people from the russian empire lived here in the 19th century. in 1815 the german physician georg anton schäffer, who worked with the russian-american company, came to hanalei to get goods taken by kaumualii. schäffer got involved in hawaiian politics and heard of kaumualiʻi's plan to take back his kingdom of kauai from kamehameha i with the help of the russian empire. kaumualiʻi later signed a "treaty" granting tsar alexander i protectorate over kauai. an area near hanalei used to be part of russian america.