Hawai'i: Strings in the Colony

...domination, the right to freely determine their future political status remains a pivotal issue...

...Jose Luis Morin is an international human rights attorney and a Visiting Professor at the Center for Hawai'ian Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa...

...GAOR, 8th Sess., Supp...

...For Puerto Rico, see The Language Policy Task Force, "English and Colonialism in Puerto Rico," in James Crawford, ed...

...Congress the power to determine the civil rights and political status of the people of Puerto Rico...

...English-only policy on the Island...

...Supreme Court declared that Indian tribes under the U.S...

...Language Loyalties, A Source Book on the Official English Controversy (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992), pp...

...5 In 1887, the "Bayonet Constitution," as it became known, was forced upon King Kalakaua by foreigners intent on seizing political power...

...government to refer to Native American tribes as "domestic dependent nations" under U.S...

...The U.S...

...military...

...The coalition brought Kanaka Maoli sovereignty groups and supporters together in a campaign to expose the deceptive nature of the vote...

...Furthermore, an eleventh-hour change in the law eliminated language referring to the plebiscite as a process to "restore a nation"-language which embodied the primary goal of the pro-sovereignty movement...

...rely upon its kindness and its power...

...The year 1998 will mark one hundred years since the United States forcibly seized control over the Philippines, Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawai'i...

...vast military commemo- occupation and degra- Hawai'ian dation of land and natural resources...

...By engineering an election through which the State of Hawai'i can install a Native Hawai'ian government-a scheme similar to that which led to the dependent commonwealth government in Puerto Rico-the State of Hawai'i can insure its control over illegally ceded lands and establish the bureaucratic mechanisms to rule the Kanaka Maoli people in the future...

...colonial policy since annexation have not changed...

...In accordance with electoral state law, the process was handled by a state agency, the Hawai'ian Sovereignty Elections Council (HSEC), whose 20 members were appointed by the governor...

...Interview with Prof...

...4 After the mid- 1800s, the desire to have Hawai'i annexed to the United States intensified...

...Some, such as Ka Lahui Hawai'i, seek the establishment of a nation-within-a-nation...

...The Kanaka Maoli, were again denied the right to decide the future status of their homeland...

...The state determined the one and only question on the ballot, thus violating a longestablished principle of international law that provides for the "[fJreedom of choosing on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples between several possibilities, including independence...

...Hawai'i was significant for the opening of Asian markets to U.S...

...This renaissance, coupled with increased political awareness and activism, has strengthened the resolve of these indigenous Hawai'ians to right the wrongs of the past...

...Congress...

...capital controlled 60% of sugar production, 80% of the tobacco production, 60% of public services and banks and 100% of maritime lines in Puerto Rico...

...GAOR, 1st Sess., at 24 (1947...

...Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S...

...Not surprisingly, many white settlers and their descendants voted for statehood...

...For both countries, the accumulation of lands by U.S...

...state or remaining a territory-a U.S...

...Instead, the law inserted the term "self-governance," a term frequently used by the U.S...

...Thus, one hundred years after annexation, the ability to exercise the right to self-determination remains crucial to the Kanaka Maoli and Puerto Rican quest to break free from colonialism...

...economic interests in Latin America as well as a strategic military outpost in the region...

...66, U.N...

...The state legislature dictated the time, manner, process and ballot question...

...colonial possession...

...By the 1930s, U.S...

...The ballot offered a choice between becoming a U.S...

...As in Hawai'i, U.S...

...While sovereignty groups differ as to their ultimate goal, most actively continue to resist state and federal government infringements on Kanaka Maoli cultural rights, including the desecration of their sacred sites for the sake of military and tourist development...

...government for protection...

...ture earlier this year in support of a Hawai'ian constitutional convention...

...These elements include U.S...

...Marion Kelly, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Hawai'i in Honolulu, Hawai'i (June 12, 1996...

...5 Pet...

...Thereafter, the Kanaka Maoli have been hindered in their ability to use international law in the struggle for their rights...

...742, U.N...

...7 The U.S...

...They look to the U.S...

...government officials schemed for annexation...

...0 Notes 1. Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i (Monroe, ME: Common Courage, 1994), p. 100...

...Navy for one dollar a year...

...and U.S...

...Attorney General's Office as recently as last year reiterated that wardship and Congress' plenary powers over Indian tribes remain the basis of U.S...

...government, while liberally using the terms "self-determination" and "sovereignty," continues to maintain its relationship with indigenous peoples as one between a guardian and ward...

...As a result, they were declared Non-Self-Governing Territories by the United Nations along with Alaska, Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Panama Canal Zone and numerous other countries controlled by other colonial powers...

...business enterprises translated into the loss of economic self-sufficiency...

...Should occasion offer, you will, without committing the government to any line of policy, not discourage the feeling which may exist in favor of annexation to the United States...

...Other options, such as independence, required under international law, were not presented as choices on the ballot...

...After labeling the Kanaka Maoli as "savages," the missionaries embarked on a campaign of mass Christian conversion and assimilation...

...The repercussions of this debate for the Kanaka Maoli may be harsh...

...goods as well as for its military bases, while Puerto Rico was seen as a stronghold for U.S...

...Annexation meant a permanent lifting of U.S...

...As early as 1831, the U.S...

...The Treaty of Paris, which brought an end to the Spanish-American War, granted the U.S...

...government...

...By imposing property and income requirements for political office and granting foreign residents the right to vote, this new constitution assured white foreigners control over the legislature and cabinet...

...63-71...

...As with the Kanaka Maoli, the people of Puerto Rico were never consulted about annexation or about whether the United States should grant itself such absolute powers over the future of their nation...

...Others demand the restoration of the Hawai'ian Kingdom...

...With annexation, the United States forged ahead with a policy of political domination, coercive cultural assimilation, military occupation and economic exploitation of people deemed to be of inferior races in both Puerto Rico and Hawai'i...

...Under such conditions, it is inconceivable that any people could make a "free choice" regarding their future political status, much less decide their economic, social and cultural development...

...It also granted itself the power to accept or reject the results of the vote as well as the outcome of the "Hawai'ian Constitutional Convention" that would allegedly follow the vote, by making explicit that no legal changes were possible without state approval...

...A fate similar to that of Hawai'i was in store for the people of Puerto Rico, and some comparisons are worth recounting...

...Six years later, in 1893, with the assistance of U.S...

...That power would enable Congress to relocate Kanaka Maoli from their traditional lands and mine for minerals, store nuclear materials or conduct nuclear tests on their lands, as the federal government has done on Native American lands...

...339-382...

...policy toward Native American peoples today...

...Originally called a "plebiscite," the State of Hawai'i sponsored the Native Hawai'ian Vote of July-August 1996 posing the following question: "Shall the Hawai'ian people elect delegates to propose a Native Hawai'ian government...

...7. Manuel Maldonado-Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation (New York: Vintage, 1972), p. 74...

...8 In 1946, following the establishment of the United Nations, Puerto Rico and Hawai'i were both recognized by the world community as colonized territories which had been denied the right to full selfgovernment by the United States...

...2. Pub...

...As it had done with Puerto Rico in 1953, the United States used the 1959 plebiscite to declare to the United Nations that the people of Hawai'i had attained full self-government through the exercise of self-determination...

...The entire enterprise was created and financed by the state legislature-a body not representative of the Kanaka Maoli people...

...NAC1A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10ESSAY/ HAWAI'I interests assumed local power, U.S...

...citizenship on Puerto Ricans and the Kanaka Maoli...

...In the process, the Dole Republic of Hawai'i ceded illegally seized Kanaka Maoli government and Crown lands to the U.S...

...educational policies in Puerto Rico focused on assimilation...

...Boston, annexationist businessmen overthrew the independent and sovereign Hawai'ian government, naming Sanford B. Dole, a descendant of missionaries, president of the provisional government...

...2 The Apology Law acknowledged that the Kanaka Maoli never willingly relinquished their claims of sovereignty as a people or their claims to their national lands-neither through their monarchy, nor through a plebiscite or referendum...

...The State of Hawai'i's primary interest is to maintain and legitimate its control over illegally acquired Kanaka Maoli lands...

...In view of the increasingly vocal and visible pro-sovereignty movement calling for the return of the "ceded" lands to the Kanaka Maoli people, the State of Hawai'i has seized upon the use of the electoral process in an effort to maintain its control over these lands...

...ruled the Court, "resembles that of a ward to his guardian...

...Key to this restructuring was the supplanting of the system of communal land tenure-central to Kanaka Maoli culture and economy-with private land ownership...

...Foreigners controlled and governed the islands well into the twentieth century, imposing U.S...

...The relation- Demonstra ship between the tribes rate the 1 and the United States, Kingdom...

...In a maneuver which parallels Puerto Rico's experience, the United States engineered the plebiscite vote in Hawai'i in 1959 through Congressional legislation...

...9. G.A...

...L. No...

...If subsumed under a U.S...

...For the native people of Hawai'i, who share with Puerto Ricans the common experience of direct U.S...

...1 3 The U.S...

...1510 (1993...

...The promotion of indigenous peoples' rights through The Native Hawai'ian Vote could possibly result in domestic dependent nation status under the plenary power of the U.S...

...Today, Kanaka Maoli are organized into various initiatives for native sovereignty...

...103-150, 107 Stat...

...missionaries were eventually able to impose a legal mechanism for native land claims which left about 70% of the native population landless...

...The Office of Hawai'ian Affairs (OHA), the state agency fashioned after the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is the favored choice of the State of Hawai'i as the government for the Kanaka Maoli...

...In 1873, U.S...

...5. Rich Budnick, Stolen Kingdom: An American Conspiracy (Honolulu: Aloha Press, 1992), p. 30...

...4. Marion Kelly, "The Impact of Missionaries and Other Foreigners on Hawai'ians and their Culture," in Ulla Hasager and Jonathan Freidman, eds., Hawai'i: Return to Nationhood, p. 104...

...definition of indigenous peoples that does not recognize the right to self-determination as defined by international tors bow their heads on January 17, 1983 to '00th anniversary of the overthrow of the law, Kanaka Maoli aspirations to choose among the complete range of political-status options may be thwarted...

...While 1.75 million acres of land belonging to the Hawai'ian Kingdom were illegally ceded to the United States upon annexation, Puerto Rico's lands increasingly fell into the hands of absentee plantation owners and the U.S...

...interests in Hawai'i were advanced by Christian missionaries who arrived from Boston in 1820...

...military amassed land holdings that, as of 1939, were sufficient to establish the largest naval complex in the world in an effort to build a second Pearl Harbor in the Caribbean...

...Only a small minority of registered voters (27% or 22,294 voters) voted in favor of the election of delegates.10 All told, 60% did not participate, while 10% voted against the measure...

...6 Economically, both Puerto Rico and Hawai'i were exploited for sugar and labor...

...There are also those of influence and of wise foresight who see a future that must extend the jurisdiction and the limits of this nation, and that will require a resting spot in the mid-ocean, between the Pacific Coast and the vast domains of Asia, which are now opening to commerce and Christian civilization...

...3. Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, "The Role of the Missionaries in the 1893 Overthrow of the Hawai'ian Government: Historical Events, 1820-1893," in Ulla Hasager and Jonathan Freidman, eds., Hawai'i: Return to Nationhood (Copenhagen: IWGIA, 1994), pp...

...The use of the Hawai'ian language in schools was officially banned in 1896...

...Hawai'i Stirrings in the Colony BY Jost Luis MORIN Other groups, such as Ka Pakaukau as well as the Pro-Kanaka Maoli Independence Working Group, promote complete independence for the Kanaka Maoli people through a process of peaceful decolonization and full self-determination that includes the option of independence...

...3 By the 1840s, the missionaries had acquired sufficient power and influence within the native government to begin restructuring Hawai'ian society to their political and economic advantage...

...Marion Kelly, an expert on land tenure at the University of Hawai'i, concludes that approximately 95% of all lands presently controlled by the State of Hawai'i were illegally ceded to the United States upon annexation by the Stanford B. Dole Republic of Hawai'i.1 2 With statehood, the United States transferred most of these ceded lands to the State of Hawai'i to administer in trust for native Hawai'ians and the general public...

...Marines of the U.S.S...

...appeal to it for relief to their wants, and address the president as their great father...

...On January 17, 1993, on the hundredth anniversary of the overthrow of the independent Hawai'ian Kingdom, more than 15,000 Kanaka Maoli-indigenous Hawai'ians-marched to the site of the Kingdom's authority, Iolani Palace in Honolulu, demanding the restoration of Kanaka Maoli sovereignty.' The march reflected a renaissance in culture, language and traditions among people of Kanaka Maoli ancestry...

...Similar language appeared in the bill proposed in the state legislaApproximately 95% of all lands presently controlled by the state of Hawai'i were illegally ceded to the United States by the Stanford B. Dole Republic of Hawai'i upon annexation...

...tariffs for Hawai'ian sugar producers...

...Each of the two nations was coveted by the United Vol XXXI, No 3 Nov/DEc 1997ESSAY/ HAWAI'I States as integral to the consolidation of its global economic and military power...

...cultural domination and forced assimilation...

...Minister to Hawai'i John L. Stevens and U.S...

...economic exploitation of land, labor and resources...

...In 1898, the United States, by Joint Resolution of Congress, annexed Hawai'i...

...The United States took possession of both Hawai'i and Puerto Rico with the use of armed force...

...9 As provided for under the UN Charter and subsequent UN resolutions, these Territories were then to undergo a process of decolonization in which the right to self-determination could be exercised in a free and fair manner...

...Later that year, the U.S...

...108-112...

...The decolonization process under current international legal procedures might thus become unavailable...

...The 1959 plebiscite, nonetheless, produced the particular outcome for which it was designed-the incorporation of Hawai'i into the United States as a state...

...U.S...

...8. Ronald Fernandez, Prisoners of Colonialism: The Struggle for Justice in Puerto Rico (Monroe, ME: Common Courage, 1994), p. 119...

...As with the 1959 statehood plebiscite in Hawai'i, the outcome of the Native Hawai'ian Vote was orchestrated through various legislative maneuvers and fraudulent electoral practices...

...On July 4, 1894, the provisional government proclaimed itself the Republic of Hawai'i, and following a native uprising in 1895, Queen Lili'uokalani, the queen of the Hawai'ian Kingdom, was imprisoned...

...Doc.A/2630 (1953...

...Furthermore, non-Kanaka Maoli-who by 1959 outnumbered the indigenous people-were allowed to vote...

...Secretary of State Hamilton Fish wrote to U.S...

...No.17, at 22, U.N...

...Congress passed a joint resolution signed into law by President Clinton apologizing for the 1893 U.S.-backed overthrow of the independent government of the Kanaka Maoli...

...Moreover, it disenfranchised most Kanaka Maoli by imposing land and wealth requirements for voting...

...Constitution were "domestic dependent nations" that lived "in a state of pupilage...

...In Puerto Rico, English was the official language in schools from 1898 to 1948, and teachers from the United States-many without any knowledge of Spanish-were recruited to carry out the U.S...

...Only 37% of the people who were mailed ballots actually returned them...

...1, 17 (1831...

...Hawai'ian Sovereignty Elections Council, Final Report, December 1996, p. 28...

...6. Regarding English language policies in Hawai'i, see Albert Schultz, The Voices of Eden (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 1994), pp...

...The 1996 Native Hawai'ian Vote represents the latest example of an attempt to undermine the Kanaka Maoli people's right to selfdetermination...

...These figures are due in large part to the success of a boycott against the plebiscite organized by Stop the State-Sponsored Plebiscite-a coalition of Kanaka Maoli organizations that refused to legitimate the vote with their participation...

...For Hawai'i, as with Puerto Rico, the basic elements of U.S...

...Based on this misrepresentation, and without further investigation or monitoring of the election, Hawai'i -together with Alaska-was removed from the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories...

...Minister to Hawai'i Henry Peirce that "[t]here seems to be a strong desire on the part of many persons in the islands, representing large interests and great wealth, to become annexed to the United States...

...Although limited by a disclaimer that the law is not intended to settle claims against the United States, the Apology Law is an admission of the illegal acts committed against the Kanaka Maoli...

...As the white foreign minority aligned with U.S...

...the promotion of economic dependency and wardship status among the people indigenous to the islands...

...He has previously testified before the UN Decolonization Committee on the ques- tion of Puerto Rico's political status and served as one of the prosecutor/advo- cates in the 1993 Peoples International Tribunal in Hawai'i...

...A Native Hawai'ian government beholden to the State of Hawai'i for its creation and legitimacy could cooperate in negotiating away rights to Kanaka Maoli land claims in the same fashion that the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico has transacted the leasing of lands to the U.S...

...It thus validates their claim for unrestricted selfdetermination under international law...