Posted by Pono Kealoha on April 12, 2008 at 7:48pm
Hawaii Needs Youby _NONE, The Nation, Issue April 28, 2008An open letter to the US left from the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.The confluence of two forces--a massive military expansion in Hawai'i and Congressional legislation that will stymie the Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiian] sovereignty movement--will expand and consolidate the use of Hawai'i for US empire. We are calling on the US left to join our movement opposing these threats and to add our quest for independence as a plank of the broad US left strategy for a nonimperialist America. If you support peace and justice for the United States and the world, please support demilitarization and independence for Hawai'i.Since 1893, the United States has malformed Hawai'i into the command and control center for US imperialism in Oceania and Asia. From the hills of the Ewa district of O'ahu, the US Pacific Command--the largest of the unified military commands--directs troops and hardware throughout literally half the planet. Since the late nineteenth century, the US military has multiplied in our islands, taking 150,000 acres for its use, including one-quarter of the metropolitan island of O'ahu. Moreover, the National Security Administration is building a new surveillance facility nearby, not far from where urban assault brigades, called Strykers, will train for deployment throughout the world. The US Navy is also increasing training over the entire archipelago, including populated areas and the fragile northwestern whale sanctuary. This militarized occupation has a long history. Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa--known now as Pearl Harbor--became one of the very first overseas bases, along with Guantánamo, around the time of the Spanish-American War. We still hold much in common with prerevolution Cuba--a sugar plantation economy and status as the playground for the rich of North America.We have suffered from the effects of being the pawn for US wars on the world. Our family members languish from strange diseases brought by military toxins in our water and soil. Our economy is a foreign-run modern plantation serving multinational shareholders and decorated generals. We salute a foreign flag, and the education system instructs us to yearn for a distant continent called the Mainland. Tourists imbibe in sunny Waīkikī, while the beaches in the native-inhabited regions are littered with chemical munitions.But amid our suffering, we have survived. Our tenacity and resilience have historical roots: in 1897, 95 percent of the Kanaka Maoli population signed petitions that helped to defeat a treaty to forcibly annex Hawai'i to the United States.The last forty years have seen remarkable change for our people, through the advancement of a grassroots struggle against the political occupation and mental colonization of our homeland. We have been successful in several campaigns: in stopping the bombing of Kaho'olawe Island and Makua Valley, in revitalizing the Hawaiian language and culture in our schools and families, in returning to our indigenous spiritual practices and in making Hawaiian sovereignty a dinner-table topic and an actual possibility. These hard-fought wins are successes in the movement for self-determination and also a threat to America's use of Hawai'i as the purveyor of its empire.It is against this backdrop that the Akaka bill (the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act) is being discussed in the halls of Congress. Named for US Senator Daniel Akaka, the bill is being promoted by Hawai'i's corporate and political elite as a vehicle for racial justice. Yet the bill would turn back one of the most important victories of the last four decades--the rise of Hawaiian self-determination, including independence, as a political possibility--replacing it with the extinguishment of our historic claims to land and sovereignty.Our conundrum puts us squarely in opposition to the middle ground of American politics, which has arrived at a consensus that Hawai'i will remain a military colony of the United States. Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye is a major purveyor of pork barrel spending for military appropriations and defense contractors. All three presidential contenders have signaled their support for the Akaka bill. And while the far right wing of the Republican Party opposes the Akaka bill, both major parties have no quarrel over the continuance of the empire's use of our homeland.In light of this American consensus on Hawai'i, we turn to our nearest political allies, US progressive movements, and seek your solidarity for our independence because it is congruent and essential to your hope for a better world. Please join us in opposing the Akaka bill and the militarization of Hawai'i, and please support Hawai'i's independence as part of your vision for a more humane United States and a more just world.Ikaika Hussey, convenor, Movement for Aloha No ka Aina (MANA)Terrilee Keko'olani, Ohana Koa/Nuclear-Free and Independent PacificNoelani Goodyear-Kaopua, assistant professor of political science, University of Hawaii, ManoaJon Osorio, director, Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawaii, ManoaKekuni Blaisdell, convenor, Ka PakaukauAndre Perez, Hui PuKelii "Skippy" Ioane, Hui PuKai'opua Fyfe, director, The Koani Foundation
Wonderful resources. Take note of the authors and where they are coming from and their values, and their agenda. There will be personal slants springing from the author's societal upbringing, and religious values, and political philosoophy. Western society perceives things differently and is influenced by the doctrines of manifest destiny, imperialism, and WASP ethnocentrism. Their backgrounds will influence their writings including of what they are taught. Best to read history from various authors to get closer to the facts and trust your gut feeling by using critical thinking. Do some research of your own and you may see it from a different perspective and interpret the info received differently.
Further Reading and Resources by ELINOR LANGER, The Nation, Issue April 28, 2008
The indispensable work of traditional Hawaiian historiography is the three-volume The Hawaiian Kingdom by Ralph Kuykendall, University of Hawai'i Press, 1938, 1953 and (posthumous) 1967. The standard academic history of the overthrow and annexation is the two-volume treatment by William Adam Russ Jr., The Hawaiian Revolution (1893-1894), 1959, and The Hawaiian Republic, 1894-1898, and Its Struggle to Win Annexation, 1961, both republished by Associated University Presses, 1992. The standard articulation of the antisovereignty position is Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter? by Thurston Twigg-Smith, Goodale, 1998. The indispensable works of contemporary historiography by scholars associated with the Hawaiian revival are Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa's Native Land and Foreign Desires, Bishop Museum Press, 1992; Davianna Pōmaika'i McGregor's Nā Kua'āina: Living Hawaiian Culture, University of Hawai'i Press, 2007; Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio's Dismembering Lāhui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887, University of Hawai'i Press, 2002, and Noenoe Silva's Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, Duke, 2004. Recently published is legal scholar Jon Van Dyke's definitive Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai'i? University of Hawai'i Press, 2007, certain to become the standard reference for that question. The best single book on annexation is Tom Coffman's Nation Within: The Story of America's Annexation of the Nation of Hawai'i, Epicenter, 1998. Coffman's The Island Edge of America: A Political History of Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003, offers general political background. A useful anthropological study is Timothy Earle's How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory, Stanford, 1997, which looks at two other chiefdoms besides Hawai'i, one in Denmark, the other in the Andes. Other valuable works include Niklaus Schweizer's Turning Tide: The Ebb and Flow of Hawaiian Nationality, Peter Lang, 2005, which examines Hawaiian history in relation to worldwide historical forces from the fifteenth century on; Michael Dougherty's To Steal a Kingdom, Island Style Press, 1992, which is credited with bringing many of the suppressed issues in Hawaiian history to widespread attention; John Dominis Holt's groundbreaking 1964 essay "On Being Hawaiian," republished by Ku Pa'a Publishing, 1995; Haunani-Kay Trask's 1993 From a Native Daughter, one of the strongest and most influential texts of the sovereignty movement, republished by University of Hawai'i Press, 1999; Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians, edited by Ward Churchill and Sharon Venne, South End Press, 2005, which contains original articles and reports as well as transcripts of the Tribunal's hearings; and Ho'Iho'i Hou: A Tribute to George Helm & Kimo Mitchell, edited by Rodney Morales, Bamboo Ridge Press, 1984, an intimate look at the fight for Kaho'olawe. In a class by itself is Liliu'okalani's autobiography, Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, first published in 1898, currently Mutual Publishing, Honolulu.
There is also an invaluable video archive. Many important events in the evolution of the sovereignty movement, including the 1993 Tribunal, have been documented by filmmakers Joan Lander and Puhipau of Nā Maka o ka 'Āina, who have also produced widely seen historical films such as Act of War--The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation, about the annexation struggle. Their catalog is available at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmFtYWthLmNvbQ==">namaka. com</a>. A series of historical videos with a cultural focus is available from musician Eddie Kamae's Hawaiian Legacy Foundation at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vaGF3YWlpYW5sZWdhY3kuY29t">ha.... com</a>. A video of Tom Coffman's Nation Within is available at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmF0aXZlYm9va3NoYXdhaWkuY29t"&g.... com</a>, also an excellent starting place for a general online browse.
The Nation on The Overthrow
The Nation, Issue April 28, 2008
The history of this Hawaiian affair offers a good illustration of the danger to us of colonies and dependencies under our present form of government and with our present class of public men. Rome fell under the weight of her provinces, with a constitution ten times better fitted than ours for the management of distant conquests, for the Senate was filled with the ablest and most experienced men of the empire. But the Senate was gradually broken down by the intrigues and bribes of the generals and proconsuls. We, at the very outset of our career of annexation, in the very first case of it, start an intrigue in our own State Department for the overthrow of a friendly power, allow our minister on the spot to land troops to assist in what was really his personal conquest, annex the Islands without hearing the ruler in her own defence, and denounce everybody who objects to these proceedings as an enemy of the United States. If these things are done in the green tree, what would be done in the dry? Suppose we had half-a-dozen islands like Hawaii, and half-a-dozen States like Cuba, San Domingo, Costa Rica, and Guatemala to administer, with our Senators intriguing for proconsulships and the members of the House casting anchors to windward and seeking out channels of usefulness: how long would the government of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln last?
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RE: Further Reading and Resources
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Further Reading and Resources
by ELINOR LANGER, The Nation, Issue April 28, 2008
The indispensable work of traditional Hawaiian historiography is the three-volume The Hawaiian Kingdom by Ralph Kuykendall, University of Hawai'i Press, 1938, 1953 and (posthumous) 1967. The standard academic history of the overthrow and annexation is the two-volume treatment by William Adam Russ Jr., The Hawaiian Revolution (1893-1894), 1959, and The Hawaiian Republic, 1894-1898, and Its Struggle to Win Annexation, 1961, both republished by Associated University Presses, 1992. The standard articulation of the antisovereignty position is Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter? by Thurston Twigg-Smith, Goodale, 1998. The indispensable works of contemporary historiography by scholars associated with the Hawaiian revival are Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa's Native Land and Foreign Desires, Bishop Museum Press, 1992; Davianna Pōmaika'i McGregor's Nā Kua'āina: Living Hawaiian Culture, University of Hawai'i Press, 2007; Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio's Dismembering Lāhui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887, University of Hawai'i Press, 2002, and Noenoe Silva's Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, Duke, 2004. Recently published is legal scholar Jon Van Dyke's definitive Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai'i? University of Hawai'i Press, 2007, certain to become the standard reference for that question. The best single book on annexation is Tom Coffman's Nation Within: The Story of America's Annexation of the Nation of Hawai'i, Epicenter, 1998. Coffman's The Island Edge of America: A Political History of Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003, offers general political background. A useful anthropological study is Timothy Earle's How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory, Stanford, 1997, which looks at two other chiefdoms besides Hawai'i, one in Denmark, the other in the Andes. Other valuable works include Niklaus Schweizer's Turning Tide: The Ebb and Flow of Hawaiian Nationality, Peter Lang, 2005, which examines Hawaiian history in relation to worldwide historical forces from the fifteenth century on; Michael Dougherty's To Steal a Kingdom, Island Style Press, 1992, which is credited with bringing many of the suppressed issues in Hawaiian history to widespread attention; John Dominis Holt's groundbreaking 1964 essay "On Being Hawaiian," republished by Ku Pa'a Publishing, 1995; Haunani-Kay Trask's 1993 From a Native Daughter, one of the strongest and most influential texts of the sovereignty movement, republished by University of Hawai'i Press, 1999; Islands in Captivity: The International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians, edited by Ward Churchill and Sharon Venne, South End Press, 2005, which contains original articles and reports as well as transcripts of the Tribunal's hearings; and Ho'Iho'i Hou: A Tribute to George Helm & Kimo Mitchell, edited by Rodney Morales, Bamboo Ridge Press, 1984, an intimate look at the fight for Kaho'olawe. In a class by itself is Liliu'okalani's autobiography, Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, first published in 1898, currently Mutual Publishing, Honolulu.
There is also an invaluable video archive. Many important events in the evolution of the sovereignty movement, including the 1993 Tribunal, have been documented by filmmakers Joan Lander and Puhipau of Nā Maka o ka 'Āina, who have also produced widely seen historical films such as Act of War--The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation, about the annexation struggle. Their catalog is available at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmFtYWthLmNvbQ==">namaka. com</a>. A series of historical videos with a cultural focus is available from musician Eddie Kamae's Hawaiian Legacy Foundation at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vaGF3YWlpYW5sZWdhY3kuY29t">ha.... com</a>. A video of Tom Coffman's Nation Within is available at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmF0aXZlYm9va3NoYXdhaWkuY29t"&g.... com</a>, also an excellent starting place for a general online browse.
Resources available on the web include the entire 1,400-page Blount Report (<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbGlid2ViLmhhd2FpaS5lZHUvZGlnaWN.... hawaii. edu/digicoll/annexation/blount. html</a>), the 800-page Morgan Report (<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbW9yZ2FucmVwb3J0Lm9yZw==">mo.... org</a>), the 1897 anti-annexation petitions (<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbGlid2ViLmhhd2FpaS5lZHUvZGlnaWN.... hawaii. edu/digicoll/annexation/petition. html</a>) and most of the other important documents in Hawaiian history, from international treaties to President Cleveland's "Act of War" speech. See, for instance, <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vaGF3YWlpYW5raW5nZG9tLm9yZw=="&g.... org</a> for comprehensive documentation and argument about historical and present developments. Timelines are at <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vaGF3YWlpYW5oaXN0b3J5Lm9yZy9yZWY.... org/ref/chron. html</a> and <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vaHVpb2hhd2FpaXBvbm9pLm9yZw=="&g.... org</a>, among other places. For an antimilitary focus in a sovereignty context see <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vYWZzY2hhd2FpaS5vcmc=">afscha.... org</a>. For an environmental focus see <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8va2FoZWEub3Jn">kahea. org</a>. For the Hawaiian language-recovery program see <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vYWhhcHVuYW5hbGVvLm9yZw==">ah.... org</a>. For a contrary view of almost everything in this essay, historical and political, see <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vYW5nZWxmaXJlLmNvbS9oaTIvaGF3YWl.... com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/</a> and <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZ3Jhc3Nyb290aW5zdGl0dXRlLm9yZw=.... org</a>. All this is only a start. If there is a limit to what is out there, I have not yet found it.<br style="display:none"/>
The Nation, Issue April 28, 2008
The history of this Hawaiian affair offers a good illustration of the danger to us of colonies and dependencies under our present form of government and with our present class of public men. Rome fell under the weight of her provinces, with a constitution ten times better fitted than ours for the management of distant conquests, for the Senate was filled with the ablest and most experienced men of the empire. But the Senate was gradually broken down by the intrigues and bribes of the generals and proconsuls. We, at the very outset of our career of annexation, in the very first case of it, start an intrigue in our own State Department for the overthrow of a friendly power, allow our minister on the spot to land troops to assist in what was really his personal conquest, annex the Islands without hearing the ruler in her own defence, and denounce everybody who objects to these proceedings as an enemy of the United States. If these things are done in the green tree, what would be done in the dry? Suppose we had half-a-dozen islands like Hawaii, and half-a-dozen States like Cuba, San Domingo, Costa Rica, and Guatemala to administer, with our Senators intriguing for proconsulships and the members of the House casting anchors to windward and seeking out channels of usefulness: how long would the government of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln last?
--The Nation, November 23, 1893