OPEN LETTER TO U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
'No' to Akaka Bill
We, the undersigned kanaka maoli (indigenous Hawaiians) kupuna (elders),
kumu (educators), and representatives address this letter to you on behalf
of our people and nation, as well as of other Hawaiian Kingdom heirs. At our
invitation, a number of our kako'o (supporters) have also added their names
to this letter.
Our primary purpose for contacting you, Mr. President, is to solemnly inform
you of our categorical opposition to the proposed legislation now before the
U.S. Senate and House that is entitled The Native Hawaiian Government
Reorganization Act, which is commonly referred to as the "Akaka Bill."
This legislation, first introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2000 ‹ and now
confusingly existing in four versions (S. 381; S. 708; H.R. 862; H.R. 1711)
‹ proposes that the U.S. government recognize a "Native Hawaiian Government"
that is to be certified by the U.S. Department of the Interior in conformity
with U.S. federal law and practice regarding Native American tribal nations.
We reject this Akaka Bill for weighty reasons. To begin with, the historical
harm the United States first committed in Hawai'i in 1893 brought down, not
a "Native Hawaiian Government," but the independent Hawaiian Kingdom
composed of kanaka maoli as well as non-kanaka maoli subjects.
Consequently, the kanaka maoli people and other Hawaiian Kingdom heirs have,
since that time, accumulated fundamental political and other claims against
the United States under international law that the United States must
recognize rather than hope to dispel via the enactment of this bill. Indeed,
in our view, the passage of this bill would constitute nothing less than a
second illegal denial of our kanaka maoli people's right to
self-determination and the kingdom heirs' right to sovereignty.
The first outrage, we note, has already been formally admitted by the U.S.
Congress in its Apology Resolution of 1993 which, furthermore, pledged to
right that original wrong.
Not only does the Akaka Bill not follow through on that pledge, it in fact
attempts to sabotage the rightful return of our people to our status prior
to 1893-98 by imposing on us a colonial U.S. "wardship" that is anchored in
the U.S. judicial doctrine of the plenary power of Congress over Native
American nations.
Moreover, we submit that, presuming on the good faith of your
administration, Hawai'i's congressional delegation is now trying to ram
through the Akaka Bill in the U.S. Congress before the latter can inform
itself fully of the vehement and ever-growing opposition to the bill in
Hawai'i among kanaka maoli, other kingdom heirs, as well as kako'o.
We use the term "ram through" advisedly because, among other things, the
delegation has held but ONE five-day hearing, back in 2000, on the bill
since its inception, and only on the single island of O'ahu.
Moreover, while the video record of that lone hearing shows overwhelming
opposition to the bill, the delegation disingenuously reported the opposite
to Congress.
In 1993, our Hawai'i International People's Tribunal ‹ composed of world
human rights leaders, including three eminent U.S. law professors ‹ heard
evidence on our main islands and found the following U.S. actions to be
violations of international law: its intervention in the 1893 overthrow of
our independent government; its 1898 annexation and military occupation of
our homeland; its conduct of the fraudulent 1959 Hawai'i statehood vote; and
its ongoing seizure of our national lands with resulting ethnocidal effect
on our people. These findings have been widely disseminated and embraced in
our homeland.
That same year, the 1993 U.S. Apology Resolution (103rd Congress Joint
Resolution 19, P.L. 103-150, November 28, 1993) was signed by President
William Clinton. The apology acknowledges the role of U.S. Minister John
Stevens and of the U.S. military in the overthrow of our Queen Lili'uokalani
in 1893 in direct contravention of bilateral treaties then binding on the
United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The resolution further recognizes that "the indigenous Hawaiian people never
directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people
or over their national lands to the United States, either through their
monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum."
Moreover, it pledges the United States to acknowledge the ramifications of
the 1893 overthrow so as to identify a basis for reconciliation between the
U.S. government and the kanaka maoli people.
Shamefully, the Akaka Bill moves in a direction opposite to that pledge.
The bill arrogantly attempts to unilaterally characterize the historical
transgressions of the United States against our people and kingdom, and to
unilaterally specify their remedy.
We insist otherwise.
U.S. crimes against our kanaka maoli people and other kingdom heirs from
1893 on require, for their redress, that a mechanism composed of U.S. agents
and wholly independent representatives of kanaka maoli and kingdom heirs be
bilaterally set up by your administration and us to make findings of fact
and conclusions of international law that could serve as a road map for the
resolution of the political and legal issues now outstanding between our two
parties.
We look forward to working as soon as possible with your administration on
such a mechanism. In the meantime, we respectfully request that, as head of
the U.S. Democratic Party, you ask its congressional leaders as well as
Hawai'i's congressional delegation to immediately withdraw the Akaka Bill
from consideration. In the highly unfortunate event that they should not do
so, and the Akaka Bill passes, we urge you ‹ in the interest of future good
relations between the United States and the Hawaiian nation, and also of
sparing your administration the embarrassment of having to execute a bill
that our people will roundly reject ‹ to veto the bill.
Me ka mana'olana no ka huli me ka pono (With hope for change with justice).
This letter was signed by the following:
Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D.
Professor emeritus of medicine, consultant, Department of Native Hawaiian
Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i; convenor,
Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu
Lynette Hi'ilani Cruz, Ph.D.
Kupuna of O'ahu, assistant professor of anthropology, Hawai'i Pacific
University; president, Ka Lei Maile Ali'i Hawaiian Civic Club; Hawaiian
Independence Alliance, Honolulu
George Kahumoku Flores
Kupuna of O'ahu; Hawaiian Independence Alliance, D.M.Z., Honolulu
Kukauakahi (Clarence Ku Ching) J.D.
Huaka'i i na 'Aina Mauna, OHA trustee 1986-90
Puhipau
Kupuna of Na'alehu, Hawai'i; Na Maka o ka 'Aina (film production)
Pua Nani Rogers
Kupuna o Kaua'i, Ahupua'a o Kealia, member of Na Kupuna o Manokalanipo;
founder of the Ho'okipa Network, Kapa'a, Kaua'i
Maivan Clech Lam, M.A., M.Ph., J.D., L.L.M.
Professor of international law (ret.), City University of New York Graduate
Center, New York
J. Kahaulani Kauanui, Ph.D.
Associate professor of American studies and anthropology, Center for the
Americas, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
Jonathan Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawai'i-Manoa
Terrilee Napua Kekoolani
Founder of 'Ohana Koa, Hawai'i. Chapter of Nuclear Free and Independent
Pacific, Honolulu
Ikaika Hussey
Founder of MANA (The Movement for Aloha No Ka 'Aina), Honolulu
Kyle Kajihiro
Program director, American Friends Service Committee Hawai'i Program
Donna Hewahewa Holt Burns
Artist, Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu
Noelani Goodyear-Ka' opua, Ph.D.
Assistant professor, Department of Political Science, University of
Hawai'i-Manoa
Eiko Kosasa, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Social Sciences Division, Leeward Community College; Hawaiian
Independence Alliance,
Dean Saranillio
Doctoral candidate, program in American culture, University of Michigan;
Hawaiian Independence Alliance, Honolulu
Al Kuahi Wong
Kupuna; Hui Anuenue of New England; director, Koani Foundation, Anahola,
Kaua'i
Kai'opua Fyfe
Kupuna, delegate to Native Hawaiian Convention from Lihu'e, Kaua'i;
director, Koani Foundation; intervenor, UN Human Rights Council, Treaty
Bodies, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; charter appointee to Native
Hawaiian and Kaua'i Island Education Councils, Anahola, Kaua'i
David Ingham
Director, Koani Foundation, Anahola, Kaua'i
'Ehu Kekahu Cardwell
Director, Koani Foundation, Anahola, Kaua'i
Kunani Nihipali
Ekolu Wale No
E. A. Ho'oipo K. Pa, Esq.
Ekolu Wale No
Hans Peter Jensen, III
Maoli Media
Hanale Delovio
Hui Anuenue of New England
