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The following is from Jack Kelly's excellent GREEN FLASH. Subscribe to this by emailing ko_kelly@earthlink.net. Kelly is an activist on Hawai'i island, and doesn't hesitate to take on the big issues. Maika'i no!!! (That means "very good!")
This is his writing on May 16th:
Akaka Bill Back in the News; Senator Makes Last Ditch Effort
The Akaka Bill is back in the news after some well deserved dormancy but Senator Akaka is not one to let sleeping dogs lie.
On May 4 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted to recommend to Congress that it not pass the Bill.
On May 13 it was reported that Senate majority leader Bill Frist will entertain a motion for cloture on the Bill when the Senate convenes in early June. That will force a vote on whether the Akaka Bill will be debated, and if passed, thirty hours of debate will follow.
Senator Akaka has threatened to bring the issue up on the floor of the Senate everyday until it gets heard. That ís a threat with some clout to back it up because those speeches could probably cause some sleepy moments in that hallowed chamber.
Some interesting dialogue has developed around the bill that reflects underlying problems with it.
One of the things we have noticed about the ongoing debate over Senate Bill 147, The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, is how much coverage and credence the notion that the bill creates raced based entitlements happens to get, while the notion that grass roots Hawaiians are against it because it helps extinguish their rights as a colonized nation state gets little coverage.
We think the Republican resistance in Congress knows just what its doing by framing the issue as one of race based entitlements that would create a special class of citizen, when in fact their biggest fear is that this bill will open the door set ajar by the 1993 Apology Bill even more and might allow for a real challenge to the legitimacy of the U.S. government in Hawaii. We feel their fears are unfounded because the Akaka Bill would effectively close off future options of true sovereignty creating a basis for the assimilation of the Hawaiian people into mainstream western culture. Rather than using the Apology Bill as a springboard towards self-determination the Akaka Bill takes the wind out of the sails of the sovereignty movement.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights draft report echoes the objections of the bill’s critics that say the Bill is discriminatory and divisive.
The report says granting Hawaiians the right to form their own government would "discriminate on the basis of race or national origin, and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."
That is the view of the conservative Republicans in Congress that held the bill up from consideration last year even though the Republican leadership had cut a deal with Senator Akaka to hear the bill in exchange for his vote on the Arctic Refuge. The bill never got heard but Akaka lived up to his end of the deal and cast vote to open up the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling several times. Ironically he defended his vote by claiming to support the self determination of the Alaska natives he met ten years ago.
That ís also the view of folks like William Burgess and Freddy Rice who feel they are being discriminated against by current policies that favor Hawaiians and that the Akaka Bill will just make things worse for them. We can understand how these folks; descendants of the interlopers who overthrew the Hawaiian government in 1892, would finally like to get that monkey off their back. Denying recognitions of Hawaiians as a distinct class of individuals due reparation for that theft would wash their hands forever from the sins of their fathers.
Burgess fronting for a group called Aloha for All was among those who testified before the Commission. He claims what's in the bill speaks for itself. "I don't see how anyone could genuinely or sincerely argue that it's not (advocating for) a race-based government," he said.
We feel the report makes a fatal error when it assumes Hawaiians to be part of the "American People”. Today’s Hawaiians are descendants of those people whose government was overthrown by American businessmen over a century ago. We must not fail to recognize that fact as the central issue of this debate. Not whether Hawaiians deserve or have the right to preferential treatment under the constitution of the United States.
The question is whether they deserve to be afforded their independence as a nation state; the Kingdom of Hawaii or in absence of that or until that independence is achieved, what reparation is due to the Hawaiian people for the theft of their land and culture.
The Akaka Bill, as written, will extinguish all Hawaiian land claims in twenty years! The Akaka Bill is modeled after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that effectively dealt a fatal blow to the traditional tribal governments of the native peoples of Alaska by creating a layer of corporations to control the former assets of the native peoples of Alaska. The result has been the despoliation of their subsistence cultures and these people now find themselves and their native lifestyles threatened with extinction due to massive industrialization of their cultural landscape. And the village elders are left with no power to do anything about it and they can thank Congress for that.
Our local leaders tout the Akaka Bill as giving Hawaiians the same kind of treatment that native Alaskans and Native Americans have been afforded. No thanks!
Mostly our local leaders are worried about losing long standing entitlements created under federal law like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands two groups that already control, along with the State of Hawaii and the U.S, military most of the lands that are known as ìceded landsî.
But not everyone has been buffaloed by the Republican chatter about raced based legislation.
Commissioner Michael Yaki, a Democrat and part Hawaiian hit the nail right on the head when in response to the Commission’s findings he said, ìI object to the report because it was based on limited information and a "complete misreading" of the bill and the history of special treatment for indigenous people in the Constitution. To proceed from a limited information base to a recommendation on important legislation is, I believe, a procedural misstep," said Yaki, a San Francisco attorney. "I think what you find are critics going a long way to deny the indigenous government and sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii as if it never existed or never mattered. "
Yaki’s comments were reported in a article by Dennis Camire in the Honolulu Advertiser.
Even our Hawaii representatives are by reference giving some voice to the fact that Hawaii as we stand today is an occupied nation.
Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, told Camire, "It appears to me that the draft recommendation is based on a complete lack of understanding of federal policies that involve native peoples and the history of Hawaii."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a sponsor of the Akaka Bill in the House, said the draft report's recommendation reflected the commission's commentary throughout the process.
"I wish they had taken a more objective approach based on history and the context of the cause that is involved with Native Hawaiians," he said. "It's very difficult sometimes for people who have a political agenda to be able to actually step back and give an objective evaluation."
Right on Neil! Given an objective evaluation we see that the only path that makes sense is true independence for the Nation of Hawaii. The Congressional debate sheds ample light on the subjugated role any “Hawaiian governmental entity” created and place under the control of the U.S. Department of Interior would have. Nation within a nation status? Give us a break. Any “Hawaiian nation” formed under the Akaka Bill would be a complete sham, nothing more than a glorified committee that would oversee what? The bill would effectively extinguish any resource entitlements such as lands and water rights forever and an envisioned trust relationship under the Department of Interior would actually control those resources.
Folks like to say, “Hawaiians are dreaming when they talk about restoring the Kingdom. That will never happen.”
But we say, what about Bosnia and Palestine, and Western Samoa and Iraq, Iran, Algeria and a mosaic of new states created in the wake of the Soviet Union? These are just some of the nation states that have regained their sovereignty since World War II. Many of the European country’s that practiced colonization in previous eras have, as conscious, forward thinking, democracies restored independence to these formerly conquered nation stares.
The United States, on the other hand, continues to occupy and colonize independent nations under false pretenses as has been evidenced in Afghanistan and Iraq more recently and of course Hawaii herself historically. Until the current U.S, policy of world domination is tempered it is unlikely Hawaiians will get any more than lip service from the United States.
Steve Sumida, a native rights attorney in Alaska and Executive Director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council noted in a speech to University of Hawaii Law students recently, “The Akaka Bill is a bill of assimilation. Throughout the history of the United States the federal government has vacillated between policies of assimilation and policies of self- determination in how they approach the problem of native peoples whose lands and resources have been abridged by the U.S. expansionist policies.
“The 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was a major signal to tribal peoples that their existence as self-determined entities was truly in danger. The Native Claims Settlement Act is an act of assimilation of native peoples. Coupled with the passage of the Akaka Bill these two major pieces of legislation will have the effect of asserting that assimilation of native peoples rather than allowing for cultural self determination of native peoples is the policy of the United States government.”
This is his writing on May 16th:
Akaka Bill Back in the News; Senator Makes Last Ditch Effort
The Akaka Bill is back in the news after some well deserved dormancy but Senator Akaka is not one to let sleeping dogs lie.
On May 4 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted to recommend to Congress that it not pass the Bill.
On May 13 it was reported that Senate majority leader Bill Frist will entertain a motion for cloture on the Bill when the Senate convenes in early June. That will force a vote on whether the Akaka Bill will be debated, and if passed, thirty hours of debate will follow.
Senator Akaka has threatened to bring the issue up on the floor of the Senate everyday until it gets heard. That ís a threat with some clout to back it up because those speeches could probably cause some sleepy moments in that hallowed chamber.
Some interesting dialogue has developed around the bill that reflects underlying problems with it.
One of the things we have noticed about the ongoing debate over Senate Bill 147, The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, is how much coverage and credence the notion that the bill creates raced based entitlements happens to get, while the notion that grass roots Hawaiians are against it because it helps extinguish their rights as a colonized nation state gets little coverage.
We think the Republican resistance in Congress knows just what its doing by framing the issue as one of race based entitlements that would create a special class of citizen, when in fact their biggest fear is that this bill will open the door set ajar by the 1993 Apology Bill even more and might allow for a real challenge to the legitimacy of the U.S. government in Hawaii. We feel their fears are unfounded because the Akaka Bill would effectively close off future options of true sovereignty creating a basis for the assimilation of the Hawaiian people into mainstream western culture. Rather than using the Apology Bill as a springboard towards self-determination the Akaka Bill takes the wind out of the sails of the sovereignty movement.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights draft report echoes the objections of the bill’s critics that say the Bill is discriminatory and divisive.
The report says granting Hawaiians the right to form their own government would "discriminate on the basis of race or national origin, and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."
That is the view of the conservative Republicans in Congress that held the bill up from consideration last year even though the Republican leadership had cut a deal with Senator Akaka to hear the bill in exchange for his vote on the Arctic Refuge. The bill never got heard but Akaka lived up to his end of the deal and cast vote to open up the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling several times. Ironically he defended his vote by claiming to support the self determination of the Alaska natives he met ten years ago.
That ís also the view of folks like William Burgess and Freddy Rice who feel they are being discriminated against by current policies that favor Hawaiians and that the Akaka Bill will just make things worse for them. We can understand how these folks; descendants of the interlopers who overthrew the Hawaiian government in 1892, would finally like to get that monkey off their back. Denying recognitions of Hawaiians as a distinct class of individuals due reparation for that theft would wash their hands forever from the sins of their fathers.
Burgess fronting for a group called Aloha for All was among those who testified before the Commission. He claims what's in the bill speaks for itself. "I don't see how anyone could genuinely or sincerely argue that it's not (advocating for) a race-based government," he said.
We feel the report makes a fatal error when it assumes Hawaiians to be part of the "American People”. Today’s Hawaiians are descendants of those people whose government was overthrown by American businessmen over a century ago. We must not fail to recognize that fact as the central issue of this debate. Not whether Hawaiians deserve or have the right to preferential treatment under the constitution of the United States.
The question is whether they deserve to be afforded their independence as a nation state; the Kingdom of Hawaii or in absence of that or until that independence is achieved, what reparation is due to the Hawaiian people for the theft of their land and culture.
The Akaka Bill, as written, will extinguish all Hawaiian land claims in twenty years! The Akaka Bill is modeled after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that effectively dealt a fatal blow to the traditional tribal governments of the native peoples of Alaska by creating a layer of corporations to control the former assets of the native peoples of Alaska. The result has been the despoliation of their subsistence cultures and these people now find themselves and their native lifestyles threatened with extinction due to massive industrialization of their cultural landscape. And the village elders are left with no power to do anything about it and they can thank Congress for that.
Our local leaders tout the Akaka Bill as giving Hawaiians the same kind of treatment that native Alaskans and Native Americans have been afforded. No thanks!
Mostly our local leaders are worried about losing long standing entitlements created under federal law like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands two groups that already control, along with the State of Hawaii and the U.S, military most of the lands that are known as ìceded landsî.
But not everyone has been buffaloed by the Republican chatter about raced based legislation.
Commissioner Michael Yaki, a Democrat and part Hawaiian hit the nail right on the head when in response to the Commission’s findings he said, ìI object to the report because it was based on limited information and a "complete misreading" of the bill and the history of special treatment for indigenous people in the Constitution. To proceed from a limited information base to a recommendation on important legislation is, I believe, a procedural misstep," said Yaki, a San Francisco attorney. "I think what you find are critics going a long way to deny the indigenous government and sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii as if it never existed or never mattered. "
Yaki’s comments were reported in a article by Dennis Camire in the Honolulu Advertiser.
Even our Hawaii representatives are by reference giving some voice to the fact that Hawaii as we stand today is an occupied nation.
Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, told Camire, "It appears to me that the draft recommendation is based on a complete lack of understanding of federal policies that involve native peoples and the history of Hawaii."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a sponsor of the Akaka Bill in the House, said the draft report's recommendation reflected the commission's commentary throughout the process.
"I wish they had taken a more objective approach based on history and the context of the cause that is involved with Native Hawaiians," he said. "It's very difficult sometimes for people who have a political agenda to be able to actually step back and give an objective evaluation."
Right on Neil! Given an objective evaluation we see that the only path that makes sense is true independence for the Nation of Hawaii. The Congressional debate sheds ample light on the subjugated role any “Hawaiian governmental entity” created and place under the control of the U.S. Department of Interior would have. Nation within a nation status? Give us a break. Any “Hawaiian nation” formed under the Akaka Bill would be a complete sham, nothing more than a glorified committee that would oversee what? The bill would effectively extinguish any resource entitlements such as lands and water rights forever and an envisioned trust relationship under the Department of Interior would actually control those resources.
Folks like to say, “Hawaiians are dreaming when they talk about restoring the Kingdom. That will never happen.”
But we say, what about Bosnia and Palestine, and Western Samoa and Iraq, Iran, Algeria and a mosaic of new states created in the wake of the Soviet Union? These are just some of the nation states that have regained their sovereignty since World War II. Many of the European country’s that practiced colonization in previous eras have, as conscious, forward thinking, democracies restored independence to these formerly conquered nation stares.
The United States, on the other hand, continues to occupy and colonize independent nations under false pretenses as has been evidenced in Afghanistan and Iraq more recently and of course Hawaii herself historically. Until the current U.S, policy of world domination is tempered it is unlikely Hawaiians will get any more than lip service from the United States.
Steve Sumida, a native rights attorney in Alaska and Executive Director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council noted in a speech to University of Hawaii Law students recently, “The Akaka Bill is a bill of assimilation. Throughout the history of the United States the federal government has vacillated between policies of assimilation and policies of self- determination in how they approach the problem of native peoples whose lands and resources have been abridged by the U.S. expansionist policies.
“The 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was a major signal to tribal peoples that their existence as self-determined entities was truly in danger. The Native Claims Settlement Act is an act of assimilation of native peoples. Coupled with the passage of the Akaka Bill these two major pieces of legislation will have the effect of asserting that assimilation of native peoples rather than allowing for cultural self determination of native peoples is the policy of the United States government.”
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