United States federal recognition of Native Hawaiians

Last updated

The Kingdom of Hawaii and Queen Lili`uokalani were overthrown by mostly Americans with the assistance of the United States military on January 17, 1893. Liliuokalani, c. 1891.jpg
The Kingdom of Hawaii and Queen Liliʻuokalani were overthrown by mostly Americans with the assistance of the United States military on January 17, 1893.

Native Hawaiians are the Indigenous peoples of the Hawaiian Islands. Since the involvement of the United States in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, federal statutes have been enacted to address conditions of Native Hawaiians, with some feeling these should be formalized in the same manner of sovereignty as other Indigenous populations in the United States and Alaska Natives. [2] [3] However, some controversy surrounds the proposal for formal recognition – many Native Hawaiian political organizations believe recognition might interfere with Hawaiian claims to independence as a constitutional monarchy through international law. [4] [5]

Contents

Background

Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii

Opposition to the overthrow and annexation included Hui Aloha `Aina or the Hawaiian Patriotic League. Hui Aloha `Aina o Na Kane.jpg
Opposition to the overthrow and annexation included Hui Aloha ʻĀina or the Hawaiian Patriotic League.

The ancestors of Native Hawaiians may have arrived in the Hawaiian Islands around 350 CE, from other areas of Polynesia. [6] By the time Captain Cook arrived, Hawaii had a well established culture with populations estimated to be between 400,000 and 900,000 people. [6] In the first one hundred years of contact with western civilization, due to disease and sickness, the Hawaiian population dropped by ninety percent with only 53,900 people in 1876. [6] American missionaries would arrive in 1820 and assume great power and influence. [6] While the United States and other nations formally recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii, American influence in Hawaii, with assistance from the United States Navy, took over the islands. [6] The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown beginning January 17, 1893 with a coup d'état orchestrated by American and European residents within the kingdom's legislature and assisted by the United States military. [6] [7] While there was much opposition and many attempts to restore the kingdom, it became a territory of the US in 1898, without any input from Native Hawaiians. [6] Hawaii became a US state on March 18, 1959 following a referendum in which at least 93% of voters approved of statehood.

The US constitution recognizes Native American tribes as domestic, dependent nations with inherent rights of self-determination through the US government as a trust responsibility that was extended to include Inuit, Aleuts and Native Alaskans with the passing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Though enactment of 183 federal laws over 90 years, the US has entered into an implicit, rather than explicit trust relationship that does not give formal recognition of a sovereign people the right of self-determination. Without an explicit law, Native Hawaiians may not be eligible for entitlements, funds and benefits afforded to other US Indigenous peoples. [8] Native Hawaiians are recognized by the US government through legislation with a unique status. [6]

Hawaiian Homelands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

In 1921, the Hawaiian Homelands Commission Act set aside 200,000 acres of land for the Hawaiian Homelands but only for those of at least fifty percent blood quantum. [6] It was meant to create some compensation for forced colonization of the Indigenous peoples, but in 1959 Hawaii was officially adopted as the fiftieth state of the US with the Statehood Admissions Act defining "Native Hawaiian" as any person descended from the aboriginal people of Hawaii, living there prior to 1778. [6] The Ceded lands (lands once owned by the Hawaiian kingdom monarchy) were transferred from the federal government to the State of Hawaii for the "betterment of the conditions of the native Hawaiians." [6] In 1978 the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) was created to manage that portion of the ceded lands allotted to Hawaiian Homelands, advance the lifestyle of Native Hawaiians, preserve Hawaiian culture and protect Native Hawaiian rights. Government funding has created programs, schools, scholarships and teaching curriculums through OHA. [6] Many of these organizations, agencies and trusts like OHA, have had a good deal of legal issues over the years. In the US Supreme court case Rice v. Cayetano , OHA was accused of violating the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution with voting provisions that were race-based. The court found for the plaintiff that OHA had violated the Fifteenth Amendment. OHA has also been questioned for programs and services to Hawaiians of less than the fifty percent required blood quantum (the minimum requirement to qualify for Hawaiian Homelands). [6]

The Apology Bill and the Akaka Bill

In the past decades, the growing frustration of Native Hawaiians over Hawaiian Homelands as well as the 100 year anniversary of the overthrow, pushed the Hawaiian sovereignty movement to the forefront of politics in Hawaii. In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton signed the United States Public Law 103-150, known as the "Apology Bill," for US involvement in the 1893 overthrow. The bill offers a commitment towards reconciliation. [6] [9]

US census information shows there were approximately 401,162 Native Hawaiians living within the United States in the year 2000. Sixty percent live in the continental US with forty percent living in the State of Hawaii. [6] Between 1990 and 2000, those people identifying as Native Hawaiian had grown by 90,000 additional people, while the number of those identifying as pure Hawaiian had declined to under 10,000. [6]

Senator Daniel Akaka sponsored a bill in 2009 entitled the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009 (S1011/HR2314) which would create the legal framework for establishing a Hawaiian government. The bill was supported by US President Barack Obama. [10] Even though the bill is considered a reconciliation process, it has not had that effect but has instead been the subject of much controversy and political fighting from many arenas. American opponents argue that congress is disregarding US citizens for special interests and sovereignty activists believe this will further erode their rights as the 1921 blood quantum rule of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act had done. [11] In 2011, a governor appointed committee began to gather and verify names of Native Hawaiians for the purpose of voting on a Native Hawaiian nation. [12]

In June 2014, the US Department of the Interior announced plans to hold hearings to establish the possibility of federal recognition of Native Hawaiians as an Indian tribe. [13] [14]

Department of Interior procedure

The year of hearings found most speakers with strong opposition to the United States government's involvement in the Hawaiian sovereignty issue. [15]

On September 29, 2015, the United States Department of the Interior announced a procedure to recognize a Native Hawaiian government. [15] [16] The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission was created to find and register Native Hawaiians. [17] The nine member commission with the needed expertise for verifying Native Hawaiian ancestry has prepared a roll of registered individuals of Hawaiian heritage. [18]

The nonprofit organization Na'i Aupuni will organize the constitutional convention and election of delegates using the roll which began collecting names in 2011. Kelii Akina, Chief Executive Officer of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, filed suit to see the names on the roll and won, finding serious flaws. The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission has since purged the list of names of deceased persons as well as those whose address or e-mails could not be verified.

Akina again filed suit to stop the election because funding of the project comes from a grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and citing a United States Supreme Court case prohibiting the states from conducting race-based elections. [19]

In October 2015, a federal judge declined to stop the process from proceeding. The case was appealed with a formal emergency request to stop the voting until the appeal was heard but the request was denied. [20]

On November 24, the emergency request was made again to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. [21] On November 27, Justice Kennedy stopped the election tallying or naming of any delegates.[ citation needed ] On an earlier United States Supreme Court case Rice v. Cayetano in 2000, Kennedy wrote, "Ancestry can be a proxy for race".

The decision did not stop the voting itself, and a spokesman for the Na'i Aupuni continued to encourage those eligible to vote before the end of the set deadline of November 30, 2015. [22]

The election was expected to have a cost of about $150,000, and voting was carried out by Elections America, a firm based in Washington D.C. The constitutional convention itself has an estimated cost of $2.6 million. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-determination</span> The right of all people to freely participate in the political procedures of their government

Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Akaka</span> American politician (1924–2018)

Daniel Kahikina Akaka was an American educator and politician who served as a United States Senator from Hawaii from 1990 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Akaka was the first U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal sovereignty in the United States</span> Type of political status of Native Americans

Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureau of Indian Affairs</span> US government agency

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and administering and managing over 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km2) of reservations held in trust by the U.S. federal government for indigenous tribes. It renders services to roughly 2 million indigenous Americans across 574 federally recognized tribes. The BIA is governed by a director and overseen by the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, who answers to the Secretary of the Interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Indigenous sovereignty</span> Concept and political movement regarding land ownership by Indigenous peoples in Australia

Australian Indigenous sovereignty, also recently termed Blak sovereignty, encompasses the various rights claimed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within Australia. Such rights are said to derive from Indigenous peoples' occupation and ownership of Australia prior to colonisation and through their continuing spiritual connection to land. Indigenous sovereignty is not recognised in the Australian Constitution or under Australian law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native Hawaiians</span> Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands

Native Hawaiians are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiian sovereignty movement</span> Grassroots movement to gain self-determination and rule for Hawaiians

The Hawaiian sovereignty movement is a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom of Hawaii out of a desire for sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mililani Trask</span>

Mililani Trask is a leader of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, political speaker, and attorney. One of Trask's contributions to the Hawaiian sovereignty movement was her founding of Na Koa Ikaika o Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi, a native Hawaiian non-governmental organization focusing on cultural, social, and economic development, education, health, housing, land entitlements, energy, and water issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Hawaiian Affairs</span> Government body in the State of Hawaii, US

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is a self-governing corporate body of the State of Hawaii created by the 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akaka Bill</span>

The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009 S1011/HR2314 was a bill before the 111th Congress. It is commonly known as the Akaka Bill after Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, who proposed various forms of this bill after 2000.

Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S. 495 (2000), was a case filed in 1996 by Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice against the state of Hawaii and argued before the United States Supreme Court. In 2000, the Court ruled that the state could not restrict eligibility to vote in elections for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to persons of Native Hawaiian descent.

A Hawaiian home land is an area held in trust for Native Hawaiians by the state of Hawaii under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal status of Hawaii</span>

The legal status of Hawaii is an evolving legal matter as it pertains to United States law. The US Federal law was amended in 1993 with the Apology Resolution which "acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands."

Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples for a range of reasons, including: the religious significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors. Land is a major economic asset, and in some Indigenous societies, using natural resources of earth and sea form the basis of their household economy, so the demand for ownership derives from the need to ensure their access to these resources. Land can also be an important instrument of inheritance or a symbol of social status. In many Indigenous societies, such as among the many Aboriginal Australian peoples, the land is an essential part of their spirituality and belief systems.

A people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe (Native American)</span> Formal Native American tribe recognized by the American federal government

In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe or Tribal nation may be any current or historical tribe, band, nation, or community of Native Americans in the United States. Modern forms of these entities are often associated with land or territory of an Indian reservation. "Federally recognized Indian tribe" is a legal term in United States law with a specific meaning.

In 1898, the United States Congress annexed Hawaiʻi based on a Joint Resolution of Annexation. Questions about the legitimacy of the U.S. acquiring Hawaii through a joint resolution, rather than a treaty, were actively debated in Congress in 1898, and is the subject of ongoing debate. Upon annexation, the Republic of Hawai‘i transferred approximately 1.8 million acres of Hawaiian Government and Crown Lands to the United States (U.S.), which are today held by the State of Hawaiʻi. In the 1993 Apology Resolution, the U.S. government officially apologized to the Native Hawaiian people, acknowledging that the Republic of Hawaiʻi transferred these lands "without the consent of or any compensation to the Native Hawaiian people of Hawaiʻi or their sovereign government" and that "the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims. .. over their national lands to the United States." Although the lands are commonly referred to as "ceded lands" or "public lands," some refer to them as "seized lands" or "Hawaiian national lands" or "crown lands" to highlight the illegal nature of the land transfer, acknowledge different interpretations of the legal effect of the Joint Resolution, and to recognize that Native Hawaiians maintain claims to these lands. Many Native Hawaiian individuals and organizations insist on the return of title, which would be consistent with international law and recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples, whereas others seek back rent for the use of the land.

Indigenous Australian self-determination, also known as Aboriginal Australian self-determination, is the power relating to self-governance by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It is the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to determine their own political status and pursue their own economic, social and cultural interests. Self-determination asserts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should direct and implement Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy formulation and provision of services. Self-determination encompasses both Aboriginal land rights and self-governance, and may also be supported by a treaty between a government and an Indigenous group in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996</span> United States law

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) simplifies and reorganizes the system of providing housing assistance to federally recognized Native American tribes to help improve their housing and other infrastructure. It reduced the regulatory strictures that burdened tribes and essentially provided for block grants so that they could apply funds to building or renovating housing as they saw fit. This was in line with other federal programs that recognized the sovereignty of tribes and allowed them to manage the funds according to their own priorities. A new program division was established at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that combined several previous programs into one block grant program committed to the goal of tribal housing. The legislation has been reauthorized and amended several times since its passage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political status of Puerto Rico</span> Unincorporated territory of the United States

The political status of Puerto Rico is that of an unincorporated territory of the United States officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As such, the island of Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state.

References

  1. Spencer, Thomas P. (1895). Kaua Kuloko 1895. Honolulu: Papapai Mahu Press Publishing Company. OCLC   19662315.
  2. Amy E. Den Ouden; Jean M. O'Brien (2013). Recognition, Sovereignty Struggles, & Indigenous Rights in the United States: A Sourcebook. UNC Press Books. p. 311. ISBN   978-1-4696-0215-8.
  3. United States of America Congressional Record 111th Congress, Vol. 155 – Part 7. Government Printing Office. pp. 8564–. GGKEY:1PYF5UE6TU0.
  4. Donald L. Fixico (December 12, 2007). Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty. ABC-CLIO. p. 207. ISBN   978-1-57607-881-5.
  5. David Eugene Wilkins; Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark (2011). American Indian Politics and the American Political System. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 2–3. ISBN   978-1-4422-0387-7.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Joseph G. Ponterotto; J. Manuel Casas; Lisa A. Suzuki; Charlene M. Alexander (August 24, 2009). Handbook of Multicultural Counseling. SAGE Publications. pp. 269–271. ISBN   978-1-4833-1713-7.
  7. Spencer C. Tucker (May 20, 2009). Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, The: A Political, Social, and Military History: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 275. ISBN   978-1-85109-952-8.
  8. Davianna McGregor (2007). N_ Kua'_ina: Living Hawaiian Culture. University of Hawaii Press. p. 279. ISBN   978-0-8248-2946-9.
  9. Bendure, Friary, Glenda, Ned (2003), Oahu, Lonely Planet, p. 24, ISBN   978-1-74059-201-7 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Jeff Campbell (September 15, 2010). Hawaii. Lonely Planet. p. 47. ISBN   978-1-74220-344-7.
  11. Eva Bischoff; Elisabeth Engel (2013). Colonialism and Beyond: Race and Migration from a Postcolonial Perspective. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 61. ISBN   978-3-643-90261-0.
  12. Lyte, Brittany (September 16, 2015). "Native Hawaiian election set". The Garden island. The Garden Island . Retrieved October 6, 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. Grass, Michael (August 12, 2014). "As Feds Hold Hearings, Native Hawaiians Press Sovereignty Claims". Government Executive. Government Executive. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  14. Office of the Secretary of the interior (June 18, 2014). "Interior Considers Procedures to Reestablish a Government-to-Government Relationship with the Native Hawaiian Community". US Department of the interior. US Government, Department of the Interior. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  15. 1 2 Lauer, Nancy Cook (September 30, 2015). "Interior Department announces procedure for Native Hawaiian recognition". Oahu Publications. West Hawaii Today. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  16. "Interior Proposes Path for Re-Establishing Government-to-Government Relationship with Native Hawaiian Community". Department of the Interior. Office of the Secretary of the Department of the interior. September 29, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  17. Edward Hawkins Sisson (June 22, 2014). America the Great. Edward Sisson. p. 1490. GGKEY:0T5QX14Q22E.
  18. Ariela Julie Gross (June 30, 2009). What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America. Harvard University Press. p. 207. ISBN   978-0-674-03797-7.
  19. 1 2 Rick, Daysog (October 6, 2015). "Critics: Hawaiian constitutional convention election process is flawed". Hawaii News Now. Hawaii News Now. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  20. "Fed Appeals Court Won't Stop Hawaiian Election Vote Count". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
  21. "Opponents Ask High Court to Block Native Hawaiian Vote Count". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 24, 2015. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
  22. "Supreme Court Justice Intervenes in Native Hawaiian Election". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 27, 2015. Retrieved November 28, 2015.

Bibliography

Used multiple times as overarching referencing for the subject or section