An age old scam to dispossess native populations of their lands, perpetrated by imperialist overlords worldwide, is known as Adverse Possession. Early European settlers in Hawaii, at first missionaries of several Protestant faiths sent to Hawaii to save the heathens’ souls, soon began to moonlight as businessmen, taking advantage of the local population many of whom were converted to Christianity and looked up to these same people as messengers of God’s word. The business entities that they created amassed hundreds of thousands of acres of Hawaiian lands through Adverse Possession. Hawaii’s cattle and sugar industries were established in this way. It works like this: If I take a section of land and graze my cattle on it for twenty years and make improvements on it, like fencing, and nobody complains or lays claim to the land through the courts during that time, I can successfully lay claim to it through the law of Adverse Possession. First thing to do is get rid of the Hawaiians living in the region, and this was often accomplished by diverting their water supply so that the water they were using to grow the staples necessary to exist no longer flowed through the streams fed by the springs they relied on. Eventually the Hawaiians had to leave in order to survive elsewhere. Any Hawaiian who attempted to fight back was dealt with summarily. With nobody left to complain, the land usurpers expanded their untitled use of the lands until the twenty years were up, and then they laid claim to them. Often the land usurpers were able to gain a foothold in an area by initially partnering with a member of the Royal Class in a business deal, obtaining a land grant from them and then expanding on that grant through Adverse Possession.
The following story is a modern day tale arising from Hawaii’s long history of land title manipulation aad the adverse possession of lands. Enjoy!
Kealohapauole, A Love That Never Ends 