THE PUSH IS ON TO SELL FEDERAL RECOGNITION TO HAWAIIANS
The Honolulu Advertiser -Tuesday, February 22, 2005
By Dennis Camire and Curtis Lum
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will take testimony March 1 on the proposed measure that could formally recognize Native Hawaiians as an indigenous people...
Under the legislation, the U.S. government would recognize Native Hawaiians in the same way that it recognizes American Indians and Native
Alaskans...
Kekuni Blaisdell, a physician and outspoken critic of the Akaka bill, yesterday criticized the Senate committee for not scheduling a hearing in Hawai'i.
Blaisdell is a proponent of an independent nation.
"They don't want our voices to be heard," Blaisdell said. "They insist that if we want to be heard, we have to go to Washington, we have to get on the docket for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is playing within their system, which means we accept their sovereignty over us, which of course we cannot accept."
Blaisdell said he opposes the measure because it would create a nation within a nation and not recognize an independent Hawaiian nation.
"This Akaka bill is to make it very clear that we Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiians] have agreed and therefore we relinquish and we no longer continue to make claim for our sovereign right and our land," Blaisdell said.
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