Two groups — including one headed by Abigail Kawananakoa, an heiress of the Campbell Estate who is descended from Hawaiian royalty — are filing a federal lawsuit demanding that a Native Hawaiian organization return 83 lots of priceless Hawaiian artifacts to Bishop Museum so that they can be properly returned to their rightful claimants.

Kawananakoa is president of Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa, which, along with the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts, submitted the suit at the federal courthouse yesterday. The two groups also submitted a request for a court order seeking the return.

The suit is over a long-standing dispute over artifacts recovered at the Kawaihae Caves on the Big Island in 1905. Known as the Forbes Caves collection, the objects include a female figure carved of wood; two stick 'aumakua; and gourds decorated with human teeth.

Bishop Museum lent those items for a year to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawai'i Nei in 2000, according to the suit.

But Hui Malama did not return the items, has refused to do so and apparently buried them in the Kawaihae Cave complex