor islands have a combined area of only three square miles.
Midway island is in the far northwestern part of the Hawaiian group but it is not a part of the state of Hawaii. The small island is controlled by the U.S. Navy.
Largest of the islands is Hawaii, often called the Big Island. It covers 4,038 square miles of land and was formed by five volcanoes.
The other populated islands include Maui, called the Valley Island; Molokai, called the Friendly Island; Lanai, called the Pineapple Island; Oahu, known as the Gathering Place; Kauai, called the Garden Island; and Niihau, known as the Forbidden Island.
Kahoolawe is dry and windswept. No one lives there.