Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 12, 1 December 1985 — OHA Asks Congress to Support Blood lssue [ARTICLE]

OHA Asks Congress to Support Blood lssue

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs called for strong support of immediate Congressional consent on proposals to ease requirements that successors of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands be half Hawaiian. In testimony on U.S. House Joint Resolution 17 presented before the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C., OHA Chairman Joseph G. Kealoha Jr. strongly called for the adoption of Resolution 17. The Hawaii State Legislature already has passed a law whieh allows individuals to inherit homestead lands if they are just one quarter Hawaiian. Because the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 is a joint federal-state legislation, congressional approval is needed before the lowered blood requirement ean be put into effect. The proposed legislation is for lowered blood requirement for successorship only. New homesteaders must meet the original 50 percent requirement.

Kealoha told the committee, whieh is headed by Congressman Morris Udall, that the proposed amendments to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, made in Act 272, Session Laws of Hawaii 1982, accomplishes: • Reduction of Hawaiian blood quantum requirement of a spouse or offspring of a homestead lessee for successorship purposes from 50 to 25 percent. • Elimination of the requirement for a lease to designate a successor at the time of the homestead award. • Iimitation of qualified successors whom the Commission may name in case the lessee fails to designate a successor. Kealoha observed that there are many horror stories related to the eviction of families from DHHL homestead areas. Many Hawaiian families, he noted, lost their homesteads when a half Hawaiian parent died, leaving no children or heirs who had the necessary 50 percent requirement. This caused a split up of many families and even friction developed

among some of them. The OHA ehaimnan pointed out that according to a recent OHA survey, only 27 percent of the total native Hawaiian population meets the 50 percent blood quantum requirement. This translates to a total of approximately 49,000 Hawaiians who may qualify for either a homestead award or successorship under the current Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. Additionally, this pool of Hawaiians with 50 percent or more blood quantum is generally older than the state population, thus the number qualifying as successors is also dwindling. Kealoha reminded the committee that the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 established an important Hawaiian program designed to help native Hawaiians return to the land with their families. The amendments prop>osed will strengthen the program by allowing native Hawaiian families to remain on the land whieh was designated for their use, he concluded.