2006-06-02 OHA Brochure Fact Check
"The Time is Now" is a slick trifold brochure asking people to support the Akaka bill. It was mass-mailed in late May and early June. The brochure features the Hawaiian flag but no American flag. One reason for the absence of the American flag is that many Hawaiian activists believe that the U.S. is illegally occupying their ancestral homeland and has been the source of prolonged oppression. To empower such people by creating a government for them is to empower a secessionist movement.
What is the purpose of the Akaka bill?
The Akaka Bill, S 147/HR 309, simply asks Congress to reaffirm and provide parity in its federal policy of self-determination and self-governance for indigenous peoples by providing for the reorganization of the government of the Native Hawaiian people, who along with the American Indians and the Alaska Natives, make uo the three groups of native peoples in the United States.
| * * * Correction: No. The bill does not "simply" ask Congress to provide parity. The bill established a process for setting up a government based solely on race, in a place where there has never been such a government. The bill authorizes the new government to negotiate with the federal and state governments for land, money, and political power to be used exclusively by a racial group. There are NOT "three groups of native peoples in the United States." There are over 560 federally recognized tribes, fiercely independent of each other. which formerly fought wars against each other and against the United States. The majority of people who are racially American Indian do not and cannot belong to any tribe. Lumping all American Indians together as one of three "native peoples of the United States" is racial profiling, but does not reflect the political reality that there are hundreds of different tribes with different governments, different laws, and different benefits for members. The "parity" now "enjoyed" by Native Hawaiians is that they have the same status as several hundred other groups of "indigenous people" who have applied for tribal recognition and have been either denied or put off for decades. Senators Akaka and Inouye have had amazing success in fooling Congress into treating ethnic Hawaiians as though they are an Indian tribe; much as a tailor might be praised for making a sow's ear look like a silk purse. |
Why is the Akaka bill so important now?
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Rice v. Cayetano, judicial challenges to existing Hawaiian rights have increased in both number of suits filed and the persistence of the plaintiffs in advancing their cases to the highest court of the land. If these plaintiffs succeed with their racial discrimination suits against programs with a Hawaiian preference, over 150 federal programs and funding vehicles, totaling over $70 million dollars per year, will eventually cease to be available. Funding for programs, services, and entitlements that benefit and improve the lives of Native Hawaiians are at stake. For example, assets and funding of:
- Office of Hawaiian Affairs & $380 million trust fund
- Department of Hawaiian Home Lands & 200,000 acres
- Alu Like, Inc.
- Na Pua No'eau
- Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
- UH tuition waivers
- Native Hawaiian Education Act
- Native Hawaiian Health Improvement Act
- Federal funding amounting to $1.1 billion over the past 25 years
- Hundreds of community organizations who receive grants totaling $9 million per year from OHA
| * * * Comment: This section is honest about saying the main purpose of the bill is to protect "over 150 federal programs and funding vehicles, totaling over $70 million dollars per year." This section is also correct in saying that if plaintiffs in various lawsuits succeed, those programs "will eventually cease to be available." The reason those lawsuits will eventually succeed is because those programs are unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Those programs were created only because Senators Akaka and Inouye have say on the Indian Affairs Committee for trheir entire political careers -- the only State that has both of its Senators on the committee -- despite the fact that there has never been an Indian tribe in Hawai'i. And throughout those many years, whenever a bill comes along to provide federal handouts to genuine Indian tribes, Senators Akaka and Inouye have added "and Native Hawaiians" into the bill. While it's wonderful for the people of Hawai'i to have all those people in other states sending their tax dollars to Hawai'i, it's legally and morally wrong because ethnic Hawaiians are not an Indian tribe. Now the day of reckoning has arrived, and it's time to dismantle the race-based nature of those programs. Hopefully these programs for health and education needs, will find new life after the race-based components are removed, and serve all the people of Hawaii regardless of ethnicity. * * * |
