Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 5, 1 May 1996 — Judge Heely: Ceded land sales on hold [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Judge Heely: Ceded land sales on hold

by Abraham Aiona i Trustee-at-Large A most important ruling by Circuit Judge Daniel Heely on April 2, 1996 refused to give the state immediate approval to sell ceded lands for two massive state housing developments on Maui and the Big Island. In his ruling, Judge Heely said he did not want to "close the courthouse door" to 1

native Hawaiians who believe that ceded lands-once held by the former Hawaiian Monarchy and now held in trust by the

state-belong to them. The ceded lands trust is made up of over 1.7 million acres of land spread across the state. Lands that were ceded to the United States government after annexation and back to the State upon Statehood in 1959.

The judge turned down the state's request for a pretrial summary judgement clearing the way for the sales. He

agreed with the lawyers for OHA and native Hawaiians to block any sale and argued that the issue should be left for trial. Of particular interest is the judge's ruling that the "Apology Resolution" adopted by the United States Congress in 1993 acknowledged that the ceded lands had been transferred to the federal government in 1989 without compensation to the native Hawaiian people. The state cannot now ignore the claims by the native Hawaiians that they own the property. As we move towards sovereignty and

the entity that will be the nation, the 'āina or ceded lands will make up the bulk of the land that shall be returned to the native Hawaiians. It is therefore incumbent on us at this time to assure all native Hawaiians that the ceded lands presently held in trust by the state are returned. Although Judge Heely's ruling was not a surprise to us at OHA, we must eommend the work of our attorney Sherry Broder, and attorneys William Meheula and Hayden Aluli who represented their respective native Hawaiian clients.