State and Natural Kaua’i County officials have begun a joint investigation into what was reported as an unpermitted clearing of a hill by a sacred Hawaiian site in the Wailua River State Park. The probe began after the clearing by
State and Natural Kaua’i County officials have begun a joint investigation into what was reported as an unpermitted clearing of a hill by a sacred Hawaiian site in the Wailua River State Park.
The probe began after the clearing by the Holoholoku, or refuge, was reported by a resident.
If investigators from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the county Planning Department determine the perpetrators didn’t receive permission from the DLNR, they could be cited and fined.
Officials are concerned the action could spur the clearing or cleaning of ancient sites on state lands without approval of the state. Sovereignty groups also could aggressively challenge state programs to protect ancient sites.
A sovereignty advocate with the group known as Lawful Hawaiian Kingdom, Kane Pa said he and others cleared the hill and cleaned Holoholoku last Saturday through the authority of the Hawaiian nation. He said he didn’t need the state’s permission.
The work came up during a meeting between Pa, his supporters and Martha Yent, an archeologist with DLNR, Nancy McMahon of the DLNR Historic Preservation Division, and Les Milnes, a coastal zone management inspector with the county.
Whoever cut down the trees in the park, which falls under the care of DLNR’s state parks division, was required to obtain a Conservation District Use Application permit. It appears none was issued for the work, according to Milnes.
Milnes attended the meeting to see whether violations of county special-management area regulations had been committed.
“Where cutting of the trees occurred, it was down to the stubs,” Milnes said.
Pa said he and other kanaka maoli, the aboriginal people of Hawai’i, have the right to maintain the sacred site, one of seven heiau used by ancient Hawaiians in Wailua, home to the royalty.
The Holoholoku and three other sites are taken care of by Na Kahu Hikina A Ka La, a Kaua’i-based Hawaiian organization, through an agreement with DLNR. The other three sites are not part of the agreement.
“We have the right to remove vegetation that is destroying historical sites,” Pa said. “What we are preserving is rightfully ours.”
The Wailua site is part of the Hawaiian kingdom, which Pa’s group claims remains intact because the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by the United States was illegal.
Because the U.S. doesn’t have a relationship with Native Hawaiians or the kanaka, the state has no jurisdiction over the heiau, Pa said.
“We are asking the state to show that they have jurisdiction over the Holoholoku heiau,” he said.
Yent was unavailable for comment yesterday. But she has said she wants to work with sovereignty groups in maintaining the sites, and that until a new governing body takes shape, the state is responsible for maintaining them.
Pa said state officials should not only follow federal laws protecting sacred sites but also recognize former President Clinton’s 1993 Apology Bill, which recognized the 1893 overthrow as being illegal.
Pa also challenged the state over a Japanese cemetery that sits above the Holoholoku heiau.
“What is the state doing about the foreigners being on sacred Hawaiian sites?” Pa said.
Yent and McMahon were not available for comment, but Pa said Yent noted at their meeting that the DLNR could not do much about structures, such as the cemetery, that were in existence before statehood in 1959.
Pa said he respects the memory of those who are buried in the cemetery. But he said it is wrong for the state to allow the relocation of Hawaiian burials for resort projects and to leave the Japanese cemetery at its current location.
Pa al said he was upset the state and Hawaiian groups have not followed proper protocol related to the entry and use of the heiau by non-Hawaiians.
“All of it amounts to the violation of the civil rights of the Hawaiian people,” he said.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
