Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 5, 1 April 2008 — Waiting for o better deal [ARTICLE]

Waiting for o better deal

The state Supreme Court is to be commended for its recent ruling barring ceded land sales by the state of Hawai'i. This court held that "the Apology Resolution and related state legislation (for theft of our Hawaiian nation) give rise to the state's fiduciary responsibility to preserve and protect the puhlie land trust, specifically for ceded lands - until such time as the unrelinquished claims of Native Hawaiians have been resolved." I remember very well in the early '90s when I was the OHA Trustee representing Hawai'i Island, that the state Housing and Connnunity Development Corporation of Hawai'i (HCDCA) told the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that it had plans to build two subdivisions on ceded lands in Kailua-Kona and Maui. In the HCDCA proposal, OHA would receive on behalf of the Hawaiian people 20 percent of the value for the sale of these lands from the state. And I feared that ourprecious ceded land corpus, the remnants of our Hawaiian nation lands, were again being diminished, this time by the state for these two subdivisions, whieh would have made them private property even before we Kanaka Maoli had reached a land settlement with the state. Sure enough, 18 years later, still - no settlement. At an OHA meeting in the early '90s, officials from HCDCA eame before the Trustees and passed around a $5 million eheek to entice us into accepting this proposal to sell our ceded trust lands. I knew it would be a bad precedent, though it was tempting to some Trustees. I had to speak against this sale of our ceded lands, and I thank the gods that my fellow board members

ended up agreeing, despite our attorney at that table, Earl Anzai, encouraging us to accept the state's $5 million offer. Anzai also taunted us Trustees, saying we may never see that offer again. OHA in '94 sought an injunction for those Maui and Kailua-Kona parcels and the alienahon of any other ceded lands from the Puhlie Land Trust. The state ended up giving those parcels to Hawaiian Home Lands. Anzai was later Gov. Ben Cayetano's attorney general when Cayetano reneged on OHA's share of the revenue stream ineome payment from the ceded lands OHA had been receiving. When Linda Lingle heeame governor, she was pono in reinstating OHA's share of the ceded land revenue. The lan. 31 state Supreme Court mhng validates the wisdom of the previous OHA Trustees to reject the $5 million offer for our 'āina. We must remember - 'āina was not a commodity for our Hawaiian nation. Today, another group of OHA Trustees and the Lingle administration are proposing a $200 million package composed of land and $13 million in cash. This settlement stems from the unresolved issues of the inhial settlement of 1990 - Act 304, whieh I helped to negotiate for five years as an OHA Trustee. Those unresolved issues were left over from the Waihe'e administration for the years 1978 to 1990, since OHA eame into being. If you recall, then-state Circuit IudgeDanielHeelyruledin 1996 that those unresolved issues amounted to $1.2 hillion more owed to OHA from ceded land revenues already collected by the state. Heely's ruling was reversed on Sept. 12, 2001. (I find this an interesting coincidence that Chief Justice Ronald Moon announced the reversal of Heely's

opinion on Sept. 12, 2001, while the world was in shock over the 9/11 tragedy. It seems hard to beheve that this date of the announcement of the reversal of Heely's ruling was a coincidence.) Regardless, the question remains how this $200 milhon figure was arrived at. In the late '80s, when we were negohating for Act 304, there was an agreed-upon fonnula between OHA and the state as to how OHA's 20 percent share of the revenues from ceded lands were derived. We used that fonnula for the Waihe'e administration and that is probably how Heely arrived at the $1.2 hilhon figure that he said was owed to OHA. That may have been then; this is now. Now, 18 years later, it baffles me that the value figure owed us Hawahans went from $1.2 hilhon in '96 to $200 mihion in 2008. The Chairperson of OHA, Haunani Apoliona, on Dec. 17 at the State of OHA presentation, where the theme was "One has seen the right thing to do and has done it," stated that we as Hawaiians "should not grumble." I hope that statement was not the prelude and foreboding to this $200 million package now before the state Legislature. I wonder - was Apoliona afraid there was something to grumble about? The value of the unresolved issues from 1978 to 2008 should increase from $1.2 hillion of Heely's ruling instead of being diminished by 80 percent to $200 million proposed by the current OHA Trustees and the Lingle administration, 12 years after Heely's ruling. The state ean pay us off in instalhnents or better yet, with more of our own ceded lands, although I don't feel we should have to exchange for our own ceded lands. We deserve mueh more than

the three parcels proposed by OHA and the Lingle administration. There should also be hearings statewide so that people ean address this proposal that would shortchange our Hawaiian people and nation. These should not be called ceded lands; they should be called "seized" lands. It is interesting that state Attorney General Mark Bennett continues to insist that the state has a right to sell our seized (ceded) lands. Thank goodness for the Supreme Court's wisdom on this issue. Ua mau ke 'ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. Indeed! The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Moanikeala Akaka Hilo, Hawai'i lsland Editor's note: Moanikeala Akaka served as an OHA Trustee from 1984 to 1996.

KA LEO KAIĀULU ■ LETTERS TD THE EDITDR

OHA reserves the right to edit all letters for length, defamatory and libelous material, and other objectionable content, and reserves the right not to print any submission. All letters must be typed, signed and not exceed 200 words. Letters cannot be published unless they include a telephone contact for verification. Send letters to Ka Wai Ola, 71 1 Kapi'olani Blvd., Ste. 500, Honolulu, Hl 96813, or email kwo@oha.org. This month Letters to the Editor offers two letters on both sides ofthe issue ofthe ceded Iands settlement between the Office of Hawaiian Ajfairs and the state administration.