Kuleana rights

Last updated

Kuleana rights are certain land use rights once enjoyed by Hawaiian tenant farmers and in the modern day are attached to particular plots of land. The six distinct kuleana rights are: [1]

Contents

(1) reasonable access to the land-locked kuleana from major thoroughfares;

(2) agricultural uses, such as taro cultivation;

(3) traditional gathering rights in and around the ahupua'a [neighborhood];

(4) a house lot not larger than 1/4 acre;

(5) sufficient water for drinking and irrigation from nearby streams, including traditionally established waterways such as 'auwai;

(6) fishing rights in the kunalu (the coastal region extending from beach to reef).

A kuleana is the smallest portion of land in the traditional ahupuaʻa system of land management and would be cultivated by a single tenant family on behalf of a regional chief. These rights were first acknowledged in statute as part of the Great Māhele of King Kamehameha III and the Kuleana Act of 1850 and continue to be protected by the modern-day constitution of Hawaii and Hawaiian state law. Kuleana rights can be attached to the kuleana land itself or to a descendant's use of a specific plot.

In 2012 the Hawaiian Supreme Court confirmed the viability of Kuleana rights in the present day. [2]

In late 2016 Mark Zuckerberg filed suit to eliminate the ownership interests of more than 100 Hawaiians in Kuleana lands located within his larger parcel. [3] Early in 2017 Mr. Zuckerberg announced that he would drop the litigation. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lāʻie, Hawaii</span> Census-designated place in Hawaii, United States

Laie is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the Koolauloa District on the island of Oahu in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. In Hawaiian, lāʻie means "ʻie leaf". The population was 5,963 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal sovereignty in the United States</span> Type of political status of Native Americans

Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.

The history of Hawaii is the story of human settlements in the Hawaiian Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord of the manor</span> Landholder of a rural estate

Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The titles date to the English feudal system. The lord enjoyed manorial rights as well as seignory, the right to grant or draw benefit from the estate. The title continues in modern England and Wales as a legally recognised form of property that can be held independently of its historical rights. It may belong entirely to one person or be a moiety shared with other people. The title is known as Breyr in Welsh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown land</span> Territory belonging to a monarch

Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realms, crown land is considered public land and is apart from the monarch's private estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native Hawaiians</span> Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands

Native Hawaiians are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian reservation</span> Land managed by Native American nations under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs

An American Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose government is autonomous, subject to regulations passed by the United States Congress and administered by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and not to the U.S. state government in which it is located. Some of the country's 574 federally recognized tribes govern more than one of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States, while some share reservations, and others have no reservation at all. Historical piecemeal land allocations under the Dawes Act facilitated sales to non–Native Americans, resulting in some reservations becoming severely fragmented, with pieces of tribal and privately held land being treated as separate enclaves. This jumble of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common land</span> Land owned collectively

Common land is collective land in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.

Native title refers to rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rights were first recognised as a part of Australian common law with the decision of Mabo v Queensland in 1992. The doctrine was subsequently implemented and modified via statute with the Native Title Act 1993.

The Great Māhele or just the Māhele was the Hawaiian land redistribution proposed by King Kamehameha III. The Māhele was one of the most important episodes of Hawaiian history, second only to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. While intended to provide secure title to indigenous Hawaiians, it separated many of them from their land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahupuaʻa</span> Traditional Hawaiian subdivision of land

Ahupuaʻa is a Hawaiian term for a large traditional socioeconomic, geologic, and climatic subdivision of land. It usually extends from the mountains to the sea and generally includes one or more complete watersheds and marine resources. The predominant traditional system in the eight high islands of the main Hawaiian Islands was based on the ahupua’a. Each ahupua‘a contained a cross section of island resources and they were managed within a complex social system associated with each area. The general belief is that each ahupua‘a met the needs of the local population, with excess for tribute and trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land reform in Scotland</span> Ongoing political and legal process in Scotland

Land reform in Scotland is the ongoing process by which the ownership of land, its distribution and the law which governs it is modified, reformed and modernised by property and regulatory law.

In 1898, the United States Congress annexed Hawaiʻi based on a Joint Resolution of Annexation. Questions about the legitimacy of the U.S. acquiring Hawaii through a joint resolution, rather than a treaty, were actively debated in Congress in 1898, and is the subject of ongoing debate. Upon annexation, the Republic of Hawai‘i transferred approximately 1.8 million acres of Hawaiian Government and Crown Lands to the United States (U.S.), which are today held by the State of Hawaiʻi. In the 1993 Apology Resolution, the U.S. government officially apologized to the Native Hawaiian people, acknowledging that the Republic of Hawaiʻi transferred these lands "without the consent of or any compensation to the Native Hawaiian people of Hawaiʻi or their sovereign government" and that "the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims. .. over their national lands to the United States." Although the lands are commonly referred to as "ceded lands" or "public lands," some refer to them as "seized lands" or "Hawaiian national lands" or "crown lands" to highlight the illegal nature of the land transfer, acknowledge different interpretations of the legal effect of the Joint Resolution, and to recognize that Native Hawaiians maintain claims to these lands. Many Native Hawaiian individuals and organizations insist on the return of title, which would be consistent with international law and recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples, whereas others seek back rent for the use of the land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Indian Religious Freedom Act</span> United States Law protecting Native Americans religious practices

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Public Law No. 95–341, 92 Stat. 469, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1996, is a United States federal law, enacted by joint resolution of the Congress in 1978. Prior to the act, many aspects of Native American religions and sacred ceremonies had been prohibited by law.

In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States the term treaty rights specifically refers to rights for indigenous peoples enumerated in treaties with settler societies that arose from European colonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaniela Ing</span> American politician

Mark Kaniela Saito Ing is an American politician and community organizer who was a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from the 11th District, representing south Maui from November 7, 2012, until November 6, 2018. He unsuccessfully ran to represent Hawaii's 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 federal election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haʻalelea</span> High chief of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1822–1864)

Levi Haʻalelea was a high chief and member of the Hawaiian nobility during the Hawaiian Kingdom. He initially served as a kahu and konohiki for High Chief Leleiohoku, one of the grandsons of Kamehameha I. He later became aa Hulumanu in the royal court of Kamehameha III and eventually served as Chamberlain for the court. He married Kekauʻōnohi, the granddaughter of Kamehameha I. These connections to the ruling dynasty gave him access to vast landholding during the land division of the Great Mahele in 1848. Active in politics, he was a member of the Privy Council of State and served in the House of Nobles. In later life, he helped the early Mormon missionaries to the islands by leasing them land and eventually converted to that faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Morison Robertson</span> American judge (1821–1867)

George Morison Robertson was an early politician and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Born in Scotland, he settled in Hawaii in 1844 during the whaling era. During his career in Hawaii, he served in many political and judicial posts including circuit judge and police court judge, member of the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles, a multiple-term representative in the Hawaiian legislature, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii and Minister of the Interior.

ʻAkahi was a high chiefess and female landholder of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Also known as "Akahi-a-Kaleiwohi", she was named after her great-grandmother Akahi-a-Kuleana. ʻAkahi was also the name of Akahi-a-Kuleana, the mother of 15th-century Hawaiian king ʻUmi-a-Līloa. A relation of the ruling House of Kamehameha, ʻAkahi was married to Kahekili Keʻeaumoku II and Kalanimoku, two prominent Hawaiian high chiefs and politicians during the early 19th century. She lived most of her life on the island of Hawaii where she was allocated vast landholdings after the Great Mahele of 1848. After her death in 1877, these lands were inherited by her relative Bernice Pauahi Bishop and upon the latter's death became part of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, which now funds the Kamehameha Schools.

The Kuleana Act of 1850, proposed by the King in Privy Council passed by the Hawaii legislature created a system for private land ownership in seven parts. Section 1 recognized ownership of government plots occupied and improved by families. Section 2 expanded title to other types of land. Section 3 defined land boundaries and the ability to exchange portions of land. Section 4 established a system for the Hawaiian government to distribute larger parcels of land. Section 5 established the largest size of family owned lots. Section 6 attempted to distinguish between cultivated and waste lands. Section 7 established access to roads, water sources, and other natural resources.

References

Further reading