Frustrated with a 10-year congressional fight to obtain federal recognition and form a nation-within-a-nation government, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has decided to follow a path that has led several American Indian tribes to success.
OHA is not giving up on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, known as the Akaka bill.
But faced with the reality that U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, for whom the bill is named, is retiring after this year and that the political environment in Washington, D.C., is as polarized as it has ever been, OHA and Hawaii's delegation having been exploring other routes.
One of those would bypass Congress altogether and seek recognition from the U.S. Department of the Interior, a process used by Native American tribes....
Posted by Free Hawai`i on January 8, 2012 at 7:15am
"At The Crossroads - A Visit With Choon James"
O`ahuʻs North Shore is one of the most beautiful areas in all Hawai`i, yet few other places have been more in jeopardy of commercial development. And thatʻs where we met Choon James who works tirelessly to, as she says, "keep the country, country." Choon should know - she grew up in the concrete jungle called Singapore, but even more amazing today sheʻs a real estate agent in Hawai`i. Filmed on location at beautiful Kahana Bay, youʻll see why this one-woman dynamo is so devoted to preserving the North Shoreʻs scenic beauty - Watch It Here
MONDAY, January 9th 5:30 PM – O`ahu - `Olelo, Channel 53 MONDAY, January 9th At 6:30 PM – Maui – Akaku, Channel 53 MONDAY, January 9th At 7:00 PM & FRIDAY, January 13th At 5:30 PM – Hawai`i Island – Na Leo, Channel 53 TUESDAY, January 10th At 7:30 PM,THURSDAY, January 12th At 7:30 PM & SATURDAY, January 14th At 8:00 PM - Kaua`i - Ho`ike, Channel 52
Now you can become a fan of Voices Of Truth on Facebook by clicking Here and see behind the scenes photos of our shows and a whole lot more.
Voices Of Truth interviews those creating a better future for Hawai`i to discover what made them go from armchair observers to active participants. We hope you'll be inspired to do the same.
Voices Of Truth now airs on local access stations in Cape Town, South Africa, Sweden and 50 cities across the US. Check your local listings.
If you support our issues on the Free Hawai`i Broadcasting Network, please email this to a friend to help us continue. A donation today helps further our work. Every single penny counts.
Posted by Pono Kealoha on January 6, 2012 at 2:16pm
Aloha kakou he Hawaii au,
Well, it is time to put on marching boots and leave your slippa home for the dog to play with!.
I strongly believe 2012 is not as promoted the Mayan Mayheim year that ends all. Neither do I think the Chinese Year of the Dragon, although Biblically as in Revelation the Red Dragon does come to its End? I believe 2012 is the "Make or Break Year of Bull Shit". People of the World will continue to "Make" more bull shit and many will say 'a'ole and"Break" away from bull shit. Furthermore, I am of the conviction that the Mayan Calendar is not the end of the the World but is an End of Era of Deceit and Fraud everywhere.
I am also sending this heads-up from Braddah Hank Fergerstrom as he has "Permit" from January 15 to 17 for I'olani Palace as indicated. The success of which is entirely based upon participation of maka'ainana and ali'I.
Additionally, FREEHAWAII has again been invited to participate in the MLK Jr. Parade/Rally Celebration Committee which is on January 16 (Monday). Like last year, the Parade begins at Magic Island (Ala Moana Park) up through Kalakaua to the Rally site at Queen Kapiolani Park. As of this contact FREEHAWAII has not committed yet to either of the functions, namely due to the lack of participants and funds. While we have plenty of "fun" at these function we no more "funds". f we can not lokahi together, we no can huki nothing, and your oppressor is betting on that. In 1893, 160 or so of the Few, the Proud, the Marines counted on that too!
Braddah Hank has conducted this "Kukakuka Sessions" for several years mostly in conjunction with other activities at I'olani Palace but due to new DLNR Rules and Regs many Hawaiian Independent factions have said 'shove-it". Some of the Hawaiian Independent factions have concentrated their efforts elsewhere where the public is at. We so hungry for kukakuka with our peers but we keep preaching to the choir and they still don't know the mele.
Braddah Hank's kahea is for kokua as Hank's Hale is on moku o Hawaii. Please address all your inquiry of the Kukukuka Session to Braddah Hank at 938-9994. Some factions are meeting this week to decide their activity. More info will follow by January 11, 2012.
Posted by Free Hawai`i on January 4, 2012 at 8:13am
FREE HAWAI`I TV THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK
"THEYʻLL DICTATE YOUR FATE"
On Kaua`i At This Stage, Thereʻs Plenty Of Outrage, Because Someoneʻs Getting The Upper Hand, & Itʻs Homestead Hawaiians Trying To Withstand Some Ugly Demands.
So Who Are We Talking About Thatʻs Trying To Squeeze Others Out?
Aloha,I am a direct descendant of HELELA k md. KAHAUOLE w of Atooi [Kauai]. I'm interested in how the Oahu Ohana and Atooi Ohana are related and the connection with the name KAHA-MALUIHI.Is there anyone who can share some information. Research came down to KAHA-MALUIHI w md. KEALANAHELEHELE k 1.keiki kane LUAIKU/KUAKAHELA.
Posted by Pono Kealoha on January 2, 2012 at 10:54am
Aloha kakou he Hawaii au,
Hau'ole makahiki hou!
I found that during the eve of the New Year internet traffic slowed down and people just were getting together with families and friends and doing what we should be doing more of, ho'opono'pono. But It afforded me time to look into files that I normally put aside as "read later and never did". One of which is a post by a organization veiled as "New American" which I recall to be the the "New John Birch Society". Under the "Old John Birch Society, even Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were known to be Communist, but one must learn how to interpret in between the lines..
But this one issue bothered me for it seems to be a "double spin" for it portrays it to be an Anti-Abortion faction yet promotes the identity of "Personhood"? There is even an "Oath to Personhood" that most current Republican Presidential Candidates have signed on to.
I find it asinine to be Pro-Life and promote "Personhood", which to me is basically, saving lives of the unborn so they will become slaves under the Corporate Identity of "Personhood", as I know it to be. Of recent years litigation, we have been exposed to the term "person" being associated with a corporation and not the general noun of person, place or thing. As a true-believer of God Almighty, I know for myself that a living fetus is a "Living Soul", and not a 14th Amendment Citizen of the Corporation United States of America or its subsidiaries like the Fake or Real State of Hawaii. For the purpose of legality, Corporations have been judicially recognized as "persons" and persons, corporation but a "Living Soul"is not a person, corporation or a human being. I know of late 1800 dictionaries having definitions of "human being" as being "monster-like" or relating to a commodity. I find it difficult to understand any God Creation believing political office seeking candidate's failure to recognize that we are all "Living Souls" whether we believe or deserve it or not, unless of course those seeking an office or reelection to such an office are part of the Corporation, and only those who are of "personhood" qualify to vote in any form of political election. Have you ever wondered why U. S. Nationals do not qualify to vote in any Federal Election? Because they are not U. S. Citizens or Corporate Entities.
While I have not attended or participated in the Political Circus since early 1980's, its nice to know the the intricacies of the Circus. But more importantly is how they "volunteer" you, knowingly or unbeknownst to you into their System. In 1933, not only FDR take out all the Gold in the United States (of) America, he also stole the people's identity of the United States (for) America for they became the new Enemy under the amended Trading with the Enemy act of 1917.
So, on these slow internet days, I thought I'd pass this New American references on to you so you may interpret it for yourself, hoping I am not alone on this. Its just that these so promoted "do-gooders or political righteous" factions like New American or Tea Party get so much "right-winged" attention but seem to have alternative agendas.
Maybe bye January 3, Tuesday, we should get back to the real dirty stuff that we are more familiar with.
Stay safe and keep feet healthy for soon we will be marching again.
Posted by Free Hawai`i on January 1, 2012 at 8:30am
"At The Crossroads - A Visit With Choon James"
O`ahuʻs North Shore is one of the most beautiful areas in all Hawai`i, yet few other places have been more in jeopardy of commercial development. And thatʻs where we met Choon James who works tirelessly to, as she says, "keep the country, country." Choon should know - she grew up in the concrete jungle called Singapore, but even more amazing today sheʻs a real estate agent in Hawai`i. Filmed on location at beautiful Kahana Bay, youʻll see why this one-woman dynamo is so devoted to preserving the North Shoreʻs scenic beauty - Watch It Here
MONDAY, January 2nd 5:30 PM & SATURDAY, January 7th At 8:00 PM– O`ahu - `Olelo, Channel 53 MONDAY, January 2nd At 6:30 PM – Maui – Akaku, Channel 53 MONDAY, January 2nd At 7:00 PM & FRIDAY, January 6th At 5:30 PM – Hawai`i Island – Na Leo, Channel 53 TUESDAY, January 3rd At 7:30 PM,THURSDAY, January 5th At 7:30 PM & SATURDAY, January 7th At 8:00 PM - Kaua`i - Ho`ike, Channel 52
Now you can become a fan of Voices Of Truth on Facebook by clicking Here and see behind the scenes photos of our shows and a whole lot more.
Voices Of Truth interviews those creating a better future for Hawai`i to discover what made them go from armchair observers to active participants. We hope you'll be inspired to do the same.
Voices Of Truth now airs on local access stations in Cape Town, South Africa, Sweden and 50 cities across the US. Check your local listings.
If you support our issues on the Free Hawai`i Broadcasting Network, please email this to a friend to help us continue. A donation today helps further our work. Every single penny counts.
Aloha ke Akua pu ia kakou a me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! May God's love, respect, good health and peace of mind be your's always. Know that I love and treasure all of you and remember that you all make a difference in our lives always. I appreciate all of you and all you do always. You are all in my prayers, especially those who do not have anyone in in this world to care for them. They are the ones that need our love and remember that their loved ones that left this world of ours reside with God and are still there thinking of their descendants and are watching over them and interceding with God Almighty to be merciful and enveloping God's light and His love on them always. I pray for everyone's well-being physically, spiritually, and mentally always.
There are only two ways a nation can be extinguished - conquest involving the military defeat and subjugation of its people, along with the physical seizure of its territory by the victor or the un-coerced, free-will choice of its people to surrender and merge their nation’s sovereignty to another.
Even the unconditional surrender of Japan and Germany after World War II, did not extinguish their sovereignty. They became occupied states but still retained their national identity.
They were still Japan and Germany and the occupying forces administered and enforced the laws of Japan and Germany respectively.
Despite the incorporation of the Eastern European states into the Soviet Union after World War II did not extinguish their sovereignty.
Despite complete domination by the USSR during the “cold war,” when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s states like Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, and so forth, reemerged as sovereign and independent countries in continuity.
In the case of Hawai`i, after the illegal seizure and annexation, the status of Hawaiian Kingdom citizens remained inviolate.
At no time did the Hawaiian Kingdom or Hawaiian nationals surrender their sovereignty or consent to a merger with the US.
On the contrary, there was fierce opposition to the initial seizure and efforts at annexation, as evidenced by the massive petitions and protests in the press.
The Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist. It did not expire. It survives even having been buried alive for over a century under the layers of US deception and fraud.
Posted by Pono Kealoha on December 26, 2011 at 7:42am
The Doctrine of Discovery and U.S. Expansion
"No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…"
This idea, which is a bedrock of American democracy, is from the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was completed in 1787. That same year, the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which created the first organized territory out of the region that is today Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Among other regulations, the ordinance set forth a guiding principle for the treatment of Native Americans and their lands:
"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their land and property shall never be taken without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed."
Just seven years later, in 1794, the U.S. government sent a regiment led by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to conquer a confederation of American Indian tribes attempting to keep hold of their lands. At the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a band of 800 Native Americans was slaughtered and 5,000 acres of crops were destroyed. The tribes of the region were forced into a treaty that limited them to the northern region of what is today Ohio, and it took them twenty years to recover from the loss of lives and property.
In 1802, President Jefferson signed the Georgia Compact, which stated that in exchange for land (what is today Alabama and Mississippi), the federal government would remove all American Indians within the territory of Georgia "as soon as it could be done reasonably and peacefully." By 1830, the U.S. government had passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the President to remove the remaining Eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi. Between 1938 and 1939, under President Andrew Jackson, 15,000 Cherokee Indians were forcibly taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts, and made to march-some in chains-a thousand miles to present-day Oklahoma. Over 4,000 Cherokee died from hunger, disease, and exhaustion on what they called Nunna daul Tsuny or the Trail of Tears. By the late 1840s almost all Native Americans had been moved to lands west of the Mississippi.
It seems astonishing that a country founded upon the ideal of "life, liberty, and property" could move from a policy of "good faith" toward the Native Americans to one of complete domination in the space of one generation. In order to understand how such a contradiction could occur, it is necessary to go back in time almost seven centuries before the American Revolution.
In 1095, at the beginning of the Crusades, Pope Urban II issued an edict-the Papal Bull Terra Nullius (meaning empty land). It gave the kings and princes of Europe the right to "discover" or claim land in non-Christian areas. This policy was extended in 1452 when Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Romanus Pontifex, declaring war against all non-Christians throughout the world and authorizing the conquest of their nations and territories. These edicts treated non-Christians as uncivilized and subhuman, and therefore without rights to any land or nation. Christian leaders claimed a God-given right to take control of all lands and used this idea to justify war, colonization, and even slavery.
By the time Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492, this Doctrine of Discovery was a well-established idea in the Christian world. When he reached the Americas, Columbus performed a ceremony to "take possession" of all lands "discovered," meaning all territory not occupied by Christians. Upon his return to Europe in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the bull Inter Cetera, granting Spain the right to conquer the lands that Columbus had already "discovered" and all lands that it might come upon in the future. This decree also expressed the Pope's wish to convert the natives of these lands to Catholicism in order to strengthen the "Christian Empire."
In 1573 Pope Paul II issued the papal bull Sublimis Deus, which denounced the idea that Native Americans "should be treated like irrational animals and used exclusively for our profit and our service," and Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) formally excommunicated anyone still holding Indian slaves. By this time, however, the Doctrine of Discovery was deeply rooted and led nonetheless to the conquest of non-Christian lands and people in every corner of the world. Although the U.S. was founded on freedom from such tyranny, the idea that white people and Christians had certain divine rights was nevertheless ingrained in the young nation's policies. The slave trade, for example, and centuries of violence against black people depended upon the idea that non-Whites were less than human. The theft of Native American lands required a similar justification.
In 1823, the Doctrine of Discovery was written into U.S. law as a way to deny land rights to Native Americans in the Supreme Court case, Johnson v. McIntosh. It is ironic that the case did not directly involve any Native Americans since the decision stripped them of all rights to their independence. In 1775, Thomas Johnson and a group of British investors bought a tract of land from the Piankeshaw Indians. During the Revolutionary War, this land was taken from the British and became part of the U.S. in the "County of Illinois." In 1818, the U.S. government sold part of the land to William McIntosh, a citizen of Illinois. This prompted Joshua Johnson, the heir to one of the original buyers, to claim the land through a lawsuit (which he later lost).
In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that the Christian European nations had assumed complete control over the lands of America during the "Age of Discovery." Upon winning independence in 1776, he noted, the U.S. inherited authority over these lands from Great Britain, "notwithstanding the occupancy of the natives, who were heathens…" According to the ruling, American Indians did not have any rights as independent nations, but only as tenants or residents of U.S. land. For Joshua Johnson, this meant that the original sale of land by the Piankeshaws was invalid because they were not the lawful owners. For Native Americans, this decision foreshadowed the Trail of Tears and a hundred years of forced removal and violence. Despite recent efforts to have the case repealed as a symbol of good will, Johnson v. McIntosh has never been overruled and remains good law.
In 1845, a democratic leader and prominent editor named John L. O'Sullivan gave the Doctrine of Discovery a uniquely American flavor when he coined the term Manifest Destiny to defend U.S. expansion and claims to new territory:
".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty… is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."
The idea of Manifest Destiny was publicized in newspapers and debated by politicians. It furthered the sense among U.S. citizens of an inevitable or natural right to expand the nation and to spread "freedom and democracy" (though only to those deemed capable of self-government, which certainly did not include Blacks or Native Americans).
Whether called the Doctrine of Discovery or Manifest Destiny, the principles that stimulated U.S. thirst for land have been disastrous for Native Americans, African Americans, Mexicans, and many others both in North America and abroad who lost life, liberty and property as the result of U.S. expansionism. The history of Christian law helps us to understand how our leaders-many considered heroes and role models today-undertook monstrous acts in the name of liberty. This insight into the prevailing ideas of the day, however, does not excuse their behavior. Some may have truly been misled by the ideals of Christian discovery, but others acted knowingly out of self-interest, greed and bigotry. Even as far back as Columbus, however, there were religious and political leaders, as well as ordinary citizens, who knew better and worked against racism, colonization and slavery.
When the Indian Removal Act of 1830 came up for debate in Congress, for example, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, a strong believer in Christian compassion, led a bold attack with a six-hour speech that extended over three days. Frelinghuysen predicted terrible suffering and therefore argued to uphold the independence of the Cherokee Nation. Many other members of Congress, including Tennessean Davy Crockett, fought against the Act. Though it passed in both houses, 47% of Congress (116 of 246 members) voted in opposition to the bill.
It is tempting to view the problems of the past as ancient history-long resolved and no longer relevant to our lives. The effects of manifest destiny, however, continue today. American Indian Nations are still in court over land disputes, and countless native people suffer from extreme poverty and other social problems as a result of past policies. September 11th and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have ignited age-old debates about U.S. objectives. Though the public discourse no longer includes terms such as "expansion," "discovery," and "destiny," discussions about globalization, preemptive war, and the responsibilities of the world's only "superpower" echo familiar themes. It is perhaps fitting that this dialogue ensues as the country commemorates the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, or Corps of Discovery, which paved the way for U.S. expansion. The anniversary presents an important opportunity to pay tribute to the victims and survivors of Indian genocide, to learn about contemporary native culture and issues, and to work against prejudice and discrimination in local communities.
Questions:
How did U.S. policy toward Native Americans change between the 1780s and 1840s? What were the reasons for these changes? How were Native Americans impacted?
Did U.S. treatment of Native Americans during this era reflect the values of the U.S. Constitution?
What was the Trail of Tears?
What was the Doctrine of Discovery? How did it influence U.S. law and policy?
What was the significance of the court case, Johnson v. McIntosh?
What is Manifest Destiny? How did this movement affect U.S. society?
Do you think the ideas of Manifest Destiny relate to present-day conflicts? Why or why not?
What do you think are fitting ways to commemorate the Lewis and Clark bicentennial?
