04-02-2018, 03:19 PM
Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a ......
.....mountain.
I believe that's more an expression of a misunderstanding of the situation than what the Kanaka Rangers are about. Thankfully, Brittany Lyte, a writer for Civil Beat, did the homework and her article Kanaka Rangers: It’s Time To Move Forward With Hawaiian Homesteads goes a long way towards clarifying the situation. It begins:
On the lower slopes of Mauna Kea, more than 56,000 acres of land held in trust for Native Hawaiians serve as a gateway to the heavens.
The road to the top slices through these wild, empty pastures, ushering an untold number of visitors to a place where, according to Hawaiian spirituality, the gods dwell at the juncture of sky and summit. You can’t get to the mountain’s iconic, 32,000-foot peak without crossing this acreage set aside for the rehabilitation of Hawaii’s indigenous people following a century of colonization.
Due to a scarcity of funding and decades of mismanagement, Native Hawaiians have been mostly absent from these 97-year-old trust lands. But last Monday, a few new tenants moved in.
Frustrated by the slow pace at which Hawaiian beneficiaries are being awarded homestead leases under a state law, a group of about two dozen beneficiaries and their supporters erected a wooden shanty, hooked up a generator and assembled a makeshift kitchen. Battling whipping winds and bitter cold, they have maintained a seamless, around-the-clock presence along the summit access road ever since.
They call themselves Kanaka Rangers. Throwing shakas, logging daily vehicle counts and dolling out Band-aids, sweaters and weather reports as needed, these self-appointed rangers say they are done waiting for the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands to properly manage their resources.
“I’m on the waitlist, my mom died on the waitlist and my dad is looking like he is going to pass away on the waitlist, too,” said Kepa Kaeo, 34. “The trust has been broken ever since it was developed. Our goal is not to get ourselves awards but to move the list forward in order. We want to get the kupunas awarded before they pass away and before their successors get cut out.”
The entire article can be read at:
http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/04/kanaka-...omesteads/
.....mountain.
I believe that's more an expression of a misunderstanding of the situation than what the Kanaka Rangers are about. Thankfully, Brittany Lyte, a writer for Civil Beat, did the homework and her article Kanaka Rangers: It’s Time To Move Forward With Hawaiian Homesteads goes a long way towards clarifying the situation. It begins:
On the lower slopes of Mauna Kea, more than 56,000 acres of land held in trust for Native Hawaiians serve as a gateway to the heavens.
The road to the top slices through these wild, empty pastures, ushering an untold number of visitors to a place where, according to Hawaiian spirituality, the gods dwell at the juncture of sky and summit. You can’t get to the mountain’s iconic, 32,000-foot peak without crossing this acreage set aside for the rehabilitation of Hawaii’s indigenous people following a century of colonization.
Due to a scarcity of funding and decades of mismanagement, Native Hawaiians have been mostly absent from these 97-year-old trust lands. But last Monday, a few new tenants moved in.
Frustrated by the slow pace at which Hawaiian beneficiaries are being awarded homestead leases under a state law, a group of about two dozen beneficiaries and their supporters erected a wooden shanty, hooked up a generator and assembled a makeshift kitchen. Battling whipping winds and bitter cold, they have maintained a seamless, around-the-clock presence along the summit access road ever since.
They call themselves Kanaka Rangers. Throwing shakas, logging daily vehicle counts and dolling out Band-aids, sweaters and weather reports as needed, these self-appointed rangers say they are done waiting for the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands to properly manage their resources.
“I’m on the waitlist, my mom died on the waitlist and my dad is looking like he is going to pass away on the waitlist, too,” said Kepa Kaeo, 34. “The trust has been broken ever since it was developed. Our goal is not to get ourselves awards but to move the list forward in order. We want to get the kupunas awarded before they pass away and before their successors get cut out.”
The entire article can be read at:
http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/04/kanaka-...omesteads/
]