HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

6

TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

S.D. 1

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

 

COMMEMORATING THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF PUBLIC LAW 103-150, RECOGNIZING THE PROGRESS MADE TOWARDS RECONCILIATION AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN SELF-GOVERNANCE AND SELF-DETERMINATION, REAFFIRMING THE STATE'S COMMITMENT TO RECONCILIATION WITH NATIVE HAWAIIANS FOR HISTORICAL INJUSTICES, URGING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ADVANCE RECONCILIATION EFFORTS WITH NATIVE HAWAIIANS, AND SUPPORTING EFFORTS TO FURTHER THE SELF-DETERMINATION AND SOVEREIGNTY OF NATIVE HAWAIIANS.

 

 


     WHEREAS, in 1993, the United States Congress passed Public Law 103-150 (the "Apology Resolution"), acknowledging and apologizing for the critical role of United States diplomats, military forces, and citizens in the overthrow of the sovereign Kingdom of Hawai‘i; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution confirms that the actions of United States agents in the overthrow and occupation of the Hawaiian government violated treaties between the United States and the sovereign Kingdom of Hawai‘i, and norms of international law; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution confirms that one million eight hundred thousand acres of crown and government lands were thereafter ceded to the United States without consent or compensation to the Native Hawaiian people or their sovereign government, as a result of the United States' annexation of Hawai‘i; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution recognizes that the Native Hawaiian people never relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or of their national lands throughout the overthrow, occupation, annexation, and admission of Hawai‘i into the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution recognizes that the health and well-being of the Native Hawaiian people is intrinsically tied to their deep feelings and attachment to the land; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution recognizes that the Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to their descendants, both their ancestral lands and their cultural identity; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution acknowledges that the overthrow has resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Apology Resolution apologizes to the Native Hawaiian people on behalf of the people of the United States, commends the efforts of reconciliation initiated by the State of Hawaii and the United Church of Christ with the Native Hawaiians, including the appropriation of funds to educate the public regarding Hawaiian sovereignty; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Legislature also passed Act 340, Session Laws of Hawaii 1993, mandating that the lands and waters of Kaho‘olawe island be held in the public land trust, directing the State to transfer management and control of these lands and waters to the sovereign Native Hawaiian entity upon its recognition by the United States and the State of Hawai‘i, and establishing the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission to manage these lands and waters in the interim; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Legislature passed Act 329, Session Laws of Hawaii 1997, recognizing the deep sense of injustice felt among many Native Hawaiians and others and affirming that reconciliation with the Native Hawaiian people is desired by all people of Hawai‘i; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2000, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice published a report, "From Mauka to Makai:  The River of Justice Must Flow Freely," which formally initiated the federal government's efforts to reconcile past injustices, and recognize and establish a government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian people; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2000 and 2002, the United States Congress passed Public Law 106-568, the Hawaiian Homelands Homeownership Act, and Public Law 107-110, the reenacted Native Hawaiian Education Act, confirming the special relationship between the federal government and the Native Hawaiian people; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2005, Hawai‘i's entire congressional delegation, including then-representative and current Governor of Hawai‘i, Neil Abercrombie, as well as the then-Hawai‘i Governor, expressed to the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs their unanimous support for self-governance and self-determination for Native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, in Office of Hawaiian Affairs v. Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDCH), 117 Hawaii 174, 195 (2008), rev'd and remanded by 556 U.S. 163 (2009), the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai‘i held that "the Apology Resolution and related state legislation...give rise to the State's fiduciary duty to preserve the corpus of the public lands trust, specifically, the ceded lands, until such time as the unrelinquished claims of the native Hawaiians have been resolved."; and

 

     WHEREAS, in Office of Hawaiian Affairs v. HCDCH, 117 Hawaii 174, 216, the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai‘i also recognized the critical importance of the ‘āina to Hawaiian people and stated, "We firmly believe that, given the 'crucial importance [of the ‘aina or land to] the [n]ative Hawaiian people and their culture, their religion, their economic self-sufficiency, and their sense of personal and community well-being,' any further diminishment of the ceded lands (the ‘aina) from the public lands trust will negatively impact the contemplated reconciliation/settlement efforts between native Hawaiians and the State"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Legislature passed Act 195, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011, acknowledging that Native Hawaiians are the only indigenous, aboriginal, maoli population of Hawai‘i nei, that the State of Hawai‘i has a special political and legal relationship with the Native Hawaiian people, that Native Hawaiians have continued to maintain their identity as a distinctly native political community with rights to self-determination, self-governance, and self-sufficiency, and establishing a Native Hawaiian roll commission to maintain a roll of qualified Native Hawaiians to facilitate Native Hawaiian self-governance; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature hereby commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the Apology Resolution, recognizes the progress that has been made towards reconciliation and Native Hawaiian self-governance and self-determination, reaffirms the State's commitment to reconciliation with the Native Hawaiian people for historical injustices, urges the federal government to advance reconciliation efforts with Native Hawaiians, and supports efforts to further the self-determination and sovereignty of Native Hawaiians; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i, the Governor of the State of Hawai‘i, and the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Report Title: 

OHA Package; Apology Resolution; Commemoration