Near to Iolani Palace is a white building called the Hawai’i State Archives. I visited this historic place and later learned it holds the largest Hawaiian collection of historical photographs, government records, and laws of Hawaii's history. I wanted to inquire if the Hawaiian government upheld ancient traditions or had written laws to protect Hawaiian burials during the monarchy time period. I met Luella H. Kurkjian, director of the Hawaii State Archives. She had a researcher look for us of the written laws in the 1800s.

In 1860, the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom made a burial law which Luella read to me: “‘If any person not having legal right to do so, show willfully dig up disinter, remove or convey away any human body from any burial place shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for not more than two years, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.’ One thousand dollars in 1860 was a lot of money. So obviously, that this was a heinous crime; and they had to make sure that they put enough money and imprisonment time so that people would not do it.” I also spoke with Dr. Keanu Sai, who has a Ph.D in Political Science and is an expert in foreign law. He went into detail about this burial law: “This was a statute called the Protection of Places of Sepulture, which was passed in 1860 in the Hawaiian Kingdom by legislature, protecting burial sites, whether in caves or in the ground. It is a violation and a crime to dig up a grave and remove the body's.

The Hawaiian Kingdom made the statue in their constitution to protect Hawaiian burials from desecration. It shows you how progressive Hawai’i government was at that time. The current understanding of English common law and American common law says that the iwi or the human body is not considered property because it’s buried. So, if the body is not considered property you can’t steal it. Therefore it cannot be a crime to dig up human graves. Example, in England there were body snatchers, who would dig up bodies and take them to medical schools to do autopsies of the human anatomy. The government could not charge the snatchers with a crime because it was not a crime to steal the bodies. Later the English and Americans found a way to charge the body snatchers for a crime. The crime was not stealing the bodies from the graves but stealing the clothing the bodies were dressed in which was considered “property” that was the theft at that time. That is how they dealt with that problem in England and in the United States. Here in Hawai’i, in 1860, as a country, they didn't follow that logic. They say, No, iwi or human bones are property and it demands protection. And that was the basis of the Sepulture law. This law has protected Hawaiian burials during the rule of the Hawaiian Kingdom from desecration.”