Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 7, 1 July 1994 — Not all Hawaiians support occupation, resettlement deal [ARTICLE]

Not all Hawaiians support occupation, resettlement deal

While the 'Ohana Council's occupation of Makapu'u and the subsequent resolution of the crisis has received support from groups and individuals throughout the Hawaiian community, there has a!so been signiftcant opposition. Joseph Sang, president of thc Waimānalō Homesteaders Association, led a visible crusade against the occupiers as the crisis drew to a head. "We were not opposed to what they were trying to do," he said in an interview with Ka Wai Ola, "but they were breaking the law." Sang also said it was his and other homesteaders' responsibility to protect Hawaiian homelands and that is why they opposed the group. Ka Lāhui. the largest and most established of the sovereignty groups, had stronger words. "We support the oeeupaiion," says Paul Neves, Ka Lāhui lieuienanl governor. "but we don't support making deals with ihe state." Neves says Kanahele is being hypocritical using the apology resolution to argue the state is illegal then turning around and working out a Iand agreement with that same illegal entity. "Those guys were bought. ... We should be making no eommitments to the state. lf we do we'll just l'all into the samc lrap we've

been falling into for the past 100 years." OHA administrator Dante Carpenter believes the agreement has set a dangerous precedent. "What happens if a hundred sovereignty groups decide to take a similar stand? The agreement will encourage rather than discourage these organizations or even individuals that are yet to be organized to do this." Neves says negotiations should not be over 69-acre parcels of land but over a eomprehensive plan to address the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty. Complaints were also registered by average citizens, many of them Hawaiians. According to a letter from Department of Land and Natural Resources chairman Keith Ahue to 'Ohana Council Ieader Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, the department had "received numerous complaints about oeeupants at Makapu'u prohibiting public access to the beach, confiscaling fish, and intimidating people." A woman, who refused to be idcntified, called Ihe Office of Hawaiian Affairs eomplaining that her husband, a Hawaiian, had been fishing at the park when a group of the Makapu'u occupants took his catch. The fish thieves - who identified themselves as members of the 'Ohana Council - claimed that they owned Ihe land (Makapu'u), all the surrounding water, and all the fish in that watcr.