What do Native Hawaiians want? It depends whom you ask.
Some groups think federal recognition, a government-within-a-government status, is the ticket. The U.S. Department of the Interior is currently mulling over that approach, deciding whether to create a federal rule to facilitate the process.
Others are advocating a roll of all descendants of the indigenous Polynesians who settled the islands prior to 1778 to vote for delegates for a convention where those decisions will be made. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is currently considering whether to give the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission more time to sign up enough Native Hawaiians to do that.
For some, nothing less than a return to the Hawaiian Kingdom will do. They want a demilitarization of the islands and they say the U.S. government is occupying Hawaii illegally because the country took over the kingdom at gunpoint and there was never a lawful treaty of annexation.
As with any other group of people, you can’t paint an entire race, an entire ethnicity, an entire society, with the same broad brush. It’s a controversial issue, and emotions run high.
“Why do Hawaiians have to look like we’re such idiots, fighting with each other all the time?” asked an outwardly frustrated OHA Trustee Rowena Akana at a recent board meeting.
It’s a crucial issue for the state, where 21.3 percent of Hawaii residents reported in the 2010 census that they had some Hawaiian blood, and 5.9 percent said they were pure Hawaiian. It’s even more important for Hawaii County, which, with 29.7 percent of residents with Hawaiian blood and 8.5 percent pure Hawaiian, leads the state in both categories.
In addition, some 1.8 million acres of land, 43 percent of the state and about the same percentage on Hawaii Island, is considered ceded lands, Hawaiian government and crown lands that were ceded to the state of Hawaii after annexation and statehood. They are now held in trust for the Hawaiian people, with revenues used for a public purpose.
OHA Chief Executive Officer Kamanaopono Crabbe heaped fuel on the fire with a May 5 letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry requesting an opinion about Hawaii’s legal status under international law.
Crabbe said he’d attended sessions where political scholars opined that Hawaiians are not an indigenous people of the United States, but rather nationals of an occupied state. He referenced treaties signed by President Grover Cleveland and Queen Liliuokalani in 1893 that obligated the United States to administer Hawaiian law and to restore the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
“First, does the Hawaiian Kingdom, as a sovereign independent state, continue to exist as a subject of international law?” Crabbe asks in the letter. “While I await the opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, I will be requesting approval from the Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that we refrain from pursuing a Native Hawaiian governing entity until we can confirm that the Hawaiian Kingdom, as an independent sovereign state, does not continue to exist under international law and that we, as individuals, have not incurred any criminal liability in this pursuit.”
The OHA Board of Trustees rescinded the letter, and after a lengthy closed-door session with Crabbe, both sides emerged vowing to move forward despite the dispute.
The Hawaii Legislature through Act 195 signed in 2011 by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, set up a nation-building enrollment process dubbed “Kanaiolowalu,” loosely translated as “striving with many voices.” But, three years later, the number of voices still falls short, despite $3.9 million set aside for the roll-building, convention and governing documents.
The goal, through the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, was to get 200,000 names, said Lei Kihoi, Hawaii Island’s representative on the five-member commission. But the group has so far collected only about 132,000 and verified 128,000, she said. There are some 530,000 Hawaiian descendants in all, with about half living in the state, she said.
OHA is considering setting up a second Hawaiian roll to accommodate those who distrust the process because it was created by state law without consulting their Native Hawaiian groups. Testifiers at a May 29 meeting also questioned OHA’s neutrality on the issue because it is a state agency.
Longtime activist Walter Ritte urged OHA to bring in a neutral third party to help facilitate nation-building by a Native Hawaiian group. He thinks the state and federal governments should stay out of it.
“We’re trying to build our nation,” Ritte said. “We cannot wait for lawyers in the state to tell us how to build our nation. That’s not going to work.”
OHA, faced with a barrage of people wanting to testify, postponed decision-making until June 24.
The Obama administration has recently gotten into the act as well, offering up as an administrative rule a federal recognition status that was for 13 years the goal of former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who retired in 2012 without getting it through Congress.
The May 20 notice from the U.S. Department of the Interior signals it’s considering whether the federal government should develop a formal, administrative process to re-establish a government-to-government relationship with a future Native Hawaiian governing entity. It has not yet opened the public comment period.
Crabbe and OHA Chairwoman Colette Machado, in a joint statement, praised the move.
“The OHA-supported nation building process and the federal government’s consideration of a federal recognition process present an opportunity for a seamless transition from nation building to pursuing federal recognition, but only if that represents the desire of the Native Hawaiian people,” the statement said.
Not everyone is sure they want the type of federal recognition currently in place for Native Americans, where land is allotted for reservations where tribal laws apply.
Native Hawaiians in the top layers of Hawaii County’s government are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Both Mayor Billy Kenoi, and Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha, said they’ve signed the newest Native Hawaiian roll, but they are not involving themselves in the current roll-building process.
Kenoi notes that what’s good for the county of Hawaii — education, health care, programs that strengthen families — is also good for the Native Hawaiian community. He’s been trying to improve the quality of life for everyone on the island, he said.
“I haven’t been engaged in the effort of self-determination and self-governance. … It’s an issue that’s important to everyone in Hawaii, Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike,” Kenoi said. “I leave that in the hands of those who are directly advocating and conversant in the process and the entire Native Hawaiian community as a whole. I think it’s the Native Hawaiian community’s decision to make.”
Kanuha said he signed up because he thinks an umbrella group of Native Hawaiians getting together to kuka, or deliberate, in a convention will help bring agreement.
“Whether I agree with sovereignty or not isn’t that important,” Kanuha said. “What’s important is to be part of a group where we have those opportunities. There’s going to be people who disagree. … But if we can all have an open mind about it and work it out. … The Hawaiian Roll Commission is an important starting place.”
Kanuha notes that currently, “There are a lot of splintered groups all over the place.”
Among the most strident have been Native Hawaiians claiming they are part of a reinstated Kingdom of Hawaii.
Dwight Vicente is a Hilo man who has for 20 years been quietly but consistently testifying before the County Council, telling the government that its various codes and laws are illegal because there is no recognized U.S. government in Hawaii.
“As long as the U.S. military is here, we cannot move forward,” Vicente said. “We are under military occupation.”
Vicente says he doesn’t recognize the U.S. government, although he does pay his taxes, albeit “under protest.”
He characterizes the Hawaiian Kingdom as “in recess,” and he disregards those who say they are the government of the kingdom. Iolani Palace is not currently in the hands of Hawaiians, he said.
“There are those that speak it, but it remains to be seen,” Vicente said. “When you see someone sitting on the throne, then you will know.”