Hawaiian sovereignty movement
[2][3] Some groups also advocate some form of redress from the United States for its 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani, and for what is described as a prolonged military occupation beginning with the 1898 annexation.
[6][7] The Apology Resolution the United States Congress passed in 1993 acknowledged that the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was an illegal act.
[9][10] The forced depopulation of Kaho'olawe and its subsequent bombing, the construction of the Mauna Kea Observatories, and the Red Hill water crisis caused by the US Navy's mismanagement are some of the contemporary matters relevant to the sovereignty movement.
Along with protests throughout the islands, at the capital (Honolulu) itself and other locations sacred to Hawaiian culture, sovereignty activists have challenged U.S. forces and law.
But sovereignty groups opposed the bill because of its provisions that legitimized illegal land transfers, and it was criticized by a 2006 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report (which was later reversed in 2018)[13] for the effect it would have on non-ethnic Hawaiian populations.
U.S. Commissioner James H. Blount, appointed by President Grover Cleveland to investigate the events surrounding the January 1893 coup, conducted the report.
[19] Blount concluded that U.S. Minister to Hawaii John L. Stevens had carried out unauthorized partisan activities, including the landing of U.S. Marines under a false or exaggerated pretext to support anti-royalist conspirators; the report also found that these actions were instrumental to the revolution's success and that the revolution was carried out against the wishes of a majority of the population of the Hawaiian Kingdom and/or its royalty.
[20] On December 14, 1893, Albert Willis arrived unannounced in Honolulu aboard the USRC Corwin, bringing with him an anticipation of an American invasion in order to restore the monarchy, which became known as the Black Week.
He also ordered Rear Admiral John Irwin to organize a landing operation using troops on the two American ships, which were joined by the Japanese Naniwa and the British HMS Champion.
[21][22] After the arrival of the Corwin, the provisional government and citizens of Hawaii were ready to rush to arms if necessary, but it was widely believed that Willis's threat of force was a bluff.
[25] In a December 19, 1893, meeting with the leaders of the provisional government, Willis presented a letter by Liliuokalani in which she agreed to grant the revolutionaries amnesty if she were restored as queen.
[28]: 648 On January 10, 1894, U.S. Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham announced that the settlement of the situation in Hawaii would be up to Congress, following Willis's unsatisfactory progress.
The New York Herald wrote, "If Minister Willis has not already been ordered to quit meddling in Hawaiian affairs and mind his own business, no time should be lost in giving him emphatic instructions to that effect."
The New York Recorder wrote, "The idea of sending out a minister accredited to the President of a new republic, having him present his credentials to that President and address him as 'Great and Good Friend,' and then deliberately set to work to organize a conspiracy to overthrow his Government and re-establish the authority of the deposed Queen, is repugnant to every man who holds American honor and justice in any sort of respect."
[35] The Royal Order of Kamehameha I continues its work in observance and preservation of some native Hawaiian rituals and customs established by the leaders of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
[41] ALOHA sought reparations for Native Hawaiians by hiring a former U.S. representative to write a bill that, while not ratified, did spawn a congressional study.
[53] The group began in the late 1980s as the Pā Kaukau coalition with the aim to supply information that could support the sovereignty and independence movement.
[54] Blaisdell and the 12 groups that comprise the Ka Pākaukau believe in a "nation-within-a-nation" concept as a start to independence and are willing to negotiate with the President of the United States as "representatives of our nation as co-equals".
[60] The group ceased its occupation in exchange for the return of ceded lands in the adjacent community of Waimānalo, where it established a village, cultural center, and puʻuhonua (place of refuge).
[60] Kanahele made headlines again in 1995 when his group gave sanctuary to Nathan Brown, a Native Hawaiian activist who had refused to pay federal taxes in protest against the U.S. presence in Hawaii.
Kanahele was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to eight months in federal prison, along with a probation period in which he was barred from the puʻuhonua and participation in his sovereignty efforts.
[64] She is one of several people who sued to stop the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope[65] and is the director of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou.
Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, and the Sierra Club united in opposition to the Keck's proposal to add six outrigger telescopes.
[73] Charles Maxwell and other community leaders began to plan a coordinated effort to land on the island, which was still under Navy control.
Over 50 people from across the Hawaiian islands, including a range of cultural leaders, gathered on Maui with the goal of "invading" Kahoolawe on January 6, 1976.
American opponents argue that Congress is disregarding U.S. citizens for special interests and sovereignty activists believe this will further erode their rights, as the 1921 blood quantum rule of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act did.
[98] In June 2014, the US Department of the Interior announced plans to hold hearings to establish the possibility of federal recognition of Native Hawaiians as an Indian tribe.
In its decision, the court wrote: "the ancestral inquiry mandated by the State is forbidden by the Fifteenth Amendment for the further reason that the use of racial classifications is corruptive of the whole legal order democratic elections seek to preserve....Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality".
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii CEO Kelii Akina filed suit to see the names on the roll, won, and found serious flaws.
The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission has since purged the list of names of deceased persons as well as those whose mailing or email addresses could not be verified.
