Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 2, 1 February 1998 — AUTONOMY BILL [ARTICLE]

AUTONOMY BILL

This is to Speaker Joe Souki and the House of Representatives. The autonomy hill has all the fixings of the "Great Māhele" whieh alienated Native Hawaiians from their land and allowed missionaries and their families to acquire vast holdings. That set the stage for the illegal overthrow, annexation and statehood. The autonomy bill is an affront to the memory of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, author of the Hawaiian Homes act. A personal friend to my father,.grince Kūhiō admitted he was dissatisfied with the Act because the sugar and pineapple people lobbied to include the worst lands. Ed Case's bill adds insult to injury. It creates a reservation controlled by the legislature and the governor. It strips away self-determination and completely abolishes our right to 1.8 million acres of trust lands. It ignores the recommendations of "Broken Trust," the report on 70 years of mismanagement by the state and federal governments. Mr. Case was placed in his position by the powers that be. Speaker Souki and members of the House, how ean you condone legislation so harmful to the host people and culmre of this land? Is this the thanks we get for sharing our aloha? Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell, Sr. Pukalani, Maui We eall on Representative Ed Case's "silent majority" to condemn his proposed Native Hawaiian Autonomy Act whieh: • undermines kanaka maoli exercise of sovereignty and self-determination by creating a Native Hawaiian Trust Corporation (NHTC), under state and federal government eontrol, to replace OHA and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. • restricts kanaka maoli land claims and allows further loss of our lands. NHTC will eontrol only Hawaiian Home Lands, Kaho'olawe and those historical and cultural sites approved by the state. After 10 and 25 years, these lands ean be leased and sold, respectively, to non-kanaka maoli. • reinforces kanaka maoli wardship and dependency. NHTC will depend on state

and federal funds to manage all land, heahh, language, culture, education, housing and other services to our kanaka maoli, the most deprived people in our homeland. • designates NHTC as responsible for kanaka maoli claims against the state and federal governments when NHTC is to be created by, and will be beholden to, these governments. Kanaka maoli assertions of our rights threaten eolonial eeonomie interests. To protect business profits, Ed Case et al want to undercut our rights to self-determination and sovereignty and deny us kanaka maoli an internationally recognized process of decolonization. Kekuni Blaisdell Honolulu

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Ka Leo Kaiaulu