FTA HART Rail Farmland Dump Site Is Native Hawaiian Burial Place
Kanehili Cultural Hui
RE: Response to June 23, 2015 letter on Iwi dirt pile from HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas, CC: Mayor Caldwell
Dear Mr. Grabauskas, Mr. Matley, and Mayor Caldwell:
It was brought up in the July 16 FTA-HART Programmatic Agreement meeting a HART letter which was in response to Kanehili Cultural Hui’s concerns that a major rail construction vacuum truck dump site at Hoopili station may contain iwi and ancient Hawaiian tools. The letter said a HART team “performed a site visit which did not see any evidence of iwi or native tools.” Other HART construction dump sites visits were also “performed” we were told in the June letter.
Kanehili Cultural Hui needs to note that the single most important PA consulting party for rail and for iwi, widely recognized Ewa native Hawaiian cultural descendant Michael Lee, was not invited to be there to observe whatever potential discoveries might have been made.
Archeologists that we have spoken with recently say that the “performed” HART site visit was likely a “windshield survey” (drive-walk around) which will almost certainly reveal nothing if no actual archeological soil excavation, sifting and analysis is done.
So there is no surprise that nothing was observed or found. HART refuses to employ modern archeology and effective bone discovery methods such as cadaver dogs.
Kanehili Cultural Hui needs to also note that Michael Lee stated his iwi concerns in a January 7 HART PA meeting that there should be cultural monitors present during construction of the West Oahu Farrington Highway (WOFH) segment and finally received a letter from HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas in March 5, stating that “HART does not believe that (WOFH) cultural monitoring is warranted at this time.”
FTA HART contracted pylon and concrete pouring construction crews from Kiewit were always seen working at night employing primarily mainland hires. It is extremely unlikely well paid mainland crews would pay attention to cultural remains in discovered karst sinkholes and caves during the West Oahu Farrington Highway construction segment.
HART also doesn’t want local hires to see what could be culturally disturbing evidence of iwi desecration. HART documents do admit the Kapolei Station, which is built over Kaloi Gulch, has a very thin layer of soil over the karst where nearby sinkhole caves have been found. HART Rail contractors fill all caves and sinkholes with concrete.
Statistically and based upon all known cultural history of the Honouliuli Ewa West Oahu segment where the largest native population lived on Oahu at the time of early Western contact, there would have to have been bones of humans or animals found along this segment. Oral histories of Ewa Plantation workers noted that iwi and Hawaiian tools were found after heavy rains on the Ewa farmlands where rail construction is going on.
There are numerous well documented cultural history reports by experts noting karst caves and sinkholes containing iwi on this ancient Ewa Plain area known as Kaupe’a and Kanehili. Kaupe’a and Kanehili in Ewa Honouliuli was a major native Hawaiian burial area and also a place for wandering souls associated with the Leina a ka ‘uhane.- the spirit leaping place from Leiolono. (see further documentation below.)
The massive high piles of potentially contaminated dirt at the HART Rail Hoopili station site- currently a HART Rail Kiewit dump site on farmland growing fresh table vegetables for restaurants and food stores has already been cited by the Hawaii Department of Health for airborne pollution. Many Ewa residents have reported this health hazard.
Aloha,
John Bond, President
Kanehili Cultural Hui
How did HART “perform” their search for possible iwi and Hawaiian tools at this FTA – HART funded Ewa farmland rail construction dump site? A windshield inspection?
Kepa Maly reflected that, given the history of the countryside, it would be more unusual not to find iwi than to find them. June 23, 2011, HART Section 106 Programmatic Agreement (PA) Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) Study Meeting
Below, expert cultural properties documentation of the Kaupe’a, Kanehili, Ewa Plain area that the City and HART are now calling East Kapolei and Hoopili. The deep pylon boring penetration has already disturbed if not destroyed many iwi kupuna burials. This is a documented area of iwi burials, native wandering souls and night marchers.
It is predictable that under native Hawaiian cultural beliefs the iwi kupuna burial site desecration can bring great spiritual negativity to the future development inhabitants.
IDENTIFICATION OF NATIVE HAWAIIAN TRADITIONAL CULTURAL PROPERTIES
by H. David Tuggle, Ph.D. M.J. Tomonari-Tuggle, M.A. with the collaboration of Maria E. Ka‘imipono Orr, Kepâ Maly Kumu Pono Associates, and Kalani Flores Mana ‘o‘i‘o Principal Investigator: Thomas S. Dye, Ph.D. International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. Hawai‘i March 2001
Burials from the pre-contact and post-contact eras are known to occur over the entire ‘Ewa Plain, in sinkholes, platforms, and dune deposits (Tuggle and Tomonari-Tuggle 1997b).
From the Tuggle, Maly, IARII, etc. cultural research documents:
A place (Kaupe’a) of many pits with human bones describes most of the great expanse of the ‘Ewa Plain, where limestone sinkholes were used for human interment over many centuries (including the post-contact period.)
In many cases, human remains were placed on the floors of the sinkholes (not buried) with the bones thus visible when one looked into the pit, surely a setting to inspire association with spirits of the dead.
Each island had at least one place for wandering souls. For O‘ahu, this place was the plain of Kaupe‘a. Kamakau (1870 [1964:47], italics original) writes that Kaupe‘a was known as:
…ao kuewa, the realm of homeless souls,…also called the ao ‘auwana, the realm of wandering souls. When a man who had no rightful place in the ‘aumakua realm died, his soul would wander about…
Although the boundaries of the plain of Kaupe‘a are not clearly defined, it certainly occupied a substantial portion of the ‘Ewa Plain, including the area next to Pearl Harbor lagoon and the area of former NAS Barbers Point.
Kamakau (1870 [1964:47-49]) describes the plain as “beside Pu‘uloa,” and as a place of wiliwili trees, which is a common tree on the dryland limestone of ‘Ewa.
In the tradition of Pele and Hi‘iaka (Emerson 1915:167; Keonaona and S.L. Desha Sr. et al. 1927, in Maly Appendix B), the plain is described as extending from “the wiliwili trees…to Kanehili” (Ke Au Hou 1911, in Sterling and Summers 1978:44), and as back of Keahi and Pu‘uloa (Pukui 1943:59).
At the same time, it is clear from Manu’s description, as well as many other references, that the plain of Kaupe‘a (and associated places of the ‘Ewa Plain) was much more than just a place of ghosts.
It is a place of stark beauty and great contrasts, captured in versions of the Pele and Hi‘iaka story (Emerson 1915:166ff; Keonaona and Desha Sr. et al. 1927, in Maly Appendix B) and in the chant for Kûali‘i (Kapa‘ahulani, in Fornander 1916:390; 1919:458). Part of the beauty of Kaupe‘a is in the plants used to make a famous lei, as described in a song of Hi‘iaka “addressed to Lohiau and Wahine-oma‘o” (Emerson 1915:167.
It is possible that Kaupe‘a refers to the ‘Ewa Plain as a whole. This is suggested in a comparison of the repetition of place names and related features (primarily vegetation and springs) in the Pele and Hi‘iaka traditions, as well as in the chant for Kûali‘i (Kapa‘ahulani, in Fornander 1916:390; 1919:458).
The following section from the tradition of Makanikeoe (Manu 1895, May 10, in Maly Appendix B) provides a substantial associative context for Kaupe‘a and the ‘Ewa Plain being synonymous:
The following section from the tradition of Makanikeoe (Manu 1895, May 10, in Maly Appendix B) provides a substantial associative context for Kaupe‘a and the ‘Ewa Plain being synonymous:
Makanikeoe then departed from this place, turning to the plain of Puuloa. He passed many pits in this place where the bones of men have been left.
Potentially hundreds of native Hawaiian cultural remains of Kaupe’a, Ewa Plain, piled up by the FTA HART rail contractor on fresh produce farmland where Hoopili Station is going in. Ewa Plantation workers recall finding iwi and native tools after heavy rains.
