Lahaina News - March 19, 2020
Senate Bill 749 was successful when passing through the Senate chambers without opposition; but, when the measure crossed over to the House for consideration, it came to a grinding halt.
State Public Access Room Coordinator Virginia Beck updated the Lahaina News.
"It looks like it got referred to WLH (Water, Land & Hawaiian Affairs Committee); JUD (Judiciary Committee); and FIN (Finance Committee).
"That means that it has to have been heard by WLH, passed, and the committee report filed by the Triple Referral Filing deadline, which is tomorrow.
It hasn't been scheduled for a hearing. So, barring any miracles, it looks like it will die."
And it died, like the claims made by many of the Kuleana landowners throughout the years.
According to the nonprofit Ka Lahui Hawaii, "Kuleana lands were granted to Kanaka Maoli tenant farmers between 1850 and 1855 and include gathering, access, and agricultural rights as well as the right to build a dwelling.
"Only 8,205 Kanaka Maoli received Kuleana lands that account for less than one percent of Hawaiian Kingdom lands. Many of these awards were adversely possessed by corporations like sugar and pineapple plantations, but a precious few are still in the same families today keeping their ancestral tie to their lands...."
