Obama can act on sovereignty

The so-called Akaka Bill aimed at achieving Hawaiian sovereignty has been stalled more than a decade in Congress because of opposition by Senate Republicans, leaving the most realistic approach to be executive order. Hawaii’s Democratic delegation is wisely pursuing that approach while Hawaii-born President Barack Obama remains in the White House.

The 1994 Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act provides administrative procedures to allow an American Indian group to be federally recognized, and Hawaii’s members of Congress are examining how Native Hawaiians may be included. If so, the secretary of interior would be able initiate that recognition.

That particular law uses the term "Indian tribe," which it says means "any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges to exist as an Indian tribe." The Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has pointed out that "broad usage" of the term "Native American" came in the 1970s to include Native Hawaiians.

That law was enacted a year after a joint resolution of Congress apologized for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and called for "reconciliation between the United States and the native Hawaiian people." Native Hawaiians also had been recognized in the Admission Act provisions regarding ceded lands.

Such appropriate support was enhanced two years ago when Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed into state law formal recognition of Native Hawaiians as "the only indigenous, aboriginal, maoli population" of the islands to begin a process of a registry of qualified members. It also supports federal recognition of Hawaiians.

At a meeting last month with members of Hawaii’s delegation, Obama was "very committed to Native Hawaiian recognition, and he said that he is going to be reviewing the legal basis in which executive action can be taken," said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. "We’re not there yet, but the delegation is definitely open to that and that route."

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz has said that Obama "is being asked to consider a number of potential executive actions. That may take many forms, including something by the Department of Interior, or at the secretary level or something at the presidential level." Schatz’s remark that the "basic premise" that Hawaiians "ought be treated fairly when it comes to native groups" is strong.

Recognition of Native Hawaiians as comprising an "Indian tribe" may disturb many Hawaiians, but such recognition may be the most realistic path. Opponents of Native Hawaiian recognition such as the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii are sure to challenge such a move, but the U.S. Supreme Court may prove more reasonable than Congress, where Republican filibusters have stopped recognition in the Senate. A congressional attempt at this point would be futile.

Congress has been derelict in providing Native Hawaiians with federal recognition. Obama recognizes that unfairness and is the appropriate president to achieve that goal through his administration, as lengthy as that road may be.