Land ownership challenge over an allegedly altered deed
An
Hawai'i Island
Journal
article
by Jack Kelly titled "A Question of Title"
begins:According to history
and legend, the earliest of all Hawaiians lived in these lands of Ka'u, the
district that is made up of one of the oldest land mass areas on the island of
Hawai'i. Stories abound of long-ago life in the ahupua'a of Hilea, Ninole,
Wailau and Punalu'u. "Contrary
to the popular theory that Pa'ao and his entourage from Tahiti were the first to
discover these islands, our families know this area was populated with Hawaiians
even before his arrival," says Keolalani Hanoa, Hawaiian cultural expert whose
family has lived in the ahupua'a of Punalu'u for seven
generations.Today, a few of
the descendants of these Hawaiians still reside in the ahupua'a of their
ancestors, but many of them are landless. Or are they?
The answer to this question
could resolve one of the largest land claims by Hawaiians in the history of the
state.
Posted: Sat
- April 3, 2004 at 11:04 AM