There are no paved roads, no cars, no stores and that’s only the start of what makes "The Forbidden Island" distinct.

Niihau is home to about 130 permanent inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Native Hawaiians, speaking a dialect of Hawaiian as their first language. Their homes are mainly on the island’s western shore, in a settlement called Puuwai.

Niihau residents often commute back and forth between their home island and Kauai, 17 miles away. They practice subsistence fishing and farming, and many have worked over the years for Niihau Ranch.

But ranch operations on the island itself ended in 1999. With the exception of the tiny Niihau School five staff positions, current enrollment of 15 there was little full-time, on-island employment. With the aid of a grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Niihau Cultural Heritage Foundation was established as a private nonprofit to assist with self-sufficiency programs, promoting in particular the marketing of the Niihau shell lei by resident artisans.

The foundation has a website (www.niihauheritage.org), where the history and current status of Niihau is chronicled, including videos in which the dialect is spoken.

Military contracts have become an especially important source of income for Niihau residents after the ranch scaled back operations. In testimony submitted to the state Legislature this year, Keith Robinson, who owns the island with his brother Bruce, said there’s been a history of defense work that still includes various research projects with federal agencies.

This includes testing and evaluation of radar equipment and other systems used by the Navy during RIMPAC and other training events, according to replies to Star-Advertiser queries by Navy officials.

Day visits to Niihau by Navy personnel happen once monthly, in volving two to four people to perform equipment maintenance, limited to specific areas of the island but avoiding the village of Puuwai.

Few other people have that privilege. Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair, who died in 1892, purchased Niihau and parts of Kauai from Kamehameha V in 1864. Private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinson family. In 1915, Sinclair’s grandson Aubrey Robinson closed the island to most visitors. Even relatives of the inhabitants could visit only by special permission.

"Niihau Island tends to be highly unusual in many ways," Keith Robinson said in his testimony before the state Legislature this year. "Several situations exist there, which do not prevail on Hawaii’s other islands.

"Niihau never rubber-stamped the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii: in the 1959 statehood election, Niihau’s owners and residents rejected statehood, and Niihau became the only island to vote against it."