Federal recognition of native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands. Since American involvement 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 as other indigenous populations in the United States

Federal recognition of Native Hawaiians refers to proposals for the federal government of the United States to give legal recognition to Native Hawaiians (Hawaiian: kānaka maoli), providing them with some form of indigenous sovereignty within a framework similar to that afforded to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Native Hawaiians, known also as kanaka maoli, are the indigenous people (and their descendants) of the Hawaiian islands. Their ancestors were the original Polynesians who sailed to Hawai’i and settled the islands around the 5th Century A.D.

As with our other lists of tribes, please know that many Native Hawaiian political organizations believe recognition might interfere with Hawaii's claims to independence as a constitutional monarchy through international law and so ultimately.

By the time Captain Cook arrived, Hawaii had a well established culture with populations estimated to be between 400,000 and 900,000 people. In the first one hundred years of contact with western civilization, due to war and sickness, the Hawaiian population dropped by ninety percent with only 53,900 people in 1876. Cook was killed there in 1779 while attempting to kidnap the king of Hawaii Island!

Because Hawai'i is a group of islands isolated from other land masses and people, diseases known in the rest of the world were not known in Hawai’i. Within a century after Cook first landed, deaths were attributed to a number of "new" diseases including smallpox, measles, influenza, sexually-transmitted diseases, whooping cough and the common cold.

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, but Hawaii didn't become a US state until March 18, 1959 following a referendum in which at least 93% of voters approved of statehood. So you all know, the Statehood Admissions Act defining "Native Hawaiian" as any person descended from the aboriginal people of Hawaii, living there prior to 1778.

When? On January 17, 1893, an illegal overthrow of Hawai’i’s government took place. Buy Who you ask? The U.S. Marines from the USS Boston, two companies of U.S. sailors, and U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens landed at Honolulu Harbor and, along with U.S. and European businessmen, effectuated an illegal coup against Queen Lili'uokalani. Their motive was Greed, control over cheap land, and control over the sugar industry. The businessmen and sugar planters were led by Sanford Dole who some refer to as a "sugar baron." Sanfordʻs cousin, James Dole, sometimes called the "pineapple king," also began the pineapple industry in Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

Soon after the overthrow, a law was passed to make it illegal to teach in the schools in anything but the English language. English replaced Hawaiian as the official language of government, business and education.

So began the colonization of the Native Hawaiian people—children were punished in school for speaking Hawaiian and those who spoke Hawaiian in the home were looked down on. This systematic oppression of the culture and language took place for decades, and the language was almost lost due to parents and grandparents who were uncomfortable passing the language on to younger generations.

It was not until a constitutional amendment passed in Hawaiʻi in 1978 (almost a hundred years later!) that it was once again legal to teach Hawaiian in the school system. 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 curriculum's through OHA.

n 1993, President Bill Clinton signed an official apology to Native Hawaiians for the illegal overthrow of their nation. Although they are now only 12% of Hawai'i’s population, Native Hawaiians continue to work towards finding their rightful place in modern-day Hawai'i. In 1987, instruction in the Native Hawaiian language began again in public schools. Today there are 21 public Hawaiian immersion schools in the state of Hawai'i. Students are of diverse races who choose to be educated in all subjects in the Hawaiian language.

Native Hawaiians didn't believe that anyone could own land. The monarchy didn't own the land since Akua (God) had provided the land for all people to live on and use. The monarchy (a Western concept) did control what was done with the harvests or what the land produced.

U.S. Department of the Interior has announced in September 2016 that Native Hawaiians can now choose whether to form a unified government, which could eventually enter into formal government-to-government relations with the U.S. which was the first time the Native Hawaiian community has had their own government since their Kingdom was overthrown in 1893 by merchants and sugar planters.

In July, Gov. David Ige signed HB 451, which will change the requirement to inherit Hawaiian homesteads from its current one-fourth to one-thirty-second. The signing ceremony took place at Kulana ‘Oiwi, the local office for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, on Molokai. What the bill does address is the issue of quantum. In 1921, after many years of negotiations, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole, the Hawaiian delegate to the U.S. Congress, spearheaded the passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.

This legislation established some 200,000 acres of land to established permanent homelands for Native Hawaiians, who were landless after the U.S. takeover of the islands in 1893, and who were at the time considered a “dying” people. Lands can be homesteaded by qualifying Native Hawaiians for $1 a year for a 99-year lease period.

We hope you found this article to be enlightening. As always we thank you for your continued interest, contributions as well as your support, and we hope you stay tuned for more news to come! Until then, be well and go in a good way, blessings to you all.