Friday, August 7, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser Obama backs Native Hawaiian self-governance bill President's endorsement clear during Senate hearing By John Yaukey Advertiser Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — The Obama administration came through on its promise to support Native Hawaiian self-governance yesterday with a powerful statement to a Senate panel, backing a bill that would give Native Hawaiians the same rights as Native Americans and Alaskans. The full-throated endorsement came from Sam Hirsch, deputy associate attorney general, to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The panel was weighing nine-year-old legislation, authored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, that would set up a process for Native Hawaiian autonomy within the state and federal systems. "The Department of Justice strongly supports the core policy goals of this bill, and I am pleased to testify on this historic legislation," Hirsch said. He rejected arguments that political recognition of Native Hawaiians would constitute a "race-based" distinction. He said that the federal government had an obligation to establish a government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian people, who have been living in political limbo for more than a century following the overthrow of their kingdom. "The general history of the Native Hawaiian people bears significant similarities to the history of Indian tribes," he said. "The United States has recognized the Kingdom of Hawai'i as a sovereign power and dealt with it as such through much of the 19th century." This was a stark turnaround from the Bush administration. In 2006, the Justice Department under President George W. Bush argued that the so-called Akaka bill would "divide people by their race." In a June House hearing on the Akaka legislation, a Bush appointee suggested that Native Hawaiian recognition could lead to some form of mild sedition. "It is clear that many ethnic Hawaiians will not regard the new government as deriving its powers solely from federal delegation," said Gail Heroit, a Republican appointee on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "Rather, they will argue that it derives its power from their own inherent sovereignty and is thus not subject to any of the limitations on power found in the U.S. Constitution." An issue of parity Yesterday, Akaka sought to bring the debate back to its central pivot point: that Native Hawaiians are no different from any other indigenous people who have political contracts with the federal government. "The legislation before us today provides parity," he said. "It enables Hawai'i's indigenous people to establish a government-to-government relationship with the United States. The process is consistent with Constitution, federal and state law." Eventually, it could give Native Hawaiians greater control over their highly valuable ancestral lands. The Akaka legislation would develop a process for reorganizing a Native Hawaiian government. If it passes in the Indian Affairs Committee, as expected, then the full Senate would take it up. Passage in the heavily Democratic House is virtually assured. But even if the Akaka bill passes, it remains potentially vulnerable to court challenges. Civil rights legislation is typically challenged for years after passage. In 2000, the Supreme Court shot down special privileges Native Hawaiians enjoyed in special elections for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, threatening a vast network of Native Hawaiian political and social structures. 9 years of trying Yesterday's Senate hearing marks the seventh time Congress has taken up the legislation since it was first introduced in 2000. The bill has already passed the House twice but has never been able to clear the Senate, where legislation can sometimes require 60 of 100 votes to pass and a single senator can place a hold on a bill. Akaka said he expects he'll need 60 votes to pass the bill. At stake — in addition to the political future of the Native Hawaiian people — ultimately is control over some 1.8 million acres of land that many Native Hawaiians believe was taken from them illegally in the annexation of Hawai'i in 1898. Passage of the Akaka bill would provide for negotiations on the disposition of Native Hawaiian land, natural resources and other assets.

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  • Naone

    I baged on Ka Lahui during their contitutional convention way back when, call it burn out if you will. Mililani Trask got saddled with this task, and she follwed through on the wishes of the Na Kupuna, that was listening to Mits Ueyhara attorney for Hoala Kanawai.

    All I know the constitution was being messed with by Professor Jon Van Dyke UH Law and the likes and Mits was pissed. So I haven't semantically taken the following apart for understanding:

    "Rather, they will argue that it derives its power from their own inherent sovereignty and is thus not subject to any of the limitations on power found in the U.S. Constitution."

    "The legislation before us today provides parity," he said. "It enables Hawai'i's indigenous people to establish a government-to-government relationship with the United States. The process is consistent with Constitution, federal and state law."


    One of the things I asked Mits was what can we do, now that OHA/State won and we (Na Kupuna lost) lost the battle. What's the next battle? He went to task creating a constitution for about a year. Mililani took it to task and I walked away because I was loyal to my mom Hoala Kanawai, and not Ka Lahui. I shouldn't have been so smug and continued on maybe things would have been different. In a sense, I would have been able to connect better. Not sure on what my attitude was for it's been years. Keanu Sai came to the surface in all our minds, soon after, but that's taking to long to absorb by the everyday maka'ainana.

    Ka Lahui has strong standing at the UN, because that is what Mits wanted us to do, go to the UN. Sorry for not giving you the time line. It's been 30 years in the making.

    Thanks much,
    Kaohi
  • Ululani,
    Yes, I agree with you for all the wrong reasons.

    "1893 on require, for their redress, that a mechanism composed of U.S. agents and wholly independent representatives of Kanaka Maoli and Kingdom heirs be bilaterally set up by your Administration and us to make findings of fact and conclusions of international law that could serve as a road-map for the resolution of the political and legal issues now outstanding between our two parties."

    When Poka presented this argument to Clintons commissioners, this was shot down immediately and the meeting soon after was also too shut down. Today, Poka is for the Akaka Bill! Sad but, what can I say. We needed to re-do all our strings for the international threads soon after that meeting. I believe Kealoha (Big Island) made that assumption soon after outside in the parking lot so to speak. Our strongest rep. at that time was Mililani Trask at the UN. I have been monitoring the writings from UH Manoa since, but it's not matching up, to what Dr. Kekuni until now. Excuse the reverse of what I am trying to say, I understand I'm not being clear. This letter as written is that intent that should have been done during the Clinton's Admin.

    It needs more than academic 'idealist' it needs common maka'ainana on board, and Ponosize is reaching that persons, he reached my own dad (unbelievable).

    Thanks Ululani for your posting Kaohi
    • Aloha kaua e Kaohi.

      No offense to so-called well-educated Hawaiians who attend college but ironically they are the very ones who are leading us to our demise and/or helping others lead us to our demise (i.e. our death.)

      That is why while I graduated from the University of Washington and admire those who seek haole education in my humble opinion NOTHING beats valuing the iwi over a college degree.

      NO OFFENSE because I know that some people read into some things... but that is why I like people like Pono, Tane, Andre, and Ehu. Foster too though I know you have a problem with him but to me they do not help get us killed. Pono does his thing with videos which is great. Tane with his presence and mana'o which helps keeps our kupuna visible. Andre when he says things like "Trust in your kupuna!" and Foster in fostering his kuleana (but I know you have a problem with him.) But IMHO ali'i are nothing without their makaainana. It is a symbiotic relationship as in you do not help one to survive then the other will not survive. That may be why many oiwi reject some academics because they can see the self preservation of themselves instead of the self preservation of ALL of us.

      Some others... e kala mai but I do not trust them with my life because like you stated... they are academic "idealists" who are usually interested in fame, fortune, and/or tenure at the expense of the IWI. They like job security. At the expense of our LIVES. If we die so do our kupuna. I am not okay with that.

      NO OFFENSE to anyone because I know some academics who DO help. E kala mai but unfortunately those who are going to get us killed ruin it for them and are unfairly lumped together with them.

      Malama, Lana
  • E kala mai but of course he is still backing it... yet so many oiwi voted for him after he explicitly stated that if he was president he would support it. They thought that a letter would "change" his mind. I don't fault them for being hopeful.

    However once the sense of betrayal sets in....

    Malama, Lana
  • CRAP THAT BILL! Protest agains it!
  • Here is a letter to Barack from Kekuni ma. Found it on: http://www.counterpunch.org/blaisdell04152009.html

    April 15, 2009

    An Urgent Open Letter to Barack Obama
    Why the Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act Must be Rejected
    By KEKUNI BLAISDELL, LYNETTE HI'ILANI CRUZ, GEORGE KAHUMOKU FLORES, et al.

    Mr. President:

    We, the undersigned Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiians) kupuna (elders), kumu (educators), and representatives address this letter to you on behalf of our people and nation, as well as of other Hawaiian Kingdom heirs. At our invitation, a number of our kako‘o (supporters) have also added their names to this letter.

    Our primary purpose for contacting you, Mr. President, is to solemnly inform you of our categorical opposition to the proposed legislation now before the U.S. Senate and House that is entitled The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which is commonly referred to as the “Akaka Bill.” This legislation, first introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2000—and now confusingly existing in four versions (S. 381; S. 708; H.R. 862; H.R. 1711)—proposes that the U.S. Government recognize a “Native Hawaiian Government” that is to be certified by the U.S. Department of the Interior in conformity with U.S. federal law and practice regarding Native American tribal nations.

    We reject this Akaka Bill for weighty reasons. To begin with, the historical harm the United States first committed in Hawai’i in 1893 brought down, not a “Native Hawaiian Government”, but the independent Hawaiian Kingdom composed of Kanaka Maoli as well as non-Kanaka Maoli subjects. Consequently, the Kanaka Maoli people and other Hawaiian Kingdom heirs have, since that time, accumulated fundamental political and other claims against the United States under international law that the United States must recognize rather than hope to dispel via the enactment of this Bill. Indeed, in our view, the passage of this Bill would constitute nothing less than a second illegal denial of our Kanaka Maoli people’s right to self-determination and the Kingdom heirs’ right to sovereignty. The first outrage, we note, has already been formally admitted by the U.S. Congress in its Apology Resolution of 1993 which, furthermore, pledged to right that original wrong. Not only does the Akaka Bill not follow through on that pledge, it in fact attempts to sabotage the rightful return of our people to our status prior to 1893-98 by imposing on us a colonial U.S. “wardship” that is anchored in the U.S. judicial doctrine of the plenary power of Congress over Native American nations.

    Moreover, we submit that, presuming on the good faith of your Administration, Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegation is now trying to ram through the Akaka Bill in the U.S. Congress before the latter can inform itself fully of the vehement and ever-growing opposition to the Bill in Hawai‘i among Kanaka Maoli, other Kingdom heirs, as well as kako‘o. We use the term “ram through” advisedly because, among other things, the delegation has held but ONE 5-day hearing, back in 2000, on the Bill since its inception, and only on the single island of O‘ahu. Moreover, while the video record of that lone hearing shows overwhelming opposition to the Bill, the delegation disingenuously reported the opposite to Congress.

    In 1993, our Hawai‘i International People’s Tribunal—composed of world human rights leaders, including three eminent U.S. law professors—heard evidence on our main islands and found the following U.S. actions to be violations of international law: its intervention in the 1893 overthrow of our independent government; its 1898 annexation and military occupation of our homeland; its conduct of the fraudulent 1959 Hawai‘i statehood vote; and its ongoing seizure of our national lands with resulting ethnocidal effect on our people. These findings have been widely disseminated and embraced in our homeland.

    That same year, the 1993 U.S. Apology Resolution (103d Congress Joint Resolution 19, P.L. 103-150, November 28, 1993) was signed by President William Clinton. The Apology acknowledges the role of U.S. Minister John Stevens and of the U.S. military in the overthrow of our Queen Lili‘uokalani in 1893 in direct contravention of bilateral treaties then binding on the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Resolution further recognizes that “the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.” Moreover, it pledges the United States to acknowledge the ramifications of the 1893 overthrow so as to identify a basis for reconciliation between the U.S. government and the Kanaka Maoli people. Shamefully, the Akaka Bill moves in a direction opposite to that pledge.

    The Bill arrogantly attempts to unilaterally characterize the historical transgressions of the United States against our people and kingdom, and to unilaterally specify their remedy. We insist otherwise. U.S. crimes against our Kanaka Maoli people and other Kingdom heirs from 1893 on require, for their redress, that a mechanism composed of U.S. agents and wholly independent representatives of Kanaka Maoli and Kingdom heirs be bilaterally set up by your Administration and us to make findings of fact and conclusions of international law that could serve as a road-map for the resolution of the political and legal issues now outstanding between our two parties.

    We look forward to working as soon as possible with your Administration on such a mechanism. In the meantime, we respectfully request that, as head of the U.S. Democratic Party, you ask its Congressional leaders as well as Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegation to immediately withdraw the Akaka Bill from consideration. In the highly unfortunate event that they should not do so, and the Akaka Bill passes, we urge you — in the interest of future good relations between the United States and the Hawaiian nation, and also of sparing your Administration the embarrassment of having to execute a Bill that our people will roundly reject — to veto the Bill.

    Me ka mana‘olana no ka huli me ka pono (With hope for change with justice),

    Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D. Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Consultant, Department of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai‘i; Convenor, Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu

    Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz, Ph.D., Kupuna of O‘ahu, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Hawai‘i Pacific University; President, Ka Lei Maile Ali‘i Hawaiian Civic Club; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu

    George Kahumoku Flores, Kupuna of O‘ahu; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, D.M.Z., Honolulu

    Kukauakahi (Clarence Ku Ching) J.D., Huaka‘i i na ‘Aina Mauna, OHA trustee '86 - '90

    Puhipau, Kupuna of Na‘alehu, Hawai‘i; Na Maka o ka ‘Aina (Film Production)

    Pua Nani Rogers, Kupuna o Kaua‘i, Ahupua‘a o Kealia, Member of Na Kupuna o
    Manokalanipo, Founder of the Ho‘okipa Network, Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i

    Maivan Clech Lam, M.A., M.Ph., , J.D., L.L.M., Professor of International Law (ret.), City University of New York Graduate Center, New York

    J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology, Center for the Americas, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

    Jonathan Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, Ph.D., Professor, School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawai‘i Manoa, Honolulu

    Terrilee Napua Kekoolani, Founder of ‘Ohana Koa, Hawai‘i. Chapter of Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, Honolulu

    Ikaika Hussey, Founder of MANA (The Movement for Aloha No Ka ‘Aina), Honolulu

    Kyle Kajihiro, Program Director, American Friends Service Committee Hawai‘i Program (for title identification only), Honolulu

    Donna Hewahewa Holt Burns, Artist, Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu

    Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘opua, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Hawai‘i Manoa, Honolulu

    Eiko Kosasa, Ph.D., Lecturer, Social Sciences Division, Leeward Community College, Pearl City; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu

    Dean Saranillio, Doctoral Candidate, Program in American Culture, University of Michigan; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu

    Al Kuahi Wong, Kupuna; Hui Anuenue of New England; Director, Koani Foundation, Anahola, Kaua‘i

    Kai‘opua Fyfe, Kupuna, Delegate to Native Hawaiian Convention from Lihu‘e, Kaua‘i; Director, Koani Foundation; Intervenor, UN Human Rights Council, Treaty Bodies, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Charter Appointee to Native Hawaiian and Kaua‘i Island Education Councils, Anahola, Kaua‘i

    David Ingham, Director, Koani Foundation, Anahola, Kaua‘i

    ‘Ehu Kekahu Cardwell, Director, Koani Foundation, Anahola, Kaua‘i

    Kunani Nihipali, Ekolu Wale No

    E. A. Ho‘oipo K. Pa, Esq., Ekolu Wale No

    Hans Peter Jensen, III, Maoli Media

    Hanale Delovio, Hui Anuenue of New England
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