Honu'apo Park Resource Management Plan

Trails and Roads
Extending north/south across the entire study area there was a primary coastal trail (ala loa) dating from
Precontact times. The existence of this trail is referenced in legendary accounts of the region (Rosendahl
1991) and its physical appearance, constructed with water-worn stepping-stones, was documented as early
as 1823 by the Reverend William Ellis (Ellis 1963). This trail functioned to connect the coastal settlements
and provide access to coastal resources as part of an integrated trail network that also included
mauka/makai trails. Typically every ahupua‘a had at least one mauka/makai trail that connected inland
habitation and resources areas to the coastal habitation and resources areas. Evidence for the existence of
these mauka/makai trails is visible today in the form of cleared and/or stepping-stone alignments in ‘a‘ā
flows and worn pathways across pāhoehoe flows. Several such trails were observed during a recent field
inspection of the study area.
Beginning in the middle nineteenth century, the Hawaiian Government began a program of road
improvements and the establishment of a Government Road system. The logical place to start was with the
existing primary transportation routes; thus, the ala loa was adapted for use by horse and cart modes of
transportation. In some places the new Government Road (Alanui Aupuni) was built over the ala loa, and in
others it was constructed in a linear fashion mauka of the ala loa. Typically this road is 4 to 6 feet wide
with kerbstones bordering the travel surface. The present alignment of the coastal Government Road across
the study area took shape following the 1868 earthquake and tsunami.
Traditional Cultural Properties and Practices
The Office of Environmental Quality Control guidelines identify several possible types of cultural practices
and beliefs that are subject to assessment and thus should be considered in project planning. These include
subsistence, commercial, residential, agricultural, access-related, recreational, and religious and spiritual
customs. The guidelines also identify the types of potential cultural resources, associated with cultural
practices and beliefs that are subject to assessment. Essentially these are nature features of the landscape
and historic sites, including traditional cultural properties. “Traditional cultural property” means any
historic property associated with the traditional practices and beliefs of an ethnic community or members of
that community for more than fifty years. These traditions shall be founded in an ethnic community’s
history and contribute to maintaining the ethnic community’s cultural identity. Traditional associations are
those demonstrating a continuity of practice or belief until present or those documented in historical source
materials, or both. The origin of the concept of traditional cultural property is found in National Register
Bulletin 38 published by the U.S. Department of Interior-National Park Service. “Traditional” as it is used,
implies a time depth of at least 50 years, and a generalized mode of transmission of information from one
generation to the next, either orally or by act. “Cultural” refers to the beliefs, practices, lifeways, and social
institutions of a given community. The use of the term “Property” defines this category of resource as an
identifiable place. Traditional cultural properties are not intangible, they must have some kind of boundary;
and are subject to the same kind of evaluation as any other historic resource, with one very important
exception. By definition, the significance of traditional cultural properties should be determined by the
community that values them.
There are no sites within the current study area have been officially recognized as traditional cultural
properties, however, there are several sites that potentially could be considered traditional cultural
properties. Some of these are archaeological sites (such as heiau, shrines, and burial sites) that have been
both recorded and have yet to be recorded, and others are significant landscape or geomorphic features
(such as the red rock in the Kāwā pond identified as a ku‘ula [fishing shrine], or for that matter the pond
itself), again that have been both recorded and have yet to be recorded. Such sites would be documented
during archaeological study and oral-historical interviews. It would also be during interviews that specific
cultural practices would be identified. However, it is safe to say that in a general sense access to and use of
the entire shoreline within the study area for recreational, subsistence, and spiritual purposes can be
considered an ancient as well as ongoing practice. Additionally, many within the Hawaiian community
along with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, recognize caretakership of the land (malama ‘āina) as an
ongoing cultural practice with traditional roots.
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