Portions of Maunakea, including summit, now part of Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places

Maunakea, the Big Island’s tallest volcanic mountain, towering 13,803 feet, now has one more layer of protection with a decision by the State Historic Preservation Review Board to list state public lands from 6,500 feet and above, including the summit, as a traditional cultural property on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places.

The board unanimously approved the nomination, pushed by nonprofit KAHEA (The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance) and Hawaiian cultural organization Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, during its meeting Nov. 17.

The listing went into effect immediately.

The lands, after any necessary revisions or edits to the nomination, will be forwarded by the state to the federal government to be considered for listing the lands on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I don’t foresee there being huge edits because it was so well-received at the state level,” said Huliauapa‘a legal specialist Ku‘upua Kiyuna. “There’s no real need to change anything. We’re just looking to make sure there’s no inconsistencies …”

Nonprofit Huliauapa‘a was contracted by the two organizations leading the charge for the mauna’s nomination on both registers.

How long it will take for a possible federal designation as a traditional cultural property on the national register is unclear. The state will submit the nomination to the keeper of the national register, who will then make a decision.

It’s taken about 18 months to get to this point.

“This is a huge acknowledgment that Maunakea is a sacred cultural landscape that must be recognized in its entirety now,” said Huliauapa‘a about the state decision in a Nov. 17 Facebook post.

Traditional cultural properties are defined by the National Park Service as places associated with the cultural practices or beliefs of a living community that are rooted in a community’s history and important in maintaining its continued cultural identity.

These properties are by definition historic properties, but not all historic properties are traditional cultural properties. The listing of mountains considered sacred by indigenous people on the national register also is not unprecedented.

Tonaachaw in Chuuk, which was listed in 1970; Kuchamaa, or Tecate Peak, in Tecate, Calif., listed in 1992; and Spirit Mountain in Southern Nevada, which was listed as a traditional cultural property in 1999. San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Ariz., also has a nomination pending.

Nominating Maunakea to the state and federal registers also is not a new concept for Hawai‘i.

The State Historic Preservation Division in 1999 deemed Maunakea’s summit region eligible for inclusion in the national register as a historic district because it encompasses a sufficient concentration of historic properties, such as shrines, burials and culturally significant landscape features.

The same year, the division designated Pu‘u Lilinoe, Lake Waiau and Kūkahau’ula on the mountain as traditional cultural properties.

The Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan also noted in 2009 that the Mauna Kea Summit Region Historic District is eligible to be included on the national register.

William Chapman, vice chairman of the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board, said during a March meeting this year that in his mind, the nomination of Maunakea as a traditional cultural property is textbook, to which State Historic Preservation Division Administrator Alan Downer replied: “I certainly agree …”

Jurisdiction over the lands, which is being transitioned to the new Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, will not change. People also will still be able to visit the property.

“Maunakea does retain its integrity as is right now,” Kiyuna said, “meaning that we understand and recognize that there has been development up there with the observatories and whatnot.”

However, any future development that could impact the significance and integrity of the mountain, just like it would have to consider environmental and other physical resources and cultural aspects in the lands on the register, will have to take a more in-depth look at what makes the mountain significant to the Native Hawaiian community before proceeding.

Kiyuna said the listing makes that public record, pulling together all of that cultural information including intangible resources as well, such as linkage to Native Hawaiian ceremonies, practices and protocols.

“So federal, county and state agencies will have that at the forefront of any of the processes they have to go through for environmental compliance or historic preservation compliance in particular,” she said. “While this doesn’t afford this broad blanket of protection, which I think that a lot of people think it will, what it does is elevate the mauna in terms of providing more inclusive content for those considerations and those processes.”

It also includes information that previously was refuted or not even considered in a formal setting, such as historical evidence of spiritual practices, worship, pilgrimages and other traditional practices.

“So instead of just taking one part of the historical significance of the mauna [into consideration], you’re taking it all, and you can’t really ignore it because we laid it all out there and interwoven it all together,” Kiyuna said.

Kiyuna is unsure how any ongoing developments in the listed property, such as the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope which has been stuck in limbo since being halted in 2019 following massive demonstrations on the mountain against it, would be impacted.

Huliauapa‘a consulted with Native Hawaiian ethnographers, people who study and record the culture, and cultural practitioners to determine the boundary for the nominated lands.

Many wahi pana (sacred and celebrated places) and places where traditional cultural practices take place, as well as known artifacts such as ahu (altars), human remains and certain pu‘u (hills or peaks) where ceremonies are conducted, are located within the boundaries.

The designation elevates the understanding of the mauna and why Native Hawaiians ascribe significance to it.

“This was a big act of aloha ʻāina … where we did this for love of ʻāina, for love of the mauna,” Kiyuna said. “We’re just really happy that we’re able to get this through to the Hawai‘i register and that it was accepted unanimously by the [State Historic Preservation Review Board] without any negative comments or anything. We’re really hopeful that it’ll be included on the national register. It would just afford greater support for the mauna.”

Big Island Now reached out to KAHEA and the State Historic Preservation Division Review Board for comment but did not hear back from anyone at either organization before publication.

To see the nomination form for the Maunakea lands now listed on the state register of historic places, click here.

Editor’s note: Big Island Now asked readers what they thought about the nomination of state public lands on Maunakea from 6,500 feet and above in a recent poll. The results were published Dec. 17.