Hawaiian Independence Movement Plans UFO Landing Pad for Returning Ancient Astronauts

Representatives of a Hawaiian separatist movement plan to dedicate a UFO landing pad on the big island of Hawaii on Friday in a traditional Hawaiian ceremony that they say will connect them to ancient astronauts from outer space. A declaration passed May 28 by the “reinstated Hawaiian Kingdom” proclaimed that the Hawaiian people came to earth from the Pleiades, and it invited the ancient astronauts to establish diplomatic relations with the Kingdom.

Earlier this week the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it would begin working with Native Hawaiians to discuss federal recognition of a Native Hawaiian government, similar to those of Native American tribes. Questions were raised earlier this year about whether the former Kingdom of Hawaii was legally dissolved in 1893 when Hawaii became a republic.

The self-proclaimed “Hawaiian Kingdom” was founded in 2001 and is not recognized by the Federal government or the state of Hawaii. The Kingdom claimed 1,000 members from Hawaii’s population of 200,000 Native Hawaiians as of 2008. It is one of many Native Hawaiian organizations vying to represent Native Hawaiian interests in pursuit of sovereignty.

According to West Hawaii Today, the UFO landing pad and Star Visitor Sanctuary will sit atop a 500 acres of lava flow at Uncle Robert’s Kawa Bar in Kalapana, in Hawaii’s Puna district. The bar is owned by one of the kingdom’s nobles, Robert Keliihoomalu. His assistant, Garry Hoffeld, offered comment to the paper:

“It’s potentially controversial,” Hoffeld said. “It’s potentially funny to some people, potentially stupid to some people. [...] We’re not crazy; we’re open-minded.”

The UFO landing pad sits beneath Mauna Loa, which is possibly one of the Hawaiian volcanos Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard believed had been utilized by the ancient astronaut Xenu to imprison the souls of space aliens. (Hubbard did not specify which of the five Big Island volcanos was meant, and none existed at the period he assigned to them, 75 million years ago.) According to Hubbard, ancient astronauts used Hawaii as base to implant extraterrestrial souls into terrestrial beings.

The Star Visitor Sanctuary, which will have the form of a Hawaiian ahu, is being funded by Michael Salla, PhD, a fringe UFO writer best known for his book Exopolitics. He believes that dozens of alien races are visiting earth and that the U.S. government has entered into treaties with them. Salla spoke at the Contact in the Desert UFO conference last year, and according to the Hi-Desert Star, he explained at the time his belief that humans and aliens needed to enter into open diplomatic relations, even over the objections of governments:

Many extraterrestrials value peace and friendship with humanity. Anyone can engage in citizen-based diplomacy by being willing to raise their consciousness to unity consciousness. But be prepared for great change, as Earth’s ascended beings will take leadership roles.

Salla and Keliihoomalu became friends when Salla moved to the Big Island and convinced him that aliens are humanity’s space brothers. Keliihoomalu, in turn, used his influence with the Hawaiian royal government to urge its official recognition of ancient astronauts and UFOs.

Some online sources state that Hawaiian legends do in fact identify the Pleiades as the place from which the first people came, but Hawaiian King David Kalakaua reported in the nineteenth century that the tradition in fact stated that the first people to come to Hawaii did so by sailing from Polynesia, guided by the Pleiades. He also mentioned several other creation myths, none of which had to do with the Pleiades but all share canoe trips from other islands; therefore, it seems that the extraterrestrial version preferred by the Hawaiian Kingdom is a minority view, one influenced by ancient astronaut theories.

The Hawaiian festival of Mahahiki is, however, closely tied to the rising of the Pleiades (which marked the passage of the year) but is celebrated at different times on different islands. The celebration, which traditional involved a vigil on the rim of Haleakala, was reinstated in 1999 under the Native American Religious Freedom Act.


Special thanks to John Sevick for calling my attention to this story.