Stephen Kane‘a‘i Morse has died at age 78, leaving a changed Hawaii as his legacy. He was most well known as part of the “Kaho‘olawe Nine,” a group that made a 1976 small-boat run to Kahoolawe, protesting 35 years of bombing by the U.S. Navy. The effort eventually prevailed, and control of the island was transferred to the state in 2003.

A social worker, Morse in 1978 co-founded the Hawaiian Coalition of Native Claims, predecessor of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. He was a founder of Alu Like, providing employment services to Native Hawaiians, and documented data spurring establishment of the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park in Kona. Daughter Kealohalani Morse Gebbia rightly identifies the fearless activist as “one of the great warriors of Hawaiian culture.”