Office of Hawaiian Affairs officials, however, say that's not true and that the document, openly circulated among agency officials, is not proof of anything.
The Aug. 29 letter, by Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., one of Capitol Hill's most influential lobbyists, states his firm could help develop a strategy for the office to enact federal legislation to "advance the aspirations" of native Hawaiians.
That strategy would include the results of the native Hawaiian vote as well as the future outcomes of the office's pending ceded land settlement with the state and the 1998 Hawaii elections.
Boggs recommends that Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Clayton Hee consider options such as land swaps and gaming when negotiating a settlement to the ceded lands dispute, but that these alternatives be kept quiet so as not to detract public attention from the settlement number.
"In the end," Boggs wrote, "the governor and the state Legislature may find that gaming, land swaps, and other creative proposals could contribute to a global settlement."
The letter follows an August 1996 trip by Hee and Office of Hawaiian Affairs attorney Sherry Broder to Washington, D.C., to meet with federal officials. They had a chance to meet Boggs, one of several attorneys they sought to learn how to effectively lobby Congress.
Hee praised Boggs because of his work in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
"What Sherry Broder and I went to do was to learn about what the process was in working with the federal government," Hee explained. "Nothing more, nothing less."
Hee said he asked Boggs to send him a written summary of the discussion and a proposal on what he could do for OHA. Both Hee and Broder said OHA has not contacted Boggs since, and that there is no contract to retain his firm.
"He's not hired by OHA, but is only sharing some experiences with us," Broder said.
Nevertheless, members of Ka Pakau-kau, Ka Lahui Hawaii and Kanaka Maoli
blrb A lobbyist recommends that OHA Chairman Clayton Hee consider land swaps and gaming, but to keep them quiet.Tribunal Komike since last October have waved the Boggs letter, using it against the Hawaiian Sovereignty Election Council's native Hawaiian vote, which the Office of Hawaiian Affairs helped fund.
The groups are worried continued state involvement in Hawaiian self-determination may help the office get recognition from Congress as the sovereign government.
Also, the vote threatens to invalidate their right for self-determination under international rules.
Kekuni Blaisdell of Ka Pakaukau believes there's a conspiracy to create a puppet Hawaiian government to keep sovereignty away from the majority of Hawaiians. If that occurs, he fears kanaka maoli will end up with government-to-government recognition with the United States -- with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in charge -- instead of the independence they are fighting for.
"And the state laughs because we come up there and attack our fellow kanaka maoli collaborators," Blaisdell said.
Blaisdell and others have used Boggs' letter in legislative testimony on Hawaiian issues. While some lawmakers dismissed it as a smoke screen, others did not. Two weeks ago in the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe Bay) voted against a bill to partially fund the election of delegates and a Hawaiian constitutional convention because of questions raised in the letter.
Thielen said Boggs' comments on gaming suggest there's a scheme behind the native Hawaiian vote that could lead to gambling on lands held by native Hawaiians. She would have preferred that be brought out in the open.
Said Thielen, "If we're having things done by a high-priced lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and if that person is helping people strategize how to expand gambling in Hawaii, then I want that information out there before we move ahead with this bill."