Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 9, 1 September 1986 — Learn from Past Errors [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Learn from Past Errors

By Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

Last month, I and three other trustees attended, at Kotzebue, Alaska, the Inuit (Eskimo) Circumpolar Conference (ICC), made up of Eskimos from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. They are the same people, and speak the same language, but have been taken over by outside forces, as has happened to us Hawaiians.

In Alaska there is mueh eoneem about the Alaskan Native Settlement Claims Act (ANSCA). In 1971, Alaskan native leaders agreed to ANSCA, but I guarantee you> that as an elected leader of the Hawaiian people statewide through OHA, I will never allow our people to be cheated and bilked of money and native 'aina, as is happening right now to the native peoples of Alaska. It is a human tragedy! ANSCA included almost $1 billion and 44,000,000 acres of land. It is also a billion dollars and 'aina that America is offering to us Hawaiians through our Congressional delegation for overtaking our Hawaiian nation. That proposed legislative package is what the Ad Hoe Reparations Committee I was appointed to chair addresses.

We native Hawaiians must make sure that we leam from the horrendous mistakes and failures of ANSCA; the Canadians have also stated they observed and tried to avoid some of the tragic flaws of the Alaskan Settlement Act. We cannot allow the same failures to occur to us native Hawaiians. As an example, at the first elders meeting for ICC in Kotzebue, it was pointed out initially by one elder from Alaska, "my grandchildren born after 1971 is not counted as a native, but as a white man. What ean I do about that?" Since their Claims Act abolishes native rights, possibly nothing ean be done about this situation; however, we Hawaiians must make sure to avoid this pitfall. The congressional delegations legislative package that our Reparations Committee is charged to examine will be brought statewide to you, our eon-

stituents, in 14 workshops to be held for your information and input. This proposed package by the congressional delegation will be published in Ka Wai Ola O OHA for your information soon. Remember to keep this special reparation legislative issue so you may discuss it, share it with your friends and ohana and be ready when OHA goes statewide with this Washington, D.C. offer. However, you must remember that this is not OHA's mana'o, but that of your congressional delegation. We of the Hawaiian community are in the process of analyzing and responding to the proposal.

In perpetuity our children should be able to benefit as natives. Yet our congressional delegation (Spark Matsunaga, Dan Inouye, Cec Heftel and Daniel Akaka) in this legislative proposal calls for an extinguishment of Hawaiian native rights and claims years after we agree to this settlement that will be our Hawaiian Native Claims Act. No way ean we allow our native rights to be extinguished, nor allow our children to be denied their rights and perogatives as native Hawaiians. The grass roots people of Alaska certainly did not realize the ramifications of the Alaskan settlement, but some leadership somehow allowed ANSCA to slip through. We as Hawaiians must be careful of such a legislative catastrophe. We must maka'ala!

The Alaskan Native Claims signed in 1971 states that in 20years native lands ean go into non-native hands. As the 1991 deadline approaches there is grave eoneem in the native village community, as the 13 regional statechartered corporations are almost all bankrupt through mismanagement, graft and corruption. The statechartered corporations are exploiting the 'aina and native people, though the people are shareholders. Canadian ex-Supreme Court Judge Thomas Berger in his book, Village Journey, relates how ANSC A has affected Alaskan native people. Berger went to over 60 villages throughout Alaska, some by mush dogs to find out first-hand from the people the effects of ANSCA on their lives.

The ANSCA money, nearly a billion dollars, eompensation for the extinguishment of aboriginal title, was not paid directly to Alaskan natives nor was it expended directly for their benefit. The eeonomie benefits of ANSCA have been greater for the non-native than for natives . . . [p. 43] Justice Berger also stated that self-government and self-determination for natives (Reagan and Nixon, presidential policy) "are as American as mom's apple

pie." OHA's Reparation Committee on Aug. 12 passed a motion to bring Justice Berger and "Etok" Charles Edwardson Jr., from Barrow, Alaska, to talk to us about Alaskan elaim settlement effects on the people and 'aina. There is mueh for us to leam from both these men. With the failure and bankruptcies of almost all their regional corporations, the native lands have now become corporation assets instead of the peoples' 'aina, as has been the case for thousands of years. ANSCA states that native land (corporate assets) ean be sold off after 1991 as well as hunting and fishing rights to pay off back debts. In the meanhme, the natives who are the shareholders have worthless stock and don't benefit at all.

I was in Bethel along the Kuskokwim River for several days and saw the chief s daughter who had been with us at the ICC Conference further north. She has only received $20 since 1971 as a shareholder, yet last year her Chalista Corporation lost $6 million. Her husband from another region has received less than $100 the past two years; his corporation also lost $6 million last year. This family of three is forced to live in a freezer container, with no running water, for whieh a slum-lord school teacher charges $170 a month and wants to raise the rent. Outside the door is a streamlet of brown rusty, corroded-looking, polluted water, where last yearthere were fish. The husband was a school teacher for seven years, but has not been able to get any kind of a job because of the racism against natives in Alaska. The only persons benefitting from native claims are lawyers and corporate employees, mostly non-natives. With the bankruptcies and worthless stock, the people will lose their 'aina and subsistence lifestyles and will be left with nothing. This ean happen in 1991; hopefully this tragedy ean be avoided. What is worse is that ANSC A was engineered by Congress to unfold this way. We must not allow this to happen to us!

We must insure that our trust lands, ceded and Department of Hawaiian Homes must be kept inalienable. No corporation, not even the holding company that we of OHA are setting up to "make business," ean be allowed to "tie-up" our 'aina as has happeried in Alaska. The land belongs to the people in perpetuity, and that's where the ownership must stay. T o make trust 'aina inalienable means it will always belong to the people; make the land alienahle and it will disappear fast. Queen Emma and Lunalilo Estate lands have become alienated from Hawaiians; now there is no Hawaiian land base there. The Alaska natives are mueh like us, and they aloha our people. There are many Hawaiians living up there and many Alaskan natives have our blood. We sympathize with the Alaska generations will have to live with whatever settlement we make. We must show wisdom, for the ramifications are forever. Ua mau ke'ea o ka 'aina i ka pono.