Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 3, 1 March 1991 — lmportant Legislative bills to help Kalapana Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

lmportant Legislative bills to help Kalapana Hawaiians

by Moanikeala Akaka, Trustee, Hawai'i

nopes nave nsen tor the Kapalana 'ohana lava refugees as bills in the Legislature have passed through first committee hearings with mueh support. Reps. Virginia Isbell and Jerry Chang are to be congratulated for

introducing H.B. 1221 and 1222 as should be Sen. Mike Crozier for S.B. 1434 and 1435. However, there is mueh disapointment with S.B. 2046 introduced by Sen. Andy Levin, elected to represent Puna and Ka'u. We ask those who care about this Hawaiian community to contact your state representatives and senators, the governor and OHA, as well as Reps. Chang, Isbell and Sen. Crozier and ask them to give support to these important bills.

H.B. 1221 provides for housing construction assistance with low-interest 3 percent loans to construct self-help housing for the 50 Hawaiian Kalapana families. The loans will not exceed $35,000 per family. There is a request in this legislative session for $1.75 million for this loan program. lf this bill passes both houses of the Legislature and gets signed by the governor, the funding will go through the Housing Finance and Development Corporation to the Hawai'i County Eeonomie Opportunity Council (HCEOC) whieh will oversee the self-help home building program for these families. Many of them are now homeless and forced to live with other families in the area.

H.d. 1222 calls for 65-year long-term leases for these Hawaiian families at Kikala-Keokea ceded lands above Kaimu near Kalapana where their families have lived for over 100 years. This area is the ehoiee of these Hawaiian families as I have eonveyed to you these past months. The Kalapana Task Force has designated Keoni Poko Nui near Pahoa as the plaee where the Kalapana lava refugees could be relocated. However from the beginning of the task force, Kalapana Hawaiians have pointed out their desire to be at Kikala near the oeean where they will be able to exercise their fishing and gathering rights at Volcano National Park. It is imperative these Hawaiians be near Kalapana, not 12 miles away on the other side of Pahoa. There is no way you ean be a fishing village 12 miles mauka. However, these Hawaiians do support the Kalapana Task Force recommendations for the other displaced residents.

The HCEOC has eome up with an exciting, innovative housing plan that has been accepted by the Kalapana Hawaiians. My one fear has been that even if we were able to get kokua for the Kalapana Hawaiians to move to Kikala-Keokea with self-help housing, there is the possibility of Pele converging on Kikala a few miles from Kaimu after the houses are built. Fortunately, the housing plans by HCEOC wisely eall for the houses to bolted together in the center. If someday this area and homes are threatened by lava, within a few hours the occupants ean easily remove the bolts to separate the two sections of the house.

In case of emergency, Hawai'i County's Harry Kim could make a eall to the sugarcompaniesand two sugar cane-hauling flatbed trucks could be backed under half of eaeh house, letting air out of the tires in the process. Onee under eaeh halfhouse, the tires would be re-inflated and the trucks would proceed to move the houses out of Pele's path. The ability to remove these 50 houses if necessary is an innovative approach to the protection of homes in Pele country. HCEOC is to be eom-

mended for putting these plans together. Remember, this is a loan to the Kalapana Hawaiians, not a hand-out! They are also willing to forego paved roads (for gravel) and other infrastructure in order to make the project less costly. The infrastructure alone for the Kalapana Task Force will cost $2 million, the project for the Hawaiian Village at Kikala will ease the existing state housing crisis. Compare these $35,000 solarenergy homes to the so-called affordable state housing whieh start at more than twice this cost!

OHA s budget and hnanee committee has just passed a $100,000 funding proposal to kokua this project for prototype model houses, and grading of homesites if the legislature passes these bills. It will next go before the full board of trustees. The precedent for this proposal and bills in the legislature is that of Miloli'i. As l've mentioned to you in the past, the Ho'opuloa-Miloli'i lava flow of 1926 displaced many Hawaiian families. Finally in the 1980s legislation for long-term leases and selfhelp housing loans with solar energy was passed.

I've mentioned before the fantastic jobs these families have done constructing their own homes, 'ohana style, with women building some of the houses themselves. Leadership of Miloli'i Pa'a Pono Community Association has testified in support of H.B. 1221 and 1222, as well as S.B. 1434 and 1435. These are twa of the last remaining Hawaiian villages anywhere.

Regarding the eoneem and disappointment about Andy Levin's S.B. 2046 dealing with Kalapana, Levin was asked to complement the House version and introduce eompanion bills for the Kalapana Hawaiians. Instead, his version says that all past residents of Kalapana should be allowed to reside in KikalaKeokea. I've heard that he says it is preferential treatment for these natives to have a Hawaiian-

only community on ceded lands. Sen. Crozier's Bill 1434 Senate Draft 1, section one points out that Article 12 of the state constitution says the state has an obligation to reaffirm the cultural rights, including fishing and subsistence rights, of Native Hawaiians and their descendants. Tootsie Peleholani related to me how her teenage sons hunt and fish to help sustain her family as they learned from her husband who has passed away.

The state Admissions Act of 1959 assumed title to ceded lands adjacent to the Kalapana Extension in Kikala-Keokea. Sec. 5 of the act provides that these lands may be utilized for the betterment of conditions of Native Hawaiians. Sen. Crozier's committee also realized that in 1938 the U.S. Congress enacted Public Law 680, the Kalapana Extension Act, whieh also authorized the addition of Kalapana to the National Park system. That law also provided leases for homesites for Native Hawaiians (30,000 acres) and that fishing was to be permitted only by Native Hawaiian residents o/ the area or adjacent villages and by visitors under their guidance.

These are some of the legal reasons why the Hawaiians of Kalapana should be allowed to be a village unto themselves. As it is, the Kalapana Task Force site is also ceded lands. Sen. Levin forgets that he has received strong backing by the Hawaiian community all these years and now he dares say we cannot reside as a Hawaiian village in Hawai'i on our own ceded lands. This is also the Kalapana Hawaiians' right to self-determination, self-governance, and sovereignty. Remember to tell your legislators to back these Kalapana bills When the war ends in the Middle East, will the allies eome over and help liberate us Hawaiians, whose monarchy was also overrun by an outside power? Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea ka aina i ka pono.