This article argues that even after the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by the United States in 1898, the discursive construction of the islands as an American space was an ongoing process in ways which have been overlooked in previous scholarship. White settlers’ engagements with Hawaiian traditions of historical narration demonstrate the uncertainties and local negotiations which continued to shape American rule beyond the arrival of formal U.S. empire, characterized by dialogue between indigenous culture and white actors born in the islands who themselves occupied a liminal position relative to the United States. The article as such shows the utility of paying greater attention to the local in studies of U.S. colonialism, emphasizing the importance of liminal spaces and actors in defining empire, rather than the projection of imperial power from the United States outwards.