Native Hawaiian Population Is More Than 400,000 According to U.S. Census 2000 (See Spreadsheet for State-by-State Numbers)

The question is: In April of the year 2000, how many people in the United States checked the box for "Native Hawaiian" on their Census forms? The Census form put the question this way: "Now choose one or more races for each person. Which race or races does each person consider himself/herself to be?"

One of the 15 boxes that could be checked was "Native Hawaiian." People could check more than one box (as many as they wished). People could choose to check only one box if they felt they identified primarily with just one race. In Hawai'i, some ethnic Hawaiian activists waged a campaign to ask ethnic Hawaiians to check only that one box, ignoring all their other racial heritages, in order to maximize the apparent numbers of "pure" Hawaiians.

Nearly all Hawaiian racial entitlement programs, including the "Native Hawaiian" recognition bill, offer benefits to anyone who has even one drop of "Native Hawaiian" blood. We need to know how many people claimed to have Hawaiian blood, whether or not they also claimed to have other racial heritages. Thus, the question is: How many people checked the "Native Hawaiian" box in the race question of U.S. Census 2000?

On December 14, 2001 the Census Bureau finally released the report on Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. It is called "The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2000". On page 8 it states that 401,000 people reported themselves as being at least part Hawaiian. This report can be found at:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-14.pdf

To find the answer half a year earlier, and to see how many Hawaiians there were in each state, it was necessary to go to to the U.S. Census Bureau website and do some deep digging. The results of that digging are in the spreadsheet below, after this brief summary and commentary. Following the spreadsheet are step-by-step instructions to permit anyone who wants to verify this information to go directly to the Census Bureau website and dig it out for themselves.

The number of Native Hawaiians is much larger than previously expected. If this phony "tribe" is given federal recognition, they would be larger than any real tribe. Their benefits will be enormous at the expense of U.S. taxpayers, as they compete against genuine tribes for limited funds.

Nationwide, 401,920 people checked the box for being Native Hawaiian. Of those, 239,655 live in Hawai'i and the remaining 162,265 live in other states, including 60,048 in California. A spreadsheet downloaded from the Census website shows the state-by-state breakdown.

All 401,920 of these people would be eligible for membership in the Native Hawaiian nation that would be created by the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill H.R.617 and S.746. In addition, there are probably tens of thousands of other people (especially outside Hawai'i) who did not check the "Native Hawaiian" box because of their low blood quantum or because they identify more closely with their other racial heritages. Anyone with a drop of Native Hawaiian blood might be expected to step forward to claim government entitlements offered to them through this legislation, even though they did not check the box on the Census form. A newer version of the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill, S.1783, was introduced in December 2001. That bill seems to have a blood quantum requirement that might reduce the number of people who would qualify for membership in the "nation." However, simple analysis reveals that there would be virtualy no difference in population: See
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/AkakaS1783Differences.html

So-called "Native Hawaiians" are prospering under U.S. sovereignty. Their population has multiplied ten-fold in the 100 years from the first U.S. Census of Hawai'i in the Annexation year 1900 (only 40,000 then) until the most recent Census 2000 (400,000 now). Approximately 40% of people who have Hawaiian blood now live in parts of the United States outside Hawai'i; and additional ethnic Hawaiians live in other countries (not included in these figures). Clearly, "Native Hawaiians" have no problem living as American citizens, fully assimilated into mainstream culture and pursuing their dreams wherever they feel they are most likely to succeed.

Two additional points about the Native Hawaiian Recognition bill: (1) Authors of the bill tried to assuage concerns of some Senators that this huge new "tribe" would be the 400 pound gorilla in competing for funding for Indian programs. There is a provision in the revised bill stating that Native Hawaiians would not automatically qualify for programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, programs for Native Hawaiians would still be managed through the Department of Interior and would therefore have an inevitable effect on the availability of funds for genuine tribes. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether such a restriction against Native Hawaiians would stand up under court scrutiny: Native Hawaiian organizations are already arguing in legal briefs that they are entitled to be treated equally with Indian tribes. (2) Authors of the bill tried to assuage fears that the new tribe might try to use the Indian Gaming Act to open gambling casinos. There is a provision in the latest version of the bill that "Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed as an authorization for the Native Hawaiian governing entity to conduct gaming activities under the authority of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.". That language provides no real comfort because it only prohibits the new Native Hawaiian entity from using the IGRA to force Hawai'i to allow Native Hawaiians to open a casino, despite Hawai'i law making all forms of gambling illegal. But if Hawaii sometime decides to legalize even one mild form of gaming -- for example church bingo -- then Native Hawaiians, being a "tribe," would be able to bootstrap that church bingo into a full-blown casino. That's what happened in Connecticut which now has the world's largest casino. Furthermore, regardless of what happens in Hawai'i, the bill might make it possible for the large numbers of Hawaiians living in other states to organize their own governing entities, exercise sovereignty, purchase "tribal" land and open casinos. And as noted above regarding participation in BIA programs: Native Hawaiians, once recognized, would probably claim in court that they must be treated equally with other recognized tribes and therefore the restriction on their use of IGRA would be nullified.

The substantially larger number of Native Hawaiians than previously believed also calls into question the victimology statistics, where Native Hawaiian activists claim that their ethnic group is over-represented in negative social indicators such as poverty, incarceration, alcoholism, drug abuse, family dysfunction, etc.

The information on this spreadsheet when viewed on the Census website is entitled, "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Alone or in Combination with One or More Other Races." It can be found on the Census website, www.census.gov, under American Fact Finder, Summary File 1, PCT10. Complete step-by-step directions for finding the Census spreadsheet are listed under the improved spreadsheet below.

The spreadsheet below is EXTREMELY WIDE. To see all the data, use the scroll bar at the bottom of your screen to scroll to the right.

NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDER ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH ONE OR MORE OTHER RACES

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	AA	AB	AC	AD	AE	AF	AG	AH	AI	AJ	AK	AL	AM	AN	AO	AP	AQ	AR	AS	AT	AU	AV	AW	AX	AY	AZ	BA	BB
1		TOTAL	Hawaii	AL	AK	AZ	AR	CA	CO	CT	DE	DC	FL	GA	ID	IL	IN	IA	KS	KY	LA	ME	MD	MA	MI	MN	MS	MO	MT	NE	NV	NH	NJ	NM	NY	NC	ND	OH	OK	OR	PA	RI	SC	SD	TN	TX	UT	VT	VA	WA	WV	WI	WY	PR
2	Total Native Hawaiian and Other	903,630	295,030	3,233	5,751	13,756	3,204	226,927	10,419	4,101	675	808	24,378	9,906	2,974	11,987	4,468	2,245	3,182	3,218	3,340	805	6,279	8,784	7,434	5,949	1,977	6,807	1,104	1,757	16,811	784	10,171	3,137	28,862	8,793	479	7,170	5,264	16,414	8,919	1,798	3,884	569	4,673	29,588	22,678	311	10,173	43,808	911	4,390	626	2,919
3	Pacific Islander categories tallied
4	Polynesian:	585,057	276,846	1,239	4,500	8,026	1,027	128,796	5,827	1,249	217	327	7,957	3,635	1,858	4,207	2,165	1,056	1,508	1,370	1,320	414	2,148	2,212	3,060	2,441	798	3,460	696	751	11,701	358	2,467	1,812	6,216	3,871	231	3,076	2,677	8,980	3,327	424	1,574	328	2,220	13,207	20,021	145	3,990	25,675	412	1,693	374	1,168
5	Native Hawaiian	401,920	239,655	833	1,878	4,906	718	60,048	3,990	781	140	231	5,285	2,183	1,139	2,506	1,402	699	997	845	850	243	1,475	1,356	2,058	1,526	505	1,620	529	543	8,264	266	1,501	1,261	3,758	2,390	132	1,989	1,932	6,366	2,051	311	1,056	207	1,302	7,775	3,642	76	2,795	13,507	264	1,143	233	758
6	Samoan	133,680	28,184	376	2,172	1,874	280	49,804	1,440	406	68	82	1,981	1,305	445	1,539	653	274	435	467	436	149	567	747	858	767	275	1,661	131	179	2,178	86	858	450	2,218	1,335	91	958	623	1,770	1,102	103	469	82	837	3,668	6,470	66	1,050	10,607	128	483	94	399
7	Tongan	36,846	5,988	11	326	954	8	15,252	227	18	3	2	312	28	173	43	52	34	29	21	5	4	22	41	68	71	9	55	17	8	919	0	18	27	56	62	5	33	50	582	81	1	11	34	25	1,371	8,655	1	41	1,029	8	20	30	6
8	Other Polynesian	12,611	3,019	19	124	292	21	3,692	170	44	6	12	379	119	101	119	58	49	47	37	29	18	84	68	76	77	9	124	19	21	340	6	90	74	184	84	3	96	72	262	93	9	38	5	56	393	1,254	2	104	532	12	47	17	5
9	Micronesian:	115,482	12,622	875	464	2,602	1,255	36,458	2,193	455	140	115	4,086	2,458	494	1,640	817	531	728	716	647	139	1,242	892	1,226	574	422	1,351	170	512	2,385	147	1,218	580	2,974	2,127	129	1,234	1,386	3,607	1,138	324	887	113	1,073	6,240	761	61	2,291	9,799	179	658	112	235
10	Guamanian or Chamorro	92,845	4,221	804	387	2,101	370	33,849	1,867	412	132	104	3,549	2,173	386	1,496	732	293	565	616	584	123	1,108	812	1,007	483	381	761	141	439	2,090	118	1,135	534	2,746	1,828	69	1,117	966	1,668	1,037	314	745	104	962	5,410	348	53	2,045	8,597	156	573	100	234
11	Other Micronesian	22,637	8,401	71	77	501	885	2,609	326	43	8	11	537	285	108	144	85	238	163	100	63	16	134	80	219	91	41	590	29	73	295	29	83	46	228	299	60	117	420	1,939	101	10	142	9	111	830	413	8	246	1,202	23	85	12	1
12	Melanesian:	14,156	503	9	15	80	7	10,200	52	22	4	12	119	47	16	68	20	15	31	13	13	7	56	44	40	41	6	53	11	6	109	2	40	10	393	20	0	44	19	435	38	11	10	6	27	143	145	1	57	1,110	3	21	2	0
13	Fijian	13,581	459	8	11	75	5	10,104	42	18	4	4	91	40	15	57	12	6	25	11	9	2	37	31	30	14	4	44	11	5	106	1	34	5	340	16	0	24	6	426	19	10	7	6	12	117	143	0	40	1,083	2	8	2	0
14	Other Melanesian	575	44	1	4	5	2	96	10	4	0	8	28	7	1	11	8	9	6	2	4	5	19	13	10	27	2	9	0	1	3	1	6	5	53	4	0	20	13	9	19	1	3	0	15	26	2	1	17	27	1	13	0	0
15	Other Pacific Islander	12,598	58	270	34	155	243	1,324	166	92	42	26	739	821	71	326	165	52	57	220	377	37	240	218	368	97	244	260	28	40	82	39	340	68	987	466	6	339	141	179	401	22	371	7	242	1,054	43	15	422	309	55	135	14	91
16	Other Pacific Islander,	176,337	5,001	840	738	2,893	672	50,149	2,181	2,283	272	328	11,477	2,945	535	5,746	1,301	591	858	899	983	208	2,593	5,418	2,740	2,796	507	1,683	199	448	2,534	238	6,106	667	18,292	2,309	113	2,477	1,041	3,213	4,015	1,017	1,042	115	1,111	8,944	1,708	89	3,413	6,915	262	1,883	124	1,425
17	not specified

Special thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau. After several fruitless attempts to get this information over a period of several months, one of my requests was finally forwarded to an expert staff member who knows the data inside out, and who took the time to explain how to find what was needed. Unfortunately, the helpful expert prefers to remain un-named in this acknowledgment. The procedure whereby anyone can find the original spreadsheet on the Census Bureau website is provided below. Stopping along the way at any of the steps in the procedure will allow more leisurely browsing through massive amounts of valuable Census statistics. Of course, any blame for how the data are interpreted on this website rests solely with the website author, Ken Conklin, whose e-mail address appears at the end. He will forward any reasonable requests for information to the Census expert who helped him, and who can then choose whether to take time out from a very busy schedule to respond.

Sorry this process is so complicated. When the spreadsheet finally appears on the internet, it appears to have a URL that could be copied and saved for later clicking. However, that URL is only temporary; it will not work as a permanent reference.

In the column on the left, click on American Fact Finder. American Fact Finder can also be reached directly at www.factfinder.gov

Under the first bullet point (Search), click on "Show all tables". This will bring up a long list of tables.

Click "Show Table". This brings up the table giving the data state-by-state but there is no total column.

To download the table to your computer: Click "Print/Download" near the top of the screen.

Call the downloaded table into your spreadsheet program. Caution -- this may work successfully with Microsoft "Excel" spreadsheet software of the correct vintage, but might not work with other types of spreadsheet software. It depends whether your own spreadsheet can handle "imports" and whether your software is compatible with that used by the Census Bureau.

Add a column summing the state-by-state data to get the totals for the 50 states (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico).