Posted by Pono Kealoha on January 6, 2009 at 12:46am
Dear President-elect Barack Obama:We, the undersigned Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) people and non-Kanaka Maoli hoaloha (colleague) settlers, send this Open Letter to you on behalf of many more in our Kanaka Maoli nation who welcome you home, with your Chicago ‘ohana (family), for well-deserved nanea (rest and relaxation) in our islands of your birth.We join with millions the world over to ho‘omaika‘i (congratulate) you on your election and upcoming inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America, and to applaud your inspiring message of Hope and Change for a world in desperate need of a lasting peace that, we all know, can only blossom with pono (justice).As you share this season of renewal here with us on O‘ahu, we feel compelled to direct your attention to the plight inflicted by the U.S. on our Kanaka Maoli people and lands since 1893 when the U.S. first invaded our nation. This century-long plight has caused our people to now suffer the highest rates of homelessness, poverty, school drop-out, prison incarceration, heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, alcoholism and drug addiction in Hawai‘i. Our people now demand redress, the context for which we respectfully herewith summarize:1. Our Kanaka movement for redress, smoldering since 1893, erupted in January 1993 on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the U.S. armed control of our homeland, and now grows stronger every day. This 1893 intervention, carried out in shameful complicity with local haole (white) businessmen, effected the overthrow of our revered Queen Lili‘uokalani. One hundred years of political and cultural suppression later, 15,000 of us Kanaka Maoli, acting on behalf of our wronged nation, gathered in 1993 at ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu to denounce the illegality and duplicity of that overthrow, and to reclaim our full sovereignty under international law.2. Seven months later, in August 1993, our People’s International Tribunal--composed of world public figures, including three eminent U.S. law professors, heard evidence on five of our major islands and found the U.S. guilty of the said 1893 transgression, as well as of subsequent crimes, including the 1898 illegal U.S. annexation and military occupation of our homeland, the 1959 fraudulent Statehood vote and admission process, and the continuing theft of our national lands with resulting ethnocidal effect on our people.3. Three months after our Tribunal handed down its verdict, the U.S. government itself, in November 1993, confirmed the essential truth of that verdict in an official document: U.S. Congress Apology Resolution (PL 103-150). Signed by U.S. President William Clinton, it acknowledged the agency of the U.S. in the 1893 overthrow of our sovereign government, the usurpation of our national lands, and the suppression of our people’s right to self-determination, all of this in violation of bilateral treaties as well asPage 2international law. Indeed, the Resolution expressly recognized that we Kanaka Maoli have never formally relinquished to the U.S. our sovereignty, national lands, or self-determination. Moreover, the U.S. pledged, in the Resolution, to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow of our monarchy so as to identify a basis for reconciliation between the U.S. and our Kanaka Maoli people.4. The U.S., however, has never fulfilled this pledge. Moreover, the Akaka Bill (now titled “Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act”) introduced in Congress in 2000, and continually revised since, attempts to close off the very opening for reconciliation that the Resolution tendered. The Bill does this in three offensive ways:a. by unilaterally specifying the terms of reconciliation (Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegation has held only one hearing on the Bill in our islands, in August 2000, when we Kanaka Maoli voiced overwhelming opposition to it);b. by providing for a sham “Native Hawaiian governing entity” on the order of existing Bureau of Indian Affairs-approved Indian tribal governments whose competence, the U.S. Supreme Court has held, is “subject to the plenary power of Congress;” andc. finally, by stating that the execution of the Bill shall constitute, on the part of our Kanaka Maoli nation, a quit-claim of all our past, present and future claims against the U.S.5. Accordingly, we Kanaka Maoli and hoaloha supporters appeal to you, Mr. President-elect, to join with us in constituting a high-level Kanaka Maoli-U.S. Commission, composed of recognized experts from our two nations, as well as from the international community, to review the ramifications of the injuries done to our Kanaka Maoli nation and people by the U.S. since 1893, and continuing through the 2000 introduction of the unacceptable Akaka Bill, and to propose pono (just) and honorable remedies without which there can be no reconciliation.6. In anticipation of the work of this Commission, we urgently ask you to bid the Democratic Party, which you head, to immediately instate a moratorium on the Akaka Bill. The tragedy which befell our Kanaka Maoli nation in 1893, the ramifications of which continue to this day, deserve the respect of careful scrutiny by the proposed Commission, and by your presidency. The shallow and unilateral instrument of the Akaka Bill will only add insult to our previous injury, and will be roundly repudiated by our people.In closing, we urge you, Mr. President-elect, even as you absorb the natural blessings of the land of your birth, to reflect on the land’s spirit which permeated you as you grew up here in Hawai‘i--the spirit of pono, alignment with that which is right and proper, just and correct.Page 3Me ka ‘oia‘i‘o (sincerely),Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Consultant, Department of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai‘i; Convenor, Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike.Kihei Soli Niheu, Kupuna of Pu‘ukapu; Member of Na Kupuna Moku O Keawe; Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Board Member, representing Rapa Nui and Ka Pae‘Aina (Hawai‘i)Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz, Ph.D., Kupuna of O‘ahu, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Hawai‘i Pacific University; President, Ka Lei Maile Ali‘i Hawaiian Civic Club.Pua Nani Rogers, Kupuna o Kaua‘i, Ahupua‘a o Kealia, Member of Na Kupuna o Manokalanipo, Founder of the Ho‘okipa Network, Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i.Maivan Clech Lam, M.A. Ph.D., J.D., Professor of International Law, Associate Director, Ralph Bunch Institute of International Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY.J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology Center for the Americas, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; Producer and host of weekly public affairs radio program: “Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond,” on WESU, CT.Jonathon Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, Ph.D., Professor, School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawai‘i Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i.Terrilee Napua Kekoolani, founder of ‘Ohana Koa, a Hawai‘i Chapter of Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific.Noelani Kaopua Goodyear, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Hawai‘i Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i.Puhipau, Kupuna of Na‘alehu, Island of Hawai‘i, and Joan Lander, of Na Maka o ka ‘Aina, Na‘alehu, Hawai‘i.Eiko Kosasa, Ph.D., Lecturer, Social Sciences Division, Leeward Community College, Pearl City, Hawai‘i.LetterToObama.01.06.09Contact: Kekuni Blaisdell, PH 595-6691, e
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