HILO — About two dozen people calling themselves “kanaka rangers” held an unauthorized checkpoint Monday along the Maunakea Access Road.
They staged themselves about 700 yards from the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and erected a small shack next to the access road on property belonging to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The makeshift structure was named “Hale o Kuhio” after Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, who spearheaded passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. A few inverted Hawaii flags were flown.
Organizers, including members of a group called the Beneficiaries Trust Council, said they are frustrated by delays in putting beneficiaries on DHHL land around Maunakea and were staging the checkpoint to mark Prince Kuhio Day.
By keeping track of who was on the road, also used to access land held in trust for Hawaiians in the area, Kalaniakea Wilson said they were practicing resource management. No one was being told to leave or denied access, he said.
“It’s a Hawaiian management program. It’s a ranger program,” Wilson said. “It’s not a protest.”
Wally Ishibashi, DHHL commissioner for East Hawaii, said the checkpoint wasn’t sanctioned by the agency, though he understands the organizers’ frustration.
The beneficiary wait list is more than 22,000 statewide. Ishibashi said some of the longest delays are with pastoral or agricultural lands, such as those around Maunakea, where DHHL holds 67,000 acres in trust.
“They’re getting desperate, and desperate people do desperate things,” he said.
Ishibashi said lack of water infrastructure is one of the reasons for the delay in issuing leases in the area.
“We’re land rich and cash poor,” he said.
The checkpoint wasn’t related to the Thirty Meter Telescope or other issues surrounding management of Maunakea, though some of those present were part of the TMT protests held on the mountain a few years ago. TMT opponents held a similar checkpoint ahead of a roadblock during one of the protests.
In this case, there were no reports of anyone blocking the road, and a state Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman said an enforcement officer was monitoring the situation. The road above Halepohaku was closed due to snow.
When a reporter was present, participants, wearing reflective safety vests, were waving to motorists to encourage them to stop. The motorists were then asked where they were going. A stop sign stood in a traffic cone on the side of the road.
The interaction lasted a few moments, and drivers were wished a happy Prince Kuhio Day.
Lakea Trask, who participated in the TMT protests on the mountain, characterized the action as direct land management by those who are supposed to benefit from the land trust.
“We’re here to assert and exercise our rights,” he said. “… We’re the kanaka on the land. This is direct accountability.”
Asked if the checkpoint would continue beyond the holiday, Wilson said that’s up to the “community.”
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
“We’re land rich and cash poor,” well that is true. Also unfortunately uneducated, probably on SNAP benefits and against TMT. Good luck with all that.
They seem to be doing a good job at stopping TMT for uneducated Hawaiians lol
Yes its easy to stop things here in Hawaii. Lol and cheers to the truth and tragedy of humor.
Grant the TNT to go forward unhindered. Exchange for drilling of wells on the Mauna Kea DHHL land incl the needed pumping and tank structures. Just an idea.
And an excellent one at that. Infrastructure at the summit for infrastructure on the slopes…
NO cesspools on Mauna Kea!
Sounds right, there are plenty of alternatives. That, and the state has declared a goal of removing all cesspools in the state by 2050, no reason to add any more before that.
I bet I know what the tourist are asking for.
DHHL has NOTHING to do with anyreparation for anything real or imagined. That was made quite clear when John Wise and Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole
presented the program to Congress almost 100 years ago in 1920.
Kuhio argued that it was necessary in order to save a “dying race”. He further stated that “all Polynesians knowhow to do is fish and farm”. (Kind of a racist notion today even if it did come from another Polynesian).
The program was meant to be a commercial farming venture “experiment”. It was to be started first on Molokai growing pineapples, and if the “experiment” worked it would be increased to other islands.
Of course the premise that the“experiment” was based on was that the Polynesians were a “dying race” even though there is evidence that the good Prince knew that the population of
Polynesians had been increasing since 1900.
The business plan, yes it was a commercial venture, was that as the lease payments came in on leased properties those payments would go to fund new leases. Everyone knew, as the testimony shows, that there was not going to be enough land for all Polynesians that
would want some. But, it was decided that there was enough that if the“experiment” worked that enough Polynesians would be helped to make it worthwhile. If the “experiment” didn’t work it could simply be stopped. The name of the experiment was obviously a misnomer (Dept. of Hawaiian Homelands, notice how they have now separated “Homelands” into two words “Home Lands”. It was never about homes. It was about FARMING!
Does that sound like a “buy Tutu a condo in Kona” program?
Now almost a hundred years later the Polynesian-Hawaiian race has not “died”(in fact it is the fastest growing race in the U.S.), and the “Rehabilitation Act” as it was
commonly called at the time, has gone so far afield from its original intent that it has reached a point that it cannot be realistically implemented.
There was another more sinister reason why this program came about. It was discussed behind closed doors in smoke filled rooms. It was known at the time as the “Japanese problem”.
Japanese had been homesteading property at an alarming rate. (Before 1920 anyone of any race could homestead government property). The King Kalakaua leases that were made under his dynasty were coming up for renewal, and these included vast areas of good bottom land much of it controlled by big sugar cane plantations. It was feared that these would also be gobbled up by the huge Japanese and Chinese population in the islands. So, this plan took that property mostly off the table, and set up remaining homesteadable properties for this race based homesteading program under the
reasons already discussed above.
The Japanese and the Chinese were without a doubt the most discriminated groups in the Islands until Statehood.
The “blood quantum” idea first came about when John Wise and Prince Kuhio argued for the Hawaiian Homelands Commission Act of 1920. It was first discussed that anyone with as little as 1/32 blood quantum should be allowed to apply. But, this went against Prince Kuhio’s main argument that the “Rehabilitation Act”, as it was commonly called at the time, was not just a back to the land opportunity, but
to “save a dying race”. In addition, there was only so much land, and
there wouldn’t be enough for all, let alone folks with greater blood quantum.
So, the 50% amount was agreed upon.
In any case, almost 100 years later we know that Polynesian-Hawaiians are NOT a “dying race” and the program has been a dismal failure, as well as all the other 800 plus Polynesian-Hawaiian only raced based programs in this state.
” Grant the TNT ” sure , why not ? It will go real well with the AR-17
“We’re land rich and cash poor,” he said.
Cash poor you say ? Where do you get the dough for all the countless new KAPU! DHHL GOVERNMENT PROPERTY signs that are appearing all over the place ? Everything , everywhere , every kine place KAPU with DHHL , Auwe auwe
Seems illegal and they could have gotten worked by someone pissed off? Not a good idea?
Don’t stop for these guys especially if you’re a woman with children in the car. Where the heck is HPD?
TMT vai para ROQUE de LOS MUCHACHOS, parem de perder tempo com esse povo do Hawaii.