Hawaiian National movement threatened by Akaka-Stevens Bill

The Haleakala Times May 19 - June 1 edition has an article by Maximilian Imrie:

The Akaka-Stevens Bill – an update on Hawaiian sovereignty

Hawaiian National movement threatened

Native Hawaiians gathered on the steps of Iolani Palace on May 3 in opposition to a bill recently passed by the US Senate that, they say, stifles the growing movement toward an independent Hawaiian nation.

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The Akaka-Stevens Bill promises federal recognition of the Hawaiian people by assuring entitlements to Hawaiian institutions partnered with the state government. Included in this is funding for Hawaiian cultural learning, grants for house building, and compensation for lost lands.

Groups advocating sovereignty see funding of groups like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA), and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) as mere anesthesia for a Hawaiian population battling incarceration, the most severe breast cancer problem in the world, and the dispossession of land.

A letter, signed by Hawaiian national groups and addressed to Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, calls the bill “a vehicle fuelled by the fear that federal pork barrel funds will cease to be disbursed among non-profits and state agencies that for years have enjoyed a privileged position within the Hawaiian political system, because of their dependent relationships with politicians, private trusts, and business interests.”

Hawaiians are being told that they better support the bill or be silent if [they] do not want to lose [their] homelands. The value of the land and its revenue around which this debate circles is in the billions of dollars.

According to Mililani B. Trask, a one-time trustee of the OHA, former Prime Minister of the Native Hawaiian Nation, and current Representative to the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: new sections to the bill “were added to ensure that Hawaiian claims for overthrow and for economic development rights would be lost. All historic claims relating to mismanagement or transfer of land trusts will not be allowed.” Furthermore, the bill places a twenty-year time period on the sovereignty movement after which all nationalist claims will be legally extinguished.

The main push for the bill has come from the OHA, the DHHL, the CNHA, Governor Lingle, and US Senators Dan Akaka and Dan Inouye amid allegations that the lobbying for the bill, including payment for plane tickets, food, and music, was funded in part by money belonging to trusts set up for use by the Hawaiian people. The OHA admits using one million dollars.

Despite protest by Hawaiians, the four-year evolution of the bill has taken place entirely in Washington in invite-only meetings. The invitees were the bill’s advocates and potential beneficiaries.

The bill passed in the Senate on April 30. The House of Representatives’ Resource Committee is scheduled to hear the measure by the end of May.

Posted: Mon - May 24, 2004 at 01:54 PM

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Hawaiian National movement threatened by Akaka-Stevens Bill

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