Senators hear case for Hawaiian recognition
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Sen. Daniel Inouye yesterday described federal recognition of Native Hawaiians as the last milestone in an often tumultuous relationship between the United States and the Hawaiian people.
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"It will become a reality," Inouye vowed at a hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Hawai'i Gov. Linda Lingle testifies on Capitol Hill before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on legislation that would recognize Native Hawaiians as an indigenous people. The bill "is vital to the continued character of our state, and it is vital to providing parity and consistency in federal policy for all native peoples in America," Lingle said yesterday. Micah Kane, director for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, is at right.
Inouye, the ranking Democrat on the committee, placed federal recognition in historical context with the U.S. role in the overthrow of the kingdom of Hawai'i, statehood and the federal government's formal apology for its treatment of Hawaiians.
Gov. Linda Lingle, in her first testimony before Congress, told the committee that Hawaiian recognition is a "matter of simple justice."
A bill from the Hawai'i congressional delegation would set up a process for the United States to recognize a sovereign Native Hawaiian government that could have government-to-government relations with the federal government and the state of Hawai'i.
The United States recognizes American Indian tribes and Native Alaskan villages, and Hawai'i's political leaders maintain that Hawaiians are also indigenous people who deserve the same rights.
Similar bills have failed to pass in the past two sessions of Congress, primarily because of objections by conservative Republicans that recognition would legitimize race-based preferences. The Bush administration has not taken a public stand on the bill, and Lingle has spent the past few days here appealing to several administration officials.
"I'm more optimistic than I was when I came," said Lingle, who told Inouye that Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other administration officials still have questions.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved the bill last session, as did the House Resources Committee, so yesterday's hearing was more of an opportunity for Lingle and others to support the bill than debate its merits.
Inouye and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, heard the testimony. No one spoke against the bill, but Inouye left the record open for written submissions until March 20.
Akaka said the bill would establish a political relationship between the United States and a Native Hawaiian government that would continue the process of reconciliation. "This bill is not race-based," he said.
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Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, said the legislation is the most important to Hawai'i since statehood.
Sen. Daniel Akaka greets Gov. Linda Lingle prior to her testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
"The stakes are nothing more or less than the survival and prosperity not only of our indigenous Native Hawaiian people and culture, but of the very soul of Hawai'i as we know it and love it," Case said.
Legal challenges to Native Hawaiian programs as race-based discrimination have caused anxiety in the Hawaiian community. The Supreme Court decision in 2000 that it was unconstitutional for the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs to prevent non-Hawaiians from voting in trustee elections raised questions about the validity of other Hawaiian programs.
Micah Kane, who directs the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said the recognition bill could eliminate the legal uncertainties. "The risk of doing nothing puts us back into the courts," he said.
At times the hearing room resembled a reunion, with people offering lei and hugs to friends, some who traveled from Hawai'i for the occasion. Several trustees from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and leaders of the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations and the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs made the trip.
OHA chairwoman Haunani Apoliona led the room in a Hawaiian chant that ended with the pledge: "I resist injustice, resist! I stand for righteousness, stand!"
In Honolulu, opponents of the bill gathered at the State Capitol to voice opposition to any legislation that makes Hawaiians subordinate to the federal government.
"We reject it!" said Kekuni Blaisdell, a longtime proponent of a restored independent Hawaiian nation. "We're not Americans. We're kanaka maoli.
"This just perpetuates U.S. imperialism so they can continue to use us as a military and economic base so they can control the world."
Richard Pomaikaiokalani Kinney, speaking for the Hawaiian Political Action Council of Hawai'i, said the bill would force Hawaiians to give up claims to sovereignty.
Other activists included Eric Po'ohina, who took issue with placing Hawaiians in the same position as Native Americans, who have not fared well under federal administration. Lela Hubbard of Na Koa Ikaika said the legislation represents a capitulation to protect an estimated $50 million a year in federal grants that benefit Hawaiians.
Advertiser staff writer Vicki Viotti contributed to this report.
