Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the largest landowner and richestwoman in the Hawaiian kingdom. Upon her death in 1884, sheentrusted her property - known as Bishop Estate - to five trustees inorder to create and maintain an institution that would benefit thechildren of Hawai'i: Kamehameha Schools. A century later, BishopEstate controlled nearly one out of every nine acres in the state, aconcentration of private land ownership rarely seen anywhere in theworld. Then in August 1997 the unthinkable happened: four reveredkupuna (native Hawaiian elders) and a professor of trust-law publiclycharged Bishop Estate trustees with gross incompetence and massivetrust abuse.