Leopold “Butch” Durant and his family have been living on the same parcel of land in Kapaia for a long time. State records trace them back more than 100 years. Durant likes to say his family has been on the
Leopold “Butch” Durant and his family have been living on the same parcel of land in Kapaia for a long time.
State records trace them back more than 100 years. Durant likes to say his family has been on the property “since time immemorial.”
Durant also claims the area is not even named Kapaia. “It is called Peaiki,” he said.
Durant is a kanaka maoli, an indigenous Hawaiian. Fifty-four years old, he is the possessor of documents stretching back into territorial days which, he says, prove he and all other Polynesians are the owners of the lands and not subject to state taxes.
His appeal of his county tax bill has languished in the state tax courts on Oahu for almost a year, and recently he has begun asking local government for help.
Durant said he has talked once to Kaua’i County Council members Kaipo Asing and Daryl Kaneshiro, but that they haven’t returned to the taro patch-surrounded home where he and his family live, about 10 minutes by car from the county building.
Last Thursday, Kaneshiro said he wanted to go back but had been advised by the county attorney’s office that he shouldn’t, because of possible future litigation.
This explanation bothered Durant.
“I’m not suing nobody. This needs to be fixed. I don’t need to sue nobody,” Durant said.
“We appealed to the attorney general’s office and they wrote us back and said, ‘It’s in the court’s hands to remedy the situation,’ said Durant’s son, Roland Durant.
The elder Durant then contacted Councilman Gary Hooser, who last week, accompanied by a deputy county attorney, visited the Durants. After a 45-minute meeting, which Hooser asked reporters not to attend, the council member expressed mixed feelings.
“It’s a frustrating situation. I think the whole land ownership, sovereignty issue is an issue outside the realm of a county council member,” Hooser said.
But Hooser said he isn’t trying to avoid the issue.
“Hawaiian rights and the future resolution of the sovereignty issue is probably the most important long-term concern facing our state, and I don’t think there are any easy answers or solutions,” he said.
But the Durant family at least doesn’t see the solution as complicated.
“The land is ours. We live under the konohiki system. To gain our corporate right as kanaka maolis, we will have to go back to the land, which is rightfully ours,” Roland Durant said.
The county attorney’s office did not return calls last week seeking comment.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
