225
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.C.R. NO.            
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION

  RECOGNIZING NATIVE HAWAIIANS AS INHERENT SOVEREIGN
    BENEFICIARIES.



 1        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150, "To acknowledge the 100
 2   anniversary of the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of
 3   Hawaii, and to offer apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of
 4   the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii"
 5   was passed by the Congress of the United States and signed by
 6   President William J. Clinton on November 23, 1993; and
 7   
 8        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150, Section 1, (3), "apologizes
 9   to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United
10   States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on
11   January 17, 1893 with participation of agents and citizens of
12   the United States, and the deprivation of the rights of Native
13   Hawaiians to self-determination"; and
14   
15        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150 recognized "prior to the
16   arrival of the first Europeans in 1778, the Native Hawaiian
17   people lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistent
18   social system based on communal land tenure with a
19   sophisticated language, culture, and religion"; and
20   
21        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150, recognized that "a unified
22   monarchical government of the Hawaiian Islands was established
23   in 1830 under Kamehameha I, the first King of Hawaii"; and
24   
25        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150, recognized that "from 1826
26   until 1893, the United States recognized the independence of
27   the Kingdom of Hawaii, extended full and complete diplomatic
28   recognition of the Hawaiian Government, and entered into
29   treaties and conventions with the Hawaiian monarchs to govern
30   commerce and navigation in 1826, 1841, 1849, 1875, and 1887";
31   and
32   
33        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150, recognized that "the Native
34   Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop, and
35   transmit to future generations their ancestral territory, and
36   their cultural identity in accordance with their own spiritual

 
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                                  H.C.R. NO.            
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   and tradition beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social
 2   institutions"; and
 3   
 4        WHEREAS, Public Law 103-150 recognizes that "the
 5   indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their
 6   claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their
 7   national lands to the United States, either through their
 8   monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum"; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, Section 2 of Public Law 103-150, defines "the
11   term "Native Hawaiian" to mean any individual who is a
12   descendent of the aboriginal people who, prior to 1778,
13   occupied and exercised sovereignty in the area that now
14   constitutes the State of Hawaii"; and
15   
16        WHEREAS, this Legislature adopted a 1995 Concurrent
17   Resolution, "Acknowledging Public Law 103-150, A Joint
18   Resolution of the U.S. Congress Containing An Apology by the
19   United States to Native Hawaiians for the Overthrow of the
20   Kingdom of Hawaii, and Adopting it in its Entirety"; and
21   
22        WHEREAS, many Native Hawaiians have expressed their
23   inherent sovereignty as beneficiaries of their ancestral
24   national lands that were ceded to the United States through the
25   Joint Resolution of Annexation of July 7, 1898 and the trust
26   lands subject to the public land trust provided in section 5(f)
27   of Admission Act; now, therefore,
28   
29        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
30   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
31   of 1999, the Senate concurring, that the Native Hawaiians, as
32   defined in Public Law 103-150, shall be recognized as the
33   inherent sovereign beneficiaries of Hawaii; and
34   
35        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
36   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President and Vice
37   President of the United States; the Speaker of the House of
38   Representatives of the United States; the President of the
39   United States Senate; each member of Hawaii's congressional
40   delegation; the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the
41   President of the Senate of each state legislature in the United
42   States; the Attorney General, State of Hawaii; Governor
43   Benjamin Cayetano; all judges of the state courts; each Mayor

 
 
 
 
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                                  H.C.R. NO.            
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1   and each member of the council of each county; the members of
 2   the Board of Education; and the Trustees of the Office of
 3   Hawaiian Affairs.
 4   
 5 
 6 
 7 
 8                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________