Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 6, 1 June 1998 — Desecration at Mōkapu Peninsula [ARTICLE]

Desecration at Mōkapu Peninsula

By Noelle Kahanu IN 1988, an outcry over the disturbance of 1,100 ancestral Native Hawaiian remains at Honokahua, Maui resulted in the state's purchase of the land for reburial and to prevent further desecration. More important but less notorious was the disturbance of Native Hawaiian graves on 0'ahu's Mōkapu peninsula, the current location of the Marine Corps Base in Kāne'ohe. Native Hawaiians whose iwi were removed from Mōkapu over a 75-year period are estimated at 3,278. At least 1,100 individuals originated from three excavations joint- . ly undertaken by the Bishop Museum and the University of Hawai'i Department of Anthropology. Stored eolleetively at Bishop Museum in 507 cardboard boxes, these remains have been subjected to numerous destructive and non-destructive procedures including DNA analysis, radio : carbon dating, X-rays, physical examination, and photography. Active research of nā iwi kūpuna ceased inl990 at the request of Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai'i Nei and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs following Congressional enactment of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. NAGPRA requires federal agencies and : federally-funded institutions possessing Native American remains to publish an inventory of such cultural items, and, upon request, to return them to the appropriate Native American entity. On Apiil 22, pursuant to NAGPRA, the Marine Corps

and the Bishop Museum agreed to repatriate the Mōkapu remains to Native Hawaiian organizations. While the ultimate goal is the reburial of nā iwi kupuna at Mōkapu, the fīrst step in the process of repatriation is "deaccession" of the remains, meaning the transfer of their possession from Bishop Museum and the Marines to the Native Hawaiian organizations Typically, deaccession occurs by systematically crossreferencing the actual remains against a NAGPRA inventory list. According to Federal regulations, the purpose of an inventory is to "facilitate repatriation by providing clear descriptions of human remains and associated funerary objects." Unfortunately, the 1994 inventory does not contain an itemized list of all of the Mōkapu remains, and thus fails to provide the basic information necessary for deaccession and reburial. The inventory does contain other listings, including the long bone metrics of adult and subadult remains, skeletal and dental remains, and observed pathologies. These lists were prepared at the Marines' request for information as to the "completeness of skeletal remains, age, sex and recorded pathologies." The lists, whieh resulted in the subjection of the Mōkapu ancestors to additional examination and handling, nonetheless fail to aid in the deaccession process. "This inventory, for all of its expense, its disrespectful procedures to unnecessarily study our ancestors, its 600 plus pages of lists, tables and summaries, fails to provide the most basic information necessary for us to return the ancestors to Mōkapu," said Edward See DESECRATION on page 18

K a L e ' e

Halealoha Ayau of Hui Mālama. "We will need to eompile our own itemized inventory. The Mōkapu ancestors have waited for decades to be retumed to their one hānau and be reunited with their 'ohana. We cannot stand by and allow them to wait any longer." Ironically, a bill introduced on Nov. 7 by Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington would greatly increase the likelyhood of the scientific study of Native American remains removed from federal lands. H.R.2893 was

crafted to address the concems of scientists who were prevented under NAGPRA from further studying the ancient remains of the Kennewiek man. In those instances for whieh no lineal descendants have been identified, the bill authorizes ( 1 ) the reasonable recordation of all Native American remains excavated from or discovered on federal lands after November 19. 1990, and (2) the scientific study of such remains should it be "reasonably expected to provide significant new information conceming the history or prehistory of the United States." No legislative aeīion on this measure has been scheduled. ■

Desecration From page 13