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By C. Mollie Bigger, Star-Bulletin
Aloha March 2000 founder Butch Kekahu said, "We
had a good crowd, a loud crowd this morning" at the
march down Pennsylvania Ave. to the White
House in Washington, D.C.

Washington
sovereignty push

The founder of Aloha March
2000 said the two-day event raised
awareness and support for sovereignty

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By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Butch Kekahu of Kauai, founder of Aloha March 2000, sat in a wheelchair "a sidewalk away from the White House" today, reveling in the support and awareness garnered for the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Several hundred Hawaiians and supporters walked from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ellipse across from the White House. There, they listened to a series of speakers representing churches, human rights and other groups supporting the Hawaiian movement.

The Aloha March 2000 ceremonies, which began yesterday under the theme "Marching in Unity," attracted national media attention, said Riley Ehu Cardwell, march spokesman.

By C. Mollie Bigger, Special to the Star-Bulletin
Participants head down Pennsylvania Ave. this morning.

He said the two days of events had raised awareness of the Hawaiian movement for return of native lands and other resources "a whole 'nother notch."

"We had a good crowd, a loud crowd this morning," he said by telephone from the Ellipse.

He described "a lot of support from tourists, cars honking as we went by and from police officers. It was a colorful and lively march."

And it was a peaceful gathering, he said. "Hawaiians are always peaceful -- almost always."

A confrontation occurred yesterday at a seminar at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum when the Hawaiian group met with Mark Van Norman, director of the Office of Tribal Justice at the Justice Department and John Berry, assistant secretary of the Interior Department.

They were discussing the federal government's role in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Cardwell said he wasn't there but was informed that Piilani Smith, University of Hawaii student, challenged Van Norman. "And Van Norman's wife, with her child in tow, went face to face with her and said, "Why are you attacking my husband?'"

By C. Mollie Bigger, Special to the Star-Bulletin
Aloha March 2000 participants march down Pennsylvania
Ave. in Washington, D.C., this morning.

Kekahu, founder of the Koani Foundation of Kauai, said Smith "just expressed herself" after listening to Berry and Van Norman. "She is a unique type of speaker from the University of Hawaii.

"Then all of a sudden we saw this other woman walking from the back of the auditorium to Piilani. It was Mark Van Norman's wife."

She didn't like what Smith said about her husband, but "he's got to take the flak -- that's his job," Kekahu said.

He said Smith expressed her anger that the federal government has done nothing to make amends since President Clinton signed a measure in 1993 apologizing for the U.S. takeover of Hawaii.

"This is 100 years of frustration at what happened," Kekahu said. "We're not just going to sit and be quiet.

"We need to sit down with Hawaiian sovereignty leaders because we're not going to do this another 107 years -- no way."

After returning home tomorrow, he said he is "giving himself some time to see how we're going to work this out with the Hawaiian sovereignty leaders in Hawaii."

Kekahu, who has diabetes and is undergoing kidney dialysis, said his goal is to "see how much we can do in three to five years."

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