Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 2, 1 February 1989 — A Model For Past and Future [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Model For Past and Future

Legacy 0f Hawaii's Traditional Water Economy

Native Hawaiian water rights as part of an overall structure of water management in Hawai'i, ean be a major factor in assuring the public interest and safeguarding native stream animals and plants. This point was the focus of a talk on "Early Hawaiian Water Economics" given recently by Office of Hawaiian Affairs Land Officer Linda Kawai'ono Delaney to the fifth annual People's Water Conference. About 150 participants attended the two-day session held January 13 and 14 at the Hawai'i State Capitol.

The economics of water use in Hawai'i — past, present and future — was the conference theme. It was sponsored by a consortium of sponsors representing a spectrum of interest in the public and private sector. Among the topics covered were: water allocation between agriculture and eeonomie development; the value of watersheds; population and water use; protection of water resources; and various water management issues. Delaney's remark on Native Hawaiian use and management of water follow:

"Native Hawaiian management and use of water (in discussion) too often becomes a history lesson— a description of policies and practices developed by a civilization whose ways and achievements are viewed almost as curiosities of the past. "That attitude of seeing the Hawaiian culture as an object of history rather than a continuing and living force in the community life and laws of our islands diminishes us all. "The major challenge of a few years ago was to give expression to the traditional values and practices of Native Hawaiians within the state water code. As enacted, these rights centered on: 1. The "Winters Doctrine" — the recognition that water must be made available to fulfill the trust mission of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands;

2. The assurance of water to the traditional family homestead or kuleana for subsistence farming activities; 3. The assurance of traditional gathering rights from the streams; and 4. The assurance of traditional ahupua'a or water-dependent but land-related gathering rights. "With the exception of the Hawaiian Homes trust provision, these elements may be described as the traditional water economy of Hawai'i. "The first acknowledgement, the explicit provision for the Hawaiian Homes Lands and the 'Winters Doctrine' provision in the state water code, is also a statement of the basis for a Native Hawaiian water rights section. In a fundamental

way the assurance of water to meet the mandate of the Hawaiian Homes program to provide homesteading, ranching, and pasture opportunities to the native people, is a recognition of the deep ruptures between the traditional and the modern world. "The Hawaiian Homes trust was established through an act of Congress in 1921. Such special legislation for native peoples is allowed by Article III of the Federal Constitution and its provision for the treaty-making powers of Congress with Indian tribes.

"Although Native Hawaiians are not Indians, the Federal courts have upheld that "Indian" is a description of unique legal status, not of a particular group of people. There are three basic standards to judge such status. "One, the native people have inhabited an area of what is now the United States since "time immemorial." Hawaiians have lived in Hawai'i for two thousand years — no other group ean elaim mueh more than 200 years. "Two, that the original or indigenous people did not choose to be Americans. Unlike most citizens of the United States who chose to be Americans by immigrating from their homelands to a new country — Native Americans became citizens under the threat or use of force, and continue to live in their homelands within another nation.

"Three, there is the recognition and presumption by the Federal Government that this Ameriean conquest of native peoples has been detrimental and harmful to them. Common to all Native Amenean peoples — whether Indians, Alaskans, or Hawaiians — dismal profiles of disadvantage, poverty, and poor health are characteristic of eaeh group. "From these three points, Congress has enacted special legislation based on a unique native status to both improve the native condition and to recognize certain unique rights. The extension of this national example also empowers the state to constitutionally act on behalf of the Native Hawaiian people and to enact particular laws for our benefit.

"Thus, the need for and the legality of the inelusion of the Native Hawaiian water rights section in the state water code. "Again like many traditional native cultures, the Hawaiian basis of the traditional society — and of water use and management — were rights best understood as a form of religious practice and interaction between divine and human activities. However, in a contemporary reading the tendency is to seek an eeonomie interpretation.

"With caution, then, we ean approach the past and the future of Native Hawaiian water use within an eeonomie model.

"Fundmental to any economy is a provision for basic human needs — food and shelter being paramount. Essential to any understanding of the Hawaiian economy was the imperative of self-suffi-ciency. There was no import of food and no transport of building materials. All the essentials of life had to be sustained and regulated, without any recourse to an outside supply of resources. "When we say self-sufficiency today, we typically think of a static, non-aspiring society. That flat existence was not the Hawaiian experience. "Huge agricultural fields watered by intricate irrigation systems, fish pond construction, an increasingly complex poliheal organization, and major public works projects associated with a large ali'i and kahuna class highlight a civilization limited only by a laek of metal tools. "T'ne assertion of these rights today, however, is sometimes mistakenly understood as cultural remnants or strained public accomodation to anative people.

"I believe it would be far more accurate to recognize that because of unique Native Hawaiian rights, the public interest in water may beassured. Similar to the fights over traditional access to the sea, Native Hawaiians may have the strongest case for raising the issue and for seeking accomodation — but onee recognized, such access is enjoyed by all. "Native Hawaiian water rights — onee implemented within the overall structure of water regulation — then, will be a major factor in: • Establishing minimal in-stream flow standards whieh guarantee the continuation of the 'o'opu, the hihiwai, and all aquatic life; • Safeguarding watershed and conservation land areas by assuring the growth of the ti and pili grass; and • Onee in plaee, such standards will further protect native habitats and the plants and animals whieh depend for their lives on a particular ecosystem and water use.

"As ean be quickly seen from the beneficial nature and thrust of Hawaiian rights, the native eeonomy — if that is how we wish to describe its values and practices — places the greatest emphasis on those things whieh are beyond price. Beauty, a respect for all life, a view of water itself as a life force. "For too long, such cor.siderations were considered economically inefficient. Increasingly, though, as native rights are recognized — the wrongs committed in the name of efficiency are also being corrected."

Traditional Hawaiian farming in times past depended on assured access to water, as it aiso does today.