Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 4, 1 April 1997 — Ceded lands issue based in history [ARTICLE]

Ceded lands issue based in history

When the Kingdom of Hawai'i was overthrown in 1893, Hawaiians lost control of about 1 .8 million acres of govemment and crown lands. When the United States annexed the Republic of Hawai'i in 1898, the republic ceded — tumed over possession of — all this land to the U.S. In 1900, Hawai'i became an Amenean territory, and for the next half century, the ceded lands were controlled by the federal govemment. But in fact, mueh of the land was used by large plantations and others for nominal rents. More than half a million acres were taken by the U.S. Govemment for military, nahonal parks, and other uses. In 1920 about 190,000 acres were set aside for the establishment of Hawaiian Home Lands, one of the only uses of ceded lands that directly benefitted native Hawaiians. The Admission Act of 1959 officially transferred a portion of the ceded lands — approximately 1.2 million acres — back to the new State. As a compact of Hawai'i's statehood, the United States govemment required that all such lands were

to be considered a public land trast. The proceeds and ineome from ceded lands were to be used to benefit native Hawaiians and for other specific purposes. It took another 20 years until the state implemented the public land trast required of the Admission Act. At the 1978 State Constitutional Convention, advocates stipulated that Hawaiian people were a specific tmst beneficiary. After voter ratification of the constitutional amendment that created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), the state Legislature established (Chapter 10 Hawai'i Revised Statutes) that OHA's pro rata share would be 20 percent of the ineome from the use of ceded lands. The major portion of OHA's funding comes from revenue generated from the use of ceded lands. Act 304 was passed by the legislature in 1990 to resolve disputes over OHA's share of revenues. This increased OHA's share of annual revenue from just over $1 million then, to an average of $12.3 million since. Recent legal decisions suggest that OHA's share of ceded lands should be increased.