SERIOUS QUESTIONS TO ASK OHA WHEN THEY COME TO YOUR CITY WITH THEIR KAU INOA PRESENTATION -
If the Akaka Bill becomes law, will the Department of the Interior mismanage Hawaiian assets and resources as badly as it’s mismanaged the Native Americans?
Given that Native American tribes continue to sue the DOI for the loss and mismanagement of millions of acres and billions of dollars, is it wise, under federal recognition, to place Hawaiian assets in the same repository?
What about US Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, during the course of these lawsuits, repeatedly finding the DOI in contempt, incapable and unwilling to fulfill their fiscal responsibility?
On Monday, March 15th, 2004, the same judge ordered DOI computers switched off the Internet, for the third time, because security problems jeopardized Native American assets. Why voluntarily subject Hawaiian assets to the same risks?
To what extent will Hawaiian claims to land, resources, or independence be extinguished in order to achieve and maintain federal funding?
Did Alaska Natives cut a good deal when they agreed to relinquish 90% of their lands in exchange for federal recognition?
Please provide examples of how federal recognition has improved the statistics of just one indigenous community to equal those same statistics in the dominant culture?
Senator Dan Inouye addressing the National Congress of American Indians on Feb 25th, 2002 said, “ . . . I firmly believe that if this trend in the Court’s rulings continues, you may still have governments, but they will be governments in name only, because the exercise of your powers and authorities as sovereigns will have been stripped away . . .” Why does OHA support federal recognition when Senator Inouye himself admits this outcome?
OHA has paid $450,000 to Patton Boggs, LLP, to lobby Capitol Hill for federal recognition. During the Carter administration, the firm lobbied for unrestricted weapons sales to Guatemala. Mr. Boggs personally represented a group of Guatemala landowners to help fund death squads that exterminated over two hundred thousand indigenous people, and human rights activists. Why has OHA hired this firm with the blood of indigenous people on its hands?
