Two native Hawaiian groups asked yesterday that another native Hawaiian group be found in violation of a federal court order because it has not returned 83 artifacts from a Big Island cave.

In the latest turn in an increasingly bitter legal battle, lawyers for the two groups said yesterday that Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, a group founded in the 1980s to rebury native Hawaiian remains and burial items, has "totally failed" to comply with U.S. District Judge David Ezra's order to retrieve the items from Kawaihae or Forbes cave.
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Also yesterday, Hui Malama asked Ezra to reconsider his Sept. 7 retrieval order based on new evidence, including information about the location, safety and security of the cave. Hui Malama has repeatedly argued that entering the cave is a desecration that violates its members' constitutional right to religious freedom. They have also said that they secured the cave with concrete and metal rebar and that using a jackhammer would cause the cave to collapse. The group said it reburied the items there in 2001.

Hui Malama said that if the court did not reconsider the order, it wants someone else to do the retrieval.