The back payments amount to rent from land now controlled by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, payments that were not covered by the ruling handed down Sept. 12, 2001, said Robert Klein, the retired Hawai'i Supreme Court justice recently hired as legal counsel to the OHA board of trustees.

That ruling stopped annual payments of about $15 million that were computed using a formula the court declared in conflict with federal laws. But the remaining payments, which over the past five quarters totals about $10.3 million, was not part of the action, Klein said.

"No one has ever disputed them, but the state quit paying them," he said. "What happens is the state is squatting on ceded land."

Haunani Apoliona, who chairs the trustee board, said the demand for the $10 million was made in a letter sent this morning to Gov. Ben Cayetano.

In addition, the board on Wednesday approved its legislative package, essentially the revival of two bills that were killed in the last lawmaking session:

• A bill to establish a new formula for calculating ceded-land payments.

• A bill to allot an unspecified amount of money as an interim payment to be made while the permanent formula is settled.

The board also put out a call to Native Hawaiians to take note of the gubernatorial forum to be televised at 7 tonight on KFVE and rebroadcast at 3 p.m. Sunday and observe which candidate seems more committed to resolving Native Hawaiian concerns.

Apoliona cited The Advertiser's poll showing Linda Lingle and Mazie Hirono in almost a dead heat for the governor's job and said Native Hawaiians could constitute a swing vote.

"We want our Hawaiian community to really believe that their vote is their voice, and now is the time to raise their voices," she said.

Cayetano has not proved to be fully committed to Native Hawaiian issues, trustee Colette Machado added.

"We're toughening up now," she said. "It's not about rhetoric anymore, it's about, 'What you going do this January?' "

Ceded lands are nearly 2 million acres of former crown and government lands transferred to the state under the 1959 Admission Act, to be held in trust for public benefits, including improving the lot of Native Hawaiians.

In 1980, legislators set the new Office of Hawaiian Affairs' share of ceded land revenues at 20 percent, a formula codified in 1990 with the passage of Act 304. That law produced a $130 million settlement, but a court dispute over related claims followed.