Molokai residents protest the National Park Service launching tours at Kalaupapa Historic National Park. Residents of the island said park officials need to consult with the community about its plan for tours because of the impact they could have on the island. Courtesy photo

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said Kalaupapa National Historical Park officials expressed no immediate plans to restart ranger-led tours following community protests over the lack of consultation with Molokai residents.

“They understood that they need to do this right,” Tokuda said by phone Tuesday after speaking with park Superintendent Nancy Holman. “No one wants protestors out there. No one wants an angry community.”

Tokuda said she left the discussion with the impression that park officials understood that substantial work and community dialogue would need to take place before tours could resume.

She said Holman indicated there was no rush to restart the tours, and Tokuda did not expect them to resume anytime soon.

The National Park Service announced in June that it would begin offering all-day, ranger-led hiking tours at Kalaupapa twice a week on Thursdays and Saturdays, starting July 9. The tours were intended to provide information about Kalaupapa’s history and were to be capped at 100 people per day.

The hikes began at a gate leading down a zigzag trail that descends about 1,600 feet over 3 miles to the Kalaupapa peninsula. Park officials warned that the round-trip hike would be strenuous.

Community members protested at the gate July 9, saying the National Park Service had failed to consult Molokai residents or consider how increased visitation could affect the island. A second demonstration was planned for Saturday, but Maui County Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who holds the Molokai residency seat, informed them that the tours had been paused.

“They wouldn’t have done this without our community showing up, without our people demanding that we be consulted in our home before any kind of activity is done like this,” she said.

Rawlins-Fernandez said the primary concern was the lack of consultation and the failure to consider ways to mitigate the tours’ potential effects on Molokai residents.

Molokai has a population of about 7,400 and a limited number of flights aboard small passenger aircraft. Rawlins-Fernandez said many of those seats are needed by residents who commute for work, medical appointments and other essential travel.

Tokuda said Holman told her that park officials had spoken with representatives from various agencies before starting the tours. However, Tokuda said discussions with government administrators are not a substitute for direct community engagement.

She said that should include consultation with current and former Hansen’s disease patients, their families, Native Hawaiian beneficiaries and Hawaiian homestead leaders.

“That didn’t seem to happen at all,” Tokuda said.

Tokuda also said park officials appeared to have been unaware that federal legislation governing Kalaupapa calls for consideration of tour operations involving not only patients and their families, but also Native Hawaiians.

“The statute is clear,” Tokuda said.

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda

Tokuda said she asked Holman to organize community meetings and listening sessions.

“She didn’t commit to it, but she didn’t say, ‘No,’ either,” Tokuda said.

Tokuda also requested information the park had received from its legal counsel.

The park previously relied on tours operated by a longtime Kalaupapa resident and former Hansen’s disease patient. Those tours ended after the resident died in May at age 91. The National Park Service announced its plans to begin offering its own tours the following month.

Kalaupapa is the remote peninsula where Father Damien volunteered in 1873 to care for people with Hansen’s disease. He was later canonized as St. Damien by Pope Benedict XVI.

Tokuda said having no tours for now is preferable to moving forward in a way that damages the park’s relationship with the Molokai community.