I received the following commentary on behalf of Mililani Trask regarding geothermal development in Puna.
Mililani Trask
In recent weeks a small group of angry & uninformed individuals have begun a campaign of misinformation, the goal of which is to prevent the development of geothermal energy on Hawaii Island. Claiming ownership of the Pele name & case information, this group is asserting that geothermal development threatens the cultural & religious practices of Hawaiians and violates their First Amendment rights under the US Constitution.
I am sending out this email to clarify what occurred when the Pele cases were litigated and how the outcome of the cases expanded Hawaiian cultural practice but did not stop or prevent geothermal development.
In the early 1980’s the Campbell Estate made public its plan for geothermal development at Kahauale’a. They brought in cheap filthy technology, never had a public community meeting, ignored Hawaiian traditional rights to gather & worship, and presented a plan under which they would reap hundreds of millions of dollars without any benefit to the public & native Hawaiians, who were the owners of geothermal public trust assets. Campbell Estate had wanted to develop Kahauale’a , but when these lands proved undevelopable, Campbell & the State moved for a land exchange in order to develop Wao Kele O Puna Forest.
Palikapu Dedman & others then challenged the land exchange in State contested case hearings. They claimed genealogical ties to Pele & asserted that drilling for geothermal was a desecration & rape of Pele’s body & a violation of their rights under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. The Pele Defense Plaintiffs lost on appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled their right to worship had not been burdened because the area of development was not a traditional place of ceremony. (see Dedman V. DLNR , 740 P.2d 28 (1987)
Following this loss, the Pele Defense plaintiffs brought suit in Federal Court arguing that the land exchange violated the trust contained in the Admissions Act. The Pele Defense Plaintiffs lost this case when the court ruled their claims were barred because of the State’s Sovereign Immunity under the 11th Amendment.
The Pele Defense Plaintiffs also litigated this in State Court, but lost when the State Court ruled that the Federal decision had resolved the issue.
Despite these losses, Hawaiians did win a significant victory when the Court acknowledged & supported Hawaiian cultural rights and expanded the exercise of these rights to areas outside the ‘ahupua’a. Prior to this case, the practice of cultural rights had been limited to the area of the ‘ahupua’a.
Initially, the legal strategy and work was undertaken by the Law Offices of Yuklin Aluli & Mililani Trask. Early on, I left Oahu and returned to Hawaii Island to represent the Kupuna who would later be called upon to lead the march. Soon, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) joined in and with the help of many Hawaiian legal minds and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) the Pele cases were initiated & litigated. Some attorneys gave advice, some did research & some took the case to the Supreme Court. Attorneys from the continent helped with the environmental claims, it was a collective effort by many. The Pele cases are important legal precedents that should be understood by all because they set criteria on Hawaiian rights to worship, and also established conditions for development in culturally sensitive areas.
In March 1990, environmentalists called for the ‘Big March’. Shortly after the announcement, it became evident that the so-called ‘Hawaiian leaders’ of the PDF were not going to get arrested. None of them lived in Puna, One was a medical doctor from Molokai & Oahu, who was concerned about his reputation, his girlfriend (an academic from Manoa) was worried about her career, Palikapu Dedman also backed out claiming he could not get arrested because he was a convicted felon on probation! In the end, it was aunty Pele Hanoa, (Palikapu’s mother) who walked at the head of the March with other Kupuna wahine from Ka Lahui Hawaii. I walked with them as their attorney, I met with the police before hand to ensure there would be no problems, I held their purses when they climbed over the fence & bailed them out of jail. The police, some of whom were Hawaiian, helped the Kupuna by assisting them over the fence, there was no negativity, injury or anger.
If you check the record you will find that none of the PDF ‘leaders’ have ever gotten arrested protecting Hawaiian cultural or religious rights. Palikapu Dedman did not bring or win these cases, he does not have the capacity, the attorneys brought and won this case. Whenever the time has arisen to stand up to stop desecration of culture, Palikapu has always used the same excuse….he is a felon with criminal convictions (shoplifting, firearms violations & multiple convictions for Promoting Detrimental Drugs in our community) and can’t risk getting arrested again!!!!!
As a Hawaiian who has been arrested protecting cultural rights & burials, I am proud of the effort that went into the Pele cases, and proud to have been a part of the legal effort to advance & expand our cultural rights to worship. Its time we use these wins to ensure that culture is respected & protected when renewable energy is developed for Hawaii Island.In the 24 years since the case was brought and for the last 18 years that PGV has been operating in Puna, there has not been a single case or instance of a Hawaiian being denied their right to worship Pele because of geothermal development.
Mililani B. Trask, Attorney
Indigenous Expert to the United Nations
Indigenous Consultants, LLC
Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Big Island, Community, Economy, Environment, Guest Commentator, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Puna, Rumors, Technology Tagged: | Geothermal Development, Hawaii Supreme Court, Mililani Trask, Native American Rights Fund, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Ormat, Puna Geothermal Ventures
Is this the hewa woman who is a sell out of indigenous rights? This article is reflective of her guilt. I feel sorry for her when the ancestors of Puna catch up with her.
Like smoking dope isn’t toxic? Most stones still believe dope isn’t toxic, but the truth is what it is, no matter HOW MUCH stoners want to denyit!
What is even more discouraging is the extent of lying and Straw man Fallacies Mililani is spewing, had to read this letter again, you know, we are going to make here eat her words, so Mililani I would like to know about the extent of monitoring that NZ takes in their Geothermal projects, tell me about subsistence, tell me about hot water and cool water and what effect that has on the aquifer, tell us how the pressure from re-injection needs to be constantly monitored, Tell us what happens to all this brine and where it goes. Tell us what they are pumping in, tell us about landscape impacts, tell us about chemistry changes, So educate us, this group of angry uneducated people, Or do we actually have to educate you? I’m thinking so……
I’ve got plenty of questions, especially the ones I know the answers too before I ask you them.
She is put into our community to cause indifference. She boasts about herself but all her articles on geothermal makes her look very unhawaiian. I know so many kanaka maoli and residents against this. Karma always comes back and I think she will get it bad. This article shows her arrogance and how she is the cause of illness, destruction to tutu Pele, and her own culture and people. Worse thing ever is to see her greed. I’m so glad I know she is a hypocrite. She should not be speaking on indigenous rights. She should be jailed.
Full disclosure on this commentary ought to include the fact that Trask is on the management team of a business – IDG Hawai’i, http://idghawaii.com/ – that is promoting geothermal development in Hawai’i.
Mililani is showing she has no connection to Native Hawaiian thought process. She is wahinepilau. The lepo of Puna. We do practice anywhere in the forest…to enter, to leave, to thank, to protect, to tend, to gather…the whole area for generations. Anyone who drills into tutu Pele is hewa. Hawaiian or not. She’s part of a small group that makes so many claims that the volcano is not religion. She deserves belittling. Well she deserves. As a person in the Hawaiian community (most of them against geothermal island wide) I am very dissappointed in her shameful disrespect of her own culture. To ignore the facts that people are getting sick then write this rhetorical article which makes her look worse then a hypocrite. Pupulenui.
auroa, you are an illegitimate joke. you and your band of PDF desperados who are attempting to hijack a community with bogus claims of worship. The Hawai’i State Supreme court recognized Deadman-Walking rights to worship but could not find evidence to support his claims he actually worshiped at any site in the rainforest. From what I hear, his designated worship sites were known pakalolo growing areas. LOL.
You belong to a fring group barely hanging on to the edge of society. You blame responsible community folks for your failures and expect entitlement without sweat equity. A Police complaint has been filed against you for acts of harrassment on IDG officials after you chased them outside of a Council meeting room in march. You are a emotionally unstable person in search of identity and relevance. Uncontrollable as you are, you and your minions of misfits do not represent the good folks of Puna. Nor do speak for native Hawaiians.
I was told PDF was registered unti recently. Your California atty wasnt sure.
If you were legitimate forces in the Puna district, Ormat, a foreign, wall-street corporation, would have never been allowed to drill. They rolled right over your weak and ineffective ragtag membership. What a joke.
You couldnt stop a parked car with your juvi rants and emotional tantrums.
Now, you seek to belittle native hawaiian enterprise represented by na wahine.
These women will NOT cut and run from phoney extorsionists like you.
Simply stated your intimidation tactics and smear campaign wont work.
You are afraid to confront the real issues like health, safety and price fixing caused by Ormat. They are backed by Sen Inouye and will squash you. Put down your pipe doper, and start looking for a real job.
Maybe, Ormat will hire you as a plant guide.
your the only on illegitimate on this forum
Why are we STILL comparing Ormats negligence with what IDG wants to do?
All of these health concerns are warranted, and must be addressed… BY THE PROPER PARTIES! Whos Kuleana does that fall on, for the past 17+ years… certainly not IDG, though all signs point to them using proper, non-polluting technology on ANY project moving forward.
Aurora, you make a lot of false accusation regarding what IDG has done or is trying to do. How is highlighting the HISTORICAL ramifications of what PDF was able to accomplish in the past, during one tiny segment of their presentation, in any way using PDF to promote geothermal? Where is IDG telling Aotearoa that “we love idg and geothermal”? Quite the contrary, as the Maori have been grateful for IDGs support and assistance in allowing them to directly benefit from their resources, without the exploitation of outside, big business companies who have done so in the past.
You speak of Rotorua as if geothermal development has anything to do with the residents health problems. If you had actually been to Rotorua, youd find that the area is a hotbed for natural geothermal emissions, full of open, steaming areas, where often steam and geysers erupts in peoples back yards unexcpectedly, and the town there has made it a part of their everyday life.
Get your half-thought-out, 3rd-hand facts straight!
Well it appears that I am considered part of
“a small group of angry & uninformed individuals”…that “have begun campaign”..
“the goal of which is to prevent geothermal energy on Hawaii Island.” Well news flash
Ormat Energy Systems Inc. aka Puna Geothermal Venture , an Isreali owned corporation is already here developing geothermal energy. We cannot prevent what us already here and has been polluting the air we breathe and the underground aquifer since 1990 with not only deadly levels of hydrogen sulfide gas, and ammonia, lead, arsenic, mercury, radon222gas, etc… One of my elderly neighbors had applied for geothermal relocation, but died of pulmonary edema before the government relocated his family ( FYI ammonia causes pulmonary edema). So I really wish your words were true that we could prevent geothermal development, but i did at one time believe that geothermal was a clean green energy source. Worked hard, bought land & built a home for our family here in Lani Puna 27 years ago. That’s when I found out what geothermal is really like. I am no longer uninformed as to what geothermal development is about having lived directly next to PGV. And yes when IDG came to our Hawaii County Council subcommittee recently to promote geothermal development I was very pleasantly surprised to meet Pat Brant(sp?sorry) she was very kind and asked if she cod visit our home to see what the problems with geothermal and neighborhoods was like, we exchanged contact info, and I welcomed here visit.
But oh my goodness when me & my family saw the photograph of the Rescue the Rainforest Protect Puna from Geothermal Development Protest where Native Hawaiians, Pele Practioners, Residents, Environmentslist and just simple folks who love the Earth and her inhabitants came together To Stop Geothermal Development in Wao Kele O Puna Rain Forest, UNITED TOGETHER & Succeeded!! Now to see IDG use the photo of our protest of geothermal in
an IDG promo piece for geothermal piece for geothermal- now that’s just wrong. Just because you may have participated in parts of a geothermal protest does not give you the right to use a photo/ images of those people who have protetested geothermal by IDG to now promote geothermal. Also no one is ” claiming ownership of the Pele name” as you say. What is wrong with the IDG promo power point presentation is the use of both photos of geothermal protest at Wao Kele O Puna & the name of the Pele Defense Fund by IDG to promote geothermal development.
We Do Not Agree that geothermal is Safe Clean or Renewable energy. So please stop saying or imying that we do , you are baearing false witness . Now it appears IDG is telling New Zealand that we love IDG and geothermal and IDG is telling us Maoris & Kiwi’s love geothermal . Who’s lying here?
I am looking at an EPA document regarding
The Lack of a viable Puna Emergency Response Plan for the people of Puna Hawaii. There is no operable evacuation plan.
But I did find a study of long term low level exposure to H2S in New Zealand , like we ate experiencing by PGV. It state that lifetime exposures to H2S from geothermal emissions have caused residents of Rotorua an elevated diseases if the respiratory systems particularly in Maori women. And and elevated rate of nasal, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers; elevated standardized incidence ratios of disease of the nervous system and the eye.
Please forgive any typos etc , we are on day 60 of 24/7 geothermal drilling adjacent to our home,no sleep no peace.Geothermal no good
Aloha
Many people helped get the destroyers out of Wao kele o Puna. I thank you all.
In my opinion, one of the most powerful contributions to the settlement was from Hawaiians that demanded the rights of all residents to be respected. Most people don’t know about this component of the settlement.
However, I have to say that the people of Hawaii have not been able to exercise their rights to worship the clean air and water that was present in Puna before PGV started spewing noncondensible gases into our air and toxic metals into our groundwater. Pele’s breath and Wainuenue’s blessings are not toxic. But nobody can deny that PGV emits toxins. They are reported monthly. Before you say these emisions are safe I would encourage you to educate yourself. Get a list of the toxins from PGV and then tell me they are harmless. Let PGV or Hawaii DOH produce the detailed studies to track the flume of gases and metals from injectate wells. How soon will the waters of Green Lake be full of this injectate?
Has PGV ever taken care of their emissions? They believe they have by injecting their emissions. I don’t agree. Just pumping something down a hole doesn’t make it go away.
Sitting in airconditioned outdoor restaurants, Oahu residents and policy makers may think it is ok to pollute and exploit geothermal resources, believing in the lies of safety or worse yet knowing and not caring.
Why do children have a high rate of asthma in Puna? Could the emissions from PGV have anything to do with it? PGV and their apologists in the Hawaii Dept of Health would tell you no. These are the same people that we had to sue to release the information on components of geothermal emmissions. The feds finally ordered them to release the info. Responsible scientists will tell you that the components of emissions that PGV produces, are known as triggers to precipitate the advent of asthma in susceptible individuals. Why does the DOH and PGV elevate their monitors ten feet above ground when the gases they need to monitor are heavier than air? Most children and adults breathe air from around six feet or less above the ground.
PGV and their supporters now think they can just buy support for their toxic schemes of massive power transmission from Puna and nobody will notice the destruction of the health of the people of Puna. Current elected and appointed officials think they know what is good for us (or at least what is good for their campaign donors’ wealth). I believe Madame Pele will eventually point out the flaws of their plans in radical ways, but I fear the health of the people of Puna will continue to suffer before things get better.
In closing I wish to remember the recent passing of Rev. Don Swerdfeger, whose elderly wife, Priscilla (also now deceased) helped represent some of us on the march. She was also arrested and abused by the police. Don supported his wife and the efforts of all to bring justice to this issue. Me? I wasn’t there, I was working an overtime shift at Kona Hospital trying to help pay for PDF bail and to pay legal costs on another geothermal matter.
Bob Jacobson,
Retired Respiratory Intensive Care Nurse and Hawaii County Councilmember