For decades, the sacred Hawaiian island of Kaho‘olawe, the physical incarnation of the sea god Kanaloa, was wracked by explosions set off by the U.S. Navy. Native Hawaiians demanded an end to the military assault and in 1976 activists occupied the island, causing a splash in headlines across the country. In 1990, bombing stopped, and the Navy received funds to clean up the island; however, the clean-up has only been partial and other environmental problems remain. Hawaiians themselves are now working to restore the island to its former health. Noa Emmett Aluli, one of the activists from the ’70s who now chairs the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, says, “We’ve taken on the biggest Navy in the world and held them responsible to the beliefs and practices of indigenous people … That is significant for the native Hawaiian people.”

History

Kaho‘olawe has been a center of Native Hawaiian seafaring culture for over a thousand years and is still considered a place of great spiritual power. Historically, navigators who traveled from Hawai’i to Tahiti were trained there, and it was said to be the landing place for the original gods from Tahiti, Kane and Kanaloa. Another name for the island is Kanaloa, reflecting the native feeling that this particular land embodies a revered deity deeply associated with the sea and voyaging. Kaho‘olawe also has a number of traditional fishing spots. The more than 600 archaeological and cultural sites found on the 45-square-mile island, such as stone temples, house foundations, agricultural camp sites, fishing shrines, tools and petroglyphs, earned its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first European to visit the Hawaiian islands was British explorer Captain James Cook, who arrived in 1778. Soon after, the area became a prime destination for whalers, traders going between North America and China, and Protestant missionaries. For a short time in the mid-nineteenth century, the Hawaiian monarchy designated Kaho‘olawe as a penal colony to house followers of the Catholic faith and others who violated new standards of right and wrong brought by Christianity. In 1848 Kamehameha III—influenced by Western notions of land ownership—divided up the kingdom’s land and designated Kaho‘olawe as government land, which led to the island’s leasing as ranch land for the next hundred years. The influx of traders, missionaries, and ranchers to the Hawaiian islands brought diseases to the native population, which shrunk from 300,000 at the time of Cook’s arrival to 50,000 one hundred years later. Overgrazing by imported cattle, sheep and goats did similar damage to the land of Kaho‘olawe, stripping native vegetation and causing soil erosion and runoff, which in turn damaged the ancient fishing spots and marine ecosystem. At one time there were 40,000 goats on the 11-mile by 7-mile island, and 1,900,000 tons of topsoil eroded each year. The final blow to a sovereign Hawai’i was dealt on January 17, 1893, when American and other foreign sugar planters, who sought to expand their enterprises, revolted against Queen Lili’uokalani. The American government sent in troops to support the plantation owners and five years later, annexed a newly invented “republic” created by the plantation owners.

The U.S. military began to use part of Kaho‘olawe as a bombing range. The day after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, with Hawai’i still an American territory, the Navy declared martial law on Kaho‘olawe in order to use the entire island for military activities. The ranchers and other residents were forced off the island for good. The Navy remained after World War Two was over, pounding the island with bombs, rockets, napalm and three mock atomic blasts using TNT to simulate the effects of a nuclear blast on nearby ships. Military personnel also went to Kaho‘olawe to train in gunnery operations.

The modern land rights movement in Hawai’i began in the mid-70s when the inhabitants of another island, Moloka’i, opposed a corporate take-over of land and won. The activists then turned their attention to the bombing on Kaho‘olawe and the group Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana (Family) (PKO) was formed. PKO spearheaded dramatic occupations of the island in which activists secretly landed on the island and hid for several days before getting arrested. The first action took place in January 1976, and more followed. In 1977, activists George Helm and Kimo Mitchell disappeared after spending a month on the island without capture. The results of an FBI investigation were never made public, leaving the question in the minds of some whether they disappeared at sea or if there was any government involvement.

Though there was danger, the 70s was a time of cultural re-awakening and increased political empowerment for native Hawaiians. PKO filed a federal civil suit in 1976 asking the U.S. government to comply with environmental, historic site, and religious freedom laws. This led to a 1980 Consent Decree which allowed PKO scheduled regular access to the island for religious and educational purposes. Ancient heiau or temples were restored on Kaho‘olawe during this time, and indigenous Hawaiians were allowed to hold monthly ceremonies. The Navy began to tend to environmental issues such as removing the goat population that had caused erosion, restoring soil and vegetation, and clearing trails. The entire island was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush halted bombing and target practice on Kaho‘olawe. The same year, a congressional commission began to study the cultural and environmental issues, and in 1993 it recommended that all military actions be permanently banned on the island, and that the island be returned to the state of Hawai’i. Congress followed this recommendation and, in 1994, the deed to Kaho‘olawe was given over to Hawai’i. It also appropriated $400 million largely to clear the unexploded ordnance from the island, with some funds for the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) to restore the island’s cultural and natural resources. However, the Navy still had control of the island during the clean-up process, which it contracted out to the Parsons Corporation. The clean-up was laborious: it did not even begin until 1999, due to extensive problems in finding buried weapons and handling dangerous material while protecting cultural and archaeological sites. When the contracted clean-up ended in March 2004, 70% of the island’s surface had been cleared of unexploded ordnance and 9% of its subsurface, a far cry from the promised 100% and 30%, respectively. A fund still exists for the Navy to return to work, which it says it will do when more ordnance is discovered.

On November 12, 2003, the KIRC held a ceremony to mark the return of Kaho‘olawe from the Navy to the state government. The occasion featured speeches and traditional chants in front of ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, home of the former sovereign kingdom of Hawai’i. The unfinished clean-up gave many an ambiguous feeling about the hand-over: Noa Emmett Aluli, the current chairman of the KIRC, says, “I’m angry that they’ve done a very sloppy job…but the important thing is the Navy is out.”

Current Situation

Kaho‘olawe now exists as a cultural reserve managed by the KIRC. It is being held by the state until a sovereign Hawaiian nation is established, in which case Kaho‘olawe will become part of the land base. No commercial activities are allowed on the island or in the water within two miles of the island, an area that has been included in the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve. KIRC manages access to the island and PKO organizes cultural and educational activities. There are plans for kauhale (camp sites) and trails around the island.

Despite the government-funded clean-up and the legal return of the island, there are many environmental problems on the island. Goats were eradicated in 1993, but Hawaiians must now work on revegetation and erosion control. The island has lost much of its topsoil in the last two centuries, from both ranching and military activities. The destruction of forests on Haleakala (on Maui) has eliminated the cloud cover that used to stretch out to Kaho‘olawe, making the island very dry. The Navy’s activities also poisoned what little water exists underground with explosives and fuels. A simulated atomic-bomb blast broke the capstone of the island’s water supply. It is up to the Hawaiian people to revegetate the island and heal the soil, which in turn will bring rain to refill the aquifers. The KIRC manages efforts to restore native vegetation, control non-native species, clean-up trash, control erosion, and rehabilitate cultural structures.

And while the return of the island marks a major victory for government recognition of sacred land, the military has turned its attention to other islands. The U.S. Army is now conducting bombing and live artillery exercises at Pohakuloa on Hawai’i island and in the Makua Valley on O’ahu and it continues to expand, occupying new sites and leaving behind spent lands. A 1997 report said the army needs an additional 79,000 acres of training land. There are plans to bring a Stryker Brigade onto the Big Island—a convoy of 300 urban assault vehicles that would occupy the same amount of land as the entire island of Kaho‘olawe. These occupations destroy fragile ecosystems, habitats for endangered species, and lands of spiritual and cultural significance. As long as the Hawaiian Islands remain a strategic location for the US military, these lands will not be safe and the dream of a sovereign Hawai’i remains remote. Even if these lands were vacated, some argue that they are forever lost to Hawaiians because the buried explosives and toxics left behind make the land uninhabitable. Hawaiian sacred sites are also impacted by the construction of telescopes on Mauna Kea and Haleakala mountains.

Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana continues to promote the usage of Kaho‘olawe as a traditional cultural center, organizing visits of over 5,000 people per year, restoring and re-dedicating old shrines, and conducting religious ceremonies. Spiritual and educational use of Kaho‘olawe is a key element in the revitalization of native Hawaiian culture, language, and spirituality. On its website, PKO states, “In working for the return of Kaho‘olawe, many of the current generation rediscovered what it means to be Hawaiian. Restoring the island will provide a place and a purpose for a new generation of Hawaiians to be trained in the rights and responsibilities of ‘kahu o ka ‘aina’ or stewards of the land.”

Lessons Learned

Kaho‘olawe remains a major symbol of the continuity of native Hawaiian culture, the resurgence of its language, and the continued fight for sovereignty. Stanton Enomoto, former director of the Kaho‘olawe Commission, comments that the healing of the island is “a metaphor for the restoration of the Hawaiian people. It’s reviving not only the culture but it could ultimately lead to the re-establishment of the nation.” But some activists feel that the optimistic symbol of Kaho‘olawe has faded in the face of the government’s failure to fully clean up the island, as well as the transference of military activities to other islands. In addition, once a land base becomes part of a government bureaucracy, the radical demands for sovereignty that drove the movement can be softened.

The return of Kaho‘olawe does show the power of a visible activist movement which occupies land and raises public awareness. This visibility is one factor that led to the executive order that forced the military to leave the sacred island. However, until the scale of the US military is decreased, it will always seek new lands on which to detonate explosives and test new weapons. With 20% of the Hawaiian land base occupied by the military, dozens of sacred places are in jeopardy.

On a positive note, the ecological and spiritual restoration of Kaho‘olawe represents a powerful opportunity for a native culture to re-connect with land and tradition, and to participate in “the rebirth of the sacred,” in the words of PKO member Davianna McGregor. Native species are being planted, ancient ceremonies are being revived, children are being educated on sacred land by elders, and a family/community process is developing protocols about how to visit and how be in a sacred place. A long and difficult struggle is yielding inspiring lessons for indigenous communities around the world.

Resources

Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission

Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana

DMZ Hawai’i a grassroots organization working to stop military activities on Hawaiian land

American Friends Service Committee Hawai’i works on demilitarization and sovereignty

Nohohewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai’i a documentary film about the post-9/11 military expansion on the Hawaiian islands; website includes a map of occupied lands

“To Preserve an Island” Rowland B. Reeve, Cultural Resource Management Vol. 19 No. 8, 1996.

Na Kua’aina, Living Hawaiian Culture, by Davianna Pomaika‘i McGregor

Kaho‘olawe, Na Leo o Kanaloa — Chants and Stories of Kaho‘olawe (‘Ai Pohaku Press, Honolulu)

Text of President Clinton’s apology to the Native Hawaiian people on the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani’s sovereign government in January 1893.