The U.S. Department of Interior begins public hearings on Monday that could fast-track a limited form of Native Hawaiian sovereignty that has been sought by some activists for decades and opposed by others for just as long. The Akaka Bill would have conferred similar nation-within-a-nation status via Congress but was doomed year after year by Republican opposition in the U.S. Senate.
This administrative option for what is known as federal recognition demands some consensus within the Native Hawaiian community to move forward, but is far less likely to collapse under the weight of political opposition from outside the state.
The upcoming hearings, to be held on all the major Hawaiian islands, are vitally important to all the people of this state. Supporters and opponents alike, of all cultures, races and ethnicities, should observe and participate. Rather than competing with or distracting from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ separate plan to facilitate a Native Hawaiian convention to forge a sovereign governing entity, the DOI hearings are a complement. This milestone marks a laudable attempt by the federal government to gather first-hand information, primarily from Native Hawaiians, about whether and how the Department of the Interior should take administrative action to re-establish a government-to-government relationship between the U.S. and the Native Hawaiian community.
Likewise, this federal outreach alone does nothing to usurp an independence movement that seems to be gathering steam, led by University of Hawaii professors and others devoted to the study of international law.
In the eyes of Hawaiian nationalists, the islands have been illegally occupied by the United States since the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani. Federal recognition is anathema to them, as toxic as the idea of Hawaii seceding from the union is to the federal government (and, we’re confident, to most Hawaii residents). Simply participating in these hearings neither co-opts these oppo- nents nor undermines their ultimate goal; we need all voices at the table.
Federal recognition for Native Hawaiians, akin to that enjoyed by Alaska Natives and American Indian tribes, also is fiercely opposed by some non-Hawaiians who believe it will rend the aloha spirit by installing a divisive, race-based government built on revisionist history. We do not share their fears.
There is no undoing the past, it’s true. It is the United States’ acknowledgment of the overthrow and its legacy that underpin our support for Native Hawaiians gaining federal recognition through this administrative process, just as we supported the Akaka Bill before it.
Native Hawaiians already enjoy a special political and trust relationship with the U.S. government, as evidenced by the numerous statutes and programs funding health, education, housing and other services primarily for Native Hawaiians. What most of these programs lack, however, is permanence, as well as the higher per-capita funding levels enjoyed by federally recognized groups in Alaska and the continental U.S. Lacking federal recognition, Native Hawaiians suffer second-class treatment among America’s indigenous groups.
The hearings, which will be held in the islands through July 8 and then move to Indian County for further consultation with the tribes who have a keen interest in the outcome, focus on five "threshold questions" centered not on who would be included in the native government or how it would be run, but on whether Native Hawaiians even want to pursue this option. If that is answered affirmatively, the discussion turns to whether the Interior Department should help Native Hawaiians organize a governing entity, or whether they should do that on their own, in concert with the state government.
The Obama administration’s outreach, offered amid the Hawaii-born president’s final term, offers the most concrete opportunity in years to advance Native Hawaiian sovereignty.
We welcome this process, and hope that Native Hawaiians will accept the Interior Department’s help to galvanize a noble effort toward self-determination that has bogged down too many times before.
