Night Marchers are ancient Hawaiian warrior ghosts. They generally march around sunset or just before sunrise, but can march any time day or night. They were associated with the sound of drumming and the carrying of torches. They are known to walk the mountains and the beaches on all the islands of Hawaii. On each island, there are certain trails that the Night Marchers are most likely to be seen on. If you ever see them, you are supposed to lie down and don’t look at them. The reason you don’t want the Night Marchers to see you is because they will kill you if they do. Lying down is supposed to make you harder to see, and not looking at them is supposed to make them likely to look over at you. Night Marchers, however, would not harm you if one of the Night Marchers is a relative of yours.
Riley’s father and grandpa would tell him and his siblings and cousins about the Night Marchers whenever they went camping. Riley says that he has never seen any or hear any night marchers, but his grandpa swears that he has both heard the drums of the night watchers and saw their torches.
Whether or not the Night Marchers exist, they seem to represent to me the Hawaiian respect for the indigenous islanders. The Hawaiian warriors who died on the islands were fighting to protect their land from foreigners. The legend says that Night Marchers would not harm someone who saw them if one of their relatives was in the Night Marcher ranks. This seems to me to show that the people indigenous to Hawaii were respected, and everyone else who had come to the islands and were foreigners were still not welcome because the Night Marchers would still want vengeance on them.