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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2003)
8 Tuesday, November 11, 2003 NAT! THE BATTALU Navy returns control of island to Hawaiians NEWS IN BRIEF By B.J. Reyes THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KAHOOLAWE ISLAND, Hawaii — Spotted with patches of dry grass and colored by thorny kiawe trees that thrive in the arid landscape, the red dirt of this former Navy target range supports little other vegetation, and even less wildlife. The uninhabited 45 square miles of Kahoolawe are sacred to native Hawaiians who feel the island, untouched by tourists, connects them with the spirits of their ancestors. Now, after spending 10 years and $460 million to clean up a half centu ry’s worth of shrapnel and unexploded bombs, the Navy is returning control of Kahoolawe to the Hawaiians for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The transfer will take place on Tuesday, Veterans Day. More than a decade after the last round of ammunition was fired, native Hawaiians are preparing for what they hope will be the rebirth of the island as a place where their cultural tradi tions can be celebrated. “You can get a feel on Kahoolawe of what it was like to live on Hawaii at the time of our ancestors,” said Davianna McGregor, a native Hawaiian with the cultural preserva tion group Protect Kahoolawe Ghana. “It’s important for us to have a place where we can practice our traditions without it being a spectacle, without it being some kind of tourist attraction. “It’s one place we can go to be in communion with our natural life forces.” The island and its more than 600 archaeological and culturally signifi cant sites are on the National Register of Historic Places. Those sites include old houses, religious artifacts, shrines, remnants of ranches, and a centuries- old quarry. The island will be set aside for cul tural, education and archaeological activities, with no commercial devel opment allowed, and access to Kahoolawe will be controlled by a state agency. Six miles southwest of Maui, Kahoolawe is the smallest of the eight major Hawaiian islands. It is 11 miles long and seven miles wide. The Navy has controlled Kahoolawe since martial law was declared after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Navy returns island to Hawaiians Control of Kahoolawe island - under martial law since the 1941 attack on Peart Harbor - will be returned to Hawaiians Tuesday. The island had been used as a Navy target range. Kauai ^ 4 Oahu Niiheu * jj, Honolulu Lanai tOO mi 0 100 km MoJtykai * Maui Kahoolawe Island Hilo Hawaii Put ijii Ocean AP SOURCE Associated Press Pearl Harbor. It was used as a target and training area until 1990, when President George H.W. Bush ordered a halt to the exercises after years of protests and lawsuits by native Hawaiians. Congress later agreed to clean up the place and return it to local control. Cleanup crews already have removed some 11,000 tires and about 9 million pounds of scrap metal. “It’s a tremendous amount of material and a tremendous tribute to the folks that have worked out here” on the cleanup, said Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, commander of Navy Region Hawaii. The effort is not complete. As of Oct. 31, about three-quarters of the island has been cleared of unexploded ordnance, according to the Navy. The Navy is set to leave for good on March 12, but will return to clean up any dangerous materials found in the future. “There’s no way that they can go back to that date when everything went wrong to redo it, so what’s done is done,” said Pam Waterhouse, who has worked on the cleanup. “This cer tainly is a step in the right direction.” For the past two decades, the Navy has allowed monthly access to the island for religious purposes, and teachers often bring their classes to the Kahoolawe. “It’s a very deep cultural experi ence when people come to Kahoolawe,” said McGregor, who helps coordinate the trips. “It’s really transformative. Kahoolawe is a very special place.” Juvenile center coun killed; two teens arreiti GROVE CITY, Pa.—Two teen; killed their counselor at a ju\ detention center Monday escaped in his pickup, but were tured at a high school hours authorities said. Wayne Lament Urey Jr., 43, killed in one of the boy’s bedroj shortly after midnight at Gee Junior Republic, a private reside school and treatment center at 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, auf; ties said. At about the same time, A- I Machicote, 17, and Jeremy Met 16, escaped in Urey’s truck, pd said. They were caught Pittsburgh high school Monday at noon, said police spokesm Tammy Ewin. Mercer County prosecutors piai' to file charges of homicide, rote: escape, auto theft, and criminalc:; spiracy against the teens, Troof Robert Lagoon said. Authorities declined to say r; Urey died. He oversaw the cottac; night to make sure the reside didn't leave without permission, kn it mag desk card puter. S to the Ii puter at sending money With ev he mak< matical amount ment. 4 his coir earned The a syster * ing its i of smal down a not thir idea soi that the Witt access making to tax at cable a tion. 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