Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 3, 1 March 1989 — On Sovereignty [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

On Sovereignty

by Clarence F.T. Ching Trustee, O'ahu

Since Hawai'i was "discovered" by westerners some 200 years ago, Hawai'i and Hawaiians have suffered many black days. Those were black days indeed when we were ravished by the diseases of the outside world brought to us by the haole. Depending on what source one uses, our

population plummeted from close to 400,000 to 40,000. An AlohaStadium filled with 40,000 persons would have been reduced to 4,000. For every 10 persons, only one was left. Our black days continued when our beloved Queen Lili'uokalani was illegally stripped of her throne. Many of our kupuna hid themselves in their homes and shut themselves off from the world outside as they suffered from the loss of our sovereignty and our lands. This occurred lessthan a hundred years ago — a very short time in the history of man. Those days when we shut ourselves from the outside world are no more. We may still have a few dark days now and then, but we don't hide behind our c!osed shutters anymore. OHA was organized to be the state agency to advocate for and take care of the affairs of the Hawaiian people. It was, among other things, set up to be the repository for federal reparations. What then is the role that OHA may play, will play, in the current eall for "sovereignty?" Some of OHA's beneficiaries get very upset because OHA is unable to meet their expectations in solving all of their immediate problems. However, we must realize that there is no way that OHA ean solve every problem for all Hawaiians. OHA does not have the necessary resources. lt is difficult to compare OHA's annual budget of about $2.5 million to the $18 million given to Hawaiian Homes in 1988 just for infrastructure, or better yet, to the nearly $1 billion ($1,000 million) budget of the State Department of Education. Although OHA is not a perfect organization, it has qualities and powers that make it a most important entity in the spectrum of things Hawaiian. Charles F. Wilkinson, professor of law at the University of Colorado, at last summer's sovereignty workshop, noted there are three kinds of sovereignty in the U.S. — federal, state and native governments. Then he mentioned the three elements necessary to achieve some kind of sovereignty. Those elements are: 1. recognition of that sovereignty by the federal and state governments; 2. structure; and 3. land base. The question is: Could OHA fit Professor Wilkinson's model of a sovereign entity? Recognition OHA was organized to be that sovereign entity. According to Trustee A. Frenchy DeSoto, the "mother" of OHA, OHA was designed to be a kind of "nation within a nation." To be recognized as the sovereign entity, OHA would have to petition the federal government for a charter recognizing it as that sovereign entity. OHA could also enter into a compact with the U.S. Many argue that OHA cannot be the sovereign entity because it is a state agency whieh ean be wiped out by a simple amendment of the State Constitution. Let's face it, OHA is not a regular state agency. It is a hybrid, and there is always the possibility that a further hybridized OHA could gain federal recognition.

After OHA got all that it is entitled to from the state, why wouldn't the state be willing to turn OH A loose? The principal reason for OHA's ties to the state at this time is because OHA needs the ineome from the state ceded lands trust in order to operate. lt also needed to get its start somewhere. Whatever the reason, OHA started out as a state agency. But it doesn't have to remain a state agency forever. OHA exercised its sovereignty or selfdetermination when it carried out its referendum last November (even though Hawai'i state law does not allow it), and OHA's beneficiaries expressed their personal self-determination by deciding that the Single Definition was what we wanted. Structure OHA already has a structure. It would be simple to restructure OHA into a sovereign governmental entity. OHA has an eleehon process. We as a people now elect trustees. We could easily elect other office-holders of the sovereign governmental entity. The relationship of the "new OHA" with the federal government would have to be worked out. Hawaiians would approve their preferred form of sovereignty by vote. OHA, with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, has appropriated moneys for a study to define the rights of native Hawaiians to open oeean and bottom fish in the Northwestern Hawaiian islands. Federal recognition of those rights is astep towards federal recognition of Hawaiian sovereignty. Recognition by the State of its breaches in the ongoing negotiations for a ceded lands entitlements settlement and the recent Right to Sue law gets OHA closer to a kind of state recognition of Hawaiian sovereignty. Recognition of OHA by our congressional delegation as the representative of the Hawaiian people and a conduit for federal moneys may be likened to a recognition of OHA as the future sovereign entity. Land Base OHA is in the process of acquiring a land base. OHA acquired its first pieee of land in December 1988 when Pahua Heiau in Hawai'i Kai was transferred to OHA by the Bishop Estate. The Kuleana Escheat Law is bringing to OHA lands that were formerly lost to non-Hawaiians. Repositories for the bones of na kupuna will eome under the control of OHA either by outright deed or by historical easements. That OHA fulfills becoming the elements of the sovereignty model and is on its way to become that entity cannot be denied. Although OHA is a "young" organization, it is taking the important steps that may result in its being acknowledged as the sovereign entity by the majority of Hawaiian people and of the federal and state governments. There are those, however, who have,an agenda of their own. Their strategy is to eall for "sovereignty" first so that they will be in line for the expected "reparations." They are using every ounee of pressure they ean muster to keep Congress from addressing a bill to provide reparations for Hawaiians at this time. They are demanding to see a draft of a proposed reparations bill that has not yet been finalized. They are calling for public meetings on a proposed bill that is nonexistent in final form. They are accusing OHA's Chair and Vice-Chair of taking a phantom reparations bill to Washington. Their calls may be premature. In a letter to OHA Chair Thomas Kaulukukui dated January 30, 1989, and signed by Kekuni

Blaisdell, Acting Interim Director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and representing 10 "Native Hawaiian" organizations, they say: "At the federal level, any reparations and return of Hawaiian Lands are owed to the Hawaiian people as a sovereign nation, and not to OHA as a State of Hawai'i agency. Therefore, any proposals for reparations and return of Hawaiian lands must not in any way curtail our sovereignty." The Hawaiian majority that OHA represents will see through the smokescreen of OHA's critics whose strategies include: 1) bombarding OHA with misrepresentations and unfair criticism and "muddying the water" to switch consensus to them; 2) insinuating wrongly that OHA will forever be a state agency as it noiu is and that OH A cannot ever be transformed into the future sovereign entity; 3) applying pressure on Hawaii's congressional delegation for non-recognition of OHA as the repository for reparations whieh is spelled out by state law and as acknowledged by the majority of Hawaiian beneficiaries; and 4) attempting to position themselves to intercept the resources that are intended to go to OHA and the Hawaiian people as contemplated by state law. Flease stay tuned. There are thoseskeptics who believe that the high level of interest in sovereignty by groups outside OHA would not be taking plaee at this time were it not for the promise of millions of reparations dollars. Note: The 10 "Native Hawaiian" organizations include: Pro-Hawaiian Sovereignty Working Group, Ka Lahui Hawai'i, Na Maka O Ka 'Aina, United Hawai'i Aloha, Council of Hawaiian Organizations (COHO), Na 'Oiwi O Hawai'i, Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana, 'Uhane Noa Foundation, E Haumana Aloha 'Aina and UH Center for Hawaiian Studies.