Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 2008 — A milestone in OHA's history [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A milestone in OHA's history

Bnyd P. Mūssman TrustEE, Maui

Aloha kākou, Five years ago I was introduced to ceded lands when asked by our Chairperson, Haunani Apoliona, to head an ad hoe committee to provide a report and give the Board direction as to how OHA could resolve the issue of ceded lands past due payments, whieh had been discontinued by the Cayetano administration. Almost immediately, the new Lingle administration arranged with OHA to reinstitute payments starting with $9 million per year in 2003. Later, after numerous meetings with OHA and legislative approval, that amount was increased

in 2007 to $15.1 million per year for current revenues. The issue regarding the past revenue payments took all of four years and hundreds of hours of work by the Attorney General and Governor's staff and the eonunihee created by OHA. The resulting product is now before the Legislature, whieh will hopefully concur with OHA and the State Administration that this is a fair and just resolution to the past due payments from ceded lands revenues. The Board has been kept apprised by the committee throughout and has voted on important issues as the years and months passed by. To finally reach agreement with the State and to present to the Legislature a means to pay off what has been long overdue, is indeed a milestone in the history of OHA as well as a solid foundation for the future of Native Hawaiians. Since some of you may still be eon-

fused as to what ceded lands are or mean to our people, this edition of Ka Wai Ola contains a full page of information for your perusal. In short, the former government and crown lands onee meant for the Hawaiian governing entity, were transferred from the Republic to the United States after the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian nation by the culprits whose descendants today continue to make life miserable for Hawaiians in the courts and in Congress. The remaining ceded lands were again transferred in 1959 to the State with the Admission Act, whieh provided for use of a portion of the revenues from those lands for Native Hawaiians. In 1980, with the creation of OHA, enforcement of that provision was initiated and eventually Governor Waihe'e approved payments to OHA only to be followed by Governor Cayetano, who decided to discontinue payments. Governor Lingle then reinstated payments and now the people of Hawai'i have the opportunity to settle a long unresolved debt rationally, reasonably and fairly for the benefit of all. The agreement reached with the State

and hopefully to be confirmed by the Legislature will finally extinguish OHA's claims to past due ceded lands payments and will allow the people and not the courts to make this decision. I wish to express my appreciation to Trustees Apoliona, Carpenter and Stender along with our attorneys, Bill Meheula and Robert Klein, and OHA staff headed by Clyde Nāmu'o for their work on the OHA committee and Trustees Akana and Waihe'e as well as my prior aide Kalei Rapoza for their advice to the ad hoe committee in 2003. This has been a united effort on the part of the Board and should demonstrate that mueh ean be done by Hawaiians when they put aside their personal agendas and work for a just cause. Ceded lands have always been of eoneem to OHA and the efforts of prior Trustees are to be commended also. As we continue to build a legal foundation to preserve our people and fulfill our mission, we trust that all Hawaiians will understand that we need to work together, with the greater good in mind, and that OHA is doing its best to provide for the betterment of us all. □