a column in the national journal about a movement to grant sovereignty to Hawaii's native 
people 100 years after the overthro

Morrison, David C.

English

ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa

I N T E R G O V E R N M E N T A L l F F A I R S Volcanic Islands A century after the United States overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy, a movement o grant sovereignty to the islands' native people has erupted into view. BY DAVID C. MORRISON •• i!t" ... a., ....... H ONOLULU-ln 1970. Havden F. Burgess, a la""Yer of Hawaiian extraction. was in the midst of a four-vear stint in the Air Force. .. I was a very proud American, one of the flag-wavers:· he said. Then Burgess read a book by Hawaii's last monarch. Queen Liliuokalani. Hawuiis Story b1• Hawaii's Quee11 (Charles E. Tuttle Co .. 1964) describes how, on Jan. 17. 1893. a cabal of American busi• nessmen. aided by U.S. Minister Plenipo-tentiary John L Stevens and 162 marines, toppled her throne. setting up a "provi-sional .. government in thrall to sugar planters. That account is hardly in dispute. In a December 1893 speech to Congress, President Grover Cleveland, who took office two months after the sugar coup, declared that .. by an act of war. commit-ted with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress . the gov-ernment of a feeble but friendly and con-fiding people has been overthrown:· .___' But. Burgess said, •'it was a story I had never known. I came to understand that there had been a conspiracy in Hawaii 1hat was not taueht in our schools here." He has since ·•recovered" a Hawaiian name, Poka La'enui. He "corrects" his passport to indicate Hawaiian. not U.S. citizenship. He says he has not filed a fed-eral income tax return since 1979. "My personal feeling is that the Americans must leave," he said. In urging independence from the Unit• ed States-which formallv annexed Hawaii in 1898 under the expansionist McKinley Administration and incorpo-rated the territory as a state in 1959-Burgess may orbit the fringes of the mounting Hawaiian sovereignty move-ment. But his reawakening to Hawaiian culture and national feeling is an ever-more common journey for the 220,000 or so people here who boast Hawaiian ancestry. (Fewer than I per cent of the state·s I.:? million citizens are full-blood-ed Hawaiians.) In a joint resolution approved two NATIONAL JOURNAL Sfl..2193 1225 Schofidd Barrm:ks in cen• tral Oahu marchecJ do\\ n-111wn brandi~hinu a large American flau. Ha,\aii\ l.mmakers in \V,1shmuwn-mcludinl! Democr,1t D.inid K. Akaka. HU\\;lii\ tirst Senacor \\Ith Ha\\,11ian blood-quesuoned Wai-hee·s order . As that re,1ction ,u!!l!e~ts. the ~overeh?nlV mmem;nt is ~mring ~ome disquiet among local haoles. as peo-ple not of n.iti\'1! Hawaiian e:-ar.iction are calh:d. ··Sume e:mcmists.'' fohn Griffin. a former Ho110/11/u • .Jifr,:rriser editor. \\ rote recenllv. "sound as if thev want not just ju~ticc but ·a Jihad or holy \~ar against non-Hawai-ians:· Lost Lands John D. Waihee, the fint native HawarHIII govemor He took HWII U.S. flogs to mtml the IIIDINll~S HSter. The sovereientv move-ment. in fact.- embraces dozens of orean izations es-pousing a wide range of tac-tics and desired outcomes. At the more anachronistic end of the spectrum. a group gathered last June at the years ago, the state Legislature. hardly a radical body, declared that it .. encourages the promotion of debate revolving around the future of Hawaii as a Pacific Island society. within or without the Unit-ed S1a1es of America ... And last June. a group of Hawaiians set out 10 stage a :?• •hour .. prayer and healing .. vigil at the historic ·lolani Palace in Honolulu. After revoking their protest permit. local police arrested 3::? activists on the very ~teps \\here Liliuokalani had surrendered her uovernment a centurv ~fu~ - . With this vear markin!! the 1110th anniversarv oi· the overthrow. the sov-erl!ignty drive has gained powerful momentum. In mid-Januarv. Democratic Gov. John D. Waihee 111.Hawaii's first uovernor of Hawaiian extraction . ordered 1hat the Amc:rican flaes over the ~late capitol complex be tak;n down during a five-dav commemoration and reenact• ment of Liliuokalani's unseating . Only the Hawaiian state flag-and the monar-chy's old standard-were kept nying. .. It had nothing to do with the Ameri-can nag, really. but with flying the Hawai-ian nag alone ... Waihee said in an inter-view. ''There was no ceremony, like hauling down the American flag. There was no disrespect." Nonetheless, veterans' groups raised a hue and cry . Two Army troopers from 1226 NATIONAL JOURNAL5 122.93 palace. now a museum. to crown "King Kamehameha VI .. of a restored "King-dom of Hawai'f'-usinl! the traditional spdling of the kingdom's- name. "Viewpoints are so disparate and emo-tions so highly charged around these issues." ,aid Carl M. Varadv. an \meri-can Civil Liberties Union ;ttor ·•. \\ ho has represented Hawaiian act , . that .. ifs toul?h to form anv coalition , Hawaii'~ much-huckst.:n:d ·•,pint of aloha .. broke down durine a round of speeches delivered after ~bout 15.000 people marched to th..: pJlace In mark the 1>verthrow centennial on Jan. 17. '.\lililani B. Trask, the leader of the pro-so\'t:reign-tv Ka Lahui Hawai'i (Hawaiian Nation). bitterlv d..:nounced Hawaii·s "Democratic boy~· club" and ripped up a proclamation from the mod..:rate ·ohana ( Family) Councils praising Waihee and Sen. Danit!! K. Inouye. D-Hawaii. for support-ing a limited brand of so,·ereignty . Kawehi Kanui Gill, a member of La Ea 0 Hawa i' i Nei, another centri~t group. then took to the stage to denounce Trask for cJoing "an un-Hawaiian thing by criti-cizing other Hawaiians in public." Ka Lahui Hawai'i. the lareest and most vocal of the independent sovereignty out• fits. staged the first of three constitutional conventions in 1987. Declaring itself a "nation within a nation," the group has demanded the same rights held by other Nall\ 'e Am<.'ric.in nations th.it Washrng-tnn rcCl)•p· -.. Alune among America's major na u peoples. H.iwa1ian, do not enjo\' thJI , il US. The llf"anizatit,n. 1\hich ,.1ys ·it has 1-.00II ·-.:itizt:~s." ha~ re.:eiwd a SI 7:!JJlKl fecJcral grant for .. ,,:lf-gtwer-nam:I! training." Another maior player in thi: drama i~ the Office of Hawaiian Affair~ (OH ,-\). a ~late .igency created in 1978 whose nine trustees arc elected bv state resident~ of Hawaiian ancestry . · Its purpose i~ to rccei\'e reparations for lost lands and to provide education and other aicJ to Ha-waiians of at least 50 per cent nati\'e blood. (That criterion has caused friction with those ha\•ing less than 50 per cent Hawaiian blood.) On April 19. Waihee signed legislation to pay the OHA S136 million in .. back rent .. lJO I.:? million acres once held bv the Hawaiian crown but ceded to the United States after the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani. The federal eovern• ment. in tum, ceded those lands back to the new state of Hawaii in 1959. But thev were never returned to the Hawaiian people. At issue. too, are 200.000 acres of "homelands" set aside under the 19::? IHawaiian Homes Commission Act for homesteading by native Hawaiians. The state's Hawaiian Homelands Department has drawn fire for leasing the bulk of the real estate to businesses. As alwavs in nationalist connicts. land is a major0bone of contention. An OHA official has termed the S 136 million pay-out merely ··a ~tart toward reimbursing Hawaiians for land taken from them ... (Oth er 1wvernment al(encies have ~aid, in effrct. ~-That's it: take it or lean: it.") ~lcanwhile. Ka Lahui Hawa i"i wants a sav in the cJisposition of the ceded lands, the homelancJs and trust properties held by successors to royal and planter families-as \\Cll as ~Jl.fKlO acres occupied hv U.S. military inMallations. · :\flcr tourism. \\ hich accounls for a third llf Hawaii's l!CDnomy. the U.S. mili-tarv is the ,tate·s ,econd-lar!!est income ut:nerator . II controls a fourth of the land on Oahu. 1\ hi:re SO per cent of the state's population resides . That role would be reduced univ mar-!!inallv b~ the latest Penta"On base-do-- - - .:, sure propo~al. released in mid-March. If. as proposed. the Barbers Point Na\al Air Sta t ion is closed and six aircraft squadrons are shifted from Kaneohe Marini: Corps Air Station to California. Hawaii would lose 2.4::?0 militarv and 1.162 civilian jobs. · The mil itary's looming presence has put it on a collision course with the more detennined sovereignty activists. In mid-April. three dozen members of the 'Ohana Council of the Hawaiian ·~ - ' 1 • Kingdom occupied an unused coa,;1 l!UarJ na\'il?ation station on Hawaii. 1he ~o-c.illed Big Island. ··wc:·re letting peo-pk know Wt! can be independent and practice our laws:· council spokesman ..\lhert Kahffopi "i said. K.ihoolawe. a -l5-square-mile uninhab-ih.:d island lvinl! uff Maui. has the dubious distinction of being the onlv site listed on the :--lational Regfster of Historic Places that is n:gularly bombed by Na\'y jets on practice runs. A drive hc:gun in the mid-i %Os to reclaim the island. which hosts a weahh of ancient ritual sites. culmina1ed rc:centlv in a commission's recommenda-tion th.at Kahoolawe be turned over to the state as a Hawaiian cultural preserve . Removing unexploded ordnance from the island will run at least Sl:!0 million. though. and it is unclear who will supply the money and how long the cleanup might lake. The Army·s application last year for permission to dump as many as l.600 tons of inoperable munitions every year in Oahu·s Makua Vallev has also eenerat-ed environmental and cultura(sparks. ""Greater auention must be paid to the present use of lands that may in the future be returned to the state or the Hawaiian people,"' two state House pan-els urged in a recent joint report on Makua Valley. EMOTIONAL FWHPOlm The hottest current hatlle rages over construction of the SI billion H-3 hieh• way. Running through the Halawa Val-lev. and connecting the marine air station ai Kaneohe with- Pearl Harbor Naval Base, the H-3 has been a brawling point since the mid- I 960s. In March I 91J2. an archeolog1s1 at Honolulu"s Bishop Muse-um announced chat the road would pave O\'er che remnants of two rare hdcw. or ancient stone cemples. Ha\\a1ian acti, io;ts b, the hundreds h.t\C ~ince Jescended lln 1he , .illcv 10 mounc demonstrations. \'igils and ~cli-gious rites. Last August. 13 women were arre~teJ and evicted as they attempted 10 place offerings at the l1ei<111 when 1he ,tatc was planning a major cement pour. The next month. the state Transporlation Dep,1rtmen1 agreed not to arrest Ha\,ai-ians ,1,;iting the l11:ia11 .ind said it ,,ould realign the H-3 10 bypass the contested ~Iles. Activiscs are unappeased. ""The valley is very important 10 under-standing our culture:· said Kamakahuki-lani von Oelhoffen. a director of the Hala"'a Coalicion. a group that has ba1-tled the highway project. "There are ancient sites at the narrowest part of 1he valley. I don·t see how they could avoid these things."' The disturbance of burial sites by Je\ ·elopers and military operations is always an ,;:motional flashpoint. The dunes surrounding 1he Pacific Missile Ran"e Facilitv at Barkinl! Sands on Kauai hollancient.burial fields. for instance. and there has been heated local resis-tance 10 Pentagon plans to fire Po laris mi~silcs from there 10 pro~e out Strategic Activist 1.... kllHldlui "" OellNffff ea,;y. Deb.ite mer the measure has pitted the OHA. which favors a convention. al!ainst Ka Lahui Hawai•i. which con-1inds that it has alr..:ady initiated this pro-cess and formed a nation. ··What we ha\'e to do i, i:el ,lll llf 1he\e factions wgether and try to achie, e con• sensus un some of these is~ues:· Gov . She's battll11t • hfglawllJ profect hi• v•lley cHt• lai•t llimric felllple sites. Defense Initiative hardware. A Polaris was launched on Feb. 25. an Air Force spokesman said. --and future launches are programmed, dates to be detennined." "We say to developers. ·How would you like us to go build a hotel in the Punchbowl?' ·• an extinct volcanic crater in Honolulu where 25.000 American war dead are imerred. said Phyllis (Coochiel Cavan. who chairs the Oahu Burial Council. ·'Thev sav. ·You can·t do that." Well. we don't want you building on our ancestors:· With most of Hawaii"s wealth invested in real esta1e and tourism. the escalating furor over Ha\\aiian ril!hls is starting to make business folk here-m:rvous. Ada-ntic Richfidd Co .. the petrolc:um giant. can-cckd a planned convention in Honolulu 10 protest January·s llag lowering. ··Deal-inl! \\ith the sovereil!ntv issue in a non-~en,;itive ,,ay could him~ up in our face-;:· Da\'id ~lcClain. actine dean of the Uni-, ersitv of Hawaii"s School of Business Adm(ni,;tration and an e.xpert on the Hawaiian economv. cautiom:d. There's no question that sensitivity. and lots of it. \\ill be needed. Bo1h cham-bers of 1he Legislature have passed bills calling for a referendum on sovereignty among native Hawaiians, to be followed bv a constitutional convention to hammer out an agreement on what fonn a Hawai-ian nation might take. That will not be Waihee said. "We have to get started." Inouye, an influential lawmaker who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. has also argued that the Hawaiians must reach consensus before he can act. Bill Clinton·s installation in the White House has stirred hope here. The Demo-cratic platform last year ,upported limit-ed ,ovcreil!ntv for na1ive H.i,,a1nms. On the eve of ciinton·s inau1?ura1ion. the Bush Admmi,tration-., Ju~tice Depart-ment ruled th,11 Haw:ui,m, had no native statu~ or --iru,i"" rdation,hip \\Ith the IJ.S . go\o;:rnment. Clinton promptly rc,cmJed the ruling hut ha, yet to imple-mem .m .iltern.111,e pnht·y. The more-militant acti,1,h. hm\·e,er. are pl.1dng their heh ~in thl! unpre-dictahle tides of hi,ton . ··If \\c ·re ~tub-horn for tong em,ul!h. \~c'll 1,in:· m~i,ted Lilik.tla Kame·eleihi,1a. :m •'"ud.11.: pro• lessor of Hawa11an ,tudies at the Uni\'er-sity of Ha"aii. member of Ka Lahui Ha\1ai•i and author of .\'am ·e La11t/ m1CI Fo1·c1g11 Desires t Bishop '.\,luseum Press. 199~). ""Nobodv thoul!ht that the Soviet Union 1\ould ·break -up. But one day. America will break up. And when it does. Hawaii will be ready:· The United States is not the Soviet Union . of course. and it isn't likely to dis-appear soon. But. then. neither will the struggle over Hawaiian sovereignty. • NATIONAL JOURNAL 5/~:!.'93 1227 CONGRESS Dellums's Turn 1220 When Ronald V. Dellums joined the House Armed Services Committee in 1973, he was one of Congress's leading doves. Now the Cali-fornia Democrat, still a dove. is the chainnan of that panel and will play a key role in ~haping the size and respon-,ibi lit ies of the post-Cold War Pentagon. Graeme Drowning INnlGOVEINMENTll AffAIIS Volcanic Islands 1225 A century after thi: Un ited States overthrew the Hawai-ian monarchy. a movemi:nt to grant ~overi:ig n ty to Ha\\aii'!> native people is gaining momentum. Bill Clinton's election on a plat-form that ~upported limited -;overeignt y for native Ha-waiians stirred hope within the movement. David C. Morrison C· MAY 22, 1993, VOL 25, NO. 21, PAGES 1213-1261 1221 1236 TRANSPORTATION The Fire Fighter 1228 During his first few months at the helm of the Trans-portation Department. Sec-retary Federico F. Pena has had to handle more than his fa ir share of political hot potatoes . So far. he's shown no reluctance to make the tough calls. even at the risk of angering some powerful business interests. Kirk Victor ENVIRONMENT Turf Wars 1232 When Clinton. unller pres-~ure from -,ome \\e~tcrn Sen-ators. hacked a,,ay from his plan to u,e his budget to reY.rite federal minim.!. !.!raz-ing and timber la~,s~ he angered lawmaker~ and en\"irunmi:ntafo,ts \\ho saw the budget as the hest route to reform. Now he ·., being pressed to act in other ways. Margaret Kriz \,11um,1I l <>11mul J C ISSN tlJt,0--'117). Puhli,hed ,.ecklv. e.\Cept for the IJst ,.eek ,n Augusl and the IJst week on Decemhcr . hy 'l aliunal Journal Inc .. 17JO \1 SI. NW. WJshmijllln, D.C .. 11MIJ6. Td ephnnc (111:!l S57, l-'1Ml. For ~ubscripliun ,crvicc. ( !!IN)) -'14-:!1):?I. Availahlc h~ ,u b,cn puun ••nl~ at S1!~7 per war. including ,cm1JnnuJI ,ndc,c• and The CapllJI Source . Subscr:r.' uons of three wp1es per ,.eek tu ¥mcrnmcni personnel arc SM37 Puhhc and acaJ cm,c lihrary ra1c S55h: iJcuh, · ~n~ ,1udcn1 ra1c SW. Foreign ,uh,nipu,ins a ii Sl70 per }car l'<lf pmlJgc anJ handling; foreign ,,rders m~sl he prcpatd. Bm~c~, arc SJII fur a ,ct nf 1wu. prcpJtJ . Sccnnd•dass postage patd JI Wa,hing1on. D.C. Prc•pn:ss service, : Apphed Graphics Teclmulug1cs. Prinung: \kA rJlc Prm11ng Co. Puslm:uter: Send .,tldrcss ch•nges tu C1rcula11on Ocp•rtmcnt. 'lJtionJI Journ,d. P 0 , Bux J7.i. Shrub Oak. N. Y,. IU5Hll. 1)1993 by 'iotfonal Journal Inc. All rights resel"\ed. Repro• duction in ,.hole or pan •ilhoul pnmlsslon Is slrlclly prohibited. 

Volcanic Islands

http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/77669/1/DOC669.pdf

Volcanic Islands

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa