Akaka bill gets hearing March 1
By Dennis Camire and Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will take testimony March 1 on the proposed measure that could formally recognize Native Hawaiians as an indigenous people. Gov. Linda Lingle is scheduled to testify.
The legislation, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005, was reintroduced in the Senate and House late last month to restart a process that the sponsors — all four members of Hawai'i's delegation to Congress — hope is successful this year.
Blaisdell
Lingle, a Republican, will testify while she is in Washington for a National Governors Association meeting that starts Saturday.
Under the legislation, the U.S. government would recognize Native Hawaiians in the same way that it recognizes American Indians and Native Alaskans. The measure would create a framework for Native Hawaiian governance that would allow Hawaiians to negotiate with the United States and Hawai'i over disposition of Native Hawaiian assets.
The legislation passed the House last year, but ran into roadblocks in the Senate over concerns from some senators that the bill would sanction race-based preferences, which the critics said would be unconstitutional.
In reintroducing the legislation, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, said the measure — known as the Akaka bill — would not sanction race-based preferences but would approve a process to address long-standing issues resulting from the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
The bill's other sponsors, all Hawai'i Democrats, are Sen. Dan K. Inouye and Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case.
Kekuni Blaisdell, a physician and outspoken critic of the Akaka bill, yesterday criticized the Senate committee for not scheduling a hearing in Hawai'i. Blaisdell is a proponent of an independent nation.
"They don't want our voices to be heard," Blaisdell said. "They insist that if we want to be heard, we have to go to Washington, we have to get on the docket for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is playing within their system, which means we accept their sovereignty over us, which of course we cannot accept."
Blaisdell said he opposes the measure because it would create a nation within a nation and not recognize an independent Hawaiian nation.
"This Akaka bill is to make it very clear that we Kanaka Maoli have agreed and therefore we relinquish and we no longer continue to make claim for our sovereign right and our land," Blaisdell said.
