Akaka bill for fake Hawaiians?


Maui Loa, who identifies himself as "Chief, Hou Band of Native Hawaiians of the Blood of Hawai'i," has a long letter in the Advertiser against the Akaka bill coming from, well, an interesting perspective. Toward the end, "the Akaka bill is one of the most outrageous political con games ever — with newly minted fake Native Hawaiians serving as dumb shills to leverage increased government funds for yet more deadhead bureaucrats."

Although the letter doesn't say this explicitly, Maui Loa was quoted in an earlier Advertiser article as presenting written testimony against the bill to the Indian Affairs committee hearing with the position that "native Hawaiians of the Blood" are those of 50 percent blood quantum, and that federal recognition should serve only them. Most Hawaiians I know reject the idea of blood quantum as a divisive tactic created by the federal government with the creation of the Hawaiian Homesteads that was designed to dilute the population eligible for homelands over time, while endless delays prevented the land from being settled.

But with this, we have three distinct positions against the Akaka bill, to summarize and probably oversimplify: 1) Those who oppose any political classification or benefits for Native Hawaiians, 2) those who believe it seeks to subvert Hawaiian national rights and internalize an international issue that is based on the nationality of a country, and 3) those who feel that it should serve only 50% blood quantum Hawaiians.


Posted: Fri - March 11, 2005 at 12:11 PM    
   
 
Categories
XML/RSS Feed
Search
World Court Case DVD
Larsen Case on DVD
Larsen DVD
Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom at the
Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Hague, 2001
DVD Mini-Documentary & Booklet
Order your copy
FREE HAWAII STICKERS
Free Hawaii
Over at the Free Hawaii blog, Koani Foundation is giving away "Free Hawaii" stickers and pins, and will post photos of them displayed in interesting places. Spread them far and wide!
HAWAII DOCUMENTS
HAWAII LINKS
HAWAII BLOGROLL
HAWAII FORUMS
HAWAII PODCASTING
PROGRESSIVE BLOGROLL
TV Worth Watching
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report
NOW with David Brancaccio
Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry
Real Time with Bill Maher
Washington Journal on C-Span
PBN Friday with Howard Dicus
Portfolio
Archives
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Browse archives by date
CURRENT IMAGE
Support Organ Donation
DONATE LIFE
Comments powered by
Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com
TECHNORATI
SUPPORT THIS BLOG
If you find this weblog valuable, please consider making a secure donation via PayPal to support its ongoing maintenance:

Mahalo!
Or contact me about sponsoring this blog in exchange for space in the Sponsored Links area above.
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:12 PM
Powered by
iBlog


©