Zuri, "as if those people no-longer exist and whose values shifted from discovery to caretaking and protecting that which they had found"  absolutely false!

Polynesians were destroyers of the land and nature around them.  In the only 500 years from invasion of Hawaii to the end of the first Kamehameha reign 32 bird species, 17 flightless, were killed and eaten to extinction here in Hawaii.  Their slash and burn practices of forest clearing killed off many native plants forever.  They introduced rats, dogs, and pigs (still doing damage today).  And, of course, cut down the vast Sandalwood forests across the Islands. 

The Polynesian invaders from Tahiti did great damage not just in Hawaii, but every where they went.  Ever been to Easter Island?  Not a tree left standing.