For a long time, under the influence of Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-Tiki, Western archaeologists have believed that the original home of the natives of Hawaii and the other Polynesian islands was the Americas. Others have held that their ancestors were the dark-skinned Melanesians of the Western Pacific, while some, based on their mysterious religious beliefs, have speculated that the Polynesians originally came from India.
長久以來，西方考古學界受了瑞典 Heyerdahl 所著「美洲印地安人在太平洋」一書的影響，大都相信包含夏威夷的波里尼西亞民族，是由南美洲移民而來的印地安人；也有人認為他們的祖先是西太平洋上黑人系統的馬來尼西亞人；此外，還有人根據夏威夷人神秘的宗教信仰，推衍出「夏威夷土著源自印度」的說法。