Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 2, 1 February 2001 — Discussion Forum [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Discussion Forum

DHHL Ciaims Rosemary I. Patterson, 01/13 Re: Barrett vs. Cayetano It should be remembered historically that the acquisition of the 200,000 acres of homestead land in 1922 was not without considerable cost to Native Hawaiians. Under changes to the Organic Act at that time, 26,000 acres of the very best agriculmral land was left to the jurisdiction of the sugar plantations instead of to groups of at least 25 native Hawaiians who could have banded together to elaim good homestead land. The 200,000 acres of land given, instead, to Native Hawaiians was thirdrate grazing and other lands thought to be of little value at the time. Presumably, if the good land had somehow gotten to Native Hawaiians many would not be so disadvantaged today. It's mind-boggling to think that now all future leases are threatened by people such as Barrett, Freddie Rice and others of their ilk. Historical source - Kamae, L, The Empty Throne, Appendix C -for a detailed look at how the legislation got through the House of Congress in 1922.

DHHL Claims Tane, 01/16 Rosemary: You're right on the kinipōpō! Many of us have been aware of what went on and continues to go on. That's only a small portion of the horror stories the Hawaiians experienced. Moloka'i people were very successful in their agriculture endeavors; but it was costly to ship to O'ahu. Big businesses in Honolulu undercut the Hawaiian farmers on Moloka'i to force them to fail. Moloka'i people are survivors but had to make too many concessions. Some were forced to sublet to the pineapple companies. That's only one of thousands of examples of what's going on. Hawaiian Homelands have also been leased to non-Hawaiians for business purposes. In the Māhele, the tenant Hawaiians were given the most valuable lands to cultivate. They had inherent rights to it. Lands were subject to the rights of the eommon tenant. These people were the backbone of the country and the king knew it. It was the sugar and pineapple plantation owners who were greedy and envious that they did everything in their power to take the land away frorn the native Hawaiians. Sovereignty Anonymous, 01/19

I have sat here and read these messages and it really makes me quite sick to my stomach. In Ameiiea today, whieh weather you like it or not, includes Hawai'i, there is this notion that if you are somehow the victim, or the oppressed, that everybody owes you something. This is simply not true. Being a Jewish-American, I certainly don't think that every German person should have to pay me back because my people were put in concentration camps. That would be ridiculous. Most German people today have nothing to do with those things. This is even more true about the situation in Hawai'i. Your telling me that because some Americans over 100 years ago, many who converted to subjects under the then Hawaiian kingdom, took land from the Hawaiian monarch that I somehow should have to pay my taxpayer's dollars to support what would be another Indian reservation. This was the king's and queen's land. Most Hawaiian people didn't own any land, ever. I invite any Hawaiian to go to an Indian reservation on the mainland. My dearest friend grew up on one. It won't take long to see that govemment handouts do nothing to enhanee the culture of Native Americans and it will not benefit Hawaiians either.

Sovereignty Kaulana, 01/22 Jewish anonymous: Despite the past 2,000 years of intermarriage with other peoples whieh resulted in the Jews no longer having the same ethnic make-up as before, more opportunity has been given to them than to any other ethnicity in this world. Including their own nation, whieh hasn't existed in approximately two millennia. You talk about not wanting your tax dollars to go to the aid of a benighted people; however the United States gives more money to Israel than it does to California. And the populations of the two don't compare. Billions of our taxpayer dollars go to Israel eaeh year. Our "government handouts" built the nation of Israel. Besides this, monetary reparation is still going on today in other places. See http://ww w. state ,gov/ww w/regions/eur/9 70507eizenstat.html to eheek it out yourself. While the plight of the Hawaiians cannot be compared to the Jews in WWII, we demand the same piineiple that your people have operated under reparation. ■

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