Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 10, 1 October 2005 — Akaka Bill erases blood quantum issue [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Akaka Bill erases blood quantum issue

Linda K. ūela Cruz TrustEE, Hawai'i

Aloha In this month's eolumn, I hope to address mv

personal opinions about some of the issues I have had to deal with as a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The hottest issue today is S. 147, better known as the Akaka Bill. I support S . 1 47. Why? Every 10 years for the last 40 or 50 years, the natives got restless and we went through the same issues again and again. We always start with education about Hawaiian history. Then we get into other issues like the Kingdom of Hawai'i, the overthrow of the monarchy, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended, the 5(f) section of the Hawai'i State

Admission Act, sovereignty, independence, self-determi-nation, injustice, the Apology Bill and now the OHA and Kamehameha court cases. We also had rallies and demonstrations. All the above activities seem to be the "ingredients to bake a eake and the icing for the eake" for the Rice v. Cayetctno court case. Finally, we are asking for federal recognition in S . 147, the Akaka Bill. Today, there are only three groups of aboriginal people in the whole United States: Indians, Eskimos and Hawaiians. Hawaiians have been a divided community since Congress created the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act: the 50 percent Hawaiian blood versus the less than 50 percent Hawaiian blood. After more than 80 years, we are finally doing away with the blood quantum

issue with the Akaka Bill. As long as you have an ancestor that is Hawaiian you qualify. By the way, Sen. Daniel Akaka is 75 percent Hawaiian and 25 percent Chinese. What does this mean about Sen. Akaka? What's good for him and his 'ohana should be good for me and my 'ohana. He is also a kupuna. There have been several changes to S . 1 47 since the hill was introduced in Congress. This is a normal process. Any time you introduce a hill in the state Legislature or in Congress, when the hill comes back you hope you still recognize it. And finally, I look forward to passing S. 147, and mahalo a nui loa (thank you very mueh) to Sens. Akaka and Daniel Inouye, and Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case for all their hard work to pass the hill. E3