Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 6, 1 June 1999 — The voyage continues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The voyage continues

ĪHE HISTORY of OHA's negotiations for Hawaiian entitlements has been a long, twisted and sometimes agonizing voyage. More than twelve years ago, I wrote in Ka Wai Ola that OHA was like a eanoe, voyaging on a journey toward a destination, a dream. But it was a eanoe without a paddle and without a rudder. A eanoe whose sails were not yet raised. We have eome a long way since those early days. But let's not be fooled! Although our destination is clear, our paddlers on board and our paddles in the water, the oeean is not smooth. We keep running into hidden currents, conflicting winds and inclement weather. These are not just random bumps to stay the course of the journey. These cross currents are impediments meant ,to wear us down, change our course and divert us from our vision. These rip tides are positioned to confuse us and divide our resolve, I recognize the signs because I have been on this jour-

ney for a long time, since well before the eanoe was built and its keel laid. Mueh has been said about the course of our negotiations with the state regarding our ceded lands dispute. The issue has been clouded with too many focal points. Let's be clear about this phase of our entitlement negotiations. OHA's position against a global settlement of the ceded land issues has not changed, regardless of statements to the contrary. The focus of the current negotiations is a direct result of unresolved issues left open in the original initial settlement prompted by ACT 304 of 1992. These are the issues that the state has consistently and persistently refused to address at the bargaining table. These are the issues addressed in our law suit on whieh Judge Heely issued his affirmative decision. These are the issues, the only issues that we have addressed for the last two years in our meetings with the

governor and his negotiation team - the issues that the Supreme Court requested OHA and the state attempt to resolve. Our negotiations center around how mueh is owed to OHA and not whetner or not monies are owed from the four previously excluded and disputed revenue streams. For more than a year, the state's position has been that nothing was owed regardless of the court's original decision on this matter. The

log jam was broken only within the last few months when the state presented figures for discussion on what it felt was equivalent to 20 percent of the revenue collected from the disputed areas. OHA made an appropriate response on April 1, whieh contained figures from our own research. From April 1 up to and including April 25, there was no response ffom the state. It was not our laek of trying that stifled a settlement on these issues, but a laek of response. The media-enhanced "global settlement" was not a board position, nor did it originate from members of the board. It was an issue of the state and was never a part of this negotiations nor was it a part of the Heely decision. This was what ultimately held up the negotiations. It had nothing to do with OHA's laek of effort and everything to do with the state's laek of focus. Again, the hidden currents below the surface of the seas have affected and are attempting to alter the canoe's course. All of us are prepared to negotiate a just settlement, but the state has no right to try to determine the course of our eanoe or to alter the relationships of the people in our eanoe. Let's take that message to the courts and ask its assistance in supervising the state's effort to ensure fairness to all parties. "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." Exodus 14:14 ■

"It was not our laek of trying that stifled a settlement on these issues, but a laek of response."

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TRUSTEE MESSAGES

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