Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 00, Number 1, 1 June 1982 — BRINGING THE OHANA TOGETHER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BRINGING THE OHANA TOGETHER

A Small Success Story of a Different Sort

In its efforts to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians, ihe Office of Hawaiian Affairs set up the Native Hawaiian Lanā Title Project. OHA contracted with ihe NHLC lo provide legal services lo those who need help in defending their titles lo or interests in real property in Hawaii. NHLC is a non-profit lax-exempt corporation whose sole purpose is the protection and preservation of Native Hawaiian legal rights. Although NHLC's work tends lo be serious legal business, ai the same time there almost always is an interesting human side to every case. Following is one such story about a case that had noi been settledyet but the people involved have already had one kind of success. The second client to walk into NHLC's doors after OH A established the Native Hawaiian Land Title Project in September of 1981 was Dorothy Dutro, who is retired and lives on Hawaiian Homes land in Waimanalo. She needed help from NHLC becauseNewell Bohnette, one of the founders of the Sambo's restaurant ehain on the mainland who had purchased Puuwaawaa Ranch on the Big Island, was claiming title to a pieee of Mrs. Dutro's family property near the ranch. Since her trial was only a weeie away, the first thing NHLC attorneys did was to get a eontinuance to have enough time to prepare her defense. Mrs. Dutro's elaim to the land was based on her father's

interest in it. Her granduncle was Harry Haiha from Kaua'i who moved to the Big Island in 1920 and homesteaded the property that Bohnette is now trying to elaim by adverse possession. Harry died without a will so Vi of his property went to his wife Sarah and the other Vi to his 3 brothers, one of whom is Mrs. Dutro's father. Mrs. Dutro knew of one unele, who had died, but the name of the third of Harry's brothers, his family and their whereabouts was a mystery to her. After searching through the records and discovering the name of that third brother was Naihe Ah Lan, N H LC got the court to force Bohnette to publish a notice in the Hilo newspaper to find out if there were any heirs of Ah Lan still around. The Ah Lan heirs who lived on O'ahu showed up at OHA and were referred to NHLC. Thus is was NHLC and OHA that helped to reunite the Ah Lan family with their long lost cousins. Amazingly enough one of Dorothy Dutro's cousins turned out to live only 3 blocks away from her in Waimanalo and they never even knew that they were first cousins. The Dutro tale of discovering long lost relatives does not end on O'ahu though — there's a Kaua'i chapter. What happened to the /2 share that Sarah, Harry's wife, got? Sarah and Harry had no children but Sarah had three children from a previous marriage. Two of these

children who lived on the Big Island had sold out but the whereabouts of the third child and her heirs were unknown to Dorothy Dutro. NHLC staff research uncovered the name of the third child, the fact that she probably lived on Kaua'i and that her married name might be Malina still NHLC had no idea how to contact these people or even if they were still alive. Then as luek would have it, on of NHLC's attorneys, Peter Hanohano, while analyzing a Land Court case file involving Kaua'i property, eame upon the name, John Malina. Peter took down the attorney's name for Malina and NHLC contacted this attorney who in turn put NHLC in touch with the Malina family, who were the heirs of Sarah's long lost daughter. Onee again, Dorothy had the opportunity to become acquainted with another branch of her family — kin who are related to her through marriage to her granduncle, Harry Haiha. Dorothy is now awaiting the setting of a trial date and hopes for a favorable decision for the 11.8 acres in controversy on the Big Island. Her share of the property will be considerably smaller now that these two other branches of the family have been discovered but uniting the whole family has been a small reward in itself. An important consideration was that she had agreed at the beginning to only take what was rightfully hers.