-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 20, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

Sovereignty struggle: Feds evict Native Hawaiians from land

By Yoon Bok-dong in Honolulu

Two events that occurred in two weeks could change the course of the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) sovereignty struggle. These were the forceful eviction of the Pai `Ohana (family) from their ancestral home and the continued desecration of Kanaka Maoli culture.

On Feb. 14 at Honokohauiki, Kona, on the Big Island of Hawai'i, over 70 fully armed state and federal agents accompanied by 200 back-up troops, two helicopters and two patrol boats raided the Pai homeland at dawn.

The Pai `Ohana were evicted so the National Park Service could develop the land into a culture center for tourist attraction.

Kihei Soli Niheu, a citizen of the sovereign nation of Ka Pae Aina O Hawai'i Loa, was among the supporters of the Pai `Ohana. While Soli was trying to retrieve his belongings, he was stopped by federal agents under the direction of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Soli asked several times if he was under arrest while being "escorted" off the land. The agents placed Soli under arrest for not having left "federally owned land" after a 20-minute warning was given.

They put handcuffs and leg irons on Soli. They took him by police wagon onto a cargo plane, which flew from Kona to Honolulu. There he appeared before Federal Court Judge Yamishita.

When asked to identify himself, Soli refused to speak English, using only his Native tongue. They labeled him "John Doe" and assigned Public Defender Peter Wolfe to represent him.

The court imposed a "not guilty" plea on him and made him spend six days in the "Halawa Hilton" prison for refusing to identify himself in English.

Rally backs soli

On March 7, over 100 activist supporters stayed throughout Soli's trial proceedings. They started the day with a morning ceremony at the Ahu (shrine) located at the Iolani Palace grounds.

They chanted, "I Ku Mau Mau" (Stand up always), and carried banners saying "Support the Pai `Ohana" and "Decolonize."

Soli's only "crime" was to support the Pai `Ohana by protecting their land, which has a fish pond on it-a central part of the Kanaka Maoli way of life. It also had the Pu'uoina Heiau-ancestral burial grounds-on it.

The Pai `Ohana have been guardians of the land for over 14 generations.

The court ruled that Soli was not guilty of resisting arrest, but was guilty of disobeying a Feb. 11 court order evicting the Pai `Ohana from "federally owned lands." He was fined $10 and given a one-day suspended sentence.

Vigil opposes anti-Hawaiian law

The other event, held Feb. 26-27, was a 24-hour vigil. Participants opposed Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 1920, which would deny Kanaka Maolis the right to gather such items as flowers or ti-leaf for traditional purposes on private undeveloped land.

Several thousand Kanaka Maolis and their supporters converged on the Hawai'i State Capitol in downtown Honolulu. Dance schools chanted and danced in defiance. Some 200 drums encircled the open-air State Rotunda.

Spokesperson Victoria Holt Taka mine for the Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition said that the bill discriminates against Kanaka Maoli because it only applies to them, and is therefore racist in form and content.

A September 1995 Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling obligates the state to preserve and protect Kanaka Maoli cultural practices, but "subject to the right of the state to regulate such rights." This gave leeway for land developers to help push SB8 and HB1920.

The law violates the Hawai'i State Constitution, which guarantees Kanaka Maolis' right to practice their culture and traditions.

Both these struggles signal a war cry against U.S. colonialist expansion at the cost of indigenous peoples in the Pacific.

- END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)

Copyright © 1997 workers.org