Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 8, 1 August 2017 — New law relaxes blood auantum reauirements [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New law relaxes blood auantum reauirements

ByTreenaShapiro Anew state law reducing the minimum Hawaiian blood quantum required to inherit a homestead lease couldn't eome sooner for some descendants of Moloka'i's earliest homesteaders. Under the current federal guidelines, homestead leases ean only be transferred to family members who are at least onequarter Hawaiian. However, if the eligibility requirements just passed by the state are also aDnroved bv Con2ress. the

Hawaiian blood quantumrequirement for successors will be lowered to 1/32. "This issue was really important and critical for families in the oldest homestead areas where homesteads have been in their families three, four, five generations," said Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Chairwoman Jobie Masagatani. "Unfortunately, as mueh as their parents may have tried to persuade them to fall in love with the Hawaiian boy next door, they fell in love with the boy across the street, so now their children and/ or grandchildren don't have enough koko, even though they were raised on a homestead and the homestead has been in their family forever." Children, grandchildren and great-grand-children of the 42 founding homesteaders who established the Kalaniana'ole Settlement in Kalama'ula, Moloka'i, gathered at Kulana 'Ōiwi on July 5 when Gov. David Ige enacted House Bill 45 1, now Act 80. Among them were OHA Chairwoman Colette Machado and OHA community outreach coordinators Gayla Haliniak-Lloyd and Brent Nakihei - all descended from the first wave of pioneers who paved the way for more than 6,000 Hawaiians to live on home lands today. The bill was the first to be signed on Moloka'i, noted Ige, who also pointed to the significance of the timing. "As we eome to the 100th anniversary of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, the whole issue of successorship and being able to ensure that the leases that have already been awarded would be able to be passed on to beneficiaries (at least) 1/32 Hawaiian becomes more and more important," he said. For some, the change is urgently needed. "I'm 87-years-old. This matters to me," said Iwalani Arakaki, who grew up in Kalama'ula. If the blood quantumrequirement remains at one-quarter, she won't be able to transfer her lease to the grandson she adopted.

Similarly, Kapua Kalama Lauifi's children are 18.75 percent Hawaiian and ean only be named successors if the blood quantum minimum is dropped to 1/32. If that happens, even her grandchildren could be successors. Her family's experience illustrates why she lobbied for a lowered blood quantum requirement: "My great-grandfather was one of the original homesteaders. When he passed away, he gave it to my grandma, who was half Hawaiian. My grandmother married a haole man from Iowa, so my mom was only a quarter Hawaiian," Lauih explained. Lauifi's grandmother had to pass her lease to her half-Hawaiian son-in-law, Lauifi's father, until he could transfer it to her mom when the minimum blood quantum requirement was lowered to 25 percent. "I'm 37.5 (percent)," continued Lauih, who inherited the lease from her mother. "My kids are 18.75 because my husband is pure Samoan." Lauifi's grandchildren are one-eighth Hawaiian, so a 1/32 blood quantum requirement would allow themto be successors. "We still get a eouple more chances," she said. "This is going to be our 95th year, so we would have only had four more years." A previous rule change allows the original

99-year leases to be extended an additional 100 years, she pointed out. Luann Mahiki Lankford, who is 43.75 percent Hawaiian, said if she can't transfer her lease to one of her children, one of her siblings would have to succeed her to hold on to the family's homestead. "That would have meant them

moving home and assuming my mortgage and I don't think they're prepared to do that or even want to do that," she said. k "They're already set where they're M

While the relaxed requirement would apply only to leases that

have already been awarded, state Rep. Lynn DeCoite, who represents Moloka'i, said it will also benefit those on the DHHL waitlist by preventing leaseholders from selling their leases when there's no eligible successor in the family. "That really was the guts behind the bill. We saw that many of the lots were being sold ... but not to the person at the top of the list," she said. Many who live in Kalama'ula today recall the extensive labor it took to establish Kalaniana'ole Settlement. When the first eight 'ohana arrived in Kalama'ula

in 1922, they found raw, infertile land. "There was this one house, no neighbors, only salt flats and kiawe trees," recalled Maui County Couneilwoman Stacy Helm Crivello, whose family moved from the Kualapu'u plantation camps to Kalama'ula when she and her siblings were young children. "We sat there and cried because how could our parents bring us here?" Her father, George Helm Sr., was featured in the Honoluhi Star-BuUetin as the Moloka'i Miraele Farmer. "He cleared (four acres) of kiawe by hand. They didn't have bulldozers or tools then," Crivello described. "I don't know what he did with the salt flats but eventually he was able to grow things. Then we didn't have the infrastructure for water, so my father dug a well that's still there today." "That's homesteading. It's not just building a house and you move in and everything else," Crivello pointed out. Nani Maioho Kawa'a, whose grandfather George Maioho was awarded Lot 13 at Kalama'ula, wants to honor his legacy, as well as that of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, who spearheaded the passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act in Congress. While

her family won't be immediately impacted by eligibility changes, she worries about the next generation. "It's getting harder," she says. "My daughter qualifies but what happens after that? A little Hawaiian is not enough." ■

G0VERNANCE To restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve self-gover-nanee, after whieh the assets of 0HA will be transferred to the new governing entity.

Lawmakers and leaders from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs look on as Gov. David lge signs historic legislation on Moloka'i. - Photos: īreena Skpiro

Kalama'ula homesteader Kapua Kalama Lauifi was a ^ driving force behind legisk lation that would enahle her children to inherit B her homestead lease.