Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 9, 1 September 2007 — Kau Inoa presses ahead despite possible threat of legal attack [ARTICLE]

Kau Inoa presses ahead despite possible threat of legal attack

By KWŪ staff Organizers of the Kau Inoa registration drive are pressing ahead with their efforts to eompile a registry of Native Hawaiians who want to participate in the formation of a new Hawaiian government entity, despite a recent demand letter from an attorney who has already filed several lawsuits attacking Hawaiian programs and may now be setting his sights on the Kau Inoa process. In July, Hawai'i Maoli - the nonprofit arm of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs that administers the Kau Inoa records - received a letter from attorney H. William Burgess demanding that five of his non-Hawaiian elients be allowed to register for Kau Inoa. Kau Inoa registrants are required to provide verification that they are of Native Hawaiian ancestry. Kau Inoa, or "plaee your name," was launched in 2004 by a

eoalihon of Hawaiian conununity leaders as the first stage in forming a new Hawaiian governing entity empowered to negotiate on behalf of the Hawaiian people in critical matters such as land issues and protection of native rights and assets. "Kau Inoa is the first and absolutely key step of gathering a list of people of Hawaiian ancestry willing to participate in the process," said Clyde Nāmu'o, administrator of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, whieh is supporting the Kau Inoa effort. Nāmu'o emphasized that Kau Inoa is separate and distinct from the Akaka bill that seeks federal recognition for Native Hawaiians. Nāmu'o said no taxpayer money is being spent by OHA in support of the Kau Inoa registration effort. Instead, OHA is expending trust funds gained through ceded land revenues to support Hawai'i Maoli, whieh so far has processed more than 70,000 registration fonns.

The five clients I whom Burgess demanded be allowed to register for Kau Inoa are Thurston Twigg-Smith, Patricia Ann Carroll, Toby Miehael Kravet, Earl Lrancis Arakaki and Garry Paul Smith. All but Smith were plaintiffs in the recently dismissed Amkaki vs. Lingle litigation that sought to abolish government benefits to Native Hawaiians. The most widely known of the plaintiffs is Twigg-Smith, former publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser and a longtime opponent of Hawaiianpreference programs, who is a descendant of early missionaries to Hawai'i and the grandson of Lorrin A. Thurston, one of the chief architects of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. "The submission of these applications by my clients should not be construed as supporting creation of a Hawaiian government. Rather, all five of them wish to vote in all elections in

whieh important public issues are being considered or public officials are being elected," wrote Burgess, who is also among a number of opponents of Hawaiian programs who were recently appointed to the Hawai'i State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (see story on page 8). Hawai'i Maoli officials said they would process the applieations received by Burgess' clients as they would any other applieations. OH A Administrator Nāmu'o told the Advertiser that applieations from non-Hawaiians are kept in a separate file and are not added to the Kau Inoa database. "Like other native nations in the U.S., such as the American Indians and Alaska Natives, this is an attempt to build a native nation," Nāmu'o said during an online Advertiser discussion forum on Aug. 16. "It is for Hawaiians to

eome together and decide what their nation will look like. After forming a nation, they may choose to include non-Hawaiians the way other native nations have." Kau Inoa supporters expect that Burgess' demand letter is the first salvo in what is likely to become yet another of his lawsuits against Hawaiian programs. "I'd say that's certainly a possibility, maybe even probable," Burgess told the Advertiser. "If the registry to be used for creating a new govemment entity is racially exclusive, or if it's restricted by race ... it would be very likely that a ehallenge would be made to that." While Nāmu'o told the paper that any discussion of a lawsuit is "extremely premature since no one has been hanned," he said that "if a lawsuit is filed, we believe that we will prevail." S

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