HAWAIIANS OPPOSE U.S. PUSH TO CREATE HAWAI`I TRIBAL NATION
U.S. Dept. Of Interior Move Would Mask Prolonged Illegal Occupation
(WASHINGTON, DC) - Hawaiians from Hawai`i are meeting with U.S. federal officials this week to oppose a longstanding plan to put Hawaiians into tribal nation status, much like American Indians.
Opposition to stopping this effort came to a head recently when it was discovered that President Obama is considering issuing an executive directive before leaving office early next year ordering the US Department of Interior (DOI) to federally recognize Native Hawaiians as a tribal nation against their wishes.
Since there never was a treaty of annexation, Hawai`i never legally became part of the U.S. according to U.S. laws and constitution.
To duck this problem, the Obama administration hopes to put Hawaiians into a tribal nation like American Indians.
This way Hawaiiansʻ claims to their lands can be put into a kind of Native Hawaiian land pool under a tribal “governing entity” recognized and administered by the DOI, similar to lands of the American Indians and Native Alaskans.
“The U.S. has a big problem. It doesn’t have title to lands in Hawai`i,” states Hawaiian Kingdom Foreign Minister Leon Siu.
“When the U.S. wrongfully took over Hawai`i more than a hundred years ago, title to the lands didn’t lawfully transfer. Now it’s coming back to haunt U.S. authorities as disenfranchised Hawaiian heirs are asking pointed questions about their lands.”
Today most native Hawaiians are adamantly refusing to be stuck into a fake tribal nation. The U.S. government wants to do it anyway, whether Hawaiians like it or not, and whether anyone else living in Hawai`i likes it or not.
Having failed for 12 years to get the U.S. Congress to fabricate a fake Hawaiian tribal nation, the State of Hawai`i has now clumsily attempted to concoct one, to hand over, ready-made for the Department of the Interior to take into the fold of recognized American Indian tribes.
What has emerged, however, is so sloppy, so distasteful, so repulsive to Hawaiians and Americans, it will be extremely difficult for the Obama administration and the DOI to accept it, even if they held their noses.
