"Akaka Bill" Key to Preserving Culture, Native Hawaiians Say
Feature Story by Elizabeth Mann - 6/28/2006
Ever since the United States overthrew their government in 1893, Native Hawaiians have been struggling to preserve their vibrant culture. Many Native Hawaiians hope that a Senate bill that would grant Congressional recognition to Native Hawaiians will make the struggle easier.The "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005," nicknamed the "Akaka Bill" after its sponsor, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D. Hawaii, would provide the means for Native Hawaiians to create a system of self-governance, similar to many American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments.
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress broad authority to officially recognize indigenous peoples. Congress has granted such recognition to Alaska Native tribes and more than 560 American Indian tribes in the continental United States.
Opponents of the Akaka Bill argue that differences between Native Hawaiians' culture and American Indians' cultures restrict Congress' authority to extend recognition to Native Hawaiians. Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett, however, said that such differences do not and should not prevent Congress from exercising its constitutional power to pass the Akaka Bill.
"Given their shared common experience of a severe loss of their lands and self-governance, and a wholesale disruption of their cultural practices, Native Hawaiians only want to be treated the same way all other indigenous native Americans have been treated," said Bennett, at a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hearing.
At a June 8 press conference, Haunani Apoliona, chairperson of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), rejected the challenge that granting recognition to Native Hawaiians is unconstitutional race-based legislation. "It is offensive that the opponents of the 'Akaka Bill' are suggesting that extending this same policy to Native Hawaiians, the indigenous, native people of the 50th state would lead to racial balkanization," Chairperson Apoliona said.
Supporters argue that the Akaka Bill recognizes Native Hawaiians' inherent sovereignty as indigenous peoples, rather than using race-based classifications. "After more than a century of injustice, it is long past time that Congress formally acknowledge the Native Hawaiian right to self-determination," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, in a recent leter to the Senate.
Similar legislation has given American Indian and Alaska Native tribes' sovereignty, which allows them to enact programs specifically designed to perpetuate their cultures, after centuries of encroachment on their autonomy.
According to a New York Times editorial, Native Hawaiians "make up 20 percent of the state's population but are disproportionately poor, sick, homeless, and incarcerated..." Supporters state that the Akaka Bill will better enable Native Hawaiians to confront these problems.
According to the OHA, funding for programs and services that benefit and improve the lives of Native Hawaiians are "at stake" if the bill doesn't pass. Without official recognition from Congress, challenges to Native Hawaiians' rights will continue to threaten the Native Hawaiian Education Act, University of Hawaii tuition waivers, and 200,000 acres of land, among other resources.
On June 8, the Senate attempted to bring the Akaka Bill to the floor, but opponents blocked it from coming up for a final vote.
Sen. Akaka has pledged to continue his efforts to bring the bill to a vote before the session ends. "We must continue to move forward for Native Hawaiians, the people of Hawaii and everyone in this country who believe that ours is a nation which treats all of its people with an equitable hand," Sen. Akaka said.
