Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Hawaiian rights
bill introduced
It is labeled both
as blessing, curse

The measure would give
Hawaiians the same status as
American Indians and
natives of Alaska

Proposal seen as important first step
PDF file of Native Hawaiian Rights bill

By Christine Donnelly
and Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

To the delight of some Hawaiians and the dismay of others, Hawaii's congressional delegation has introduced a bill that would recognize native Hawaiians as a distinct political group with the right to build their own government, with the United States financing the process.

Hawaii Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye introduced the measure in the Senate yesterday, while Rep. Neil Abercrombie introduced it in the House of Representatives.

The bill asserts: "The United States continually has recognized and reaffirmed that native Hawaiians have a cultural, historic and land-based link to the aboriginal, native people who exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian islands.

U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka

"Native Hawaiians have never relinquished their claims to sovereignty or their sovereign lands," said the bill, which details a process by which the federal government would help Hawaiians establish a governing body that would take control of those lands.

Akaka, who spearheaded the bill, said it "will correct an injustice. The bill is just, right and long overdue.

"The clarification of the political relationship between native Hawaiians and the United States is one that has been a long time coming and is well-deserved," said Akaka.

"The United States has declared a special responsibility for the welfare of the native peoples of the United States, including native Hawaiians. We now deal with American Indian tribes and Alaska native villages on a sovereign-to-sovereign basis.

"Unfortunately, native Hawaiians have not had the opportunity to fully enjoy this self-determination policy because we have failed to establish the framework for a government-to-government relationship between Hawaii's indigenous native peoples and the United States."

Public hearings scheduled

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold public hearings on the bill in Hawaii Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.

Beadie Kanahele Dawson, a Honolulu lawyer who is a member of the native Hawaiian working group advising Hawaii's Democratic congressional delegation on the bill, called its introduction "a powerful first step" toward self-determination. She was encouraged by the delegation's willingness to incorporate the working group's suggestions.

"We have put very important safeguards in the bill that ensure native Hawaiians will be in control of their own destiny," Dawson said, adding that a disclaimer also left open future claims against the United States so the bill "will not prevent further efforts toward independence."

Not all approve of the bill

Not all Hawaiians see the legislation as a path to the achievement of Hawaiian sovereignty.

"This legislation violates our right to self-determination because it predetermines our political status," said Kekuni Blaisdell, coordinator of Ka Pakaukau, a coalition of groups that opposes the measure.

"This is our homeland and it was stolen from us. And under international law, what is stolen must be returned." Blaisdell cited Great Britain's return of Hong Kong to China as one recent example of a "colonial invader" returning a former conquest. "That's what we should be fighting for."

Supporters say that if approved, the historic measure would not only galvanize the Hawaiian sovereignty movement but also preserve millions of dollars in current government programs for native Hawaiians.

Those programs are seen as threatened since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that native Hawaiians were a racial, not political, group. Government preferences based on race are illegal in most cases.

That ruling came in the case of a Big Island rancher who sued to end Hawaiians-only voting in elections for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Its immediate effect was to open the OHA elections to all voters.

The Rice vs. Cayetano ruling also energized activists to push Congress to confer federal recognition on native Hawaiians similar to that held by 558 indigenous groups on the mainland and in Alaska. Such groups receive sizable federal funding and have broad autonomy over their own affairs.

Land rights affirmed

The proposed legislation attempts to repudiate the Rice decision, saying the U.S. government reaffirms that "Native Hawaiians are a unique and distinct aboriginal, indigenous, native people with whom the United States has a political and legal relationship."

The bill traces the history of the United States relationships through treaties with the Kingdom of Hawaii and the 1920 congressional act establishing Hawaiian homelands, and refers to the overthrow of the monarchy by recounting language of the 1993 presidential apology which acknowledges that the overthrow "occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States."

The key language in the bill affirms the native Hawaiian government's control of the economic power base through its authority to "prevent the sale, disposition, lease or encumbrance of lands, interests in lands, or other assets ... without the consent of the native Hawaiian governing body."

The bill outlines a process for native Hawaiians to define their own membership and elect their own government.

The climax of the process would be when the U.S. Secretary of the Interior would issue a charter of incorporation to the governing body, ensuring the same status as Indian tribes.

"Such charter may authorize the incorporated native Hawaiian governing body to exercise the power to purchase, take by gift, bequest, or otherwise own, hold, manage, operate and dispose of property of every description, real and personal, including the power to purchase lands and to issue an exchange of interests in corporate property."

The bill authorizes Congress to appropriate "such sums as may be necessary to carry out the activities" outlined in the bill.

Minority caucuses involved

Hawaii's congressional delegation is working with various minority caucuses in Congress, including the Native American caucus, to build support in Washington.

The native Hawaiian working group has scheduled 32 meetings throughout the islands and in California, Texas and Washington to explain the measure and drum up support, Dawson said.

Its prospects are boosted by the clout of Inouye, vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, and by Abercrombie, who sits on the House Resources Committee.

Political observers say Inouye and Abercrombie have good working relationships with the Republicans who chair those committees. Akaka also is on the Indian Affairs Committee. Rep. Patsy Mink rounds out the delegation's support.

Bill may pass by October

Although its introduction was delayed from the original June target date, supporters remain hopeful it can pass before Congress adjourns in October.

But the bill has opponents, including some native Hawaiians who claim it will trap them in "federal wardship" under the United States instead of granting the total independence they say they deserve.

A march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House is scheduled for Aug. 12 to bring attention to the native Hawaiian opposition.

Meanwhile, among the complaints of non-Hawaiians who oppose the measure are claims that it is based on revisionist history, would divide the state along ethnic lines, give superior rights to native Hawaiians at the expense of other citizens and fund native Hawaiians regardless of income while needier people of other races go without government help.

In his Web site devoted to the issue, outspoken critic Kenneth Conklin of Kaneohe asks:

"Have we learned anything about ethnic supremacy from the lessons of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Bosnia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, etc?"

Both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian critics lament that they have meager resources to fight the bill, compared to financially flush supporters such as the state-funded Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

---

Proposed law seen as
important first step

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Aside from its future effect on the political process of establishing sovereignty, the first thing the bill does is protect existing benefits for native Hawaiians, say supporters. It may also focus future Hawaiian activism.

Clayton Hee, chairman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said, "What it's going to do is preserve federally funded programs in housing, health, education, economic development."

Even Hawaiians who have opposed it will see that "the bill gives us a foot in the door," said OHA trustees Rowena Akana. "My sense of it is, even people who were suspicious of the bill before, have come over to see this is not something dangerous, it would not take away from future entitlements."

Akana returned recently from Washington, where "we had a very good response from both House and Senate, including some Republicans. The Rice case propelled us to where we are now. Because of the case, a lot of people in Congress have a very good sense of the native people here in Hawaii."

Rather than dividing over the idea of Congress entering the self-determination issue, Akana said: "It's important for Hawaiians to band together against the real enemy, the people who want to attack all our entitlements.

"I think it is a first step, the beginning for us as a people," she said. "Some criticize the bill saying it doesn't go far enough. It does say preliminarily what we want, allows for people to discuss what kind of nation they would like to have."

Akana said it would be "premature" for the bill to be more specific about what the native Hawaiian government would control. "How could we determine entitlements, we don't even have an accurate inventory of the land. It would be too limiting, if we left something out, it would hurt us in the future."

Hee said "I'm not sure it will help unify, I am fairly certain it will help focus the issue."

"What it does is hasten the process and focus our efforts. If Hawaiians are to receive benefits like the 500 Indian tribes and 200 Eskimo tribes receive, this effort for status and official recognition is critically important," Hee said.

He said OHA will send a delegation to Washington to "assist in proactive efforts" educating key Congressional and administration people about Hawaiian sovereignty concerns. "This may be a reasonable means to someday be closer to those who advocate independence," Hee said. "Self determination and sovereignty is a journey, it is not a destination. This is a critical element in the journey."