THREAT TO ALL NATIVE PEOPLES
U.S. court strikes down Hawaiian-elected board
By Chris
Fry
Honolulu, Hawaii
In a ruling that can deprive Indigenous peoples all over the
United States of their basic rights, the Supreme Court has
voted seven to two to outlaw the election of members of the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs by the Native Hawaiian people. The
court ruled that restricting this election to Native Hawaiians
is a violation of the 15th Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs administers "ceded" land and
other assets worth $300 million. It is charged with providing
assistance to the 200,000 Native Hawaiians who have survived
two centuries of European and American interventions and
outright conquest. OHA was created by an amendment of the
Hawaiian constitution in 1978 after much struggle by the
Hawaiian people. It is one product of more than 100 state and
federal laws designed, at least partially, to defend the
Hawaiian people's culture, education, language and other
rights.
With this denial of their most fundamental right--the right
of an Indigenous people to select their own leaders--all the
Native Hawaiian legislation is now under attack. Right-wing law
firms are canvassing non-Hawaiian residents of the islands to
persuade them to launch lawsuits against other pro-Hawaiian
laws.
"Someone could go into court and challenge the legality of
the present board [OHA]. Everything is on the table,"
threatened John Goemans, the chief attorney in the lawsuit
against OHA.
With millions of dollars of assets at stake, the rapacious
neocolonialists are out to completely deprive the Hawaiian
people of all right to self-determination.
Islands seized by U.S.
Before the English explorer Captain Cook arrived at the Big
Island of Hawaii in the 1770s, the Hawaiian people had a large,
peaceful and vibrant community stretching across all of the
islands. As many as 600,000 to a million Native people lived
here.
When the Europeans arrived, the Hawaiians formed a unified
kingdom, which lasted more than a century, and was recognized
as a legal government all over the world. But a steady stream
of missionaries, merchants, plantation owners, along with
several epidemics, undermined the Hawaiian culture and killed
many Native Hawaiian people.
Finally in 1893, in a brazen act of conquest, wealthy
planters overthrew the Hawaiian government of Queen
Lili'uokalani with the aid of 164 heavily armed U.S. Marines
stationed on the palace grounds. This act was so outrageous it
was condemned even by U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Later,
the Queen was imprisoned for nine months.
In 1898, violating even its own constitutional requirements,
the U.S. annexed Hawaii. Hawaii became not only a source of
wealth for the growing American colonial empire but also a huge
army and navy base.
But the Native Hawaiian people never stopped struggling for
their rights. In 1920, they forced Congress to form the
Hawaiian Homes Commission, which set aside some public land for
"people of Hawaiian blood to again get possession of land in
Hawai'i."
In 1976, the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana organization staged
several "illegal" landings on the Hawaiian island of
Kaho'olawe, demanding that the U.S. military stop using the
island as a bombing range, and that it be returned to the
Hawaiian people. That struggle succeeded, although the island
is still full of explosive devices that the federal government
is slow to clean up.
In 1993, Congress was pressured into passing a resolution
that apologized for the overthrow of the Hawaiian government
and pledged to take steps toward "reconciliation."
Conditions of oppression
Today, Native Hawaiian people suffer from high unemployment,
poor heath care, lack of education, and a high rate of
imprisonment. Many of the prisoners are shipped off to mainland
jails in Texas and other states, far from their families.
Working people in Hawaii, who come from many national
backgrounds, today face a depressed economy, despite the
so-called boom in the United States. While mainland-based
corporations rake in millions in profits from tourism, workers
here are usually confined to low-paying jobs in the service
industry.
Many non-Hawaiian workers here told news reporters they also
oppose the Supreme Court ruling. As Paul Cocke noted: "OHA
trustees should be voted by the Hawaiians only, because they
should get to vote for their own leaders. I would not vote in
the election."
As soon as the ruling was announced, Freddy Rice, a great
grandson of one of the early missionaries to Hawaii, whose
father had an 18,000-acre ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii,
immediately filed suit against the OHA elections. Rice stated
that he was somehow being denied his rights because he was not
permitted to vote for OHA board members.
Rice's Washington lawyer is Theodore Olsen, a former
assistant attorney general under Ronald Reagan. He was a law
partner of Kenneth Starr.
The Supreme Court stated that "An inquiry into ancestral
lines is not consistent with respect based on the unique
personality each of us possesses, a respect the Constitution
itself secures in its concern for persons and citizens." This
twisted logic opens the door for attacks on the rights of all
Native peoples to select, because of a shared national
identity, their own leaders.
Of course, state officials in Hawaii are saying that this
ruling only outlaws the State of Hawaii's role in the
elections. But immediately after the ruling, Hawaiian Governor
Benjamin Cayetano announced he was going to dismiss nearly all
of the current members of OHA because of their "illegal
election." The board members have announced that they are not
leaving their posts.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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