Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 1990 — Committee finds Homestead Act breached [ARTICLE]

Committee finds Homestead Act breached

By Deborah L. Ward Editor, Ka Wai Ola O OHA The federal government has not met its trust obligation to Native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. That conclusion was reached by the Hawai'i Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civi! Rights at the end of its fact-finding meeting in Honolulu on Aug. 2. The committee will report its findings to the United States Commission on Civil Rights whieh is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding agency first established by Congress in 1957 and re-esta-blished in 1983. The Hawai'i Advisory Committee, chaired by Andre S. Tatibouet, is one of 51 eommittees appointed nationwide by the Civil Rights Commission. Charles Maxwell, vice-chair of the Hawai'i Advisory Committee and chair of its Hawaiian Affairs Sub-committee, said the committee feels the federal government has breached the Hawaiian Homes Act. Maxwell said a previous advisory committee report found that 16 state and federal executive orders involving homestead land were illegal. Later, 14 orders were revoked, but twoo^ders,affecting Kaho'olawe island and Lualualei firing range, were retained for reasons of national security.

The recent testimony plus transcripts of a 1988 forum will be in a report the committee presents to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights within the next eight months. The findings may serve as a basis for Congressional action to resolve Hawaiian Homes Act problems. Testimony was presented by state officials and legislators involved in Native Hawaiian home lands affairs, legal and advocacy organizations, representatives of the U.S. Departments of Interior and Justice and individuals. OHA Trustee Rod Burgess testified that while "dramatic affirmative action" has been made by the state in restoring and reaffirming the trust of DHHL, "little or no progress has been made at the national level." He called for a federal "right to sue" with retroactive applieahon to 1921; abrogation of all illegal set-asides of homestead land and their return to the trust; inclusion of Native Hawaiians in all federal programs; and funding for other native groups for housing, water development and rural electrification programs. "It is time to honor the Hawaiian people and a trust relationship by upholding rather than avoiding responsibility" Burgess said. Hoaliku Drake, director of the State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said the federal government has not fuifilled its responsibility to assist DHHL to build homes and get qualified Native Hawaiians back on the land. A fair ex-

change of land should be made for the Hawaiian homestead land the military is now using. DHHL is negotiating with the Governor's office and the Office of State Planning to resolve that issue and all land controversies concerning use of DHHL land, she said. Attorney Williamson B. C. Chang noted that those in Congress who opposed annexation of Hawai'i as an immoral takeover of a sovereign nation finally agreed, in a compromise effort, to require preservation of Hawaiian culture and lifestyle so Hawaiians would not be destroyed as a people. Chang said Congress has forgotten its compromise and its promise to Hawaiians. Mililani B. Trask, elected kia'aina of Ka Lahui Hawai'i, recommended the commission do a detailed documentation of breaches of trust by both the state and federal governments. Several others agreed, calling for a federal "right to sue" for Hawaiians as the only way to test the system and seek redress for wrongs. Members of the Hawai'i Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on CivjJ Rights are: vicechair Charles Maxwell, Emmett Cahill, Barry Shain, Faith Kennedy, June Puzon, A. Lardizabal, Carmen Panui, Helen Nagtalon-Miller, M. Saunders, Anthony Vericella and Oswald Stender. Staff to the committee is John Foster Dulles II. Members receive no compensation for service.