Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 11, 1 November 1991 — Wall Street Journal article illustrates neglect at DHHL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Wall Street Journal article illustrates neglect at DHHL

by Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

The outstanding Wall Street Journal article by Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Faludi sheds a weleome light on the neglect that has permeated the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) since its inception.

i he truth hurts — witness the po!iticians and governmenta! appointees dodge and dance around making excuses and pointing fingers. Our people have been told to ho'omanawanui, be patient, for more than a century. We Hawaiians have been forced into arrest on DHHL lands in Waimea with Sonny Kaniho and over 50 of us — men, women, and children — at Hilo Airport Labor Day in 1978. Again, there was Waimanalo Beach Park, and Anahola Beach because DHHL and the state and federal government have failed to respond and adequately address the problems that exist. We Hawaiians should not be forced to commit these acts of civil disobedience (as did Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) in order to draw attention to the plight of our people.

Faludi s Wall Street Journal article goes a long way toward pointing out the historical realities of why Hawaiians are where we are in getting back our land. I had the pleasure of meeting with Susan Fa!udi while she was in Hawai'i. Hopefully, the nahonal attention will help right the dismal wrongs of this program. It is tragic while the Wall Street Journal expose on DHHL lands was causing such a squall, members of the Kamaka family were being sentenced by Judge Harold Fong to from two to six-and-a-half years in mainland federal prisons. Several years ago in my trustees' eolumn, I related to you about the Kamaka 'ohana and their attempts to get back their beautifu! 'aina in Waikane Valley from the U.S. military. For years the military had leased this 'ohana 'aina for their manuevers. The understanding was that the military would remove the artillery shells and clear the property of all munitions upon return of the land.

But the military now says they don't want to clear the 'aina of their dangerous 'opala because it would be too costly; the federal government would instead condemn and purchase the land from the Kamaka 'ohana. This 'ohana doesn't want the money. They want this 'aina as a legacy to their children for generations to eome. It is crueily ironic that next to this Kamaka property Japanese developers are trying to get permits to build a goif course. There were also military manuevers on that parcel — one woman recently broke her leg falling over an artillery shell casing there. Yetthisland wasneithercondemned nor confiscated.

Interviewed on loeal TV news, Raymond Kamaka asked if his land was being confiscated because he's Hawaiian, while the Kepani investor next door proposes to bui!d a golf course. It's an excellent question that needs an answer. Smells like a rat! Out of frustration from the years of struggle to maintain their family 'aina at Waikane, grasping at straws for help Raymond Kamaka, Nathan Brown, Diane and Joseph Hoapili and Windyceslau Lorenzo took the advise of four mainlanders and others involved in a religiousbased tax scheme and allegedly filed false tax information to harass powerful Hawaii public officials. Charges were brought against these Hawaiians,

and a trial by jury went on for weeks in federal court. Judge Fong sentenced the Hawaiians to federal prison, although the judge claimed to be lenient in sentencing Raymond Kamaka to two years since he was aware of his land problems with the military at Waikane. The judge condescendingly lectured these Hawaiians that they used the wrong means to address their eoneem and plight as native peoples, and that they should have used other legal means to address the situation. Who is he kidding? As if the legal system has ever been sympathetic, understanding or responsive to the injustices inflicted upon the Hawaiian people!

lt is a travesty of justice that these Hawaiians received stiff sentences of years in federal prison (now on appeal) for trying to exercise their right as native people and to protect their family 'aina. According to an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on Sept. 28, "The Hawaiians tried to convince the jury that they thought they were taking legal steps to recoup money they felt they were owed

because of the loss of Hawaiian lands to the U.S. government." These determined Hawaiians felt there was no other recourse for them, and those of us aware of the history of U.S.-Hawaii relations cannot really blame them. lt is a sad commentary of this American system that these citizens felt compelled to grasp for justice through these pathetic means as their only alternative. It is a enme that they received these sentences being that there was no actual damage or harm done to any of these public officials. This is Amenean justice to Hawaiians in their own homeland.

These people are victims, symbols of the plight of the Hawaiian nation up against the wall, defenseless in a bureaucratic runaround that reeks of favoritism, nepotism and profiteering on land that was onee all Hawaiian. Lest we forget these are the Hawaiian islands, and we are the Hawaiian people! Malama Pono. Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.