Native Hawaiian summit forms coalition on governance

By Jean Christensen
Associated Press

Dozens of the Native Hawaiian community's most influential leaders gathered yesterday to establish what they vowed will be a powerful united front in the push for federal recognition of Hawaiians.

They announced the creation of a Native Hawaiian umbrella group modeled after a coalition that successfully pushed for passage of landmark federal legislation benefiting Alaska natives.

Veterans of the battle for the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act joined Native Hawaiian leaders and Hawaii's congressional delegation at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for the first Native Hawaiian-Alaska Native Summit.

Participants included Kamehameha Schools trustee Robert Kihune, Hokule'a navigator Nainoa Thompson, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Chairman Ray Soon and former Hawai'i Supreme Court Justice Robert Klein.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, called the summit "the single most important meeting of the contemporary period in which the final resolution of Native Hawaiian governance is taking place."

U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawai'i, said the gathering was an "awesome beginning."

In 1971, Congress passed and President Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which conveyed 44 million acres of Alaska lands to more than 200 native villages and set up native corporations to manage the land.

No identical legislation for Native Hawaiians is pending, but Hawaiians have found themselves defending more than 150 federally financed programs that benefit their community in the aftermath of last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Rice v. Cayetano, which struck down the Hawaiians-only voting restriction for voters electing OHA trustees.

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, sponsor of yesterday's summit, was formed to help Hawaiian groups defend those programs and ultimately achieve a form of sovereignty. Its members include representatives of nonprofit organizations, foundations, private and public Native Hawaiian trusts, service agencies and businesses.