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Mahalo.
<br />HEAUKULANL Thank you, sir. Who's next? Kahu?
<br />FUJIYOSHL Thank you. My name is Ronald Fujiyoshi. I live on 1196 West Kawailani Street.
<br />I'm the treasurer of Ohana Ho`opakele and grateful for the opportunity to share my views.
<br />I wonder ifI heard the claims adjuster, James Owens, say that he was raised in Ka`u, and I
<br />wonder whether he's seen the film, Pele's Appeal. [Secretary's Note: Mr. Owens shook his
<br />head indicating "no" to Mr. Fujiyoshi.] Now, I'm kind of surprised that he hasn't seen Pele's
<br />Appeal orI think we gave you a list of different Federal laws, State Constitution, and case law
<br />that uphold the rights of Native Hawaiians.
<br />Now, Pele's Appeal was made in 1989. That's 27 years ago. And, on that Pele's Appeal it's
<br />very clear Palikapu Dedman saying exactly what we're saying today. That this study gotta be
<br />done to show the damage to Native Hawaiians according to their religion, their culture, their
<br />spiritual background. That's 27 years ago! So, to me, now what we're talking about, I don't
<br />know if you know the expression, "You cannot see the forest because of the trees." It means that
<br />you're so focused on certain trees that you cannot see the whole forest. And, to me, when we're
<br />talking about the whole geothermal area, we're talking about an area that was a famous lowland
<br />rainforest, right? And, since then, you have now invasive species, not only plants and insects.
<br />Some brought purposely to Hawaii to supposedly improve the situation, and cause problems like
<br />mongoose and other things, right? And, here we have all of us non -Hawaiians over there, are
<br />being deciding, according to very non -indigenous standards, what is the problem to be solved,
<br />yeah? And, to me, the decision was under Adler's study, their conclusion was there was not one
<br />Hawaiian on that study, and, therefore, it was lacking; and their recommendation is exactly to
<br />have this done. And, I think that the decision that was made in January a year ago is already,
<br />was adequate. That instead of the claims adjuster saying, instead of recommending denial, he
<br />should—you can go forward with the study if these things were done and direct the staff of the
<br />Planning Department to work together with the claimants and Pele Defense is one of them who
<br />has a history of working for Native rights in Puna, right?
<br />And, one of the immediate case studies that they won on was that you don't have to be a person
<br />in that ahupua`a to go out and be one who gathers and does things there. In fact, a lot of
<br />Hawaiians may not express all of their things to do. Let me give you an example. When there
<br />was the lava flow on Puna, only when the suggestion came up to use explosives to divert the lava
<br />did some Hawaiians come up and say this is affront to my religion, yeah? In other words, up to
<br />then, they weren't not exclaiming in the streets that they are Pele believers, but when it came to
<br />something that was vital to them, that's when they spoke up.
<br />So, to me, you need to go back to your original decision which was ignore the claims adjuster
<br />one, and then work with the claimants, which is Pele Defense, should be upfront, and then figure
<br />out how to do that. Duane has been working with Palikapu all these years. He should know
<br />what is needed to get it done, and so I don't understand what's holding this thing up.
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<br />EXHIBIT D
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