Through his long political service during the monarchy and the important roles he played in the resistance and opposition to its overthrow, Nāwahī is regarded as an influential Hawaiian patriot.

His funeral services in Honolulu and Hilo were attended by supporters and friends; even his former enemies and the government of the Republic acknowledged his important contributions as a Hawaiian patriot.

Joseph (or Iosepa) Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu was born January 13, 1842, at the village of Kaimū, known as the "land of the patterned sand" in the Puna district, located in the southeastern corner of the island of Hawaii.

His father was descended from the chiefly retainers of the 18th century King Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who the British explorer Captain James Cook attempted to kidnap at Kealakekua Bay in 1779, before his demise at the hand of the Hawaiians.

[2][6][7] The school had been established in 1835 by Lyman and his wife to teach Native Hawaiian boys the trades needed to adapt to a modernizing Hawaii entering the industrial age.

Students were taught the ideals of American Protestant work ethics, and were required to perform manual labor to pay for their board.

[8] It became a model for the schools of the rest of the islands and also influenced missionary descendant Samuel C. Armstrong, who founded Hampton University to educate emancipated slaves after the American Civil War.

[2][17] They also adopted a daughter named Emmeline Kaleionamoku "Kalei" Nāwahī (1877–1901), who died while attending school at St. Andrew's Priory in Honolulu.

[21] After the controversial 1874 election, Nāwahī became a member of the Queen Emma Party and joined with Representative George Washington Pilipō of North Kona in forming the native opposition against Kalākaua.

He opposed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, introduced and personally negotiated by the king, fearing the negative consequences of aligning Hawaii too closely to the United States.

[12][8] Nāwahī and Pilipō were given the epithet of "Nā Pū Kuni Ahi o ka ʻAhaʻōlelo" (the Cannons of the Legislature) for their steadfast defense of Hawaiian sovereignty.

[12] In the election of 1886, Kalākaua personally journeyed to the districts of Pilipō and Nāwahī, on Hawaii, and John William Kalua, on Maui, to sway the vote against these three politicians.

It also raised property requirements for suffrage, disenfranchised many poor Native Hawaiians and naturalized Asian citizens, and gave the vote to unnaturalized foreign residents of European or American descent.

In the special election of 1887, he and George Charles Moʻoheau Beckley ran under the opposition ticket against Reform Party members Henry Deacon and D. Kamai but lost due to the disenfranchisement of much of the native constituencies.

[36] This session was characterized by a series of resolutions of want of confidence, resulting in the ousting of a number of Queen Liliʻuokalani's appointed cabinet ministers, and debates over the passage of the controversial lottery and opium bills.

[44] Along with his political ally White, Nāwahī was decorated with the honor of Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua, at a ceremony in the Blue Room of ʻIolani Palace, on the morning of January 14, for his work and patriotism during the legislative session.

[45][46] The legislative assembly was prorogued on the same day, two hours later, at a noon ceremony officiated by the queen at Aliʻiōlani Hale, which was situated across the street from the palace.

On the afternoon of January 14, after the knighting ceremony of White and Nāwahī and the prorogation of the legislature, members of Hui Kālaiʻāina and a delegation of native leaders marched to ʻIolani Palace with a sealed package containing the constitution.

According to William DeWitt Alexander, this was pre-planned by the queen to take place while she met with her newly appointed cabinet ministers in the Blue Room of the palace.

However, these ministers, including Samuel Parker, William H. Cornwell, John F. Colburn, and Arthur P. Peterson, were either opposed to or reluctant to support the new constitution.

Anti-monarchists, annexationists, and leading Reformist politicians including Lorrin A. Thurston formed the Committee of Safety in protest of the "revolutionary" action of the queen and conspired to depose her.

However, in their attempts to be cautious and not provoke the opposition, they adopted a resolution stating that "the Government does not and will not seek any modification of the Constitution by any other means than those provided in the organic law".

[52] These actions and the radicalized political climate eventually led to the overthrow of the monarchy, on January 17, 1893, by the Committee of Safety, with the covert support of United States Minister John L. Stevens and the landing of American forces from the USS Boston.

During this period, the de facto government, which was composed largely of residents of American and European ancestry, sought to annex the islands to the United States against the wishes of the Native Hawaiians who wanted to remain an independent nation ruled by the monarchy.

A delegation was elected by its members to represent the case of the monarchy and the Hawaiian people to the United States Commissioner James Henderson Blount sent by President Grover Cleveland to investigate the overthrow.

[57] In May 1895, following his release from prison, Nāwahī and his wife started the weekly publication of Ke Aloha Aina, an anti-annexationist newspaper written in the Hawaiian language.

On the recommendation of his doctor to seek a change of climate, he and his wife left Hawaii for a trip to San Francisco, California to improve his health.

[61] They left Honolulu aboard the steamer Alameda on August 20, 1896, along with the families of Edward C. MacFarlane and Hermann A. Widemann, both influential royalists and former cabinet ministers of Liliʻuokalani.

He knows that the Hawaiians will not sacrifice their independence and tolerate the hoisting of the Stars and Stripes until blood has been shed and tho annexation of these islands taken the form of a conquest.

Art historian David Forbes noted that Nāwahī may have been taught or influenced by the French artist Jules Tavernier, a strong proponent of the Volcano School movement in Hawaii.