By Malia Zimmerman | Watchdog.org
HONOLULU — A proposal by the Obama administration to create a new relationship
The U.S. Department of Interior is holding a series of hearings about the plan, which, it said in a statement, would determine “the best path forward for honoring the trust relationship
The vast majority of native Hawaiians who testified during a hearings were indignant, and even outraged, that the federal government would try to insert itself or side with any faction of native Hawaiians.
They scolded, shouted at and questioned the motives of Interior Department officials. Many want the Hawaiian monarchy restored to power and the US government out of Hawai`i....
...Hawaiian activist Bumpy Kanahele, who heads the organization Nation of Hawaii, told Interior officials: “We don’t need you to come in to tell us how to govern ourselves. Let us figure it out.”
University
While the debate is stirring up an already racially divided community, constitutional experts argue President Obama and the Department of Interior have no legal right to create such a relationship
Former Hawai`i State Attorney General Michael Lilly has said native Hawaiians have no tribe, and therefore the United States cannot enter into a treaty relationship.
“The current effort to recognize a separate ethnic tribe by the Department of the Interior is unconstitutional because, under the Constitution, it is the Congress that has the plenary power to recognize tribes and ratify treaties. That power does not reside in the executive branch of the federal government or with the various states. So the current effort aimed at creating a tribe of Hawaiians has no legal basis,” Lilly said....
