Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 3, 1 April 2002 — Risky business [ARTICLE]

Risky business

The ongoing Barrett-Carroll suit and the recent suit filed by H. William Burgess et al challenging the constitutionality of OHA and the Hawaiian Homes Act of 1921 bodes ill for our Hawaiian people and prompts this response. The Akaka Bill is the only meehanism being proposed today that ean stop the legal challenges in progress that threaten the very existence of the Hawaiian Homes program, OHA, and Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiian-only entrance policies. The Barrett-Carroll suit is now being appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court and could follow the same path to the U.S. Supreme Court, exactly as the Rice case did. The challenge to Kamehameha is frightening, indeed. Should we lose these programs, we will lose everything, ceded lands notwithstanding. The refusal by the World Court of Arbitration at the Hague to mediate the case presented by Keanu Sai means that the only world body that

could become involved in this dispute would be the United Nations. Many of us are not ready to risk the future of the Hawaiian people based upon a U.N. decision, whieh, in view of rapidly changing world dynamics, may never eome. All that the Akaka Bill does in its present form is to momentarily stop all legal actions against our Hawaiian assets while we pursue any and all potential avenues. Should the legal challenges to our Hawaiian programs proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and should that court rule subject to the 14th and 1 5 th Amendments of the U,S, Constitution, Hawaiians could suffer irreparable defeats. My question is: Are we prepared to run that risk? Rod Ferreira Kamuela , Hawai'i