Attorney Allen K. Hoe has been a member of the Land Use Commission for eight years. Since September 8, 1994, he has served as its chairman. His second and last term on the LUC ended June 30.<\/p>\n
Recently, Hoe, who is part-Hawaiian, has become closely involved with a new Hawaiian political party called Hui Kalai\u2019aina, which describes itself as a \u201cHawaiian political societe.\u201d The name is taken from the party that stood behind Queen Lili\u2019uokalani at the time of the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy. Among other founding members (all men) of the party are two men who were closely involved in the Ka\u2019upulehu proceedings: Bob Lindsey of Kamehameha Schools\/Bishop Estate and Francis Kauhane.<\/p>\n
(Kauhane became involved in the Ka\u2019upulehu petition when he participated, on behalf of Bishop Estate and the developer, in an effort to effect a memorandum of agreement involving the Hawaiian groups that intervened in the hearings, the developer, and Bishop Estate concerning access issues. Those efforts were fruitless: as one of the people involved told Environment Hawai\u2019i<\/i>, there was no give-and-take. \u201cBishop Estate wasn\u2019t interested in anything we had to say, and, in any case, they were insisting we drop out of the LUC hearing as a condition of any agreement,\u201d the person said. \u201cWhat they offered us was nothing we didn\u2019t have already,\u201d in the wake of the Supreme Court\u2019s Kohanaiki decision.)1<\/sup><\/p>\n At times, statements of Hoe and Lindsey in the LUC hearings on the Ka\u2019upulehu petition follow closely statements made in the political ads of Hui Kalai\u2019aina.<\/p>\n Here, for example, is the statements of Hui Kalai\u2019aina with respect to the trusts established by Hawaiian ali\u2019i:<\/p>\n \u201cHui Kala\u2019aina believes that Hawaiian institutions must assume a role in the quest to restore a sovereign Hawaiian nation. The trusts established by our ali\u2019i are rooted in traditional forms of governance. Na ali\u2019i were enabled with the mana along with the responsibility to manage the \u2018aina for the benefit of the Hawaiian people.\u201d<\/p>\n The same sentiment crops up in a question and comment Hoe addressed to Marion Kelly, a witness for Ka Pa\u2019akai o ka \u2018Aina: \u201cWe have five ali\u2019i trusts that generally still continue a pre-contact system of land tenure and their role as landowner, land manager, Hawaiian entity\u2026.[I[n essence, it would seem to be more of an appropriate function for the Hawaiian community to sit down with this Hawaiian landowner to resolve these issues as opposed to asking a non-Hawaiian entity, which we are as the Land Use Commission, to impose certain aspects of regulation that may or may not be responsive to Hawaiian issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Or consider the party\u2019s position on pu\u2019uhonua \u2013 places of refuge. \u201cHui Kalai\u2019aina believes that a network of pu\u2019uhonua must be re-established \u2013 special places where Hawaiian is spoken, knowledge is shared, artifacts protected, na iwi kupuna cared for,\u201d says a statement in a political ad appearing in the January 1996 publication of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Ka Wai Ola o OHA. \u201cWe believe pu\u2019uhonua will serve as a dynamic and perpetual life sources of Hawaiian culture\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n In his March 1996 testimony, Bob Lindsey stated: \u201cI only know of one pu\u2019uhonua that\u2019s talked about or which is on the maps, and that\u2019s the one at Honaunau. We need more pu\u2019uhonua for our people and for others.\u201d<\/p>\n On Bishop Estate<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n At times, Hoe sounded almost fawning in his effusive comments about Bishop Estate and Lindsey, its Big Island land manager. On March 23, 1995, for example, Hoe said to Lindsey:<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is somewhat historical\u2026As you\u2019ve indicated, in over 100 years of existence, this is the first time that all the trustees are part-Hawaiian. And I think it\u2019s the first time that there\u2019s been a change in terms of membership or composition of the trust, to the extent where we have three brand new trustees over a period of two years. I think their actions \u2013 to date, anyway \u2013 speak very highly of their commitment to their fiduciary duties both to the document [Bernice Pauahi Bishop\u2019s will] as well as to themselves [sic!] and to their fellow Hawaiians.\u201d<\/p>\n And later, the same day, before Lindsey was dismissed as a witness: Before I excuse you, I don\u2019t know about the rest of you guys, but I feel compelled to put in my two cents again. I feel I\u2019m extremely pleased and proud of the fact of what is happening here today, this afternoon. I am Hawaiian. I am the chairman of this commission. Mr. Lindsey, you represent a very significant part of our heritage, our ali\u2019i. And the interveners, for them to be here, for them to participate, for them to be as articulate and concerned and respectful, I think everyone needs to recognize that today. And mahalo- thank you, Mr. Lindsey.<\/p>\n Closing Statement<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n At the end of the hearing, following the vote to approve the Ka\u2019upulehu petition, Hoe offered to \u201cshare with the audience here my support of the rationale for compelling the Hawaiian landowner to do what it must to do to address these Hawaiian issues. One reason I have supported this project is because I sincerely believe that we have come to a crossroads.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ali\u2019i landowner possesses greater rights, greater interests to this specific property given its tenure in this property. Unless the landowner can clearly demonstrate its commitments to its obligations as an ali\u2019i landowner to the Hawaiian community, then they have to be responsible.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to answer to that community. They should not have to answer to a non-Hawaiian entity who has created processes that are completely non-Hawaiian. And yet we sit here in judgment, prejudgment, post-judgment on their ability to accept their responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I would encourage everyone here to ensure that they understand what it is they have to do to comply with their obligations to the Hawaiian community as the ali\u2019i landowner or as the konohiki of that property. We are not dealing with someone who has acquired the property specifically to develop the property for profit. We\u2019re dealing with the obligations of the \u2018aina of this property, from even before we all were here.\u201d<\/p>\n 1. Readers of longstanding may also recall that Frances Kauhane played a similar role in another case before the Land Use Commission – this one involving Charles Chidiac’s successful efforts to obtain LUC approval for the Hawaiian Riviera Resort near South Point, on the Big Island. Kauhane tried to win over residents of Miloli`i, a fishing village, to the idea. He succeeded in dividing the community, but ultimately opponents prevailed in a court appeal of the LUC decision.<\/p>\n Volume 7, Number 1 July 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Attorney Allen K. Hoe has been a member of the Land Use Commission for eight years. Since September 8, 1994, he has served as its chairman. His second and last term on the LUC ended June 30. Recently, Hoe, who … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-july-1996"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}