The governor of Hawaii on Tuesday visited
protesters blocking the construction of a giant telescope on the state's tallest mountain while acknowledging that their grievances were not just about a new observatory but also about the treatment of Native Hawaiians going back more than a century.
Activists met the governor with a nose-to-nose greeting called honi as he approached a tent where Native Hawaiian elders have been blocking a road prevent to construction equipment and crews from reaching the summit of Mauna Kea.
Some Native Hawaiians consider the summit sacred and believe building the Thirty Meter Telescope there will only do more harm to a site that already hosts more than a dozen observatories.