[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9915-H9916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SOVEREIGN RIGHTS OF THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Hawaii (Mr. Kahele) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KAHELE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on a critical issue 
for indigenous people of the United States, specifically Native 
Hawaiians.
  Yesterday, in this august body, I introduced H.R. 9614 to amend the 
Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, legislation critical to the 
preservation, protection, and restoration of the sovereign rights of 
the Native Hawaiian people.
  Madam Speaker, 129 years ago, on January 17, 1893, 13 White men with 
the support of U.S. troops of the USS Boston illegally overthrew the 
Kingdom of Hawaii. In the years that would follow, the kingdom's 
beloved monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, was imprisoned; millions of acres 
of sovereign royal lands were stolen; olelo Hawaii, the Hawaiian 
language, was prohibited to be taught or spoken in public schools; the 
United States illegally annexed Hawaii via a simple majority joint 
resolution after failing to gain treaty ratification in the United 
States Senate; and by 1920, Native Hawaiians--decimated by Western 
diseases, the loss of their land, culture, and identity--were on the 
brink of extinction.
  Realizing the plight of his people, Hawaii's second Native Hawaiian 
and territorial Delegate to the Congress, Prince Jonah Kuhio 
Kalanianaole, 102 years ago, authored one of the most important pieces 
of Federal legislation for Hawaiians, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act 
of 1920.
  The act would set aside 203,000 acres to restore land and dignity to 
Native Hawaiians of 1/32 blood quantum, giving them leasing 
opportunities for homesteading, farming, ranching, and mercantile 
purposes.
  However, Delegate Kuhio ran into fierce opposition and was forced to 
compromise with Western powerful sugar and ranching business interests 
by accepting a blood quantum requirement of 50 percent to qualify for a 
lease. This requirement would serve as a poison pill in the Hawaiian 
Homes Commission Act dividing Native Hawaiians--a divide that remains 
to this day.
  Inadequately funded and managed by the United States from 1921 to 
1959, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and its day-to-day management 
was punted to the new State of Hawaii as a condition and requirement of 
statehood in 1959.
  Realizing that Native Hawaiians were being quickly displaced from 
their land due to interracial marriages, the State of Hawaii and the 
United States lowered the blood quantum requirement for qualified 
beneficiary successors to 25 percent.
  Madam Speaker, 100 years later, due to interracial marriages and 
blended families, many descendants of beneficiaries do not meet the 25 
percent requirement for successorship.
  In addition, the failure of both the State of Hawaii and the United 
States to meet its fiduciary, execution, management, and oversight 
obligations to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act has resulted in less 
than 10,000 Native Hawaiians being awarded a lease while an applicant 
wait list of almost 29,000 exists to this day.
  As the applicant wait list grows, the median average age of an 
applicant grows, creating a sense of urgency as thousands have died on 
the wait list, and thousands more will die on the wait list, never 
fulfilling the true vision of Prince Kuhio to Aina

[[Page H9916]]

Ho'opulalula, or return Native Hawaiians to their land.
  This bill, H.R. 9614, will reduce the blood quantum requirement to 
Delegate Kuhio's original intent of 1/32 for the successors of those 
who have, while also addressing the inequity of those who don't have by 
lowering the 50 percent blood quantum requirement forsuccessorship to 
\1/32\ for the thousands of applicants and their successors on the DHHL 
applicant wait list.
  With the 117th Congress coming to an end in just 13 days, it is my 
sincere hope that the 118th Congress will address this important issue 
and that an emerging new generation of Native Hawaiian political 
leaders in Hawaii will elevate this and the myriad of other issues that 
continue to suppress and harm the Native Hawaiian community.
  Madam Speaker, I am confident that if we do that, we can effectuate 
sustainable and positive change across Hawaii and our Nation where all 
of our people thrive, not just a privileged few.

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