The board's land agent had recommended termination of the lease, effective today, because the group did not have insurance. But the board said it wanted to work with Kanahele because, as member Ted Yamamura said, Kanahele was doing was "an honorable thing."

About 70 people live in a village they created on the land.

Kanahele told the board that his group, which once occupied a portion of Makapu'u, has tried to find insurance for two years and promised to keep looking.

"As much as I'm for independence, and I know the legalities for Hawaiian sovereignty, we've tried to work within the system," he said. "This has put me on the edge. I'm dependent on you folks to decide."

But he also told the board Aloha First was standing firm.

"No matter what happens here, we're not going to leave the village," Kanahele said. "We planted in the ground."

Kanahele said he has sought a $1 million liability insurance coverage after discussing it with land board staff.

"What do you do when insurance companies no like give you insurance?" he asked the board.

Aloha First, once known as Save A Nation Foundation, moved to the site called Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo in 1994 in exchange for leaving Makapu'u, where its members had been living in tents for 15 months claiming that they had a right to live there as Native Hawaiians.

The group received a notice of default in March from the state and was given 60 days to obtain the necessary insurance.

As of June 21, the nonprofit organization still had no insurance so the state land division recommended to cancel the lease.

"We require insurance on all our leases," said Dede Mamiya, administrator for state Department of Land and Natural Resources land division. "We track them, issue notices of default and take it to the board."

Mamiya said today that the land board is not insisting on the $1 million coverage but added that insurance executives have said lowering the amount wouldn't resolve the issue.

Kanahele, who organized the nonprofit group and beach occupation, hasn't been able to get a carrier.

"I went to every local insurance company I could think of and got turned down," Kanahele said.

He gave the board copies of two letters of rejection from insurance brokers including one from Business Insurance Services, Inc. that said the prevailing reason for the problem was the "nature of your operations."

Residents of his village include a wide range of people, including many who were once homeless and former drug users and people. He called the community a model for helping change people's lives.

If Kanahele and his group are evicted, it would mean the end to a plan devised by then-Gov. John Waihee to accommodate a hard-core group of Hawaiian sovereignty activists who had occupied state lands at Makapu'u. The occupation underscored heightened tensions between the activists and the state government.

While some hailed the plan as a peaceful way to end the dispute, others resented what they called special treatment by the state for Kanahele and his supporters.

The state land board first approved the lease for the Waimanalo property on Waikupanaha Street in September 1993 and about 80 people moved on the land in June 1994. A 55-year lease started in April 2001 was issued in March 2001.

Aloha First is current on its other lease requirements, including the $3,000 a year rent and bond requirement. It doesn't have a conservation plan, which is required, but the group is working on the plan, Mamiya said.

Mamiya said the land board could give Kanahele more time to purchase insurance if he shows that he is trying to get it. "I can't second guess the board, but in the past if the lessee is showing a good faith effort, they usually give them an extension," she said. "Bumpy has to show up and tell them his effort."

Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo, "place of refuge at Waimanalo," has a web site which describes the property as a village modeled for Native Hawaiians "to regain control of their lands and their lives."

"The long range vision of the village is one of self-sufficiency, with a harmonious balance of ancient and future systems, from lo'i kalo (irrigated terraced taro fields) ... and la'au lapa'au (healing with plants and prayer), to renewable energy, the Internet, and other appropriate technologies," the web site said.

The property and Kanahele have had other controversies.

In 2001, the Land Board began pressing the group to begin paying lease rent, which it had not paid since the group moved in. After issuing a notice of default, the DLNR received a check in November that year, but it was returned because of insufficient funds.

After several extensions, the state received a check for $9,000 — $3,000 in back rent and $6,000 for an overdue performance bond.

Kanahele, considered at one time one of the most militant in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, has a criminal history that includes a four-month federal prison sentence in 1998 for interfering with the arrest of a fugitive and a jail term for 1987 state convictions of a firearm violation and resisting arrest while occupying Makapu'u lighthouse with two other Hawaiian activists.

Then-Gov. Ben Cayetano pardoned Kanahele for the state offenses in December 2002.

But despite his brushes with the law, Kanahele has insisted that he has never advocated violence as a way to achieve Hawaiian sovereignty.