'Hawaiian' skull pulled off eBay
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
State burial-site authorities and Hawaiian organizations are hoping to persuade a California resident to return a purportedly ancient Hawaiian skull from Maui advertised in an online auction and noted that federal authorities also are investigating the case.
The listing, depicting the skull and claiming it dates to the 1790s, was posted Monday with bidding to start at $1,000. However, the seller withdrew it Wednesday before any bids came in, said Hani Durzy, eBay.com spokesman, who said the seller is a man but declined to release his name.
The Advertiser sent an e-mail to the seller through eBay's anonymous contact system but received no reply.
The online auction company pulled the listing file from the archive so it no longer can be viewed, but a copy made previously shows the seller is from Irvine, Calif., and was willing to sell the skull on the spot for $12,500.
It didn't take long for the sale to be discovered by scientists and members of the Hawaiian community, who fired off messages to the seller, warning him the posting violated federal laws.
It also violated multiple eBay policies, Durzy said, especially one barring the sale of Native American and Native Hawaiian remains and burial artifacts.
The seller wrote in the advertisement that he "personally discovered this human skull, along with the entire skeletal remains, in the summer of 1969 on the Ka'anapali Beach on Maui."
The seller claimed that the skull came from a site excavated for the development of the Whaler's Village shopping area and that construction had halted while archaeologists investigated the area.
Among those who discovered the listing was Ann Kakaliouras, an anthropology professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She forwarded the file to Pua Aiu of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Native Rights, Land and Culture Division.
Aiu notified Eddie Ayau, an attorney for Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawai'i Nei, an organization that oversees care of Native Hawaiian remains. Ayau said he was one of many who wrote to the seller and urged him "to do the right thing" and return the skull.
Aiu also contacted Kai Markell of the state's Burial Sites Program, who said the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is investigating the case.
Durzy said eBay is ready to cooperate in any investigation. However, Markell said the chief concern is to encourage the seller to return the skull, not to scare him and prompt him to dispose of the remains.
"The primary hope is to find out where that individual originated from and get him returned home," Markell said.
Yesterday, Markell's office received a leg bone mailed from Oregon, taken decades ago from an O'ahu beach. And recently a New Hampshire woman brought in a skull she had taken in 1959, Markell said.
"We encourage people to return remains, especially if they're on the Mainland," he said. "If someone voluntarily returns remains, we don't want to go after them ... we try to show them aloha, because they didn't have to, they could have disposed of it."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
