Since 2014, an ongoing series of protests and demonstrations have been taking place on the Island of Hawaii in the United States regarding the choosing of Mauna Kea for the site location of the Thirty Meter Telescope. These protests have been known as the Thirty Meter Telescope Protests. Mauna Kea is considered by some Hawaiians to be the most sacred mountain of Native Hawaiian religion and culture. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners have repeatedly failed in court to prove that these practices predate 1893, which is the threshold for protection under Hawaii State law. Protests began locally within the state of Hawaii on October 7, 2014 but went global within weeks of the April 2, 2015 arrest of 31 people who had blockaded the roadway to keep construction crews off the summit. On July 14, 2019, an online petition titled