A spokesman for the Pai Ohana says talks with the National Park Service broke down when he discovered there was no guarantee the family would be able to stay on land where they were to be relocated.

Mahealani Pai also now asserts that the National Park Service (NPS) cannot evict his family from Kaloko-Honokohau National Cultural Park because the federal government does not have clear title to property.

The Pai Ohana was notified by NPS on Wednesday that it was facing immediate eviction from Aiopio, a section of the National Park that contains a fish trap and heiau, or temple. Pai maintains his family has in inextinguishable right to live there because he and his ancestors have overseen the care of the area for 14 generations.

On Thursday, Pai also presented documentation by Perfect Title Co. of Honolulu that supports his position that the NPS's claim to Honokohauiki, the land division in which Aiopio is located, is null and void.

Stanley T. Albright, field director for the Department of the Interior, notified the Pai Ohana on Wednesday by hand-delivered letter to "immediately" vacate its compound just north of Honokohau Small Boat Harbor or face eviction.

The notice came after an agreement had seemingly been reached between the Pai Ohana, NPS, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and a number of state agencies. It would have relocated the family onto state property adjacent to Aiopio.

However, Pai said he broke off negotiations when he discovered the agreement did not guarantee the family would be able to remain on the state land if the pact's validity were challenged in court. Pai said it also would not them to return to their former home if they were removed from the state parcel.

"It seems everything was rigged," Pai said. "If we were to move (onto state property) and there was some kind of challenge, we would not be able to live there, or return here."

But Bryan Harry, NPS regional director, said he believes the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs were dealing in good faith and had worked out an agreement that would have allowed the Pai Ohana to remain on the state parcel.

"It looked to me that they were offering him more than NPS," Harry said. "They were saying that he could stay on the state property, and I think that window is still open.

Pai says the dispute over NPS's title is a separate issue from the negotiations, and came about after he responded to an advertisement by Honolulu from Perfect Title Co. in Ka Wai Ola 0 OHA, the newspaper of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Perfect Title Co. uses 19th Century Kingdom of Hawaii law to dispute current land titles. It argues that since the origin of current land titles is based on the Great Mahele of 1848, the laws under which the Mahele was established should govern those titles.

Donald Lewis, president of Perfect Title Co., said the ownership of the property became clouded when it was conveyed in 1895 by Francis Spencer to the Republic of Hawaii, an act of treason under Kingdom law. Lewis said that means the property remains vested in the estate of Francis Spencer.

"Thus, the salient question," said Lewis, "'Can Mahealani Pai be trespassing on National Park Service land if the National Park Service has no title to Honokohauiki?' I think not."

Many in the real estate industry have dismissed Perfect Title's work as absurd. Even so, the company's findings have started to cause problems in Hawaii's real estate system.

Harry said the that if the Pai Ohana can make Perfect Title's claims stick, then every landowner in Hawaii stands to lose their property.

"This is a title that has been validated all the way up to a federal appeals court," Harry said.

Pai said he does not know when the NPS will try to evict his family, but added that he believes they will stop at nothing to remove them from Aiopio. "They will do everything they can to provoke a situation," Pai said.

Harry said that is not the case, and points out previous peaceful evictions of other people who had lived at or near Aiopio. "The staff at Kaloko has exercised enormous patience with the Pai's," Harry said. "Even in the face of them demanding that maintenance people and rangers leave the park. I couldn't imagine a more patient group of people."

Pai also said the situation has caused internal conflicts within the staff at Kaloko-Honokohau, and he has been told that local NPS workers will be temporarily be reassigned while "outsiders" are used to carry out the eviction.

Harry said that is untrue. "I don't believe that the NPS at Kaloko has that much empathy for the Pai's," he said. "If we did go in, I wouldn't be surprised if we just moved their stuff onto state property." See followup article:

• Officials Evict Pai Ohana, Make Arrests

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