The state will give the Office of Hawaiian Affairs a package of land and cash worth approximately $200 million to end a long-standing dispute over ceded lands, according to a proposed settlement expected to be announced today.

The settlement would address how much OHA is owed by the state from revenues generated from public lands turned over to the United States by the Republic of Hawai'i in 1898.

The plan must still be approved by the state Legislature. After OHA trustees voted 9-0 to approve the settlement during a closed session yesterday, OHA leaders took the plan to lawmakers at the state Capitol. OHA officials, as well as the office of Gov. Linda Lingle, declined to provide details yesterday pending a news conference today.

Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), who was briefed by OHA officials, confirmed that the deal involves about $15 million in cash and an unspecified amount of land that includes acreage in Kaka'ako, Hilo and Kalaeloa. Additionally, the state would continue to pay OHA about $15.1 million annually for ongoing revenues, said Hee, a former OHA trustee.

Hee said the settlement appears to be significantly less than the deal offered in 1999 by then-Gov. Ben Cayetano that would have given OHA about $250 million and approximately 365,000 acres across the state. Rowena Akana, who was then OHA board chairwoman, said that deal fell through when a majority of OHA members chose to terminate negotiations with the state.

CEDED LANDS

At the center of the complex negotiations has been what often is referred to as "ceded lands." Those lands, as explained by University of Hawai'i law professor and OHA consultant Jon Van Dyke in his new book, "Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawaii," are comprised of what were once classified as "crown lands," lands that supported the monarchy, and "government lands," which supported the government.

When the government was overthrown in 1893, the republic combined the two groups of lands and classified them as "public lands" and ceded them to the U.S. government.

That situation continued under the Territorial Government, which ended with statehood in 1959, Van Dyke said. The federal government then transferred about 1.4 million acres to the new state to be held in trust.

Revenues generated from those lands were to be used for five purposes, including "for the betterment of conditions of Native Hawaiians."

But during the ensuing two decades, the state failed to allocate any resources directly for that purpose, Van Dyke said. At the 1978 Constitutional Convention, delegates sought to remedy the situation by creating OHA and requiring the Legislature to allocate a pro rata share of ceded land revenues to OHA explicitly for the betterment of Native Hawaiians, he said. That plan was ratified by Hawai'i voters in November 1978.

PAYMENT DISPUTE

OHA and the state have been in dispute over what the payments should be, and over which lands and what revenues are covered, Van Dyke said. At one point, OHA filed a lawsuit against the state that reached the Hawai'i Supreme Court, which instructed the state and OHA to negotiate a settlement.

A later agreement approved by the Legislature in 1990 was fraught with ambiguities that led to further lawsuits, which ultimately led to the current negotiations, Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke stressed that the settlement would resolve only the dispute over the revenues derived on the lands. OHA and other advocates for Native Hawaiians still want the return of the lands or compensation for the loss of the lands as a result of the overthrow and annexation.

Yesterday was the 115th anniversary of the overthrow.

In 2006, a tentative agreement was reached and approved by the Legislature that pays OHA $15.1 million annually as its share of undisputed revenues derived from ceded lands, as well as a one-time $17.5 million payout. Until then, OHA had been receiving about $10 million for a number of years.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Correction: Rowena Akana was chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees in 1999 when it decided to cease negotiations with the Cayetano administration over ceded land payments. A previous version of this story incorrectly listed someone else in that post.