Artifacts probe nearly complete
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
A federal investigator yesterday said the probe of alleged trafficking of Hawaiian burial objects is nearly finished, more than four months after artifacts from a South Kohala cave were reportedly found for sale in a Big Island shop.
"I would say our investigation is substantially complete," said David Brown, western region special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Interior Office of the Inspector General. "We are in the final stages of putting the paperwork together."
However, Brown said he could not predict when any potential arrests would be made or charges filed, decisions that rest in the hands of federal prosecutors.
"That's the tricky part," he said. "We're not in control of that."
Elliott Enoki, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Hawai'i district, said he could not comment on whether his office is taking on the case.
State and federal officials said the most recent actions on Friday included an interior inspection of Kanupa Cave in Kohala, where evidence of a break-in had been reported in August. Investigators that day also checked the entry to another burial cave, known alternatively as Kawaihae or Forbes Cave, but a state official said there was no sign of a break-in.
The federal investigation, led by the Office of the Inspector General, began when a collector reported to the Bishop Museum in June that burial items were being offered for sale in a Kona district shop. The collector, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still active, said the objects — including three wooden bowls, a gourd and kapa — were recognizable by their labels as coming from the Emerson collection.
According to federal records, this collection comprised funerary objects taken almost a century ago from Kanupa Cave, some of them going to Bishop and some to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.
Following a federal law, title to the burial objects was returned to four claimant groups: the Bishop items went to the nonprofit Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawai'i Island Burial Council; the Peabody collection went to the hui, OHA and the Hawaiian sovereignty organization Ka Lahui Hawai'i.
The legal ownership transfer was made in four lots of burial objects between 1997 and 2003. Reburial last November was handled by Hui Malama, which accompanied investigators on the Kanupa inspection last week.
Donald Wong, the attorney general's chief investigator, said he and three federal agents entered Kanupa Cave. Hui Malama was the only one of the four claimants joining the inspection, although Wong said the option was extended to all claimants. The risk of entering the cave, with its unstable structure, may have deterred some, he added.
Neither Wong nor Dean Tsukada, the Interior Department's resident agent in charge, would comment on their findings, although Tsukada also confirmed the inspections were made.
Hui Malama member Edward Halealoha Ayau, who entered Kanupa Cave with the agents, said his group provided federal authorities with the list of items reburied last November, and the inspection showed that some had been removed. Some of the missing objects have been recovered in the course of the investigation, Ayau said.
"We gave them all the database, and not everything is there" in Kanupa, he said. "They have to figure out what may still be missing."
Ayau said the hui learned two weeks ago that the agents planned to enter both Kanupa, located on state-owned ranch land, and Kawaihae, which is on land owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The department had denied earlier requests for access to Kawaihae but agreed last week to allow the sealed entryway to be inspected, said Micah Kane, department director.
"We as a department wanted to validate that it wasn't breached, and there was no breach of the cave," Kane said.
"The federal agents know it now," Ayau said. "They can see (Kawaihae) cave is secure."
Ayau on Thursday discussed the inspection plans with the Hawai'i Island Burial Council, which is involved in decisions to preserve or move Big Island native burials more than 50 years old. Geri Bell, chairwoman of the council, said she and others are anxiously awaiting the results of the probe.
"I'm almost dreading to find out what happened," Bell said. "There's a security issue involved, and it would become a bigger problem. One cave has been robbed and certainly there are more in Hawai'i."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
