Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 7, 1 July 2004 — Akaka Hearings [ARTICLE]

Akaka Hearings

I am ashamed to bear the same name as the bill that will further put our Hawaiian people into bondage, more than a hundred years since the theft of our Hawaiian nation. The recent version of the Akaka Bill would not "grant federal recognition" to Native Hawaiians. Nothing could be further from the truth! Even the title of this latest version of the Akaka Bill has been changed from "Native Hawaiian Recognition Act" to "Native Hawaiian Governmental Reorganization Act." The Bush administration, through its Dept. of Interior Secretary Gayle Norton, is calling for a reorganization of our Hawaiian government before we Hawaiians have the opportunity to self-determine what our government is to be. With the passage of this bill, we Hawaiians will have 20 years to go round and round in circles set up by the Department of Interior, forcing us Hawaiians to get approval at eaeh and every step of the way from the head of the Department of Interior, Congress and the State Legislature, then to go back and forth with these entities on every single issue to be resolved. They intend with this process to have us Hawaiians "spin our wheels" by following this paper trail of bureaucratic tears and quicksand. There is no rush to pass this bill at this time. It has been over four years since we had a Federal hearing at home for Hawaiian justice. This "revised" Akaka Bill S.344 is so drastically different from any of its past versions that it necessitates Federal hearings to be held on these Hawaiian Islands, whieh is only fair as it deals with self-determination and our Hawaiian destiny in our

own homeland of over 1,000 years. It is imperative if this is a true democracy, as our Hawaiian future is at stake. Moanike'ala Akaka, Former OFIA trustee Hilo