Posted by Free Hawai`i on April 11, 2009 at 6:35am
Hawaiians suffered since the first Western contact in 1778.Western diseases, to which Hawaiians had no immunity, decimated their numbers.At the time of western contact, some 800,000 people inhabited the Hawaiian Islands.By 1805 that number had been halved.By 1853 there were only 71,000 Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian people in the islands. Within 100 years of western contact, Hawaiians had been reduced by nearly 90 percent.Today the numbers of people who claim some native Hawaiian ancestry have increased to over 400,000.But only 239,000 live in Hawai`i. They are the poorest segment in the state.They make up 37 percent of the state's homeless population, according to a 2003 survey.
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