US FEDERAL COURT SAYS NATIVE HAWAIIANS ARE NOT NATIVE AMERICANS
By CHRIS LOOS - Hawai'i Tribune-Herald staff writer
A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's ruling that Native Hawaiians cannot apply for recognition as Native Americans.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the U.S. Department of Interior that the court doesn't have jurisdiction because it's not a case of racial discrimination.
The court said Congress should "apply its wisdom" in deciding if Native Hawaiians should be eligible.
In 1978 the Interior Department established procedures for "acknowledging" American Indian tribes so they could receive certain benefits. The regulations applied only to the 48 contiguous states and Alaska.
Patrick Kahawaiola'a, Virgil Day, Samuel Kealoha Jr., Josiah Hoohuli and Ka Lahui Hawaii sued U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, saying the geographic limitation excluding Hawaiians is unconstitutional racial discrimination.
U.S. District Judge Alan Kay dismissed the case and the plaintiffs appealed.
"Bluntly put," wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas, in explaining the dispute, "the Department of Interior was hanging out a sign that said: 'No Hawaiians need apply."
In siding with the Interior Department, the Court of Appeals said Native Americans have historically been treated as members of "quasi-sovereign tribal entities" in formal relationships with the U.S. government. Therefore, the special preferences given to them were not racial but political.
The appeals court said the history of Native Hawaiians was different from that of Indian tribes because Hawaiians were once part of a kingdom "that was treated as a co-equal sovereign alongside the United States."
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