Posted on: Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Trial on burials set for next year

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

A lawsuit that seeks to strengthen the enforcement of state laws protecting ancient burials has been set for trial in about a year, although the unearthed remains that originally sparked the conflict are already being reburied elsewhere on the property.

The state Circuit Court suit, which involves the 10.5-acre Wal-Mart construction on Ke'eaumoku Street, was filed in May 2003 by Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei and Paulette Kaleikini. They are, respectively, a nonprofit corporation that works toward protecting Native Hawaiian burials and a woman whose ancestral ties to the area qualify her under state law as a descendant of people buried there.

Circuit Court Judge Victoria Marks last month denied a request for an order to halt the relocation of 42 sets of remains unearthed during site grading, said attorney Moses Haia.

However, a trial on the remaining arguments is set to begin the week of July 18, 2005, he said.

Among those complaints, the suit seeks a declaration that officials of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources violated "traditional and customary rights" of descendants.

According to the suit, the violation occurred because the state allowed Wal-Mart to forgo an archaeological inventory survey before work began. This allowed the burials to be treated as an "inadvertent discovery" that, under the law, can be more readily relocated instead of being preserved in place, according to the suit.

Marks' May 26 decision to deny the injunction enabled Wal-Mart's archaeological contractor Aki Sinoto Consulting to proceed with reburial.

Sinoto did not return calls for comment about status of the reburial work.