Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 7, 1 July 1990 — Inouye holds Homestead Act hearings [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Inouye holds Homestead Act hearings

By Ann L. Moore The trust relationship between the federal government and Native Hawaiians has always been unclear. There is ambiguity in the wording of the Hawaiian Homes Act and there is no aeknowledgement the trust exists in perpetuity. For those reasons, among others, the purpose clause (SB 3236) was passed by the state and sent to the U.S. Congress for consent, according to Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

Inouye conducted hearings on the proposed purpose clause to the Hawaiian Homes Act on May 31 in Honolulu with the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, of whieh he is chair. Also present were committee members Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) the vice-chair, Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawai'i), and U.S. Representative Eni Faleomavaenga of American Samoa. Also on the platform as guests were state Sen. Miehael Crozier and Rep. David Ige. Inouye told the audience that it will be a tough job to get Congress to agree to pass the purpose clause even with the support of native Hawaiians and homestead associations.

Inouye said he had long felt the Kuhio Act (Hawaiian Homes Act) needed looking into but he was prevented from doing so by the homesteaders themselves, until last year. In August 1989, Inouye said, hearings into the Homestead Act were begun and the senate eommittee spent over 250 hours listening to testimony. Further, he read every line of submitted testimony, he said. Sen. McCain noted that Inouye has demonstrated a great commitment to helping native Hawaiians hold their patrimony. "Many great issues are decided after only an hour or two of testimony," he said.

As the opening witness, Kamaki Kanahele, president of the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations said that SCHHA supports SB 3236 as a first step towards preventing the alienation of the land from the people. He said there was no eeonomie, financial or technical support offered when the Hawaiian Homes Commission was set up and that historically the state has failed to administer the lands well.

OHA Trustee A. Frenchy DeSoto presented the position of the Wai'anae Valley Homestead Association, of whieh she is vice-chair, in support of SB 3236. She said the purpose clause would strengthen and cement the federal trust obligation to native Hawaiians. "To put it bluntly," she told the senate committee. "we need federal dollars to

put people on the land." She noted that a staggering $900 million is required to take care ofjustcurrent applications on the waiting list and the state, by itself, cannot carry the cost. It must be a shared responsibility, a partnership of federal and state resources, she said. The Wai'anae Valley Homestead Association, DeSoto said, does not share the belief expressed

by some that the required legal basis already exists the Act. Rather, she said, there are loopholes in the Act through whieh the "morally uncommitted" have historically chosen to jump. •

The federal government appears to have burned its bridges of trust responsibility to native Hawaiians or at the very least made the bridges unstable, she said and for those reasons the Wai'anae Valley Homestead Association supports the purpose clause and will support the legislation when it is introduced to Congress for consent to its adoption. In answer to concerns expressed by some that enough time was not given the people to read, digest and comment on the purpose clause, Inouye said there has been more time spent on the home

lands and the issues surrounding the Act than any other issue in the history of the United States Senate. "There has been no precipitous action on this measure," he said. The people, Inouye said, need a permanent home land base. There is uncertainty in the Act, now, and one object of the purpose clause is to establish a permanent land base for the benefit of native Hawaiians. "Permanent is the key word" he said.

The purpose clause is aimed at putting native Hawaiians on the land promptly and efficiently and preventing any alienation of the title to the lands so that the lands will always be held for use by native Hawaiians in perpetuity. The entire purpose clause for the Hawaiian Homes Act (SB 3236) is printed in full in this edition of Ka Wai Ola O OHA. Inouye addressed concerns of homesteaders who objected to the clause because a specific amount of money was not mentioned, saying that the state government — in passing the purpose clause — could not put in a specific amount of money because the state cannot tell the federal continued page 3

Testifying on homestead water rights on Moloka'i were (left to right): William Tam of the state deputy attorney general's office, Mahealani Kamauu of Native Hawaiian Legal

Corporation, Hoaliku Drake, director of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and William Paty, director of Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Homestead hearing

/rom page 1 government that it must give money. If money had been mentioned the purpose clause would have been rejected out of hand.

But, importantly, he said, the purpose clause would recognize the solemn trust created by the Hawaiian Homes Act and reaffirm there is a fiduciary responsibility on the part of the federal govenment to administer the act. This particular section (e) of the purpose clause is the one that relates to the need for money to implement the provisions of the Hawaiian Homes Act.

Bill 3236 contains explicit language whieh ensures that nothing in the bill shall be constructed to affect sovereignty and reparation issues. Throughout the hearing, Inouye mentioned the many cases brought against the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. 'It is because there is no specific purpose clause that you are in and out of court all the time," he said. "If I get this language I ean go to my colleagues and say, 'It's the law.' Today, I don't have that."

Inouye said he had spent that morning with Gov.John Waihee talking "about a lot of things. We are going for big money but we have to have it in the law that there is a trust responsibility." Following the hearing a story in an Honolulu daily newspaper quoted Inouye as saying he felt he had the support of the Homesteaders for the purpose clause.

Trustee DeSoto: Federal trust responsibility needs strengthening.