Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 2, 1 February 2000 — OHA board foiwards reconciliation testimony to U.S. Departments of the lnterior, Justice [ARTICLE]

OHA board foiwards reconciliation testimony to U.S. Departments of the lnterior, Justice

By Ryan Mielke

ĪHE OFFICE of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees Jan. 13 formally approved its reconciliation testimony for forwarding to the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Justice. The testimony resulted from hearings on O'ahu Dec. 10 and 11. The 28-page document includes positions that OHA has worked on over the last decade as well as new eoncepts. The vote was 7 to 1, with Trustee Mililani Trask dissenting. OHA Board Chairman Clayton Hee allowed for a full and open discussion on the testimony

package, whieh has since been sent to Washington, D.C. "On behalf of the Native Hawaiian community, OHA thanks the Departments of Justice and the Interior for their attention to Native Hawaiian political status and claims," said Chairman Hee. "This will move forward the recommendations made by OHA. It is a significant and tangible vision for the future and it continues a strategy for the future relationship with the federal government." OHA's testimony reaches See TESTIMONY on page 4

TESTIMONY

From page 1 deep into the historical and contemporary condition of Hawaiians. Covered in the document are culture, land and natural resources, economics, education, heahh, housing, an outline for the future and recommendations. The following are portions of recommendations made by OHA's Board of Trustees to the United States: □ The president and federal agencies should assist in formalizing the polhieal relationship between Native Hawaiians and the United States should view Native Hawaiians as having an equivalent legal and pohūeal status as held by other Native Americans support legislation. □ The president and federal agencies should enforce and implement the existing trust responsibilities of the federal and state governments in relation to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and the ceded lands and its resources held in trust by both governments. □ The president and federal agencies should support legislation to provide a waiver of sovereign immunity and of the relevant statutes of limitation, to permit suits for the retimi of land, and to create a private right of action for money damages in actions brought by OHA or private plaintiffs. □ The federal government should establish a tribunal for Native Hawaiian claims to adjudicate similar to the Waitangi Tribunal established in New Zealand. □ The United States should unconditionally support and facilitate the self-determination process and the convening of a Native Hawaiian convention and appropriate the necessary resources to support the convening of a convention. □ A separate Office of Native Hawaiian Affairs should be established in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

□ At least one attorney and appropriate staff should be assigned full-time to Native Hawaiian issues in the Department of Justice. □ The president should issue an executive order mandating all federal agencies to formalize the politieal status of Native Hawaiians and requiring consultation with Native Hawaiians on issues affecting the Hawaiian community. □ The United States should, in consultation with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, determine the lands and resources that should be returned to the Native Hawaiian people and should eommenee the return. □ The United States, in consultation with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, should immediately eommenee the retum of any federal surplus property that is ceded land to the Native Hawaiian people. □ The United States, in consultation with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, should assess hnaneial payments due to Native Hawaiians for the use of ceded lands by the federal government and provide compensation. □ The secretary of the Department of the Interior should impose a freeze on the sale, exchange or transfer of ceded lands until the claims of the Native Hawaiian people are resolved. □ The United States should assist the Native Hawaiian people in eliminating the blood quantum. □ The United States should implement its trust responsibilities to the Hawaiian people. □ The United States should reaffīrm and protect all rights customarily and traditionally exercised for subsistence, cultural and religious purposes by Native Hawaiians and should permit access for the exercise of these rights on lands within the control of the federal govemment. □ The federal government should reaffirm that the doctrine of Winters \>s. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), applies to Native Hawaiian lands, so that these lands are guaranteed sufficient water to allow them to be utilized for agriculture and eeonomie development. □ The federal government should enforce the trust obligations of the state and federal governments regarding the interests of Native Hawaiians to the submerged lands, all of whieh are ceded lands, and the

attendant offshore waters and the resources therein. OHA's testimony comes on the heels of hundreds of individual and organizational submittals to the United States from throughout the Hawaiian community. As stated by Solicitor General Seth Waxman, and quoted in the conclusion of OHA's testimony, "In the case of Native Hawaiians, OHA itself fumishes a vehicle for the expression of self-determination over important aspects of Hawaiian affairs, and thus confirms that Native Hawaiians constitute a present-day political community." ■

Pepeluali (February) '00