Letter to Federal Transit Administration, Region IX, San Francisco
RE: Honolulu
High Capacity Transit Corridor Project Programmatic Agreement, Honolulu Hawaii –
Leina a ka ‘uhane
Dear Mr. Matley, Mr. Rogers, FTA, Region IX:
Identification of Historic
and Cultural Properties
The subject properties:
- The correct location of the Leina a ka ‘uhane within Honouliuli ahupua’a.
Relevance to the Honolulu
High-Capacity Corridor Project
The HART Rail study document states
that the Leina a ka ‘uhane has “integrity of relationship” and “these Wahi Pana
are sacred and storied places on the land” and are “important to the retention
and or transmittal of knowledge and beliefs about the land and history of the
Hawaiian people on Oahu.”
Many documents and exchanged letters,
including April 20, 2012 from FTA to HART exclaiming that the Leina a ka ‘uhane
was NOT “within or near” the project- when it FACT a false representation of
the Leina pathway was created to arrive at the “no effect” determination.
It was stated in the HART and
correspondence reports that the Leina a ka ‘uhane was a “very sacred wahi pana”
and National Register eligible under categories A and B.
The most disturbing and KEY POINT of all of this for
Kanehili Cultural Hui is that tax-payer funded research for a Federal
transportation projected was FALSELY MISREPRESENTED in its spatial area in
order to proceed with rail construction.
Please
see the attached maps of the Leina a ka Uhane and APE maps and links to
resource documents:
Leina a ka ‘uhane
spirit pathway and APE maps
Kane
Hili has invited you to
view the following shared folder:
Why is this important? HART and FTA
have agreed the Leina is National Register eligible and had it very extensively
well documented by Kumu Pono LLC. When
native souls depart for their spiritual homeland it is westward towards the
setting sun. However the primary HART rail contractor had this map created that
misrepresented the Leina pathway (in green) in order to show it OUTSIDE of the HART
WOFH Area of Potential Effect (APE) map.
The green pathway only represents approximately two months of where the sun sets in the winter. People die all year round, and so the directions marked in red show the actual Leina pathway width and direction from January to July.
Clearly the Parsons Brinkerhoff TCP consultants manipulated the Leina pathway to only a couple of months so that it falls just below the end of the rail line near East Kapolei station. This a very sacred wahi pana and National Register eligible Leina under NR categories A and B.
The green pathway only represents approximately two months of where the sun sets in the winter. People die all year round, and so the directions marked in red show the actual Leina pathway width and direction from January to July.
Clearly the Parsons Brinkerhoff TCP consultants manipulated the Leina pathway to only a couple of months so that it falls just below the end of the rail line near East Kapolei station. This a very sacred wahi pana and National Register eligible Leina under NR categories A and B.
Above is the HART identified site 38 Leiolono where the native spirit leaps from. The direction is always westward and is determined by the setting sun at the specific time of the year the individual dies. The sunset position in January or July causes the Leina pathway to widen as it heads towards the horizon.
In reviewing
the previous letters regarding the four TCP issues submitted by Kanehili
Cultural Hui to the Kakoo and FTA we would like to make it clear what the true
boundaries of the Leina a ka uhane are based upon a 12 month solar cycle.
Our entire
point is that HART's cultural research contractors deliberately misrepresented
the Leina pathway with graphic maps and written conclusions that are
inconsistent with the fact that the sun sets in different places throughout the
year.
The fraud is
very apparent because only two months of the year are shown in the final Leina
HART maps so as to reach the conclusion that that the Project is outside of the
Leina pathway. This is the KEY ASPECT of the fraudulent misrepresentation of
the facts to reach a conclusion that government officials would sign off on to
begin rail construction.
This and
several other fraudulent misrepresented data such as the Natural Resources
Conservation Service “Farmland Conversion Impact Rating” (NRCS-CPA-106), the
Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA) all show a pattern of deliberate
fraudulent misrepresentation by HART, the FTA and its contractors.
John Bond, President
Kanehili Cultural Hui
