starbulletin.com/print/2005.php

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Saturday, April 22, 2006


Group seeks sovereignty for Alaska and Hawaii

Associated Press

GENEVA » A group claiming to represent native
Hawaiians and Alaskans says it is appealing for
U.N. support to pressure the United States into
granting indigenous peoples in Alaska and Hawaii
full rights as independent states because the
occupation of their lands is against
international law.

Indigenous World Association, which represents
groups from both Alaska and Hawaii, has submitted
reports to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the
first step in a process that could end in the
General Assembly or even with the appointment of
special investigators to examine the situation.

"We are independent and occupied peoples,"
Indigenous World Association spokesman Ronald
Barnes said Thursday. "Neither Alaska nor Hawaii
has ever ceded these powers."

Indigenous World Association, an umbrella group
which has for the first time brought together
tribes from Alaska and Hawaii, claims that
indigenous lands in both states were illegally
occupied. They say they are being taxed but get
no representation in return and point out that it
is against one of the founding principles of the
United States.

The Human Rights Committee has sent a list of
questions to Washington and will examine U.S.
officials at its next session, in Geneva in July.

These include a request to detail which U.S. law
allows authorities to contravene established
tribal property rights, and also to explain how
federal laws apply to indigenous tribes.

"Anybody who has property that belongs to them,
in their right mind, is going to say, 'Please
don't take my property,'" Barnes said. "Domestic
federal Indian law is repugnant to international
law."

U.S. officials were not immediately able to comment.

© 1996-2006 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin | www.starbulletin.com