Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 8, 1 August 2002 — Multiethnic Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Multiethnic Hawaiians

In B.J. Reyes article ( Hawai'i Tribune Herald , 7/11/02), Reyes mentions a multiethnic groups court challenge to Native Hawaiian programs. It gave me cause to wonder if this reporter is aware that we Hawaiians are multiethnic as the vast number of us are of mixed race (read multiethnic) but identify ourselves as Hawaiians or part Hawaiians as the lawful and legal inheritors of the nation of Hawai'i since our ancestors atthe time of the illegal overthrow of our nation's leader, or since, never surrendared their sovereignty to the U.S. or its agents. I sincerely believe Reyes to be a professional, therefore an in-depth background reporting to the story would have given it some balance since the omission of the full truth may gfre too mueh credence to the plaintiff's claims . Walte r Akimo Hilo

— I,p° p'Nii