Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 1, 1 January 2000 — RECONCILIATION: [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RECONCILIATION:

Reconciliation hearings reveal frustration, pain and thoughts of independence

By Manu Boyd Despite pouring rain, hundreds of Hawaiians and supporters flocked to the East-West Center's Keoni Auditorium for the reconciliation hearings, held Dec. 10 and 11. The all-day public hearings, preceded bv five neighbor

island community forums, resulted from language in Public Law 105-130, commonly known as the "Apology Resolution." Specifically, section 1.4 of the 1993 resolution states, "The Congress expresses its commitment to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, in order to provide a proper foundation for reconciliation between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people." Six years later, at the urging of Senator Daniel K. Akaka, federai representatives were assigned the arduous task of information gathering and fact finding. John Berry, assistant secretary, policy, management and budget for the Department of the Interior, and Mark Van Norman, director of the Office of Tribal Justice of the Depart-

ment of Justice were in Hawai'i Dec. 4 - 1 1 to listen, gather information and make recommendations relative to the plight of Hawaiians resulting from the 1893 illegal overthrow and subsequent annexation. Not since 1893, when President Cleveland assigned Senator James Blount to investi-

gate the overthrow, have federal officials had such an assignment. Blount's report revealed that the vast majority of Hawaiians supported Queen Lili'uokalani and the restoration of the kingdom. He admonished Congress not to sup-

port any treaty of annexation but to restore the queen to her throne. The succeeding administration of President William McKinley did not follow the recommendations of its predecessor. "John Berry was very impressed and

impacted by the hearings, and understood the haumia (atrocity, abomination) felt by many of our people," said Kahu Charles Kauluwehi Mawell of Pukalani, Maui, who served as moderator for the hearings. "One hundred years of oppression and colonization have made many of our people very bitter. The 1 l-hour meeting on Dec. 10 was exhausting. There was so mueh pain," Maxwell reported. Senator

I Akaka, who I authored the I Apology ResoI lution, incorpoI rated reconciliaI tion language in I the document to I establish permaI nency in the I ongoing diaI logue between I the federal government and the Hawaiian people; to establish a

framework for a process; and to take maximum advantage of the year remaining in the Clinton administration to focus on socio-economic See RECONCILIATION on page 9

Kahu Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell

John Berry, United States Department of the lnterior's assistant secretary, policy, management and budget.

BOARD BUSINESS From page 1

Hawaiian Home Lands trust. Since the state is unahle to make good on its promise to help Hawaiians, it is now the responsibility of OHA trustees to work as a team and carry the ball that the state has fumbled. This allocation by the OHA board will assist in helping those who are in danger of losing any opportunity to continue their cases if they do not file a

iawsun againsi me state by Dec. 31." The 1991 law addressed wrongs allegedly perpetrated by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands between Aug. 21, 1959 and June 30, 1988. The panel functioned as a neutral body that determined whieh claims for damages had suffīcient merit to be

recommended for funding to the Legislature. According to Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney Melissa Seu, "Some 2,800 Hawaiians filed claims based on lost apphcations for homesteads, substandard construction, DHHL's failure to timely qualify an applicant as Native Hawaiian, and excessive waits, sometimes a lifetime, for a homestead." Of the 2,752 claims fīled while the panel was active, 874 were dismissed

and 418 were reported to the Legislature. Fewer than 100 other claims decided by the panel did not make it to the Legislature before the veto. The remaining 1,376 were awaiting a hearing by the panel. According to Seu no successful claimant has received any money in damages yet. The State of Hawai'i's discomfort with the claims panel goes back several years. In 1997, the Legislature tried to amend the 1991 law with a measure creating a "working group" to review claims by Hawaiians dissatisfied with the notoriously long waits. Damages for wait-list claims, constitutine 60 percent of all

claims filed, would have been excluded from the panel process according to criteria to have been applied by the "working group" consisting mainly of appointees from the governor's cabinet. But 68 Hawaiians filed suit alleging the statute violated due process and Circuit Judge Marie Milks agreed, holding it iinrnnctitntinnfl1

The measure surfaced again in 1999 but the Legislators instead passed House Bill 1675 extending the panel for another year and establishing a commission to eome up with other options for Hawaiians. The governor, however, concluded that the panel had taken too long and that the waits for a homestead should not be compensated. "Now the claimants' only recourse is to fīle their claims in circuit courts by Dec. 31," said Seu. Ka Wai Ola has run

several announcements to alert Hawaiians to the deadline. At its Dec. 1 meeting in Līhu'e, the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs further considered candidates to fill the Kaua'i/Ni'ihau seat of retired Trustee Moses Keale. The position remains vacant. Turning to the Dec. 14 agenda, the trustees who met in Kona bifurcated a motion to accept Hannah Springer's resignation as vice chair of the board and appoint Trustee Louis Hao to the position. Trustee Springer's resignation was accepted but the position remains vacant. The trustees voted to rescind $417,741.77 in appropriations either not spent in a timely manner or allocated to programs no longer relevant: $13,459 to fund a quarter-time position with the Positives Connections Program, a selfesteem promoting, goal setting and drug prevention program for students in grades K-12; $75,000 for the Hawai"i Food Bank's never implemented proposed joint venture; $16,100 for the survey, appraisal, sub-division and eonveyance of approximately 35 acres of land surrounding and including Kukii Heiau in the Kapaho district on Hawai'i, proposed for transfer to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; $21,400 for the FY-97 OHA Hawaiian Fellowship Program in the office of Senator Daniel Inouye; $215,000 for a series of outsourced financial audits utilizing small firms of certified public accountants now considered irrelevant and not costeffective; $76,782.77 remaining from a $150,000 appropriation designated to fund a temporary work force for the purpose of collection, sorting and clas-

sifying data stored throughout OHA. The trustees also affirmed OHA's position there will be no supplemental request to the Legislature for additional general funds for FY-01. The board deferred action on funding, through Papa Ola Lokahi, for the annual Traditional Healing Practices Conferenee; Alu Like Inc.'s continuation of its Native Hawaiian Substance Abuse Prevention Program in FY-00; a Hana Community Health Center Campus feasibility study and business plan and its implementation; Hana Community Health Center's maintenance of an appropriate level of health care in Hāna during that fiscal year; and continuation Hina Malailena, the Hana Community Summer School Project's academic curriculum integrating Hawaiian culture. The trustees also deferred action on an item authorizing $4,681,259 in trust funds to be used as the trust-fund-only portion of the Base Operating Budget for FY-2001. Additionally they deferred consideration of an item whieh would have appropriated $500,000 in trust funds toward the construction of the Ho'olehua Recreation Center, a collaboration with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands on Moloka"i, $345,841 to be released to DHHL and $145,159 to be held pending evidence that matching funds have beelfsecured. This item included the condition that the Memorandum of Agreement relating to these funds specifically state that the center and its commercial kitchen be available to all beneficiaries whether or not they are homesteaders. It also required a request seeking the advice of OHA's investment consultant on the withdrawal of these funds from OHA's portfoho. The board rejected an appropriation of $30,000 to conduct 16 statewide budget presentations on or before June 30. ■

It is now the responsibihty of OHA trustees to work as a team and carry the ball that the state has fumbled.,, Rowena Akana Chair, Board of Trustees