The State Historic Preservation Division failed to follow state law regarding Native Hawaiian burials in a Kaua’i beachfront houselot where 30 sets of human remains were found, Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe ruled this afternoon.

The agency must now consult with the Kaua’i-Ni’ihau Island Burial Council, any lineal descendants of the remains, interested Hawaiian organizations, and the landowner about a revised burial treatment plan, Watanabe said.

That step should have been taken earlier this year, after the burial council voted in April to preserve the burials in place, Watanabe noted. Instead, a state archaeologist improperly approved a burial treatment plan for property owned by California developer Joseph Brescia, without the consultation, she said.

Watanabe did not stop construction of a house on the 15,667-square-foot lot, as requested by plaintiff Jeff Chandler, a Hawaiian who claims the burials as his forebears. But she warned that any additional construction on the house proceeds with the understanding that the burial council could decide to relocate the graves now underneath it.

“The state Legislature and the DLNR recognized the significance of Native Hawaiian burials when they drafted these laws and promulgated these rules,” Watanabe said.

She said her decision “comes after much thought and consideration.”

Vince Kanemoto, a deputy state attorney general, said the burial plan proposed by Brescia and already undertaken by his contractors, will be presented to the burial council at its October meeting.

The proposal enclosed seven burials underneath the house in “concrete jackets” and maintains a “buffer” distance from them via that house’s elevation on pilings above ground level.

That treatment is culturally unacceptable, Chander and others testified during proceedings in Watanabe’s court in August and earlier this month.

(Source: Diana Leone, Honolulu Advertiser)