HILO » Native Hawaiians on Hawaii island got their first of three opportunities Wednesday night to yell at federal officials for even considering the idea of starting a process to create a new relationship with a future Native Hawaiian government.
Department of the Interior officials moved their two weeks of hearings to Hawaii island Wednesday, but the angry sentiments they heard echoed previous sessions on Oahu, Lanai, Molokai and Kauai.
"We want you out of here," former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Moanikeala Akaka told the officials to raucous applause. "You have been poor stewards of our land, America."
Since statehood, said Hawaiian sovereignty leader and attorney Mililani Trask, Hawaiians have "been denied the right of self-governance," adding: "This yoke we break. We cannot suffer any further."
The Interior Department representatives are spending two weeks in the islands, asking whether the federal government should begin a process that would lead to a government-to-government relationship with a future Native Hawaiian government.
It’s a question that dozens of Hawaiians have testified is offensive for a long list of reasons dating to the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy that the U.S. government formally apologized for in 1993 — which they say makes much of the past 121 years of federal rule illegal and moot.
"Their coming here is not really the right thing," said Hawaii island Rep. Faye Hanohano before she spoke in Hawaiian to the panel of federal representatives. "Their process is not right."
Hanohano concluded her comments by leading the gym in a rousing rendition of "Hawaii Pono‘i."
Like many others, Hanohano said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry — not low-level Interior representatives — should be the appropriate person to come to Hawaii to seek a relationship with Native Hawaiians.
The meeting had to be moved from Keaukaha Elementary School to Kawananakoa Gym to handle the crowd, which spilled outside. Sixty people had signed up to speak before the three-hour session even began and the list continued to grow throughout the night.
Facilitator Dawn Chang encouraged the crowd "to be respectful."
"I know this is full of emotions and anger," she said.
Rhea Suh, assistant secretary of the interior for policy, management and budget, told those gathered: "We know this is an important issue. We get how important it is."
Suh spoke in front of a backdrop of seven oversized portraits of Hawaiian alii that Moses Crabbe brought over from Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i’s Kula Ha‘aha‘a elementary school.
Crabbe teaches Hawaiian language and culture at Kula Ha‘aha‘a and set up the portraits to stand vigil over Wednesday night’s hearing because "they are who we are as Hawaiians," he said. "If not for our alii, we would not be here, we would not be standing here."
The federal officials will spend Thursday holding similar sessions in Waimea and later in Kailua-Kona before moving on to three more sessions on Maui, beginning Saturday.
Then they’ll conduct similar hearings July 29 through Aug. 7, consulting with federally recognized American Indian tribes in Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington, Arizona and Connecticut.
The involvement of the tribes in discussions about Native Hawaiians has been a hot issue because Hawaiians have said their issues are different from American Indians and that they do not want to be considered the same by the U.S. government.
"The Kingdom of Hawaii is not a tribe," Francis Malani said to wild applause. "We are a sovereign nation."
Trask wrapped up her comments by telling the panel: "You can braid my hair and stick feathers in it. But I will never be an Indian. I will always be a Hawaiian."
———
KoKua Line: June Watanabe is on vacation. Her column returns July 15.
