Aloha kakou,
Clarence Kukauakahi Ching, a member of this tribe, was with Leon Siu and 'Ehu Cardwell, lobbying against the Akaka bill in Washington this last week. Mahalo nui loa for their efforts to prevent a really misguided attempt to bring justice to na kanaka maoli. The Akaka bill has serious flaws, both in premise and in how it proposes to redress the great wrongs done to Native Hawaiians and descendents of Hawaiian nationals (non-native citizens of the Hawaiian monarchy).
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1.
Senate to consider letting Hawaiians pursue sovereignty
Posted by: "Hawaii Nation Info" info@hawaii-nation.org hawaiination
Wed Jun 7, 2006 12:06 am (PST)

www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
Published June 7, 2006

Senate to consider letting Hawaiians pursue sovereignty

By Brian DeBose

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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Hawaii Sen. Daniel K. Akaka thinks Hawaiians
should be allowed to govern themselves as Native
Americans and Alaskans do, and after seven years
of pushing a bill to start the process, the
Senate is expected to take it up this week.

Mr. Akaka says the bill is a way to give
"indigenous" Hawaiians a sense of pride and a
chance for sovereignty for the first time since
1893, when Queen Liliuokalani was deposed and
lands were illegally seized by U.S. Marines and a
cadre of sugar-plantation businessmen.

"For the first time, if it passes, Hawaiians will
have parity and be able to form a government
entity to address their concerns, since the
overthrow," Mr. Akaka said.

Republican senators annually have blocked the
legislation, saying it would violate the
Constitution by establishing a sovereign
race-based government. It is only coming up now
through a deal worked out between Democratic and
Republican leaders to move other bills.

Opponents, including many native Hawaiians, say
the bill opens up a "Pandora's box" of new race
classifications and called the bill ambiguous as
to what benefits it will bring.

The bill calls for an Office of Native Hawaiian
Relations in the Department of the Interior, and
a Native Hawaiian Interagency Coordinating Group
to administer programs, a commission that would
certify who are indigenous Hawaiians, and
provides a process of reorganization of the
Native Hawaiian governing entity.

"The bill will not authorize gaming in Hawaii.
The bill will not allow private lands to be
taken. The bill will not create a reservation in
Hawaii," Mr. Akaka said.

The legislation is supported by both Republican
and Democratic senators, primarily those from
states with substantial Native American and
Eskimo populations, as well as the American Bar
Association and Alaska Federation of Natives.

Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, who has kept
the bill from coming to the floor, said the
creation of a native Hawaiian government --
composed only of redefined natives and whose
members can only be voted in by native Hawaiians
-- could divide Hawaii's people.

"Unlike reservation Indians, Native Hawaiians do
not live in one area of the State that is set
aside for Indians; they live in the same cities
and neighborhoods and on the same streets, as
other Hawaiians do," Mr. Kyl said.

Reservation Indian tribes have the power to tax,
regulate and make laws for members. There are an
estimated 400,000 Native Hawaiians living
throughout the United States.

Native Hawaiians also say it "too narrowly" redefines who is indigenous.

"It is only for people of Native Hawaiian blood,"
said 'Ehu Kekahu Cardwell, director of the Koani
Foundation, a grass-roots group dedicated to
restoring the Hawaiian nation.

"We want it to be for any descendants of kingdom
nationals who were loyal to the queen during the
time she was deposed. We want everyone to be able
to have a say in how this turns out," Mr.
Cardwell said.

Leon Siu, a Chinese Hawaiian lobbying against the
bill on Capitol Hill, said it has already caused
division in Hawaii.

"We reject a race issue being brought into our
community; the bill will change the definition of
who we are," he said. "Native Hawaiian is not a
pure bloodline and ... this bill will introduce a
new concept of racial apartheid."

Mr. Siu's father fled China in search of a better
life and settled in Hawaii 70 years ago, as did
hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals from
America, Japan, China, Vietnam, and the
Philippines who became Hawaiian citizens.

The Hawaiian monarchy historically never kept
anyone from participating in its government
structure and did not have a race-specific
citizenship definition.

One of the most salient points in the debate will
be a history lesson on how Hawaii became a U.S.
territory and a state, which Native Hawaiians say
was an "illegal annexation."

Queen Liliuokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch,
was deposed in 1893 by a collection of sugar
exporters doing business on the island with the
complicity of the U.S. government.

Hawaii became a U.S. territory under a
congressional resolution passed in the late
1890s, but the Constitution states that the U.S.
can only acquire land held by sovereign foreign
nations through a formal treaty.

The treaty authorized by the Safety Commission --
an illegitimate government established by the
sugar plantation owners -- failed in Congress
after 38,000 of the 40,000 natives living on the
island in 1897 petitioned the Congress to reject
it.

Congress formally acknowledged that the coup was
unlawful in an apology resolution in 1993.

"This is just the next step in that process of
acknowledging the wrong committed against the
Native Hawaiian people and recognize them as a
sovereign entity," said Donalyn Dela Cruz,
spokeswoman for Mr. Akaka.

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