A historic opportunity: The tag is hung too easily on too many enterprises, public and private. But there’s now a sovereignty process the federal government has newly approved for Native Hawaiians, and in that case, the phrase truly fits.
Since 2000, elected representatives in Washington, D.C., have pressed for a way to give the indigenous population of this state the same “nation within a nation” status accorded to other native groups in the U.S. The legislative route was followed — and blockaded — in multiple tries on Capitol Hill.
Now the U.S. Department of the Interior has inked the final administrative rule, or “pathway,” that would allow some future Native Hawaiian government to gain federal recognition. For those who want to see Native Hawaiians practice self-determination more fully than they’ve done in a century, this is a positive step.
The role of the federal government in this process has been a fault line, and the fractures opening across the Hawaiian community have been deep. Advocates for the status quo — simply remaining an ethnic group with American citizenship — occupy one quadrant.
But most of the debate has pitted advocates of federal recognition against those who believe restoration of the Hawaiian nation, overthrown in 1893, is the only route to justice. The public hearings over the new rule drew fiery protest two years ago from pro-independence sovereignty groups.
The holdouts for independence argue that federal recognition forecloses other prospects. There’s no reason that should be the case.
Developing a unified Hawaiian entity that can represent the people’s interests is a worthy goal — and an empowering one, at that. Opponents are overlooking the benefit of a clarified relationship between Hawaiians and the U.S. federal government.
It’s a trust relationship that has continued for a century beyond annexation, through Hawaiian homesteading and some 150 other programs and laws.
But it’s been mediated by state agencies such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The state of Hawaii should be working uniquely in the interest of all residents, leaving Native Hawaiian federal entitlements to be a matter between Native Hawaiians and the federal government.
Finally, the federal government has the indisputable right to set out some standards for any government that it would recognize. That’s essentially what the rule establishes.
It’s silent about the nature of the government that approaches Washington for recognition. There are reasonable thresholds for participation in the establishment of a native government, to ensure that the government has a legitimate basis to speak for the population.
But it’s less prescriptive about the process of constituting the government than the legislative proposals — those best known as the Akaka Bill, named for their sponsor, former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka.
What happens now is left, correctly, up to the Native Hawaiians. They can opt in by forming a government to be recognized.
The first step would be to ratify organic documents for that government. At least one version of such a constitution, drafted in an ‘aha (constitutional convention) earlier this year, could be the focus of a ratification drive.
Legal challenges to that ‘aha arose. They alleged, among other things, that the convention’s links to OHA, a state agency, violated the U.S. Constitution.
And that underscores the importance of keeping any ratification vote a completely private undertaking. The funds should come in the form of donations from individuals or nongovernmental groups to keep the process above board.
Many in the Hawaiian community are justifiably in a celebratory mood: The long and rocky history of the Hawaiian people can begin a new chapter.
Now it’s up to the people to seize the opportunity. That is the essence of self-determination.
