Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 9, 1 September 2015 — Settlement to clarify process on using PNA in Homestead cases [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Settlement to clarify process on using PNA in Homestead cases

Contributed by Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation Proving one's blood quantum to qualify for a Hawaiian Homestead lease ean become a daunting task. In some instances a person's birth certificate may, for a number of reasons, not correctly reflect information that would enable him or her to prove the necessary blood quantum. For example, the person's birth certificate may not provide the identity of that person's biological father. This problem has been faced by several clients of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. In the past five years, NHLC has helped four of its clients prove that they have

enough blood quantum to qualify for a Hawaiian Homes lease through the use of DNA tests. A DNA test ean help confinn one's blood quantum by establishing his or her blood relationship to certain

key people — either the biological father or others with a confinned biological relationship to the biological father. In some situations, NHLC has asked clients to do the DNA test with the siblings of their biological father. With favorable test results in hand, NHLC has gone to court to secure an order to have the State of

Hawai'i Department of Heahh amend the client's birth certificate to eonfirm one's blood quantum. The process has thus far been neither easy nor friendly as the Department of Health has continued

to challenge such birth certificate amendments. Recently, the results from one of NHLC's cases should make it easier for other beneficiaries to use DNA evidence to prove blood quantum. After obtaining favorable test results, NHLC's client Leighton Pang Kee applied for a Hawai'i Island residential lease and an agri-

cultural lease. He later received a letter denying his application because Mr. Pang Kee's DNA test results were not accepted as sufficient proof of blood quantum. In Mr. Pang Kee's case, vital records demonstrated that his mother is over 81 percent Hawaiian. But Mr. Pang Kee's original birth certificate does not identify his birth father, who died over 30 years ago. NHLC worked with Mr. Pang Kee to obtain DNA tests and testimony from family members to establish that Mr. Pang Kee met the blood quantum requirements to qualify for a leasehold. According to the Department of

Hawaiian Home Lands, it denied Mr. Pang Kee's application because the DHHL "has not made the decision whether to accept DNA test results as evidence of Hawaiian ancestry, mueh less the degree of certainty the Department will accept as proof of Hawaiian ancestry through DNA testing, nor does the Department possess the expertise necessary to interpret and evaluate DNA test results." NHLC was forced to sue DHHL on behalf of its client and argued that "[c]reating avoidable barriers for native Hawaiians to qualify for homestead leases defeats the purpose of the HHCA." In settling the case, DHHL agreed to enact rules that will establish and define the process it will use when it considers DNA reports submitted to prove genealogy, and thereby blood quantum, to establish one's eligibility for a homestead lease. ■ This is part of a seri.es of case highlights provided by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.

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NHLC has helped cllents prove blood quanta to qualify for a Hawaiian Homes lease.