[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16091-16092]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         NATIVE HAWAIIAN GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION ACT OF 2005

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, for the past 6 years, I have worked with my 
colleagues in Hawaii's congressional delegation to enact legislation to 
extend the Federal policy of self-governance and self-determination to 
Native Hawaiians. On July 12, 2005, The New York Times published an 
editorial piece that captures the essence of what we have been trying 
to do for the people of Hawaii.
  Our bill, S. 147, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act 
of 2005, provides a process for Native Hawaiians to reorganize their 
governing entity for the purposes of a federally recognized government-
to-government relationship with the United States. Following 
recognition, the bill provides for a negotiations process between the 
governing entity and the State and Federal governments to determine how 
the Native Hawaiian governing entity will exercise its governmental 
authority. The negotiations process is intended to represent all 
interested parties through the State, Federal and native governments; 
and provides the structure that has been missing since 1893 for 
Hawaii's people to address the longstanding issue resulting from the 
overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This bill provides the people of 
Hawaii with an opportunity for reconciliation and healing so that we 
can move forward as a State.
  Opponents of the legislation have characterized its effect as 
divisive. The purpose of my bill, however, is to bring unity in the 
State by providing an inclusive process for all of us, Native Hawaiian 
and non-Native Hawaiian, to finally address the consequences of our 
painful history. Lawrence Downes, The New York Times editorial writer 
who authored the article, captured this in his piece. I ask unanimous 
consent that the article entitled, ``In Hawaii, A Chance to Heal, Long 
Delayed,'' be printed in today's Record in its entirety.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, July 12, 2005]

               In Hawaii, a Chance To Heal, Long Delayed

                          (By Lawrence Downes)

       Less than a month after 9/11, with terrorism fears 
     threatening to put jet travel and thus the Hawaiian economy 
     into a death spiral, tourism officials there announced an 
     emergency marketing campaign to promote the State as a place 
     of rest, solace and healing. Anyone who has ever stepped off 
     a plane in Honolulu, trading the brittle staleness of the 
     aircraft cabin for the liquid Hawaiian breeze, warm and heavy 
     with the scent of flowers, knows exactly what they meant.
       The selling of Hawaii as a land of gracious welcome works 
     so well because it happens to be true. But for the members of 
     one group, that has always evoked a bitter taste: native 
     Hawaiians, the descendants of Polynesian voyagers who settled 
     the islands in antiquity and lived there in isolation until 
     the late 1700's. Ever since Captain Cook, the native Hawaiian 
     story has been a litany of loss: loss of land and of a way of 
     life, of population through sickness and disease, and of 
     self-determination when United States marines toppled the 
     monarchy in 1893.
       Over decades, the islands emerged as a vibrant multiracial 
     society and the proud 50th State. Hawaiian culture--language 
     and art, religion and music--has undergone a profound rebirth 
     since the 1970's. But underneath this modern history remains 
     a deep sense of dispossession among native Hawaiians, who 
     make up about 20 percent of the population.
       Into the void has stepped Senator Daniel Akaka, the first 
     native Hawaiian in Congress, who is the lead sponsor of a 
     bill to extend federal recognition to native Hawaiians, 
     giving them the rights of self-government as indigenous 
     people that only American Indians and native Alaskans now 
     enjoy. The

[[Page 16092]]

     Akaka bill has the support of Hawaii's Congressional 
     delegation, the State Legislature and even its Republican 
     governor, Linda Lingle. It will go before the Senate for a 
     vote as soon as next week.
       The bill would allow native Hawaiians--defined, in part, as 
     anyone with indigenous ancestors living in the islands before 
     the kingdom fell--to elect a governing body that would 
     negotiate with the Federal Government over land and other 
     natural resources and assets. There is a lot of money and 
     property at stake, including nearly two million acres of 
     ``ceded lands,'' once owned by the monarchy; hundreds of 
     thousands of acres set aside long ago for Hawaiian 
     homesteaders; and hundreds of millions of dollars in 
     entitlement programs.
       Much of what is now the responsibility of two State 
     agencies, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department 
     of Hawaiian Home Lands, would become the purview of the new 
     government.
       There are many jurisdictional and procedural details to 
     work out, but Mr. Akaka and others insist that the bill 
     precludes radical outcomes.
       There would be no cash reparations, no new entitlements, no 
     land grabs and especially no Indian-style casinos, which are 
     a hot topic in Hawaii, one of only two states that outlaw all 
     gambling.
       The bill's critics include those who see it as a race-based 
     scheme to balkanize a racial paradise. On the other flank, 
     radical Hawaiian groups say the bill undercuts their real 
     dream: to take the 50th star off the flag and to create a 
     government that does its negotiating with the State 
     Department, not Interior.
       Mr. Akaka argues, convincingly, that beyond the bill's 
     practical benefits in streamlining the management of assets 
     and the flow of money, it is a crucial step in a long, slow 
     process of reconciliation. As he sees it, Hawaii's cultural 
     renaissance has exposed the unhealed wound in the native 
     psyche. He has witnessed it in young people, more radical 
     than their elders, as they adopt a tone of uncharacteristic 
     hostility and resentment in sovereignty marches. He has noted 
     a wariness that is at odds with the conciliatory mood struck 
     in 1993, when President Bill Clinton signed a resolution 
     apologizing for the kingdom's overthrow.
       Mr. Akaka says his bill offers vital encouragement to a 
     group that makes up a disproportionate share of the islands' 
     poor, sick, homeless and imprisoned, while steering a 
     moderate course between extremes of agitation and apathy.
       The spirit of aloha, of gentle welcome, is the direct 
     legacy of native culture and an incalculable gift the 
     Hawaiian people have made to everyone who has ever traveled 
     there--wobbly-legged sailors and missionaries, dogged 
     immigrants and sun-scorched tourists. The Akaka bill, with 
     its first steps at long-deferred Hawaiian self-determination, 
     seems like an obvious thing to give in return, an overdue 
     measure of simple gratitude.

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