Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 9, 1 September 1991 — Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi challenges OHA in quest for Hawaiian sovereignty [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi challenges OHA in quest for Hawaiian sovereignty

The Emergence of Ka Lahui One of the most important political developments within the Hawaiian community in the late 1980s was the emergence of a grassroots group called Ka Lahui Hawai'i, a group that directly challenged the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. On Marrh 16 1QR7 thp On\;prnmpnt nf

Ka Lahui Hawai'i, "the nation of Hawai'i," was officially organized and announced in a press release received several days later by major media in the state of Hawai'i. The chosen ali'i nui was high chiefess Kalokuoka-

maile II (Helena K. Salazar-Machado), and the Kia 'Aina, or governor, was Mililani' Trask of O'ahu. The beginnings and evolution of Ka Lahui ean be traced all the way back to the same 1978 State Constitutional Convention whieh created OHA. At that time, Trask, a well-known and well-spoken lawyer, was a staff attorney on Auntie Frenchy DeSoto's Hawaiian Affairs Committee. During the early days of the ConCon, DeSoto's committee had been looking at the establishment of a system of private, localized, native Hawaiian corporations organized around various ahupua'a, pieces of ceded land throughout Hawai'i. Called Ho'ala Kanawai (awakening of the law), the concept was modeled loosely on the Alaskan native village corporations, and was embodied in two-year-old legislation known as Bill 1469. The bill had been heard throughout the Hawaian community and had been favorably received, although it had not been enacted. Trask poured her heart and soul into legal research to buttress the Ho'ala Kanawai concept and refine it for adoption by the convention and ratification by Hawaii's voters. But two weeks into the session, a closed-door meeting was suddenly called, attended by several of the convention's mainstream power-brokers. Four hours later, Trask was told that the Ho'ala Kanawai plan had been scrapped. According to Trask, "The big boys were concerned that lands, assets, and revenues would go under native control, and that the state would lose control, so they shut Ho'ala Kanawai down." Trask was told to go back to the drawing board and draft language for a new state agency to be called the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Trask believed OHA would become a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "I could not put my talents to work creating such an agency," Trask says, "because I had worked with native Indians on the mainland, and I knew that the BIA had, in fact, never been truthful to its fiduciary responsibilities to native Indians. I could not support that format. I said 'nope' and lef the committee." Since then, Mililani Trask has been OHA's most frequent and persuasive critic, even though she returned to work at OHA for a brief period in 1987. Her central argument against the agency is that OHA ean never escape from its state-sponsored dependence nor will it be able to transform itself into — or lead the way to — a sovereign Hawaiian nation. "Of course now OHA is talking about

sovereignty, but what they're practicing is wardship for the state. Wardship is not sovereignty. A 'quasi-sovereign' state agency is not a sovereign nation state. It simply is not." Over the years the thinking of Trask and other members of a group called the Native Hawaiian Land Trust Task Force has evolved from the Ho'ala Kanawai concept to the grassroots, independent "nation" called Ka Lahui. Having spent four years setting up its constitution, its government and a roster of 8,100 voting citizens, according to Trask, Ka Lahui now hopes it will someday be in a position to enter into direct negotiation with the federal government for settlement of outstanding grievances against the United States, grievances stemming from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. Subsequent to negotiation regarding its land base and sovereign status, Ka Lahui's plan is to become Hawaii's first federally recognized "nation within a nation" with voting citizenship open to Hawaiians. Largely because of Trask's eloquence and legal swordsmanship, Ka Lahui has become the most influential among a number of competing Hawaiian sovereignty groups. According to OHA Trustee Frenchy DeSoto, who has had some run-ins with the group, "Ka Lahui has been very effective at keeping on top of issues, more so than we have. They're very good at communicating their position to their constituency. "I think that Ka Lahui was a response to a need in our community," DeSoto says. "Most Hawaiians aren't trusting of government. If OHA is perceived to be a part of government, then you can't trust it, and a lot of people think that way. Ka Lahui, taking advantage of that, could be a very effective political party." "I was hoping Ka Lahui and OHA could get together," says progressive, outspoken OHA Big Island Trustee Moanikeala Akaka, who helped to found Ka Lahui while serving as an OHA trustee in 1987 (along with fellow trustees Louis Hao and Clarence Ching). "I was thinking of a left-hand/right hand approach," Akaka says, "the grassroots brought together with OHA's resources to educate our people about sovereignty. But there I was, in the middle, with Ka Lahui banging on OHA and OHA banging on Ka Lahui. It's too bad, the divisiveness thathas gone on." Finally, as the anti-OHA position within Ka Lahui reached its highwater mark in 1989, Akaka was asked by her Ka Lahui island caucus to step down as their delegate. Trustee Tommy Kaulukukui, who has been on the OHA Board of Trustees since its inception, admits Ka Lahui's influence when he says that certain groups "are forcing OHA to take a stand on sovereignty." But he insists, somewhat wearily, that OHA's development has been more independent — and democratic — than its detractors will admit. "We're only accountable to the Hawaiian people. You elected me. The governor cannot fire me. This is a form of sovereignty. We're working to get more, asking the people what kind they want. We're trying to go one step at a time."

Miliiani Trask

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