Sorry DOI, We’re onto you. Your “Nation in Nation” and “Making Hawaiians into a US tribe” just ain’t gonna work.
This is from today’s FreeHawaii.info. It relates to this prior Kp blog posting.
According to the online voting at AinaLahui.com, the overwhelming majority (76%) oppose the DOI “rule changes”. Here is the full text from FreeHawaii.info.
Saturday, January 02, 2016
US DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR TESTIMONIES FINAL COUNT
Total Testimonies Submitted Online – 2,169
Testimonies Submitted From AinaLahui.com OPPOSED To Rule Changes / Fed Wreck – 1,639
Percentage of All Testimonies OPPOSED To Rule Changes / Fed Wreck – 76%– See more at: http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/#sthash.MCvCq5xE.dpuf
Please note that this is not the full DOI count, as theirs would include written and emailed testimony. This was the count from the online voting at AinaLahui.com.
The DOI proposal is titled, “Interior Proposes Path for Re-Establishing Government-to-Government Relationship with Native Hawaiian Community“. (an earlier proposal, from 2014, is here). As I understand it, these “rule changes” essentially would make a tribe out of the “Native Hawaiians” within the U.S., and be governed by the laws of the U.S. This is verified by their (DOI’s) page:
“If a government-to-government relationship is reestablished, it can provide the community with greater flexibility to preserve its distinct culture and traditions and special status under Federal law that enables the community to exercise powers of self-government over many issues directly impacting community members.”
Problem is, there never was a “government-to-government relationship” of the U.S. with the Native Hawaiian community. Never. However, there was a “government-to-government relationship” of the U.S. with the Kingdom of Hawai’i (as four treaties between the Kingdom and the U.S. will attest).
Another problem with this whole process, is that the DOI appears to be outright “not telling truth” (aka, “lying”) about what happened in 2014. From the same DOI document:
The proposal… builds on more than 150 Federal statutes that Congress has enacted over the last century to recognize and implement the special political and trust relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian community. The NPRM comes on the heels of a robust and transparent public comment period [the 2014 public hearings]… that began last year and included public meetings. More than 5,000 members of the public submitted written responses to the ANPRM [the 2014 DOI proposal and hearings], and they overwhelmingly favored creating a pathway for re-establishing a formal government-to-government relationship.
“…they overwhelmingly favored creating a pathway for re-establishing a formal government-to-government relationship”? Wrong. If anyone listened to any testimony on any island in any town or community, the answer was consistently the same to the DOI: NO NO NO NO NO.
The other message that was consistent from those meetings was, “Bring back the Kingdom of Hawai’i”. This was not even mentioned in their document.
So, sorry DOI, We’re onto you. Your “Nation in Nation” and “Making Hawaiians into a US tribe” just ain’t gonna work.