A federal judge rejected yesterday the demands of a native Hawaiian organization seeking dismissal of a controversial case involving the disposition of native Hawaiian artifacts that were secretly reburied in a Big Island cave in 2001.

In a 21-page ruling, Judge David Ezra ruled that the native Hawaiian group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei cannot win dismissal of a federal lawsuit that alleges the group illegally reburied valued native Hawaiian artifacts that were claimed by several competing native Hawaiian groups. Hui Malama was founded in the late 1980s to repatriate native Hawaiian remains and artifacts from museums and construction sites.