Army agrees to restore access to cultural sites
HONOLULU — The U.S. Army agreed to restore access to a valley on Oahu considered sacred.
The Army settled the 2016 federal lawsuit by Malama Makua, a Native Hawaiian cultural group, agreeing to pay $80,000 in attorney fees and address an unexploded ordnance stockpile at the Makua Military Reservation.
Environmental law organization Earthjustice represented the group in its latest action in a long-running legal dispute concerning Makua Valley, the site of decades of military training.
The lawsuit was filed after the Army suddenly blocked access to the cultural sites in June 2014, claiming it needed to obtain clearance to cut grass on trails leading to the sites after an agreement that governed vegetation maintenance expired.
The Army determined the grass was too tall to allow safe access because unexploded ordnance might be difficult to avoid, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claimed the Army violated a 2001 court settlement that allowed the group to access the sacred sites twice a month.
The settlement restores access to all but two sites, which remain closed because they are within the blast radius of the ordnance stockpile, Earthjustice said. The Army agreed to mitigate the hazard.
Kumu hula plans construction of school next year
WAILUKU, Maui — A hula teacher says he hopes to begin building a permanent home for his school on Maui next year.
Keali‘i Reichel is fundraising and collecting building permits for the planned 6,000-square-foot, two-story building to house his halau.
Reichel is a singer, songwriter and kumu hula. He plans to raise $2.5 million for the new home for Halau Ke‘alaokamaile. The building is planned to be constructed in Piiholo on land set aside by Hokunui Maui, a land management group.
With the donation of 4 acres of land and a $240,000 grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the long-envisioned permanent home for the halau is closer to becoming a reality.
The bottom floor of the building will include a resource center, classroom and kitchen for processing harvested plants, Reichel said. The top floor will be a sacred dance floor, which can only be entered using a special protocol and chant.
About $400,000 has already been raised, so work could begin in early spring.