Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 7, 1 July 2014 — Feds' governance hearing attracts hundreds [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Feds' governance hearing attracts hundreds

By Lisa Asato Public hearings in Hawai'i will soon wrap up on whether the federal government should take steps to re-establish a government-to-government relationship with Native Hawaiians, but the public has until Aug. 19 to provide comment. Comments are being solicited online and through mail from Native Hawaiians, federally recognized Indian tribes, the State of Hawai'i, state agencies and the community at large. "We want the broadest possible public input with people with every possible view, so

this is just the start of a long and extensive process," Sam Hirsch, acting attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said after the first hearing. The June 23 hearing at the state Capitol auditorium attracted an overflow crowd, with people sitting on the lloor as 143 speakers testified - the majority in opposition to the Interior Department's involvement on an issue some said rightly belongs in the State Department - on a nation-to-nation basis. The Hawaiian nation still exists, they said, because, among other things,

the U.S. Senate failed to pass a treaty of annexation and instead relied on a joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawai'i - a lower bar that falls short of the authority of a treaty. Bumpy Kanahele, wearing a "Hawaiian by Birth" T-shirt, told the federal panel not to interfere in Hawaiian govemance. "I'magainst this process," said Kanahele, of the Nahon of Hawai'i. "We don't need you folks to eome in and tell us what to do. Let us figure out how to govem ourselves." Nā'ālehu Anthony, vice chair of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, urged the department to develop a pathway "unique to the needs of the Native Hawaiian people at our point in history." He said the commission was supportive of actions to lay the groundwork for "possibilities without predetermining the terms of any relationship." Earlier attempts at federal recognition of

Native Hawaiians - similar to the status of American Indians and Alaska Natives - had been unsuccessful in Congress since 2000. It passed several times in the U.S. House but never achieved the supermajority of votes needed in the Senate. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Native Hawaiian and the chief sponsor of the bill, retired in 2013. At the June 23 hearing, he gave the opening pule, or prayer. The hearings eome as the Interior Department weighs whether to propose an administrative rule that would enable a govemment-to-govemment relationship with the Hawaiian community. In a statement, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that during a visit to the islands in 2013 she leamed "firsthand about Hawai'i's unique history and the importance of the special trust relationship that exists between the federal govemment and the Native Hawaiian community." The proposed mle change comes at the request

of state and loeal leaders and the Hawaiian community, she said. "We commend this initial effort by the Obama Administration to engage our people in a discussion about re-establishing a government-to-government relationship with the United States," OHA Chairperson Colette Machado said in a statement. "This effort is an important step toward ensuring that millions of dollars for Native Hawaiian education, health and other programs will eonhnue to flow to our people and that our Hawaiian trusts and programs will be protected from further legal challenges. Trustees have vowed to protect

these programs in perpetuity. "We ask all Hawaiians to make their voices heard at the public meetings, and we also urge that we respect and aloha eaeh other as we engage with the United States government on this complex but urgent question." Kamana'opono Crabbe, Ka Pouhana, CEO of OHA, said: "We appreciate the Obama Administration's historic affirmation that Congress has long recognized our community's special poliīieal status as Kanaka Maoli, the aboriginal indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands. And we

support the Department of the Interior's decision to eome to Hawai'i to speak directly with our people. "While a rule-making process proposed by the DOI is designed to open the door to a gov-ernment-to-government relationship between the United States and our people, we see this as only one ophon for consideration. The decision of whether to walk through the federal door or another will be made by delegates to a Native Hawaiian 'aha and ultimately by our people. We are committed to keeping all doors open so our people ean have a full breadth of options from whieh to choose what is best for themselves and everyone in Hawai'i." The state has also taken up Hawaiian govemanee through legislation passed in 2011. More than 125,000 Hawaiians have signed up through the state Native Hawaiian Roll Commission's Kana'iolowalu registry. ■

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Federal panelists listened to testimony at the nearly three-and-a-half-our puhlie meeting at the state Capitol. From left: Rhea Suh, lnterior Department assistant secretary for policy, management and budget; Esther Kia'āina, then-senior adviser to the lnterior secretary, and now the department's assistant secretary of insular areas; and Sam Hirsch, acting attorney general for the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. - Photos: laeh Villanueva

Attendees showed signs saying, "What tribe has a palaee," "No Treaty of Annexation" and "Gov to Gov = Mob to Mob," referring to a government-to-government relationship.