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Ohana Requests Contested Case Hearing on Alii Highway Work 10-Jun-2004—Protect Keopuka Ohana, a coalition of Hawaiian practitioners and environmental activists has formally requested a contested case hearing before the Board of Land and Natural Resources in order to contest the adequacy of archaeological inventory survey for the Alii Highway in Kona. The members of PKO are Hawaiian cultural descendants to the burials in areas potentially impacted by the Alii Highway project, also known as the Keauhou -Kahului Parkway project. One of the principal purposes of the organization is to protect the invaluable cultural resources, including ancient Hawaiian burials, from damage caused by destructive construction. "The planned construction of the highway will have a devastating effect on PKO and the cultural descendants seeking to protect the repose of the ancient Hawaiian burials in its pathway," said Ohana Chief Operating Officer, Jim Medeiros Sr. "PKO is very concerned about the possible destruction of native Hawaiian burial sites during construction of the Alii Highway project in Kona. Accordingly, we have contacted the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation several times about our concerns that the Archeological Survey and resultant Mitigation Plans and Data Recovery plans for this project are incomplete and inadequate," said Medeiros. "The recent uncovering of native Hawaiian burials on the project during Data Recovery performed by archeologist Alan Haun, in areas that had been deemed to contain no burials, is of great concern to us and to all the descendant families related to these lands of Keauhou and Kahaluu. Research has uncovered evidence that burials found at State Site 6413 and identified as "inadvertent' had been identified in earlier archeological work in the area as possible burials. Rather than the SHPD staff, the Burial Council should have had jurisdiction over these burials as "previously identified," he said. When local island Burial Councils have jurisdiction, the affected families have a voice in whatever mitigation procedures are developed relating to burials. When the state has jurisdiction, they make the call without any family input. "In addition, we have continually objected to the methods and evaluation criteria employed by archeologist Paul Rosendahl in his survey, that is the defining document upon which all archeological assumptions on this project rest," says Medeiros. "These questionable assumptions and the inaccurate mapping of burial lava tubes on the project, specifically site 2079, bring to light the concerns we have been voicing throughout this process." Research performed by archeology students at he University of Hawaii at Manoa has uncovered glaring inconsistencies in a series of archeological reports conducted for the project beginning in the early 1970's. That research prompted Department of Anthropology Chair, Dr. Michael Graves to write Geraldine Bell, Chair of the Hawaii Island Burial Council, on May 20, 2004. "It is my contention that given the previous designation of Site 6413 as a burial complex by two different sets of archeologists, there is no reason to treat current discoveries as inadvertent," wrote Dr. Graves. "These features should have been assessed as burials during the inventory survey and tested at that time to determine if they preserved human remains. Hence, the discovery now that they do, indeed, contain burials is not inadvertent." State Historic Preservation informed descendants on January 26, 2004 that "The purpose of this letter is to notify you as a cultural descendant to the above mentioned project area of inadvertent discoveries of human remains during data recovery at seven site features along the proposed corridor of the highway." These discoveries were reported to SHPD in June and November of 2003. "It took them over six months to inform us," says PKO President Violet Leihulu Mamac. We have very little trust in this process." Four of the sites are within the actual road corridor and will be impacted by construction activities," wrote SHPD acting administrator Holly McEldowney in her letter. The County of Hawaii has requested, through its contract archeologist, Alan Haun, to relocate the burials. "The information indicates that realignment of the road corridor has been explored, but cannot be accommodated as the result would be impacting previously identified burial and preservation sites outside the current road corridor," says McEldowney. "We've been telling ten for years that there are hundreds of possible burials that would be impacted by this project, yet they push on," says Medeiros. "We have participated in this process from the beginning in hopes to avoid the destruction of our ancestors, and the cultural landscape in which they lie, instead of having to deal with the pain afterwards like at Hokulia. This is the County and we, all of us, are the County. Shouldn't our government be held to the same standards as private land owners?" PROTECT KEOPUKA OHANA |
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