Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 1991 — Hawaiian Homes article thought provoking [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Homes article thought provoking

by Louis Hao Trustee, Moloka'i

Aloha Mai, I read with great interest an article, dated Sept. 9, by Susan C. Faludi, a staff reporter with the Wall Street Journal, regarding the Hawaiian Homns Programs. Thc article thorough-

ly describes the misuse ot the Hawanan Homes program, where the businessmen and the politicians have ripped off the Hawaiian people from day one of the program. Prince Kuhio may have meant well with his plan to save the Hawaiian people from the urban slums of Honolulu. But the passage of the program in Congress was clearly directed by the sugar and pineapple busincss interests, along with politicians in Congress, to get rid of the general homesteading program. In exchange, they agreed to allot about 200,000 acres to the Native Hawaiian for homesteading purposes. The worst or "fourth class" lands were approved for the Hawaiians. The most productive and best lands were made available for pineapple and sugar purposes. Although the beginning of the program started under false pretense, what actually followed in the next 70 years since it's inception was even worse. The article clearly brings to life a list of misdeeds supposedly intended to rehabilitate the Hawaiian people. The following is a list of concerns worth reviewing at this time: A. The U.S. Congress created the program but fails to have its own agency, the U.S. Department of Interior, provide administrative support and

adequate funding for a successful program. B. The State of Hawaii has provided minimal attention and inadequate funding for the implementation of the Homestead program. C. The use of Hawaiian Homestead lands by developers and business peonle has only provided them with favorable lease-rental rates. D. A waiting list for some Hawaiians actually exceeded 40 years. E. A DHHL department manager, who worked for the agency for 30 years, claims that a former Director of the Hawaiian Homes Department kept a separate folder to exercise special handling of the waiting list. The article, "Broken Fromise," reminds us all of the struggles of our Hawaiian people beginning with the 1893 illegal overthrow of our small but unique Hawaiian Nation; the decnptive implementation of the Hawaiian Homes programs in 1921; statehood for Hawai'i in 1959; and finally the 1978 Constitutional Convention that created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). The article is disheartening, but to me it also provides us with a framework from whieh to take corrective measures to improve the Hawaiian Homes program. In spite of the article, Hoaliku Drake and the Hawaiian Homes Commissioners should also be congratulated for their efforts to correct and bring forth changes to improve the Hawaian Homestead program. The article clearly identifies the negative aspects of the total situation, but fails to point out potential and favorable alternatives. "The uku comb has found a lot of ukus, but what we really need is not the uku comb, but perhaps kerosene." Mahalo