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Problems Facing Hawaii's Indigenous People

Development Challenges in the Hawaiian Islands: Paradise Losing

Native Hawaiians' statewide community is traditionally politically fractured. It is therefore difficult for them to present a united front to defend the natural treasures of their their culture and environment. Land development and the battle to protect Hawaii’s natural resources continue throughout the Islands. Non-Native Hawaiians tend to see land as a commodity, but Native Hawaiians feel that their land is alive and must be reverenced and preserved. Some even say that if you take away the land, then you also take away the Heart of the Native Hawaiians. But one tragedy currently facing Hawaii is that Native Hawaiians have not yet been able to organize coherently in defense of their sacred lands.

Challenges to Native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians have been characterized as a large-hearted and generally humble people. Since the year 2000, however, Native Hawaiians have witnessed the steady erosion of many of their "institutions in the face of relentless legal challenges" from non-Hawaiians.* These legal battles have been notable for the lack of a united front against non-Hawaiians. Even their legal losses have not yet persuaded Native Hawaiians to "pull together behind positive efforts to prevent more painful losses in the future."* Unless this fractionation changes soon, more traditional lands and institutions will be lost.

Hawaii and its great Native Hawaiian people are unfortunately continuing to suffer from their conquest as a nation and people more than a hundred years ago. In many ways their plight parallels what has happened to the Native Americans, except that the price of living in today’s Hawaii is far higher than on most tribal reservations on the mainland. Many Native Hawaiians are now holding down 2 to 3 jobs just trying to support their families.

Native Hawaiians face some of the most difficult challenges yet. Hawaiians risk the loss of land worth BILLIONS of dollars, in addition to their federal and state government entitlements. Such entitlements include the Hawaiian Homelands promised to Hawaii by the U.S. government in different settlements.

The source of this challenge is "Rice vs. Cayetano", a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled against the Native Hawaiians and their rights. The Rice vs. Cayetano decision states that "Native Hawaiian" is a racial and not a political or tribal status. Utilizing this legal precedent, opponents of Native Hawaiians continue to claim that land settlements to Native Hawaiians racially discriminate against non-Native Hawaiians. This of course includes much of the Hawaiian Homelands promised to Native Hawaiians. But it is important to remember that Hawaii was the Native Hawaiians' land and independent nation a little over a hundred years ago. Now the Hawaiians are being threatened with not being able to even keep the lands they were promised in different settlements they made with the government. Unfortunately, more than five years after the Rice ruling, Hawaiians remain splintered and without a clear strategy for meeting the challenge posed by non-Hawaiians.

"As the stakes have risen, the battle has gone beyond land, entitlements, and political rights. Hawaiians are fighting for stewardship of their own culture. Hawaiians see their language used against them while adversaries load their assaults with traditional Hawaiian words like 'aloha,' 'kokua' and 'imua'....Some opponents of Hawaiian entitlements have taken up the argument that the Hawaiian culture belongs to everybody, not just Native Hawaiians."*

Those opposing Native Hawaiian empowerment at various times include: state and  federal officials, major land developers, other wealthy individuals and/or corporations—all of whom might profit greatly from ownership or control of Native Hawaiian lands.

SOLUTIONS

Since both political parties now court Native Hawaiians as a key swing vote, this is an ideal time for them to assert their common interests. For example, until the U.S. Congress passes legislation which recognizes Hawaiian indigenous rights, programs designed specifically to benefit Native Hawaiians remain vulnerable to legal assault. America has developed innovative ways to accommodate the rights of other native American and Alaskan peoples within the bounds of the Constitution. Similarly, the survival of Native Hawaiian rights and lands will also require accommodations from the U.S. government and far more coherent pressure from the Native Hawaiians themselves.

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1 "Hawaiians must pull together," by David Shapiro (Honolulu Advertiser, July 17, 2002)