Makaʻāinana or the commoners in Hawaiʻi could not really do much about the progression of the Kuleana Act. The act gave opportunities for everyone to get a fee simple title to land, but many Hawaiians were unable to meet the requirements needed to gain it.
Introduction
As kama‘āina, children of the land, Hawaiians cared for the land for centuries without any concept of ownership. The Great Māhele introduced this western idea of land ownership to Hawai‘i in 1848 by dividing land among Hawaiian chiefs and foreigners (Preza, 2010). In 1850, the Kuleana Act required the remaining majority of Hawaiians to claim their kuleana, parcels of land that they had an ancestral right to live on and responsibility to care for (Garovoy, 2005). Incognizant of the rights attached to private property, many Hawaiians failed to claim their kuleana. The Kuleana Act forced Hawaiians out of their homes and violated their native tenant rights to reside on their ancestral lands and to gather materials necessary for life and cultural practices.