Bill Text: HI HR144 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging The United States Congress To Schedule A Congressional Oversight Hearing To Investigate The State Historic Preservation Division And Amend The Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act To Require Free, Prior And Informed Consent Of Native American Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, And Native Hawaiian Organizations Before Approving Development Projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-14 - Referred to WAL, JHA, referral sheet 27 [HR144 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HR144-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.R. NO. |
144 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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HOUSE RESOLUTION
URGING the united states CONGRESS TO SCHEDULE A CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT HEARING TO investigate the State Historic Preservation Division and Amend the Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act to require free, prior and informed consent of Native American Indian Tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations before approving development projects.
WHEREAS, the importance of iwi in the kānaka ‘ōiwi identity is well established in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, as in the word, ‘ōiwi, meaning literally of the bone, said of a native kānaka brother or sister; and
WHEREAS, since Western contact with Native Hawaiians in 1778, there has been mass desecration of ancestral kānaka ‘ōiwi burial sites, remains, and burial goods; and
WHEREAS, the State Burial Sites Program was established within the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to fulfill the Division's and Department's statutory responsibilities of overseeing the five island burial councils and care, management, and protection of all unmarked burial sites; however, the State Burial Sites Program has been systematically underfunded and left unable to fulfill the Division's and Department's constitutional mandate; and
WHEREAS, a 2002 audit of the State Historic Preservation Division, Auditors Report 02-20, recommended "that the Governor intervene" and "the department chair and division administrator take steps to improve the protection of the state's historic properties and prevent the misuse, abuse and theft of the division’s limited resources."; and
WHEREAS, in 2004, in response to complaints by island burial council members and descendants about irregularities of process and departmental politics in island burial council appointments by the Department of Land and Natural Resources and State Historic Preservation Division, the Legislature called for another audit of the Division to focus on island burial council nominations and appointments in House Resolution No. 165, S.D. 1; resulting in Auditor's Report 04-15, which reported, "The burial sites program is not adequately staffed and has resulted in the private funding of public positions. The program's work is also suffering."; and
WHEREAS, in the period between 1990 and 2000, Hawai‘i had the most disputes before the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee on large, important, and controversial cases, including litigation on the state and federal level in several instances; and
WHEREAS, in 2007, the Department of Interior Office of Inspector General reviewed the National Parks Service oversight of the State Historic Preservation Division and concluded that several of the corrective actions recommended in State Auditor’s Report 02-20 still had not been implemented, impacting the Division's administration of federally mandated historic preservation responsibilities; and
WHEREAS, from 2009 to 2014, the National Parks Service team developed two corrective action plans for the State Historic Preservation Division to implement in order to remain an approved State Historic Preservation Office and to continue to receive grant assistance from the National Parks Service through the Historic Preservation Fund, and that failure to meet the milestones would result in the suspension of Hawaii's Historic Preservation Fund grant; and
WHEREAS, the State Historic Preservation Division submitted two progress reports on the corrective action plan to the National Parks Services in November 2012 and February 2013, which were both determined to be inadequate by the National Parks Service; and
WHEREAS, the National Parks Service's corrective action plans failed to take into account the dismantling of the Burial Sites Program and mismanagement of the burial responsibilities and functioning and efficacy of the island burial councils, despite the councils being recognized as Native Hawaiian Organizations under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and active claimants in many Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act repatriation cases, as well as Native Hawaiian organizations consulted under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended; and
WHEREAS, hundreds of ancestral Native Hawaiian remains are currently sitting in the State Historic Preservation Division's inventory across the State awaiting final disposition, with most remains having sat for years and even decades in non-climate-controlled environments in violation of National Parks Services curation standards and with many stored over the decades in shipping containers; and
WHEREAS, from 2005 through 2021, the State Historic Preservation Division has been in serious noncompliance with chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which establishes the State Historic Preservation Program, and chapter 13-300, Hawaii Administrative Rules, which establishes the rules of practice and procedure relating to burial sites and human remains; and
WHEREAS, despite requests for criminal and civil investigations into violations of law and rule, including criminal statutes regarding desecration of a burial, no investigations have occurred and no action has been taken by the State Historic Preservation Division, Department of Land and Natural Resources, or Department of the Attorney General; and
WHEREAS, in Brown v. Hawai‘i, 679 F. Supp. 2d 1188 (D. Haw. 2009), which involved former State Historic Preservation Division archaeologist and whistleblower David Brown, the court ruled that the Division is required to follow the repatriation process imposed upon museums by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, raising the issue of the applicability of the federal Act as having federal supremacy over chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the previous legal framework by which the Division operated under; and
WHEREAS, despite the enactment of the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statutes, implementing the State Historic Preservation Program, ancestral Native Hawaiian burial sites continue to be destroyed, excavated, exhumed, built upon, or otherwise irreparably mismanaged, causing great harm to the living Native Hawaiian descendants in violation of basic human and civil rights; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that this body urges the United States Congress to schedule a Congressional Oversight Hearing to investigate the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, particularly on the Division's failure to adhere to and enforce state and federal laws; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body further urges the United States Congress to amend the Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act to require free, prior and informed consent of Native American Indian Tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations before approving development projects; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson and members of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, Chairperson and members of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, members of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee, Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and Administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division.
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OFFERED BY: |
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State Historic Preservation Division; Congressional Oversight
