Hawaiian Kingdom was not a "Native Hawaiian Government"

The Maui News has an editorial today in support of the Akaka bill. It quotes Gov. Lingle's testimony:

"When the United States annexed Hawaii as a territory, it effectively subordinated the Native Hawaiian government to the federal government. Hence the United States’ relationship to the people governed by the Native Hawaiian government was political, not racial, in nature."

One problem with this statement—aside from the fact that the government wasn't actually "subordinated" but simply made ineffective while its territory was occupied—is that it was not a Native Hawaiian government, any more than the state government today is a Native Hawaiian government or the government of the United States is a European-American government.

See here for the registry of naturalized citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

China, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Prussia, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Samoa, Africa, Jamaica, Canada, India, the United States, etc.

And children born in Hawaii were automatically subjects of the kingdom regardless of their race or their parents' place of origin.

The government had many non-Native Hawaiians serving in the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and subjects/citizens of all races voted for the government.

So it is just plain wrong to say Hawaii had a "Native Hawaiian government" under the Hawaiian Kingdom. But by making this big jump from the entire multiracial national population to the Native Hawaiian subset of that population, this is how they try to establish the political nature of the relationship exclusively with Native Hawaiians.

But all of these people were part of the Hawaiian Kingdom national population. All of them were part of the Hawaiian government, either by voting or serving in office. All of them had their country invaded and purportedly annexed by the United States. All of these people had U.S. citizenship imposed upon them without their consent. And most of these Hawaiian nationals were loyal to the Hawaiian government and opposed U.S. annexation.

So if we are going to justify the "reorganization" (the title of the bill) of a government based on the history of the U.S. with the Hawaiian Kingdom, what about all of the other nationals and their descendents, who were just as much part of the Hawaiian government, and shared in the loss of that government?

It is one thing to just say that we want to create a Native Hawaiian domestic dependent nation now, but it is just totally disingenuous and inconsistent with Hawaii's history to say this a political relationship, or that Native Hawaiians exclusively are a political group, based on the Hawaiian Kingdom history.

In pointing out the governor's erroneous information, I am arguing against the Akaka bill, but I'm not arguing against sovereignty. True sovereignty is the restoration of Hawaii's independence where once again people of all races who so choose can be naturalized and enjoy rights and protections in the multiracial independent country of Hawaii, consistent with Hawaii's history.

Posted: Thu - March 3, 2005 at 07:15 PM

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Hawaiian Kingdom was not a "Native Hawaiian Government"

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