Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 2, 1 February 2000 — He aha kou manaʻo? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He aha kou manaʻo?

must, uuonee and T T for all, address Native Hawaiian rights and claims. The current executive leadership has continually denied or tried to • undermine claims and settlements to avoid fiscal

responsiDiuty to the Hawaiian people. Don't let leadership fool you when they offer a song and dance that Native Hawaiian claims are responsible for the state's eeonomie woes. We must let everyone know that the government of Hawai'i has a fiduciary duty to Native Hawaiians to process their Hawaiian Home individual claims in a timely manner, complete an inventory of lands subject to public trust imposed by the Admission Act, and give the Office of Hawaiian Affairs its share of revenues ffom ceded lands."

«Th at's a real big question. Definitely I the economy. Everything is continI gent on resources. Let me say that I wasn't too impressed with the speakers in the House. They called for us to have courage, move with boldness and with the spirit of aloha. That's about the only thing Hawaiian I heard. Nothing else was s*aid on the House side, and that's unfortunate. What we need to do is honor the laws that are in the books already like, America has the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. Why are they trvine to dazzle us

with more bureaucracy? What jurisdiction, exactly, does the United Sates have after the overthrow? It's really ironic that in 1900, the formation of the Organie Act made the Queen a citizen of the United States,

even in spite of her protests. Twenty years later, there's an apology bill (the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act). It apologized to half the nation that qualified and quantified land boundaries, 203,500 acres, they called it the Hawai-

ian Homes Act. It violated civil rights by creating two classes of Hawaiians. And that's why we're beefing. The less-than-50-percenters are saying, 'What about me? I'm a Hawaiian'." Iipie issues that we have to address I are the individual claims, and we I have to address ceded lands. What I've done is spht my bill so that the inventory is separate from the money, so if we have some pilikia with the money being seen by some as a potential eap, at least the inventory under the auspices of the legislative auditors will go through. But I feel, we're in a kind of 'catch-22. Until we find out what the inventory is, you're never going to get people to agree on the rest. The problem is that we don't know exactly what the 20 percent due Hawaiians actually is. The other issue is the individual claims for Hawaiian Homes. I would also like the Legislature to address potential outcomes of Rice vs. Cayetano. We have an obligation to educate the public. What I'd like to see is an informational briefing, and I'd like all organizations to participate. We owe the Hawaiian people the effort to inform them on what's going on. Information is critical. Whether people want to eome

out and learn is up to them. I have no control. But I ean help to create the opportunity in my community and beyond. Unfortunately, I'm not sure these are priorities of everyone else. Hawaiian issues and the economy go

hand-in-hand. People have to realize that a lot of the state's ability to do capital improvement projects is all tied to ceded lands issues. It affects our bond rating. When people do bond ratings, they look to how the state operates

and how it is able to address the issues. If they look at us sitting on our hands, waiting for what the court decides, we're not going to eome off as though we know what we're doing. We'll be reactive versus proactive, and that's not going to go over well, and our bond rating will drop. How we address the breaches of our trust is critical. How ean we move on if we can't even address the fundamental issues of Native Hawaiians." ■

Sen. Whitney Andersor Senate Minority Leader Kailua

Rep. Mike Kahikina Wai'anae

Sen. Colleen Hanabusa Chair, Hawaiian Affairs Comm. Wai'anae