FEDERAL RECOGNITION AT ANY PRICE ?
Honolulu Advertiser Editorial Actually Confuses Impact Of Akaka Bill
Editor,
Your Oct 8th issue states in an opinion: That recently proposed "amendments ensure against the bill's use to settle Hawaiian claims against the government."
The opposite is true. The amendment forces the bills use, specifically the negotiations provisions, for the settlement of Hawaiians claims.
Under the terms of the amendment Hawaiian are left at the negotiating table claims in hand, with no access to the courts to pursue their claims.
The proposed amendment posted on Akaka's web site prohibts Indian Non- Intercourse Act claims and claims protected by the sovereign immunity of the United States and the State of Hawaii among others.
The bill "reclaims" the sovereign immunity of the United States in claims where sovereign immunity has been waived previously.
The amendment contains this new languange and plenty more of the same: "Nothing in this act is intended to create or allow to be maintained in any court, any potential breach of trust actions, land claims, resource protection or resource management claims, or similar types of claims brought by or on behalf of Native Hawaiians, or the Native Hawaiian governing entity for equitable, monitary, or Administrative Procedure Act based relief against the United States or the State of Hawai`i..."
And: "...any claims that may have already accrued and might be brought against the United States, including any claims of the types specifically referred to (elswhere in the bill) be rendered non justicable ...."
Doesn't anybody actually read the bill before they start telling people what it means?
David Ingham
San Francisco CA
