Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 13 - DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Subtitle 13 - HISTORIC PRESERVATION DIVISION
Chapter 283 - RULES GOVERNING STANDARDS FOR OSTEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS
Section 13-283-1 - Policy and purpose
Current through February, 2024
(a) Burial sites with human skeletal remains have cultural significance and are sensitive historic properties, significant to the descendants and to the relevant cultural group. Burials are quite different from other historic properties. Human remains, under American Common law, cannot be owned; rather the burials are held in trust for their descendants. Treatment of burials must meet this trust with the utmost sensitivity. It is the Department of Land and Natural Resource's policy to preserve burials in place when at all possible. However, when removal must occur, and if osteological analysis must take place, it is the Department of Land and Natural Resource's policy that this be done with the utmost sensitivity and with high standards of analysis.
(b) This rule establishes standards for osteological analysis of human skeletal remains, when analysis is done to determine ethnicity of skeletal remains, to ensure the quality of burial analysis and thereby to better protect the public's interests.
