Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 12, 1 December 1997 — LAND RIGHTS [ARTICLE]

LAND RIGHTS

More than 90 percent of native Hawaiians today would not give up their birth right as American citizens for absolute sovereignty. Therefore, why continue to spend money, time and energy in the fanatic pursuit of sovereign action? Revolutionary Hawaiian nationalism is by no means the consensus. The United States will never tolerate an independent sovereign nation within its borders. At best, native Hawaiians ean expect benefits equal to those of native Americans. We have endured 104 years of injustice. The road back to our land has been filled with potholes of power politics, friction among ourselves, corruption, anarchy and misrule. Needed today is a strategic plan to acquire some of the 1.7 million acres of former crown and govemment land held by the federal, state and county governments. At the overthrow, the Hawaiian populahon was 40 percent of the total. Using this percentage, an equitable land division for native Hawaiians would total 680,000: 203,000 for beneficiaries at least 50 percent Hawaiian and 477,000 for Hawaiians of less blood quantum. We must approach the issue of sovereign rights to land from a practical point of view. James G. Y Ho Honolulu