Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 1991 — Hawaiian rights under attack! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian rights under attack!

by Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

If you aren't already, you should be made aware of the fact that our native rights and entitlements as Hawaiians are under attack on the nahonal level. The conservative Bush administration ānd the conservative-

dominated United States Supreme Court threaten what few rights and benefits the Hawaiians now receive; meanwhile, there has still been no acknowledgment by the United States of the theft of our Hawaiian Nation. Remember that President Cleveland, after the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani (according to his personal papers at Princeton University) was "outraged at the injustice that had been done to the Hawaiian Nation and people."These historical facts speak for themselves as established by the findings of the Blount Report commissioned by Cleveland. Unfortunately, however, Benjamin Harrison was then elected president; he favored empire and annexed Hawai'i to the United States. But that does not negate the illegal ouerthrow of the sovereign Hawaiian Nation, Hawai'i Nei. Although there has never been an acknowledgment of guilt by the United States for their dastardly deed, Hawaiians have been receiving some entitlements and preferences in programs because of the historical acts perpetrated by the United States government against the Hawaiian people. There is the Hawaiian Homestead Act, and the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act, Native Hawaiian educational programs, and the Older Americans Act has a Native Hawaiian program. The education act declares that 1) "the federal government retains the legal responsibilities to enforce the administration of the state's public trust responsibility to provide for the betterment of Native Hawaiians" and that 2) "Congress has the power to specially legislate for the betterment of Native Hawaiians." Some months ago in signing a statement on the National Affordable Housing Act, President Bush questioned the right of Hawaiians to receive Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding on DHHL lands. He directed his Justice Department to develop remedial legislation to remove preference for Native Hawaiians in housing programs to serve Hawaiian homelands. Bush stated that this preference for Hawaiians was along racial lines and inconsistent with equal protection guaranteed in the Constitution. This trustee and those who know our history realize this is not the case! The United States has an acknowledged trust obligation to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Act since its inception in the early 1920s; DHHL was not set up for racial purpose as has been asserted by Bush who feels there is no trust obligation. DHHL was set up like reservation lands that American Indians occupy. These lands are an entitlement to native people whose nations were overrun largely by European immigrants who eventually called themselves Americans. The native peoples, North Amenean tribes, Eskimos, and we Hawaiians became dispossessed, disenfranchised, and strangers in our own homelands, having limited rights at best, frequently no rights at all! The issue has nothing to do with race or discrimination as Bush alleges. These preferences

and programs for natives are a matter of status and entitlement for the historic theft of our country and disenfranchisement of our peoples from our cultural, spiritual, and traditional roots. According to a July 11 ietter written by Sen. Daniel Inouye, his Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs has met with HUD and the Justice Department several times since Bush's statement about DHHL and HUD funding. In these subsequent meetings, HUD officials indicated that "if Congress had enacted a law (DHHL Act) or the President had declared federal policy establishing a trust relationship between the United States and Native Hawaiians, there would be no obstacles to spending federal funds exclusively for the benefit of Native Hawaiians." According to Sen. Inouye, "HUD officials have made it clear that the funding that had been appropriated for infrastructure for DHHL lands (whieh Bush questioned) remains intact and will be available for three years and that DHHL will be resubmitting applications for the funding." So it appears that this particular threat to DHHL is set aside for the moment. However, the senator goes on to say, "There are attorneys in the Justice Department who apparently hold the view that the DHHL Act is unconstitutional." So be assured that threats to our rights, status, and entitlements are just beginning, and we must be prepared to fight for what is rightfully ours! Now more than ever we must pull together as a people for the sake of our present and future generations. This threat is not only to DHHL but will permeate and spread into all areas*of Hawaiian entitlement from the nahonal and possibly state level. The Hawaiian people have received a pittance of what is owed to them in resources and lands, while many who have and still eome here from other shores are sitting fat and sassy on our backs. This is happening while our 15,000 Hawaiian families languish on DHHL waiting lists. These include many homeless families forced to live on and some evicted from our own beaches island wide as in Anahola. Presently, the Kaeo and other families from Hana, Maui are being kicked off their ohana 'aina of generations by Japanese investors who have alleged Hawaiian frontmen, attorneys and other officials. The kupuna in Hana recently confronted an official at his home an hour after he was seen carrying ancient bones out of HAMOA. They asked, "Auhea na 'iwi?" (Where are the bones?"). They were told the bones were in a box in the back seat of his car. No one has the right to arbitrarily remove our ancestors' bones, especially not an agent of the foreign resort developer that intends to exploit our 'aina — even if he be Hawaiian. Shame! The new approach of foreign investors is to purchase these Hawaiian frontmen to eliminate the resistance from loeal individuals and the opposition against foreign takeover. The end result is the same, further alienation from our 'aina, more crime, juvenile delinquency, and nonproductive lives. And now we hear that all entitlements we get from Washington, whieh amounts to some desperately needed programs, are under attack. Believe me, I am not trying to be an alarmist, but we must prepare to do battle! We must pull together as Hawaiians and friends of justice for Hawaiians and Hawai'i. The threat to our rights and benefits is just now beginning. We must bring our bodies, sou!s, spirits, and our best minds (of whieh there are many) together! We have the right, moral responsibility, and the pursuit of justice and fairness on our side. We may have to demonstrate at the State Capitol, federal buildings, march through Waikiki, and take it to the streets! We're dealing here with

greed. Greed and an insensititivity to our values and plaee in these islands, our home for a thousands years before there was any United States of America. We are witnessing a disrespect of established lifestyles. We see it in every manifestation of our mother earth's environmental abuse; we see it in the encroachment of longline fishing industries who are anxious to ravage Hawaii's bounteous waters as they have the Texas Gulf, Baja, California, and areas of the North Pacific. Now they eome here to deplete our waters, while the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, through the Magnusson Act, refuses to acknowledge Hawaiian fishing rights and preference here in our own islands. We see it in international capital's ruthless exploitation of land and life from the world's native peoples of whieh we Hawaiians are a proud member. Don't be fooled! Malama Pono. Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina 1 Ka Pono.

Trnstee's Vicws

(This eolumn is open to all OHA Trustees as a vehicle for them to* ' *'*'* '* "-*-"• express their mana'o. Opinions expressed are those of the individual Trustees and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Board of Trustees.)