Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 12, 1 December 2015 — Do We Need Our Own Government and a DOI Rule? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Do We Need Our Own Government and a DOI Rule?

By Davianna Pomaika'i McGregor, PhD

Have you or someone you know received a Native Hawaiian scholarship for college or job training? Have you received health benefits at a Native Hawaiian health program? Have you ever received a benefit or service from an ali'i trust, Hawaiian agency or institution? Have you accessed military-controlled or national park land for cultural practices? Do you exercise Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights for subsistence, cultural or religious purposes on private or public land?

Are you a Hawaiian homesteader? Have you received a federal loan for your home or improvements on your lot? Are you a Hawaiian small business with special standing as a native corporation? Have you received a federal grant to provide services to Native Hawaiians? If you answered YES to any of the above questions, then your answer to the title question should be YES - we do need our own government and a DOI rule. Why? Because all of these benefits and rights provided for Native Hawaiians under the federal government and the Hawai'i eonstitution are exposed to litigation claiming they are race-based, unless we have our own government whieh has a relationship with the federal government. Perhaps you think that our Native Hawaiian programs, services and land trusts are all secure? NO. They eonhnue to be ehallenged. Since the Supreme Court's 2000 ruling in Rice v Cayetano, there have been seven (7) challenges to our rights elaiming that they are race-based. The attorneys and experts who defended Native Hawaiian rights in these cases advise that the establishment of a Native Government and a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. is necessary to protect our lands and our rights, especially because of the conservative shift in Congress and the

U.S. Supreme Court. AND let's be clear, havina Native

Hawaiians re-establish a govern-ment-to-government relationship with the federal govemment will in no way take away the right of Native Hawaiians to exercise our self-determination in concert with the non-Hawaiian citizens of the Kingdom of Hawai'i (the nationstate of Hawai'i) and choose to be independent of the U.S. As the indigenous people of Hawai'i, we have a right to form our own government within the United States AND we will have the right to have our own Native Hawaiian government within an independent nation of Hawai'i.

Native Hawaiians are now only 21% of Hawai'i's populahon. Gaining independence for Hawai'i as a whole would not directly benefit Native Hawaiians, unless we have our own government to protect our lands, language, culture and heritage. Let us ask the advocates of independence for Hawai'i who oppose having Native Hawaiians form our own government the following questions - what lands will be set aside for Native Hawaiians to control and manage under the independent Hawai'i government? Will the ali'i trusts be able to provide preference in their services to Native Hawaiians? Will Native Hawaiian customary and traditional practices continue to be protected? Will Hawaiian language eontinue to be an official language? How ean our rights be guaranteed under an independent Hawaiian government where Native Hawaiians will be a minority? To fulfill our kuleana to protect Native Hawaiian rights, lands, culture and benefits, we need our own government and the DOI rule to open a pathway for a government-to-government relationship with the U.S.! Aloha . . . Aloha 'āina. (For more information please see imuahawaii.org) ■ Dr. McGregor is a professor of Ethnic Studi.es at UH-Mānoa and a īongtime member ofthe Protect Kaho'oīawe 'Ohana

Cūlette Y. Machadū Trustee Muluka'i and Lāna'i