Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 6, 1 June 1990 — Trustees vote is unanimous [ARTICLE]

Trustees vote is unanimous

OHA for amending Hawaiian Homes Act

By Ann L. Moore OHA trustees unanimously favor the U.S. Senate and House bills to amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act to reaffirm the U.S. and state fiduciary responsibility towards homesteaders. Trustees, in an Apnl 27 resolution, said the federal and state governments must share responsibility for past mistakes and work together to insure the intention of the original Home Lands Act is fulfilled — to settle Hawaiians on Hawaiian land. The amendments now before Congress will clarify and reaffirm the trust duties of the state and federal government to support the settlement of native Hawaiians on Hawaiian Home Lands, trustees said. This includes money for water, electri-

city, sewers and other infrastructure so native Hawaiians ean build homes. Trustees feel the proposed HHA amendments will provide a basis for substantial federal involvement in resolving the massive problems the state cannot solve alone. Trustees, several of whom are homesteaders, also support speeding up homestead awards so eligible Hawaiians (those of 50 percent or more Hawaiian blood) ean settle on Home Lands. In the resolution, trustees acknowledged the extraordinary.efforts of state and federal legislators who have recently dealt with the Hawaiian Home Lands issue in an open and forthright manner and by this have given everybody a ehanee to present their case and receive consideration. The OHA trustees now in office participated in the homestead hearings in August 1989 held by

the Senate Oversight Committee chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D.-Hawai'i). During those hearings trustees demonstrated their understanding and increased their working knowledge of the historic problems of the Act and possible solutions to those problems. Six years earlier, as a fledgling agency, OHA provided funds for the Federal-State Task Force on Hawaiian Home Lands. OHA trustees were on the task force. As a result of the task force's work, 134 recommendations were made to correct past failures in implementing the act. Since its establishment in 1980, OHA and its trustees have fought for the rights of the people on the waiting list of the Hawaiian Homes Commission to settle on the land.