It’s been 12 frustrating years for advocates seeking Native Hawaiian nationhood through the Akaka Bill. Surely much of that frustration has been borne by its namesake, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. When public support at home seemed strongest, the political scales in Washington were tipped against the bill, and since then the measure’s been stalled in the increasing partisan polarization.
The bill recently passed the Indian Affairs Committee that Akaka chairs, but its chances to move beyond that point are slim. If anything, that polarization is worse in this election cycle; the likelihood of passage by the end of the year, when the senator will retire, is all but nil.
According to his staff, Akaka realizes that better than anyone: What he wants above all is to leave a "legacy" bill he believes has the best chance of passing at some point. So the Hawaii delegation is right, despite those long odds, in its move to keep the worthy notion alive in a more realistically scaled-down form.
Akaka has decided to pare legislation down to a 14-page version, S. 675. The principal difference between this and previous iterations of the measure is the elimination of the section that defines how a Native Hawaiian roll would be created — the membership of the nation-within-a-nation political entity for Native Hawaiians.
Instead, it simply adopts by reference whatever roll that is compiled by the state Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, a panel created by state legislation in 2011. Here’s the relevant wording: "The individuals listed on the roll compiled and certified by the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission shall be considered members of the Native Hawaiian people for the purposes of reorganization of a Native Hawaiian governing entity."
The idea, according to Akaka’s office, is to remove one of the flash points of the opposition — creation of a national political entity based on race — and simply leave all that a state concern. But the politically conservative position in recent years has been broadly against expanding native rights, however the bill is worded.
Even in the Senate, with Democrats holding a razor-thin majority, Republicans don’t appear to be won over. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, a minority member of the Indian Affairs Committee, signaled as much before the panel. And in the House — in a post-election, lame-duck session before the staunchly conservative GOP majority — the bill would be a nonstarter.
Still, even if the raised hackles remain at the federal level, the revision to the bill accomplishes one thing: It moves the debate over the central issue of membership back to the state level. For many years, proponents and critics alike have felt estranged from all the Congressional wrangling.
The roll commission launched that enrollment project, dubbed Kana‘iolowalu, in July. It’s a year-long effort to create a registry of individuals eligible to participate in the formation of a sovereign government. There have been several false starts down this road, but this one has the backing of the state Legislature. And that’s critical if the congressional delegation is to telegraph to Capitol Hill that the principle of Native Hawaiian self-governance has strong statewide support.
The basic concept in nationhood is simple enough: Native Hawaiians comprise an indigenous population of the United States, and they deserve the same standing as Native Americans and Native Alaskans. It’s dispiriting that the road toward realizing that goal remains so rocky, but that’s not a reason to abandon it now.
