The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission translates Kana’iolowalu, the name of its enrollment project, as a poetic allusion to the act of striving ("na’i"), and to the din of many voices.

The commission has all but completed its work, and some of that din is already being heard. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, immersed in its Native Hawaiian nation-building efforts, erupted late last week in a dramatic conflagration. That’s not unusual in the decades-old Hawaiian sovereignty movement, but this time, drama flared in Washington, D.C.

That’s where several OHA trustees, as well as Chief Executive Officer Kamana’o Crabbe, were meeting federal officials to discuss recent developments. On Friday, OHA released on its website a letter, dated May 5, that Crabbe sent to Secretary of State John Kerry, seeking a legal opinion on the status of Hawaii under international law.

Citing recent presentations by pro-independence advocates that characterized federal and Hawaii state governments as "illegal regimes," Crabbe wrote that he would ask the trustees to delay further nationhood projects until OHA gets a reading from the U.S. State Department on the legal status.

It’s anything but clear that he will get a delay: There was vigorous pushback from angry trustees, who quickly moved to rescind the letter.

The flash point broke the lull in activity following the May 1 completion of the Kana’iolowalu enrollment. Roughly 125,000 names are being certified as Native Hawaiians who will be able to help in forming a native government.

"We expect it to be closer to 130,000," said Clyde Namu’o, the commission’s executive director. For example, he said, some who signed up may have turned 18, the required minimum age, by the date of certification at the end of June, and be added to the list.

The issue of Hawaiian nationhood — whether through federal recognition of a native government as former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka had proposed in many sessions of Congress, or through appeals to international courts, as some have pursued — has always been contentious.

Post-roll, the action timetable is indefinite (see story on Page E4), but the plan is to convene what’s being called an ‘aha, or assembly, to discuss ways to organize a Native Hawaiian government.

Whomever is chosen as the delegates (and that selection process is unclear, too), one of many voices in the ongoing conversation over the years belongs to Davianna McGregor, a UH ethnic studies professor and longtime Hawaiian activist.

McGregor has advocated for self-governance by Native Hawaiians and has seen federal recognition of Native Hawaiians, long proposed through the "Akaka Bill," as a workable route to safeguard native rights from legal challenges. She added that she sees this as a separate issue from whether Hawaii itself, with its multiethnic population, could become independent.

She said she knows that puts her at odds with critics who say forming a "nation within a nation" as other indigenous Americans have done would close off other claims to redress the initial wrong: the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893.

Setting that argument aside for now, she took the opportunity to remark on the achievement of the enrollment itself, and the excitement over the next steps.

"This is the first time since Kamehameha III that we have so many Hawaiians registered to participate in the government of Hawaiian people," she said. "It’s unprecedented.

"The focus now needs to turn to people who have registered their support and engage everyone to share their mana’o (thoughts) to dream about what this nation would be about," she added.

UH has been home to much of the sovereignty debate for many years. Elsewhere on campus is Jonathan Osorio, professor at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Osorio sees the creation of a governmental entity through this process as an effort by state and federal governments to extinguish claims for restoration of sovereignty that should be pursued using international law.

"The only political change I’m willing to fight for is the one that is lawful," Osorio said. "The others really don’t make any sense. They only make sense to the state.

"What the state really wants to do is negotiate with somebody over those ceded lands," he added, referring to the Hawaiian government and crown lands that were ceded to the U.S., and then the state of Hawaii, after annexation and statehood.

"They want an end to our claim," Osorio said. "The only thing we have to lose as a nation is that claim to the ceded lands. We should not be cooperating with the state on this."

The creation of the roll is the most recent development since Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed Act 195, the 2011 state law setting up the roll commission.

The law officially gave state recognition of Native Hawaiians as the islands’ only indigenous people "to facilitate their self-governance." The rolls define those eligible "to participate in the organization of the Native Hawaiian governing entity," according to the law.

Namu’o said subsequent amendments made certification of Native Hawaiians easier by allowing the commission access to state birth records for a basic check of whether an individual’s Hawaiian ancestry is documented. The difficulty of that check frustrated previous enrollment projects, he said, referencing in particular Kau Inoa, an initiative OHA launched 10 years ago.

Another state law also allowed the commission to fold the Kau Inoa enrollment into the new rolls, and that has drawn criticism from opponents. Osorio said the commission’s reliance on Kau Inoa shows how far it fell short of its initial pledges about a grassroots effort.

"When the commission was formed they said things like, ‘We’re trying to create a movement here,’" he said. "They really didn’t.

"The majority of that list were people who were rolled in," he added. "While state law may make that legal, my question is, why would you mess around with something as important as democracy in that way, creating that law, in order to make it appear that there’s more support than there is?"

That critique is echoed by Keli’i Akina, who last year became president and chief executive officer of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, a nonprofit think tank.

"OHA and the state of Hawaii should not be in the nation-building business," he said, adding that the roll "fails to represent the will of the people as it excludes more than 70 percent of all Hawaiians and 100 percent of non-Hawaiians."

The Grassroot Institute has opposed the Akaka Bill and other Hawaiian sovereignty campaigns. For example, Akina cited comments made by several sources last year that an alternative route to federal recognition was being pursued, one that could be initiated by President Barack Obama or within the U.S. Department of the Interior, under his administration. The fact that a Hawaii-born president is in the White House has brightened hopes among many supporters for federal recognition.

However, Akina pointed to a letter to Obama signed by four of the eight members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, asserting that executive action of this kind would be unconstitutional.

He added that, because he wants this point of view better represented in Hawaii, he plans to run for a seat on the OHA Board of Trustees.

"A trustee can bring positive influence to resolving these issues," Akina said, "meeting the needs of Hawaiians within the context of being citizens of the United States."

More recent pursuits of an administrative alternative to the Akaka Bill are being kept under wraps, if they do exist. A spokeswoman would say only that the Department of the Interior is "closely monitoring the developments at the state level."

In contrast to those opposed to working within federal or state governments, there are other organizations and individuals within the Hawaiian community officially backing this approach. Among them is the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs.

Soulee L.K. Stroud, association president, noted that there are some among the constituent 68 clubs that disagree, but the majority vote of the association favored the roll, whether people signed on via Kau Inoa or the current enrollment.

He acknowledged that more than 88,000 of the signatures came from the decade-old Kau Inoa initiative, but added that both enrollments stated the intent was to facilitate formation of a government.

And he agreed with McGregor that Hawaiians concede no right to seek international redress just by securing federal and state recognition.

"I think a lot of folks view federal recognition as giving up," he said. "I view it as protecting rights that are already in place."