IS FEDERAL RECOGNITION AND THE AKAKA BILL A SCAM ON HAWAIIANS ?
The Honolulu Advertiser - Letters to the Editor
Friday, November 19, 2004
I am saddened and disappointed by the phony parade of politicians,historians and lawyers, followed by our colonized Hawaiians, all tooting their "American values" in support of the Akaka bill and the
determination that this is a window of opportunity for `Native Hawaiians to achieve self-determination and self-governance.
There are many people in the general public who do not have the slightest clue of the scandal behind this scheme. But the truth behind the Akaka bill is that it is simply a cover-up and confirmation of the flimsy and heinous intent to undermine the Native Hawaiians in their quest for self-determination that began in the early 1970s.
Creating the state agency Office of Hawaiian Affairs in 1978 was the Trojan donkey of carrying out this vile scheme. But after more than 25 years, along comes Rice v. Cayetano, and the scam is out of the bag. Thus the scramble by our longtime politicians and colonized Hawaiians to get out of their self-created kaumaha [burden.]
For the last 25 years, Ka Lahui Hawai'i, a Native Hawaiian initiative, has been talking the talk and walking the walk only to be chastised, ignored and denied. We are the only indigenous people in all of the 50 states of America to be treated this way.
Samuel L. Kealoha Jr.
Kaunakakai, Moloka'i
