The Bishop Museum has decided to keep a funerary object sought by three competing Hawaiian organizations until the groups settle on the disposition of the artifact, a cowrie shell that the museum acquired after it was unearthed near Mo'omomi, Moloka'i.

Also yesterday, the museum's directors decided to recognize another group as a claimant on the objects that were reburied at Forbes Cave in a controversial Big Island case.

In each case, the board followed the recommendations of a nine-member museum board collections committee.

The claims in both cases fall under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, widely known as NAGPRA, which established a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain cultural items to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.

"I think it's a fair treatment of the whole business, the back and forth of the arguments of the NAGPRA issues," said Isabella Abbot, co-chairwoman of the collections committee.

In deciding to retain the Moloka'i cowrie shell, the museum board said it could not be determined which of the claims of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa or the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts were most appropriate. In a press release, the board said none of the claimants presented evidence showing any of its members are descendants of the person whose remains are thought to have been associated with the cowrie shell.

The Big Island case involves 83 sets of objects from the Kawaihae caves complex, also known as Forbes Cave. Controversy erupted among Native Hawaiian groups in 2000 when Hui Malama took the artifacts on loan from the museum and buried them in the caves.

The recognition of Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa — a group incorporated last year by Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa — gives the organization standing in the ongoing dispute over the objects, including the right to take the matter to court.

Thirteen other groups, including Hui Malama, also have been recognized as culturally affiliated claimants to the objects.