The staffing ills at the State Historic Preservation Division, the agency charged with protecting Hawai'i's historic sites and burials, command headlines. SHPD has lost 21 employees over the past two years, most of them professionals trained to balance development interests with protection of the state's historic legacy and the rights of Hawaiians whose ancestors are buried in unmarked graves. Without them, SHPD is in shambles.

We represent Hawai'i's historic preservation community. We are Hawaiians and professional archaeologists whose interest in these issues runs deep. We take seriously the state's declaration that "it is in the public interest to engage in a comprehensive program of historic preservation at all levels of government to promote the use and conservation of such property for the education, inspiration, pleasure and enrichment of its citizens."

The Historic Preservation Division plays an important role in our community. When it fails, historic preservation suffers. A good example is the Ward Villages project on Auahi Street, a development that many Hawai'i residents welcome for the organic Whole Foods market it will bring.

Auahi Street is fully developed. The popular stores there draw thousands of customers daily. Most people don't realize that Auahi Street follows the back side of a former beach. This is where traditional Hawaiians chose to spend their days and nights, where they cooked their food and ate their meals, raised their families, and buried their dead. It is the kind of place archaeological remains of Hawaiian settlement are likely to be found underground.

When a project such as Ward Villages is proposed, the developer must apply for permits from the county or other agencies. These permitting agencies are required by law to send applications to the Historic Preservation Division for review. In the case of Ward Villages, professional staff at SHPD should have known that more than 30 unmarked graves were found when Queen Street was extended at the mauka side of the property and that multiple sets of human remains were found in adjacent properties. They should have attached conditions to the Ward Villages permits that specified how historic sites and unmarked graves would be identified and treated.

MISSING A CRUCIAL STEP

These conditions should have started an historic preservation review process that works well in the vast majority of cases where it is implemented properly.

Because of the staffing crisis at SHPD, this crucial first step was never taken. The historic sites and unmarked graves at Ward Villages were stripped of their most important layer of protection. They were left vulnerable to disturbance and destruction by development.

To its credit, the developer hired an archaeological firm. But archaeologists had to work quickly alongside demolition and construction crews. Using a backhoe, they made a unique find of a Hawaiian habitation site. At the urging of the O'ahu Island Burial Council, they expanded the search for human remains along the back beach. The finds were astounding. In a search area that covered 3 percent of the old beach, archaeologists found 11 sets of human remains.

Large sums of money invested in design and construction were now at risk. Archaeologists rushed to submit a report of their findings. SHPD's review sanctions destruction of most of the unique traditional Hawaiian habitation site. Without comment, SHPD didn't require the data recovery investigations specified by its administrative rule. Worse, no one estimated how many sets of human remains might be found.

If the bones of 11 individuals were found under only 3 percent of the beach, how many were left in the remaining 97 percent? A moment's reflection and a bit of math indicate that there are likely to be hundreds of individuals buried there.

As required by state law, SHPD forwarded the report to the O'ahu Island Burial Council. The council members, dedicated individuals who volunteer to care for the ancestors, had to decide whether to preserve in place or relocate the 11 sets of remains. A key criterion for preserving burials in place is whether they constitute a concentration of burials. Yet, nobody mentioned that the 11 sets were likely a fraction of an extensive burial ground. The council voted 6-4 to relocate the remains.

MORE REMAINS FOUND

Unsurprisingly, archaeological excavations to remove the remains revealed dozens of additional individuals. Construction activities uncovered more bones, some crushed by heavy equipment working on site.

At last count, the bones of 53 individuals had been found. All of these traditional Hawaiian remains, now technically classified as "inadvertently discovered," supposedly were no longer the kuleana of the O'ahu Island Burial Council.

Instead, their fate was placed in the hands of bureaucrats at SHPD. Burial council members complained that they would have acted differently if they had suspected there were so many burials on the property. Alleging serious missteps in the historic preservation process, a recognized cultural descendent of the individuals buried at the property filed suit against the state and the developer.

The Society for Hawaiian Archaeology began an investigation of the regulatory process. And SHPD, against the wishes of a developer who had already invested millions of dollars in project design and construction, ordered that the burials remain in place and that the project be redesigned to avoid them.

If SHPD had required archaeological investigations to precede construction, then the presence of burials and a unique habitation site need not have been a crisis for the developer, who could have planned accordingly. And if SHPD had provided the professional opinions that would have let the burial council make a fully informed decision, then they could have helped the developer come up with a workable plan that respected the wishes of descendants and the sanctity of the graves.

Enough already. It is time for the Lingle administration to correct the management issues plaguing the Historic Preservation Division without further delay, and to bring the staff there up to full strength with dedicated, qualified professionals.

Historic preservation works. Hawai'i's people, its developers, and its historic preservation community need the Lingle administration to follow the state's mandate and work with us to preserve Hawai'i's heritage.

William Aila Jr. is a board member of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei. Thomas Dye is president of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology. They wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.