HCR292

WHEREAS, long before the arrival of the first Europeans, the original indigenous inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands, now generally referred to as native Hawaiians, had developed their own language, religion, art, navigational skills, agriculture and fishing technologies, legends and history; and

WHEREAS, prior to western contact, native Hawaiians had established an organized, self-sufficient society, with a communal land tenure system that supported the entire population; and

WHEREAS, before the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, Hawaii was recognized by the United States as an independent and sovereign indigenous nation in treaties and conventions; and

WHEREAS, after the forced abdication of Queen Liliuokalani on January 24, 1895, government lands and crown lands--the lands reserved for the Hawaiian monarchy--were taken over by the new government as part of the public domain, despite an earlier declaration by the Act of January 3, 1865 that crown lands were inalienable; and

WHEREAS, the Newlands Resolution of July 7, 1898, provided for the annexation of Hawaii by the United States and the Republic of Hawaii ceded nearly 1,800,000 acres of government and crown lands to the United States, without the consent of or compensation to the native Hawaiian people or their sovereign government; and

WHEREAS, the indigenous native Hawaiian people did not expressly relinquish their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or their right to the crown and government lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the rights and contributions of native Hawaiians have been recognized in the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and in federal and state laws; and

WHEREAS, in the federal Native Hawaiian Education Act, the United States Congress found that native Hawaiians are a distinct and unique indigenous people with a historical continuity to the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands, whose society was recognized as a nation by the United States, Britain, France, and Japan in treaties relating to friendship, commerce, and navigation; and

WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian Education Act also expressly states that the United States has recognized and reaffirmed that:

(1) Congress extends services to native Hawaiians not based upon race, but based upon their unique status as the indigenous people of a once sovereign nation with whom the United States has established a trust relationship;

(2) Congress has delegated broad authority to administer a portion of the Federal trust responsibility to the State of Hawaii; and

(3) The political status of native Hawaiians is comparable to the political status of American Indians and Alaska natives; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, native Hawaiians have actively worked to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their cultural identity in their spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social institutions, as well as their ceded land rights and their right to establish a sovereign government as the original indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands; and

WHEREAS, in seeking to establish an aboriginal self-government, the major groups of aboriginal people in Canada faced difficulties similar to those encountered in the past and the present by native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, to correct past injustices and enhance the rightful position of the aboriginal people of Canada, an Assembly of First Nations was established to meet the past and present challenges that threaten their unique identities and rights as the original aboriginal groups of Canada, who were identified as the First Nations Peoples; and

WHEREAS, the unique identities and rights of the aboriginal people of Canada are similar to issues facing the original indigenous inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands and their descendants, the native Hawaiians; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature supports the recognition and designation of the original indigenous inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands and their descendants, the native Hawaiian people, as First Nation Peoples who hold rights and responsibilities unique to them as the original indigenous inhabitants of Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature also supports the creation of an Assembly of First Nations Peoples by the native Hawaiian people to consider issues relating to self-government; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Pomaikaiokalani Kinney, the Prime Minister of the Reinstated Hawaiian Government of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the Chairman of the Council of Regency of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, and the Governor of Ka Lahui Hawaii.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Native Hawaiians; First Nations Peoples

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	292
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII