Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 3, 1 March 2009 — A Ceded lands historical view [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Ceded lands historical view

First, the attorney general requests the U.S. Suprenre Court reverse the Hawai'i Suprenre Court ruling on ceded lands and that they ean be sold or nranaged by the state. Then the Honolulu Advertiser reports on Dec. 6 that the second request is to give the state the status of ownership of the ceded lands and not only the nranagement. The second request also indicates that this contentious question should be satisfied by legislation. But the question has already been settled by legislation when the Congress in 1993 passed the Apology Bill, Puhlie Law 103-150, enunrerahna all of the overreachin2 elenrents of the 1898 Hawai'i

annexation. Further, the U.S. Iustice Departnrent had already issued on Oct. 4, 1988, a menrorandum to the U.S. State Departnrent questioning under what law was Hawai'i annexed in 1898 because no law ean be found for such activity. Ten years later in 1998, after a nine-year investigation, a United Nations representative issued a statenrent published in the Honolulu Star-BuIIetin that the purported annexation of Hawai'i was invalid. Citing the Newlands Resolution as the authority to effect a valid annexation of Hawai'i is disingenuous and evasive. The only constitutional nrethod is by a consensual treaty, and as noted in the Constitution, and not by a resolution intending to annex Hawai'i in 1898. Why was Hawai'i annexed? One reason was the impetus or annexing of Johnston Island 700 nriles southwest of Hawai'i by the British warship Chanrpion in June of 1892, or a nrere six nronths before the planned Hawai'i landing of arnred troops fronr the U.S. Boston. (Telegrams fronr the battle cruiser Boston sent by Capt. Wiltse indicate that the Hawai'i residents favored See HISTORICAL VIEW on page 24

Editor's note: In light ofthe U.S. Supreme Court review ofthe ceded lands case, KWO is publishing in lieu of Letters to the Editor two commentaries on the issue - one is written by Megan Au, a graduate student at the University ofHawai'i at Mānoa 's School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the other by Buzzv Agard, a well-known figure in the Hawaiian community.

KŪKĀKŪKĀ ■ COMMUNIĪY FDRUM

An estimated 5,000 people marched down Kalōkaua Avenue to protect ceded lands during the Jan. 1 7 KO I Ka Pono march and rally. - Photo: LisoAsoto

By Buzzy Agard

HISĪ0RICAL VIEW CūntinuEd fram page 22

the British over the Americans if there was a ehoiee.) A second reason to annex Hawai'i was the developing of the Spanish-American War. A war that Spain did not want to fight but was forced into because the U.S. battleship Maine was anchored in Havana, Cuba, bay on Feb. 16, 1898, when it terrifyingly blew up and ruptured its bottom plates and went to the bottom of the bay. Spain was blamed for the incident and the calls from William Randolph Hearst of the Hearst newspapers to wage war caused the weak President McKinley to declare war and Conunodore George Dewey's newer steel-clad American cruiser fleet of ships destroyed the older Spanish Armada of wooden ships. Decades later when an investigation was made of the Maine at rest where it sank it was found that the ship's steel plates blew outward and not inward like from a torpedo. The eonelusion was that the ship's engine room boilers were too closely located to the fuel tanks and caused the explosion and sinking of the Maine. Later naval vessels had a correction made to the loeahon of the engine room boilers, whieh increased their distance from the fuel tanks. Spain lost its colonies in this war and Hawai'i was annexed to fight this war and all wars thereafter. Curiously the cruiser Maine in "showing it colors," caused the SpanishAmerican War. ( Chronicle of America, pages 518-519) It is of interest that during the Civil War, Confederate ships would cruise the CaribbeanandcarryoutraidsagainstUnion stations. After the Spanish-American War, Spain's colonies in the Caribbean eame under victorious American influence. Cuba had a status and gave up parts of Cuba including Guantanamo, Puerto Rico was annexed but its populaee did not vote for the president. Little Santo Domingo voted against joining the Union. And may serve as a future nation example for small independents like Hawai'i. It is also of interest that during the 1898 congressional debates to annex Hawai'i, Gen. lohn Schofield was on the floor of Congress for hours to encourage annexing Hawai'i. Schofield had eome to Hawai'i 26 years earlier in 1872 to survey Hawai'i for military purposes. Schofield's presenee has ended in a large military barracks being named after him. Schofield was to testify, "We have pre-empted in Hawai'i

and no nation will oppose us, but if we do not acquire title to those islands in the future we will have lost them forever." A question here is what was Schofield talking about, title to Hawai'i, when he made the warnings about Hawai'i on the floor of the Congress in the 1898 annexation debates as it relates to the present day. During the proceedings to annex Hawai'i in 1898 a congressman in frustration was to say, "You are trying to do something illegally whieh you cannot do legally." After the two attempts had been made to annex Hawaii by treaty first in 1894, whieh failed, and then again in 1897, whieh also failed. Then the Newlands Resolution was introduced as how Texas joined the Union in 1845 as an example that should be followed. But Texas was also a required contiguous state and its electorate had agreed and ratified the annexation. Whereas the Hawai'i electorate had opposed annexation by a giant 38,000-signature petition in 1897 and had it served on President McKinley. Incoming president Grover Cleveland withdrew this second treaty from consideration and Lili'uokalani's restoration due to an act of war caused by the landing of anned troops in Hawai'i and also called for reparations. Hawai'i was a peaceful neutral nation and did not threaten any other nation. The U.S. Iustice memo of Oct. 4, 1988, appears to refer to this history of no apparent annexation or legal conveyance of ceded lands. But this action also raises the question of what was the Republic of Hawai'i, whieh received $3.8 million in a like sale of Hawai'i. The Republic of Hawai'i had no treaties with any nations large or small. Nor did it have more than 90 consulates and embassies worldwide like Hawai'i had and its legitimacy is suspect. Neither did the Republic send young people worldwide to study diplomacy and governmental procedures. What was the Republic of Hawai'i, a name only? After the 1893 intervention and landing of anned troops there followed in 1894 the declaring of the Republic of Hawai'i on the Fourth of Iuly 1894 on a date surely to be celebrated as a day of independence and an American holiday. Then the Republic combined in 1895 the Crown and Govermnent lands as Puhlie Lands of 2.6 million acres but ceded only 1.8 million acres to the U.S. in the 1898 annexation. What happened to the differenee between 2.6 million and 1.8 million, or 800,000 acres, in addition to the $3.8 million dollars paid the Republic to oper-

ate its government? Was the Republic acting as an accessory-after-the-fact or a collaborator? Monetary benefits paid to the Republic was to the wrong recipient, as the Republic had nothing to give but in effect had quitclaimed the ceded lands to the U.S. for whatever interest the Republic might have claimed to have had. A state judge* has written an essay that points out that the Republic of Hawai'i did not have any authority to convey or the approval of the native stakeholders to cede their lands as their government had been disabled. Therefore no conveyanee of title ever occurred, whieh is what the 1988 Iustice memo appears to point out. *(See A Case for Reparations for Hawaiians, Karen N. Blondin) After the 1893 intervention, all Hawai'i's treaties had been canceled by a third party who had not joined the treaty making but took the liberty to eaneel all treaties existing between Hawai'i and some 20 nations without itself being a signatory to all those international treaties. It's of note that as the Reciprocity Treaty was redrafted in 1887, and that if the U.S. were to eaneel that treaty, it would apparently have no further authority to access Pearl Harbor. One hundred years after the 1898 Hawai'i annexation, in 1998, the United Nations after a nine-year investigation sent a rapporteur, or representative, of the United Nations to Hawai'i to announee in the Star-Bulletin newspaper that the 1898 annexation of Hawai'i was not valid and equated to an unequal treaty and therefore rendered invalid. At the same time the Connecticut Journal of International Law (Volume 5, Spring 1990, Number 2) has also found the annexation of Hawai'i was an unequal treaty example and invalid, citing human society suffers consequences of eolonial rule where more powerful nations dominate weaker ones. Hawai'i in 1920 appeared to have been granted a benefit with the Hawaiian Rehabilitation Act or the Hawaiian Homes Conunission Act (HHC) of 1920. The first part of the Act identified the benefits of rehabilitation but the second part of the Act cites Colonization of Hawai'i and makes classes of inhabitant people by a blood quantmn, whieh is forbidden under the constitution and has perpetrated law suits pertaining to the 14th amendment. Buzzy Agard, is a Honolulu researcher and writer of Hawaiian issues. This is an excerpt from his forthcoming publication on the history of ceded lands, plannedfor release by the end of2009. E