No date has been set for the eviction, which marks a breakdown in negotiations which were supposed to lead to the Pai family's moving out of the federal park onto adjoining state land, while retaining traditional rights in the park.
The breakdown was linked in part to a statement by the controversial Perfect Title Co. that the United States does not own the park land. The Pais, especially Mahealani Pai, have been struggling since 1994 to continue living on a beach in the park where they say family members have been caretakers since the 1700s.
A 1996 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the Pais had no ownership rights to the land. The Park Service also says records fail to support the family's claim that they have unbroken occupancy.
The Park Service has threatened to evict the Pais several times, but delayed the action, in part because of intervention by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Inouye said yesterday that "the recent turn of events" prevents him from asking Babbitt for any more delays.
The Pai Ohana yesterday described the situation as a power struggle. "The National Park Service is banking on might makes right," Mahealani Pai said.
Pai referred to the investigation by Perfect Title, which said the government doesn't own Kaloko-Honokohau because the owner in 1895, Francis Spencer, committed treason against the Hawaiian kingdom by recognizing the new Republic of Hawaii. All subsequent claims of ownership are invalid, the company said.
Perfect Title President Donald Lewis said that under Hawaiian Kingdom law, Pai has claimed the disputed land and received ownership.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Frenchy DeSoto said she read the Perfect Title report.
"I don't understand it, to be totally honest," she said. "I looked at it as a very desperate move. I feel very sad."
But DeSoto said that she supports the Pais' right to choose how they will look after their own interests.
A statement from OHA, which had tried to mediate the dispute, described other complications.
The Park Service never completed a "memorandum of understanding" which would assure the family of access to the 'Ai'opio Fishtrap and Pu'uoina Heiau in the park, OHA said.
Stanley Albright, Park Service regional director in San Francisco, said the agency still is willing to negotiate an agreement, but that the Pais must leave in the meantime.
Ka Lahui head Mililani Trask said OHA sent a proposal for an access agreement to the service in October. The service never responded, she said.
Arnold Lum, attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., which represents the Pais, said the service has a policy of allowing native people to practice their culture in national parks.
But the policy has never been approved by Congress and could be revoked at any time.
"That's a legitimate concern," Lum said.
The recently formed National Association to Protect Native Rights in National Parks will lobby Congress to change the 1916 law setting up the park system so that it ensures native rights, he said.
OHA also noted the state Department of Land and Natural Resources granted a "right of entry" to OHA for 7.9 acres between the national park and Honokohau Harbor.
OHA was to build a cultural center there and the Pais were to be the kahu, or caretaker.
But there is nothing in the right of entry which guarantees the Pais residency, OHA said.