Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawai'i Nei is recognized by the U.S. government as an organization with legal standing for repatriation and reburial, as well as consultation on such matters.

Moreover, Hui Malama played an integral part in getting Native Hawaiian burials and artifacts included in the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.

If not for Hui Malama, hundreds of Native Hawaiian remains would still be in cold drawers in museums across the country instead of resting in the sands of their home. Hui Malama brought the bones back to Hawai'i and worked with community burial councils to ensure proper reinterment.

Hui Malama members did the wrangling with the museums. They flew to far corners and secured the bones and escorted them back on airplanes. Group members, volunteers, took on this emotional, somber responsibility.

It began with the Ritz Carlton on Maui. In 1988, the remains of more than a thousand Native Hawaiians were dug up to build the hotel. Native Hawaiians and supporters lodged a successful fight to have the bones returned to their original resting place in perpetuity and have the hotel site moved inland, away from the burials. Hui Malama grew out of the resolve to not let that kind of desecration happen again.

There are other questions that should be asked instead, such as who are these other groups who claim rights to the burial objects taken from Forbes Cave and what was Bishop Museum doing issuing a "loan" for these pieces?

1. An article written by Forbes himself in 1909 and published in the Paradise of the Pacific giving a detailed account of his robbery of the cave and the human remains he witnesses in context with the funerary objects.
2. Correspondence between Forbes and Brigham, Director of the Bishop Museum on Nov. 7, 1905, going over the items retrieved from the Kawaihae Burials Cave soliciting the sale of these items.
3. Reply correspondence between Brigham and Forbes on Nov. 11, 1905, admitting that this action is illegal with severe laws governing burial caves and that they should keep the matter private.
4. A estimate issued by the Museum on November 21, 1905 appraising the value of the stolen items at $472.00