Maggie's Farm

As a Native Hawaiian, I can tell you the Akaka Bill legislation is a real problem. Apart from being a denial of the sovereignty rights assured the State of Hawaii at its admission, it is the first time that Congress has tried to establish a race-based government, based on the absurd proposition that Native Hawaiians are an Indian Tribe. But such a tribe has never existed. The Kingdom of Hawaii was a multi-racial constitutional monarchy.

The worst thing of it is that we who may end up being subject to this, as "Indians," will no longer have full citizenship rights, but under Indian law will become "wards" of the United States. On that ground alone it is fatally flawed.

Tribal Indians are not citizens of the United States under the Constitution, but only under an act of Congress in the Twenties which theoretically could be repealed or modified by Congress. All residents of Hawaii, including Native Hawaiians, were granted full U.S. citizenship at the time of annexation and have the equal rights and citizenship protections of the 14th Amendment.

I might also mention that even though tribal Indians were granted rights to federal citizenship in 1924, they did not get the right to vote in State elections until 1948.

Theoretically, as a new tribe, those issues will be in play again, as to whether Native Hawaiians will continue to have rights as citizens of the State of Hawaii. There are those that say that once the "tribe" is established, Native Hawaiians should no longer have rights and benefits extended to other State residents (voting rights, welfare, medical assistance, etc.). In a certain sense, I agree with them. You can't have it both ways.

Essentially, over time this legislation will establish a system of apartheid in Hawaii, including the requirement of racial identity cards so that law enforcement officers and others know what rights a particular person has and under whose jurisdiction does the person come.

The reason is that there is huge money involved.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been paid hundreds of millions of dollars by the State of Hawaii for their programs, much of which it has taken and stuck in the two largest banks in the state, by virtue of which it now has seats on the board. There are also dozens of federally funded programs for "Native Hawaiians" that could be rendered invalid at some point by a legal challenge.

For example, hundreds of millions of dollars have been provided to a phony "Native Hawaiian" corporation to install outdated phone systems on Hawaiian Home Lands.

See:

http://hawaiifreepress.com/Main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/821/categoryId/50/Sandwich-Isles-Communications-Political-Connections-Pay-Off.aspx

This "high tech company" didn't even have a website or way for its customers to contact it until the last couple of months. They now have a one-page site that does nothing:

http://www.sandwichisles.com/

And Hawaii is the only state in the Union that still has schools that are segregated by race, the Kamehameha Schools, which is the wealthiest private school in the United States (its wealth being derived from the lands that were left to it by the Hawaiian princess who founded the school in her will--it is the largest private landowner in Hawaii).

All of this was put in jeopardy by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Rice v. Cayetano, that Hawaii could not condition participation in elections on the basis of race (to vote for the Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a state agency, you had to be Native Hawaiian).

This is all about maintaining money and privilege in the hands of a few, not helping oppressed indigenous people.

Marianne, I apologize if I came on too strong. I just get very emotional about this stuff. I really don't want to see Hawaii ruined by being divided into two competing racial groups. In fact, if this becomes law my family may very well leave Hawaii and move somewhere on the Mainland because we don't want to become subject to the tribe, we just want to be Americans.

Again, I apologize.

Jim