Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 8, 1 August 1999 — We are one people [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

We are one people

WHEN CONGRESS passed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act back in 1921, giving homestead rights to those of us who could prove we have the infamous 50 percent blood quantum, we became the only people ever defined as a people by the United States government. As a homesteader, I have to admit I have benefitted from the Act. But under this law, in plaee for the better part of a century, most Hawaiians really haven't gotten mueh. Worse yet, its arbitrary cutoff has worked to divide us into two "classes" when we really are one people. This was wrong back in 1921, and it's wrong now. According to recent research conducted by OHA involving a survey of 4,000 Hawai'i residents, to be made pubhc shortly, a majority of Hawaiians favor lowering the quantum to no more than 12.5 percent and many of those would like to see it reduced to any drop of Hawaiian blood. That sentiment crosses through both "sets" of Hawaiians, those above and those below the 50 percent cutoff. This news should eome as no surprise. Historically, we have intermarried without discrimination; we have welcomed children of mixed parentage; and, as Lawrence Fuchs pointed out in his 1961 social history Hawai'i Pono 'ī, the overwhelming majority of those children have "identified primarily with their Hawaiian heritage." Why then do some of us accept the 50 percent formula? Because it designates a special class of Hawaiians? Of my 12 grandchildren, only eight would quahfy as Native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, but I love all 12 of them the same. To me, all of them are special. We need to embrace the reahty we have become, and new legislation now winding its way through Congress has given us the opportunity. The Native Hawahan Housing Bill, S225, is a measure that would give Hawanans $40 milhon in housing funds annually over the next five years. As originally drafted, the bill limited these benefits to Department of Hawaiian Home Lands lessees. For an idea of how unfairly this would treat us, consider the Maunalaha community, many of whose residents meet the blood quantum requirement imposed by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and many of whom are poor. Because,

through an accident of history, they received their lots through the Department of Land and Natural Resources and are not therefore DHHL lessees, they would have been inehgible for this federal assistance. And no matter how poor they are, Hawaiians who can't meet the current blood quantum requirement would have no hope of accessing these funds. In a historic step toward meeting the desperate needs of impoverished Hawauans, OHA and DHHL's staff

have crafted amendments whieh would ahow this funding to reach more Hawahans. The substance of these proposed amendments expands the beneficiary class to include all Hawaiians residing on 5(f) trust lands. Many of you aheady know the Hawaiian Homes Commissioners have accepted these amendments and the OHA Governmental Affairs and Sovereignty Committee has also voted to support them. Like the board, a majority of the committee members are Native Hawaiians as defined by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and several of us are ho:nesteaders. But in supporting these amendments, we tried to act not out of self interest but in the interest of all Hawaiians. We approached this bill in the spirit of being fah to everyone rather than being unfah to anyone. It's too soon to say whether Congress will pass S225 as amended, but OHA is working toward that goal. Through such efforts, I hope we put to rest the divisive notion of two "classes" and that we will eventually emerge as one people and one Hawaiian nation. ■

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