Some Letters For Use In Opposing the Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill

Here are some letters opposing the Hawaiian Recognition bill. Newspapers and magazines are welcome to publish them signed by the author who wrote each one; and individuals or organizations are welcome to send these letters to Congress by e-mail, fax, or hardcopy. An e-mail to Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com would be appreciated telling how any of these letters is used.

*** Short letter by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D. ***

HAWAIIAN RECOGNITION BILL IS DANGEROUS RACIAL APARTHEID

A dangerous, controversial, and unconstitutional bill awaits action in the U.S. Congress. The Native Hawaiian Recognition bill, would overturn the Supreme Court 7-2 decision in Rice v. Cayetano. The bill seeks to protect racial entitlement programs which clearly violate the U.S. Constitution and are being challenged in court. Protection would come by creating a phony Indian tribe consisting of anyone with even one drop of native Hawaiian blood. More than 400,000 people would be eligible to join this "tribe," making it the largest Indian tribe in America. That includes about 240,000 people comprising about 20% of Hawai'i's population, plus 160,000 more "Native Hawaiians" living in other states.

So-called "Native Hawaiians" have mostly non-native genealogies. In Hawai'i people of all races live, work, and pray side by side with everyone else. The people of Hawai'i are the most racially diverse and intermarried of all the states. People of all ethnic groups cherish and participate in Hawaiian culture. Most ethnic Hawaiians do not want to be treated as a separate nation, or railroaded into an apartheid system. Ethnic Hawaiians are leaders in every walk of life and in every community. Some are wealthy. But some large, powerful organizations want to perpetuate a system of racial entitlements which they administer, to ensure a permanent flow of federal dollars to Hawai'i through their entrenched bureaucracies. These organizations are willing to rip apart Hawai'i along racial lines in pursuit of money, wealth, and power.

If Congress passes a law to separate out the so-called "indigenous" people of Hawai'i to create an Indian tribe where none ever existed, it would set a precedent for the balkanization of other states. Why not protect entitlement programs for African-Americans by making them into a "tribe"? Why not create a sovereign political entity for all citizens of America who have an Aztec ancestor who lived in those former parts of Mexico that now are U.S. states?

Please oppose the Hawaiian Recognition bill. It is bad for Hawai'i and bad for America. For further information, please see http://tinyurl.com/6gkzk

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*** Longer letter or op-ed piece by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.

The Hawaiian Recognition bill is dangerous for Hawai'i and for the entire United States. It seeks to preserve unconstitutional racial entitlement programs by singling out a racial group of beneficiaries and giving them federal recognition as a sovereign political entity similar to an Indian tribe. The bill is sponsored by the Hawai'i delegation at the request of large, powerful institutions and service-providers seeking to protect their bloated bureaucracies and to acquire greater amounts of money, land, and power. The bill seeks to override a Supreme Court Decision (Rice v. Cayetano) which clearly identified "Native Hawaiians" as a racial group and not a political entity. That Court decision also said it is doubtful whether Congress has the power to create a tribe of the sort envisioned in this bill.

3/4 of so-called "Native Hawaiians" have less than 50% native blood, and thousands have extremely low percentages. If all persons who have a drop of native blood are included, more than 400,000 people would be eligible to join this "tribe," making it the largest Indian tribe in America. That includes about 240,000 people comprising about 20% of Hawai'i's population, plus 160,000 more "Native Hawaiians" living in other states. Probably most of them do not want to be ripped apart from their spouses, relatives, and neighbors and declared to be a separate nation. There is active opposition to the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill from many of its alleged beneficiaries. But the Hawaiian grievance industry, fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars controlled by powerful, bloated bureaucracies and service-providers, is lobbying hard to get this bill passed.

So-called "Native Hawaiians" are thoroughly integrated into the society and culture of Hawai'i. We all live, work, and pray side by side. Many people with no Hawaiian blood participate in Hawaiian cultural activities which are now mainstream, including hula; some non-Hawaiians learn Hawaiian language for enjoyment and out of love and respect for the heritage of their friends and neighbors. 99% of all persons with Hawaiian blood speak English as their primary language; and all participate fully in the opportunities and responsibilities of our multicultural society. Many are quite wealthy; yet racial entitlement programs would give them free healthcare, free land for housing or farming, and exemptions from taxes and regulations for their businesses that compete with heavily taxed and regulated next-door neighbors. So-called "Native Hawaiians" are not a separate and distinct people apart from the surrounding society like real Indian tribes. And for two centuries they have not had a separate race-based government, because they chose to welcome newcomers and offer full partnership as citizens and government (tribal?) leaders in exchange for vast investments of money, expertise, and labor.

The Hawaiian Recognition bill is extremely dangerous not only for Hawai'i but for all of America. If people who have a native ancestor in Hawai'i can be pulled out of a thoroughly integrated society and declared by Congress to be a separate (Indian) nation, the same could be done with people in California who have African ancestry, or people living in Texas who have a drop of Aztec or Mayan blood. Once such a group has been recognized by Congress as a sovereign political entity, the 14th Amendment Equal Protection clause no longer applies to them. Racial entitlement programs then become perfectly legal for that group, businesses on "tribal lands" are exempt from federal and state taxation and regulation, etc.

Please do not allow the balkanization of Hawai'i, and the precedent this would establish for the balkanization of the rest of America. Oppose the Hawaiian Recognition bill. For further information see http://tinyurl.com/6gkzk

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Letter from Honolulu attorney Patrick W. Hanifin sent to Speaker Hastert of the U.S. House of Representatives on August 29, 2001.

Bear in mind that we are now in a new Congress, so the bill numbers are no longer S.746 or H.R.617. The bill numbers may change from time to time as the bill's sponsors change their minds and introduce revised versions of the bill. But the basic concept of the bill remains the same. The correct bill-numbers at the time you write your letter can be found at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/AkakaCurrentVersion.html

August 29, 2001

Honorable Dennis Hastert

Speaker of the House

2369 Rayburn HOB

Washington DC 20515

Re: H.R. 617

To create a race-based government for ethnic Hawaiians

Dear Speaker Hastert:

Please oppose the above referenced bill that seeks to establish a federal governmental program for the exclusive benefit of a group defined solely by racial ancestry. While this bill is being described as a purely local matter, it is actually of national significance because it would set a precedent for racial discrimination by the federal government.

1. H.R. 617 is unconstitutional. The bill is intended to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Rice v. Cayetano, 120 S.Ct. 1044 (2000). Rice held that a government agency with voting rights limited to ethnic Hawaiians amounted to unconstitutional racial discrimination. Last year, the federal District Court in Hawaii followed Rice and held that restricting the right to run for office on grounds of race is also unconstitutional. Arakaki v. State of Hawaii, Civil No. 00-00514 HG. The racial classification struck down in Rice and Arakaki is essentially repeated in H.R. 617.

H.R. 617 tries to evade Rice and the rule against racial discrimination by invoking Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause to regulate commerce with “Indian tribes.” However, in Rice, the Supreme Court said that an agency created by the State of Hawaii that restricted voting rights to ethnic Hawaiians was an unconstitutional state agency, not an Indian tribe. Although the bill speaks in terms of “recognition” of a “Native Hawaiian governing entity,” no such entity exists to be recognized. There are many voluntary political associations with ethnic Hawaiian members but no voluntary political association can turn itself into a government. H.R. 617 directs the Secretary of the Interior to transform a race-based association into a government of the race, by the race and for the race. (Many associations may apply for this power.) The result of the Secretary’s decision would be an unconstitutional instrumentality of the federal government, not a real Indian tribe.

2. H.R. 617 would create a fake Indian tribe bigger than any real tribe. According to Census 2000 figures, more than 400,000 people would qualify as members of a “Native Hawaiian” tribe if H.R. 617 passes. Of these, over 160,000 live outside Hawaii. (See www.census.gov, sum of state-by-state data in the Census’ American Fact Finder Detailed Table PCT10.) Nearly all of these people have other ancestries as well. Even more people might recall distant Hawaiian ancestors if the government rewards those who do. H.R. 617 would create such an incentive by converting this entire group into America’s biggest Indian tribe. As such, they could compete with existing tribes for government benefits, either through the Bureau of Indian Affairs or through special legislation advocated by the “interagency task force” the bill would create. The bill gives the Department of the Interior open-ended authority to transfer federal land and assets to a race-based “Native Hawaiian” government.

Ethnic Hawaiians are not an Indian tribe. There never has been a Hawaiian tribe. There was a Kingdom of Hawaii in the 19^th century. However, regardless of race, everyone born in the Kingdom was a citizen. Everyone who came to Hawaii could become a naturalized citizen. By the end of the Kingdom, most people living in Hawaii and many of the Kingdom’s cabinet ministers, legislators, and judges were not ethnic Hawaiians. (Has there ever been an Indian tribe in which chiefs were not Indians?) When the United States annexed Hawaii, all citizens of Hawaii, regardless of race, became American citizens. (For historical details, see www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/HanifinCitizen.html.)

3. H.R. 617 is divisive and would encourage racial antagonism. While proponents of H.R. 617 are telling Congress that it is a routine exercise of Congress’ power over Indians, some of its proponents are describing it to others as the first step towards taking Hawaii out of the Union. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Hawaii Advisory Committee has endorsed legislation giving ethnic Hawaiians a race-based government, noting that they should then be able to use their recognized “sovereignty” to cause Hawaii to secede from America. Hawaii Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Reconciliation at a Crossroads, 49-52 (June 2001), www.usccr.gov/hisac/main.htm.

The Civil Rights Commission recently earned bad publicity by publishing a biased report on the 2000 Florida vote. The majority concealed their report from the Commission’s Republican members and then leaked it to the press. The majority even denied the minority’s right to publish its dissent along with the majority’s report. True to this style of doing business, the Commission’s majority has packed its Hawaii Advisory Committee with leftists.

The Hawaii Advisory Committee’s report draws the logical conclusion from H.R. 617’s false assertion that ethnic Hawaiians are a “people [who] never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands.” H.R. 617, §1(13). The bill, §8(b), provides that, “Nothing in this Act is intended to serve as a settlement of any claims against the United States.” The Advisory Committee noted that this would allow ethnic Hawaiians to pursue their claims “in the international arena,” even if “that international resolution would necessarily involve secession.” Advisory Comm. Rep. at 51. Under the “international oversight by nonaligned observers of international repute,” the “federal government should engage in negotiations with the sovereign Hawaiian entity” and then pay for whatever the “sovereign Hawaiian entity” decides to do. Id. at 52. Dismissing the Constitution as mere “existing domestic law,” the Advisory Committee backs the “important proposition . . . that those who would choose to swear their allegiance to a restored sovereign Hawaiian entity be given that choice,” even if it means secession from the Union. Id. at 51-52.

Of course this is nonsense. Hawaii is not going to secede from the Union. The real threat of H.R. 617 is that trying to buy off racial separatists by giving them a government and federal money and land will encourage racial divisions. Anyone can assert, “I deserve special treatment because some of my ancestors were treated badly.” When the government subsidized cheese production, the warehouses were overflowing with cheese. If the government pays anyone who feels racial resentment because of his ancestors’ experiences, the community will soon be overflowing with racial resentment.

Other ethnic groups could demand racially exclusive federal agencies and subsidies. Any of the millions of Americans who can claim at least one ancestor who was in America before the “white men” could claim special political privileges, even though they are not members of Indian tribes. Because the bill breaks the connection between Congress’ regulatory power and the prior existence of an Indian tribe, it would be a precedent for every ethnic group to claim its own sovereign government, money and land. For instance, Hispanics descended from the people who lived in the Southwest before the U.S. annexed the area or descendants of black slaves could claim reparations and special privileges. Like ethnic Hawaiians, these people can say that their ancestors never chose to come to the United States.

Government of the race, by the race, and for the race has no place in American democracy. I urge you to vigorously oppose H.R. 617 and to ask your colleagues to do the same.

Very truly yours,

Patrick W. Hanifin

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Honolulu attorney H. William Burgess sent the following short letter to numerous Senators, Representatives, and others during August, 2001. He would be pleased if other people would use the contents of his letter, in whole or in part, in their own letters or publications opposing the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill. Mr. Burgess may be contacted at:

H. William Burgess
2299C Round Top Drive
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel. (808) 947-3234
Fax: (808) 947-5822
email: hwburgess@hawaii.rr.com

S. 746/H.R. 617 (Native Hawaiian recognition bill):

bad for Hawaii; bad for other states

A radical change in existing law. This bill would "recognize" the right of members of one group, defined by ancestry, to organize a new government. It would give Native Hawaiians something no American Indian has: the right to create the equivalent of a tribe where none now exists. The DOI may recognize tribes which have existed continuously from historic times to the present but it has no power to create tribes out of thin air. There are no tribes in Hawaii.

A dangerous precedent. If descendants of "indigenous, native" Hawaiians are entitled to organize a brand new native government and demand federal recognition, why should descendants of "indigenous, native" persons who, at the time of European contact, inhabited other lands that later became part of the United States, not have the same right?

For example, a group calling itself the "Provisional Government of Aztlan" now claims that since 1848 when the Mexican government "signed" the "Treaty" of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the U.S. has been illegally occupying the northern half of Mexico known as Aztlan. It seeks to have California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas "liberated". If S. 746/H.R. 617 passes and becomes law, how could the U.S., bound to equal protection, deny descendants of Tenochca Mexica-"Aztecs" the right to organize their own native government, be recognized by the U.S. and claim return of their ancestral lands?

Where does it end? Abandonment of the long-standing mandatory criteria for tribal recognition, would open the floodgates for the proliferation of tribes. Anthropologists estimate there are some 15 million people who have a discernible degree of Native American blood but have no tribal connection. Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Connecticut, Kansas, Virginia, indeed every state, would be at risk of being partitioned into multiple racial enclaves.

Rejection of democracy. The bill is a frontal assault on the American ideal of equality. It would elevate Native Hawaiians to the status of a hereditary elite to be supported by citizens who are not of the favored race. It is almost certainly unconstitutional.

The claimed justifications are invalid. The U.S. stole no lands from the Hawaiian people and it did not deprive them of their sovereignty. The "ceded lands" were government lands under the Kingdom held for the benefit of all citizens without regard to race. They still are. Upon annexation, ordinary Hawaiians became full citizens of the U.S. with more freedom, prosperity and sovereignty than they ever had under the Kingdom. Hawaiians today are no different, in any constitutionally significant way, from any other ethnic group in Hawaii*s multi-ethnic society. Like all the rest of us, some do well, some don*t and most are somewhere in between.

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Here is language for a possible petition from a multiracial group of Hawai'i citizens opposed to the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill. This language was not adopted for an actual petition because it is too lengthy, but it nicely summarizes the views of both ethnic Hawaiians and others who oppose the bill because we want to preserve unity, equality, and aloha for all.

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The Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill would officially divide Hawai'i's people along racial lines. It would give federal recognition to a political entity whose members must have native Hawaiian ancestry. The newly recognized government would function like an Indian tribe, demanding land, money, and power; and tax and regulatory exemptions; from the federal, state, and county governments.

Carving up Hawai'i into separate sovereign racial enclaves would severely damage the Aloha Spirit. It would establish a hereditary elite, making second-class citizens of everyone who lacks native Hawaiian ancestry. It would divide husbands from wives, parents from children, workers from co-workers, and church members from fellow members of the same faith.

The Native Hawaiian Recognition bill would be disastrous to the state and county governments and to the natural, business, and regulatory environments. It would destroy the tax base of our state and county governments, and their ability to manage the natural environment, as "tribal" members and businesses operating on "reservation" lands would be exempt from federal, state, and local taxes and regulations. It would harm the civil rights, minimum wage, worker's compensation, unemployment compensation, health insurance, and retirement benefits of workers in "tribal" businesses and the rights of both "natives" and non-"natives" living in "tribal" areas, limiting such rights and benefits to whatever the "tribal" government decides.

We are a rainbow group whose members include all the racial and ethnic heritages of Hawai'i, including many members of native Hawaiian ancestry. Many of us have multiple ancestries. We are thoroughly integrated now as members of a single society where we live, work, pray and play side by side. We come together in the spirit of aloha for each other and for our beloved native-born or adopted homeland. We do not want to be pulled apart, divided or separated in any way: not from each other; nor from the United States; nor from our right to live, work, and play throughout all of Hawai'i.

We oppose all versions of the Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill that were introduced in the 106th, 107th, and 108th Congresses; and we oppose any similar legislation in the 109th Congress or the State of Hawai'i Legislature that would establish political recognition for a racial-separatist government or other system of apartheid. We ask, and indeed demand, that our elected and appointed officials at federal, state, and local levels join us in opposing such things.

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Email: ken_conklin@yahoo.com