Rail Construction Halted, Not the First Battle Over Remains

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Word on the street is that the city has halted rail construction after a Hawaii Supreme Court decision that the city was wrong to commence construction without first doing an archeological survey of the entire route to determine if it would disrupt Native Hawaiian burial sites. The name of one of the plaintiffs in the suit to stop the construction—Paulette Kaleikini—sounded familiar.

HONOLULU readers last met Kaleikini in Ronna Bolante's Nov. 2007 article, "Bones of Contention." Then, Kaleikini was suing the state of Hawaii over its handling of the Ward Village Shops development in Kakaako, where construction was turning up an unusual number of Native Hawaiian remains. Read all about that at "Bones of Contention."  The article is also a good overview of the laws surrounding the issue of remains, and the state agency that is supposed to provide oversight.