Federal Recognition for Hawaiians – Part 2: In the Shadow of the Native American Indian Experience
by Peter Apo
In Part 1, I explored the two most discussed options to restoring some form of Hawaiian sovereignty. First we said that the more likely scenario was the federal government recognizing a Hawaiian self-governing entity similar to the Native American Indian models. The alternative would be United Nations intervention declaring the Hawaiian Nation as never having been dissolved, as Queen Liliʻuokalani never relinquished her throne, and then persuading the United States to restore Hawaiʻi’s sovereign status as it was at the time of the overthrow of the Queen in 1893. This second, less likely option, has an interesting irony in that the citizenry of the Hawaiian nation at the time of the overthrow was a multi-cultural nation and was not based on Hawaiian ethnicity. This would fly in the face of the current expectation that a restored Hawaiian nation would be predicated on an ethnic Hawaiian blood quantum requirement to qualify as a citizen.
At this writing I will dismiss the United Nations option and pursue the complications of pursuing a restored nation through the federal government, by seeking federal approval to restore a model of sovereignty based on decades of judicial and congressional histories of the Native American Indian and Native Alaskans quest for recognition of conditioned sovereignty. With the rapidly diminishing likelihood of successfully navigating the Akaka bill through the U.S. Congress, OHA is exploring alternative approaches to federal recognition successfully pursued by Native American tribes in the past.
But this path is strewn with challenges. First, we are prodded to form the nation first.
To that end, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission was founded and is now in the process of launching its work. Headed by Governor John Waihee, the Commission’s objective is to enroll Native Hawaiians who want to have a say in the shaping and restoration of nationhood. The Commission is also seeking to enlist non-Hawaiian allies and friends to support its work. It is critically important for all Hawaiians, including and especially Hawaiian Nationals, to be involved in this process. Otherwise we will not have a truly inclusive Hawaiian nation. You can see more at their website www.kanaiolowalu.org.
So with the Roll Commission proceeding and financed by OHA we have taken the first leap toward what I describe as a citizen recruitment process entitling registrants to a voice in shaping the nation. This is no small challenge. Second, following the citizen registration and based on the American Indian experience, a number of conditions of nationhood would probably be required by the federal government that will not sit well with Hawaiians. First, blood quantum alone will not be enough to qualify as a citizen. Unlike the Hawaiian Homestead Act where blood quantum alone qualifies one as a beneficiary of entitlements of the act, the Indian tribal judicial experience insists that one must meet some culturally redeeming criteria beyond blood quantum. Third, another probable condition is that one must reside in the geo-political boundaries of the nation. This would disenfranchise the thousands of Hawaiians on the Mainland and elsewhere who have shown a vital interest in having a voice in the shaping of a nation. In closing this perhaps awkward attempt to articulate this complicated new strategy toward federal recognition, let’s just say that with the Roll Commission under way and OHA committed to federal recognition, the train has left the station. I would encourage all to hop aboard for what will surely be a wild ride.