Native Hawaiians

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Template:Ethnic group

Native Hawaiians (in Hawaiian, kanaka Template:Okinaoiwi or kanaka māoli) are the Polynesian peoples of the Hawaiian Islands who trace their ancestry back to Marquesan and possibly Tahitian settlers (starting circa 400 CE), before the arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook in 1778. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 476,000 people who identified themselves as being native Hawaiian, part native Hawaiian and mixed native Hawaiian. Most native Hawaiians are residents of the United States in California, the State of Hawai'i, Nevada and Washington. Two-thirds live in the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai while the other one-third is split among mainland states. Almost half of the mainland share of the population is in California. Although some Native Hawaiians identify themselves as indigenous, there is some controversy regarding those claims - Questions regarding the indigenous nature of Hawaiians

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Native Hawaiian subgroups

Identifying and classifying native Hawaiian subgroups has become a delicate issue among native Hawaiians. Different government agencies have different methods of classifying native Hawaiians. [1]. However, it is widely accepted that such classifications are necessary to facilitate laws, trusts and wills governing native Hawaiian programs. For example, programs administered by the HawaiTemplate:Okinai State Department of Hawaiian Homelands are legally bound by trusts to provide services only to Hawaiians claiming over 50% ancestry back to 1778.

According to the Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 10-2, Hawaiians are defined as:

any descendant of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands which exercised sovereignty and subsisted in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and which peoples thereafter have continued to reside in HawaiTemplate:Okinai.

Within this definition, Hawaiians are sub-classified into two major groups: native Hawaiians consist of the population who claim over 50% ancestry back to 1778. Also, there are part Hawaiians who claim less than 50% of ancestry back to 1778.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also differentiates between:

  • "Native Hawaiian" (capitalized, referring to any person of Hawaiian ancestry regardless of blood quantum) and
  • "native Hawaiian" (uncapitalized, referring to a Hawaiian with at least 50% blood quantum).[2]

In general usage, however, this distinction is often ignored, with both capitalizations being used to describe the native Hawaiian population as a whole regardless of bloodline.

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Population

At the time of Captain Cook's arrival, native Hawaiians may have numbered some 250,00 to 800,000; there has been much debate over such estimates [3]. Over the span of the first century after first contact, the native Hawaiians were close to eradicated by new diseases introduced to the islands. Native Hawaiians did not have immunity to influenza, measles, and whooping cough, among others. The census of 1900 identified only 40,000 native Hawaiians. The census of 2000 identified 400,000 native Hawaiians, demonstrating a trend of dramatic growth since annexation by the U.S. in 1898.

An Office of Hawaiian Affairs survey in 1984 reported that 61% of Native Hawaiians had less than 50% native Hawaiian blood. That same report indicated that only 8,244 pure blood native Hawaiians existed out of the 208,476 total native Hawaiians surveyed.

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Language

Practically all native Hawaiians are fluent in the English language as a result of both the emphasis the [[Kingdom of Hawaii|Kingdom of HawaiTemplate:Okinai]] put on learning English, as well as over a century of being an integral part of the United States of America. Some native Hawaiians, as well as non-native Hawaiians have learned the native Hawaiian language as a second language. As with their neighbors and peers of other races, native Hawaiians also often speak Hawaiian Pidgin developed during HawaiTemplate:Okinai's plantation era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Hawaiian language has been promoted for revival most recently by a state program of cultural preservation enacted in 1978. Programs included the opening of Hawaiian language immersion schools and the establishment of a Hawaiian language department at the [[University of Hawaii Manoa|University of HawaiTemplate:Okinai Mānoa]]. As a result, Hawaiian language learning has climbed among all races in HawaiTemplate:Okinai.

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Education

Native Hawaiians are completely integrated into American society and culture, and like all other children in HawaiTemplate:Okinai, they are publicly educated by the HawaiTemplate:Okinai State Department of Education, the largest and most centralized of the United States educational system. HawaiTemplate:Okinai is the only state without local community control of schools. Under the administration of Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano (D-HI) from 1994 to 2002, the state's educational system established special Hawaiian language immersion schools. In these schools, all subject courses are taught in the Hawaiian language and use native Hawaiian subject matter in curricula. These schools were created in the spirit of cultural preservation, and are not racially exclusive. Currently, these schools are challenged by the lack of any native speakers of the hawaiian language and a dearth of educational materials in hawaiian.

Some native Hawaiians are educated by the Kamehameha Schools, established through the last will and testament of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last princess and heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty. The largest and wealthiest private school in the United States, Kamehameha Schools was intended to teach only native Hawaiian children through all the grade levels. Bishop feared that the without education native Hawaiians would be at a disadvantage. Since the late 1990s, Kamehameha Schools has been facing several high profile legal battles. One involved the choice and payment of trustees. Another concerned the admission of non-Hawaiians to the school. A few non-Hawaiians have sued for admission. They have charged that the last will and testament of Bernice Pauahi Bishop is a racist document and should be struck down. The precedent cited is that Stephen Girard, whose racially exclusive school was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1968 when challenged by two African-American youths, Foust and Felder.

As with children of all other racial backgrounds in HawaiTemplate:Okinai, some native Hawaiians are educated by the most prominent private academies in HawaiTemplate:Okinai. They include: Punahou School, Kamehameha Schools and [[Iolani School|Template:OkinaIolani School]] which was established by Anglican missionaries.

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Culture & arts

Native Hawaiians and community allies have established several cultural preservation societies and organizations over the course of the twentieth century. The largest of those institutions is the HawaiTemplate:Okinai State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, established in 1988 and is administered by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. It houses the largest collection of native Hawaiian artifacts, documents and other information available for educational use. Most are held for preservation alone. The repository has established links with all the major colleges and universities throughout the world to facilitate research.

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Celebrations



Celebrations in the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai
Date Name Island
January 17 Day of Mourning for the Overthrow in 1893 statewide
March 26 Prince Kuhio Day statewide
March Kamehameha Schools Song Competition OTemplate:Okinaahu island
March to April Merrie Monarch Hula Festival HawaiTemplate:Okinai island
April 15 Father Damien Day statewide
May 1 Lei Day statewide
June 11 King Kamehameha Day statewide
June King Kamehameha Hula Festival OTemplate:Okinaahu island
July Hawaiian Cultural Festival HawaiTemplate:Okinai island
July Prince Lot Hula Festival OTemplate:Okinaahu island
September 2 Queen LiliTemplate:Okinauokalani Day statewide
September to October Aloha Festivals statewide


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History

The history of native Hawaiians and of HawaiTemplate:Okinai in general are classified into four major periods: antiquity, monarchy, territorial and statehood. Click on the following links to read relevant historical articles covering native Hawaiians:

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Hawaiiana revival

Native Hawaiian culture saw a revival in recent years as an outgrowth of decisions made at the [[1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention|1978 HawaiTemplate:Okinai State Constitutional Convention]], held exactly 200 years after the arrival of Captain Cook. At the convention, the HawaiTemplate:Okinai state government committed itself to a progressive study and preservation of native Hawaiian culture, history and language.

A comprehensive Hawaiian culture curriculum was introduced into the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai's public elementary schools teaching: ancient Hawaiian art, lifestyle, geography, hula and Hawaiian language vocabulary. Intermediate and high schools were mandated to impose two sets of Hawaiian history curricula on every candidate for graduation.

Statutes and charter amendments were passed acknowledging a policy of preference for Hawaiian place and street names. For example, with the closure of Barbers Point Naval Air Station in the 1990s, the region formerly occupied by the base was renamed Kalaeloa.

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Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)

Another important outgrowth of the 1978 HawaiTemplate:Okinai State Constitutional Convention was the establishment of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, more popularly known as OHA. Delegates that included future HawaiTemplate:Okinai political stars Benjamin J. Cayetano, John D. Waihee III and Jeremy Harris were compelled to create measures that would right alleged injustices imposed on native Hawaiians since the overthrow of the [[Kingdom of Hawaii|Kingdom of HawaiTemplate:Okinai]]. OHA was established as a trust, administered with a mandate to better the conditions of both native Hawaiians and the Hawaiian community in general. OHA was given control over certain lands returned to them, originally taken away with the establishment of the Territory of Hawaii in 1898. They still wait today for the return of other lands promised to them by both the federal and state governments.

OHA is a semi-autonomous government body administered by a nine-member board of trustees, elected by the people of the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai through popular suffrage. Originally, trustees and the people eligible to vote for trustees were restricted to native Hawaiians. Rice V. Cayetano reached the United States Supreme Court suing the Cayetano Administration to allow non-Hawaiians to sit on the board of trustees and for non-Hawaiians to be allowed to vote in trustee elections. Justices ruled in favor of Rice on 23 February 2000 forcing OHA to open its elections to all residents of the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai regardless of ethnicity.

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Federal developments

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Native American Programs Act

In 1974, the Native American Programs Act was amended to include native Hawaiians as a category of indigenous people of the United States. This paved the way for native Hawaiians to become eligible for some, but not all, federal assistance programs originally meant for Native Americans. In order to become eligible for all such programs, further legislation is currently needed.

There is some controversy as to whether or not native Hawaiians should be considered in the same light as Native Americans:

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United States apology resolution

On 23 November 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed United States Public Law 103-150 also known as the Apology Resolution. It had been passed by Congress only weeks earlier. The document officially apologized for the alleged role the United States played in the overthrow of Queen [[Liliuokalani|LiliTemplate:Okinauokalani]].

Washington-based constitutional lawyer and Grassroot Institute consultant Bruce Fein has outlined a number of counterarguments challenging the historical accuracy and completeness of the assertions made in the Apology Resolution in this PDF file (592 KB): HawaiTemplate:Okinai Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.

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Akaka Bill

In the early 2000s, the Congressional delegation of the State of HawaiTemplate:Okinai introduced the Native Hawaiian Federal Recognition Bill named after U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI). The Akaka Bill would establish a political and legal relationship between native Hawaiian entities and the federal government. This controversial bill has recently come under significant scrutiny by the Department of Justice and the Senate Judiciary Committee, who have grave concerns over its rationale and constitutionality.

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Notable native Hawaiians

Mary Kawena Pukui -- Historian David Malo -- Historian Edith KanakaTemplate:Okinaole Pualani Kanahele -- Kumu Hula and Educator Nalani Kanahele -- Educator

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See also

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Further reading

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External links

sr:Хавајци

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