TULALIP, Wash. — U‘ilani Moore-Wesley, a Native Hawaiian living in California, visited the Office of Hawaiian Affairs booth at the Native Hawaiian Convention held in Tulalip, Wash., and within minutes obtained a Hawaiian Registry Program card that will unlock medical and dental benefits.
Moore-Wesley said Tuesday she was told seven years ago by the nonprofit Consolidated Tribal Health in Ukiah, Calif., that she could receive benefits if she had an HRP card, but said she never had the opportunity until the Hawaiian Council, formerly known as the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, brought its Native Hawaiian Convention closer to home.
“How important is the Native Hawaiian Convention coming here? It’s as important as air,” said Moore-Wesley, who is with Northern, California-based Xa Kako Dile:, which uses Indigenous wisdom and sustainable practices to guide food sovereignty, land stewardship and community empowerment.
She was just one of many Native Hawaiians who benefited from OHA’s decision to take its registry program on the road, and for the first time print the cards on the spot for qualifying convention attendees. Moore-Wesley said the process is life-changing as the cards are needed for Native Hawaiians to access OHA loans, OHA grants, OHA programs, emergency financial assistance and Indigenous programs on the U.S. mainland.
More than 1,300 attendees from 37 states and countries are participating in the Hawaiian Council’s 24th annual convention, which is the largest annual gathering of Native Hawaiians. More than half of the attendees to the multiday event, which ends Thursday, came from Hawaii and a quarter came from Washington, while other top states were California and Oregon.
Support is growing to unite all Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous cultures to create new paths toward resiliency and to protect what is theirs from government cutbacks, and more recently, the shutdown.
Breann Nu‘uhiwa, who advises and advocates for native governments and business enterprises, and participated in a panel on federal recognition that was held on Tuesday, the convention’s opening day, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that uncertainty also has reinvigorated discussions about federal recognition — a government-to-government relationship between the U.S. and a Native Hawaiian governing body.
Nu‘uhiwa was joined on a federal recognition panel at the convention by OHA Interim Administrator Summer Sylva, and Honolulu City Council member Esther Kia‘aina. Interest was high because the convention was held on the federally recognized tribal lands of the Tulalip Tribes, who have increased their economic resilience through gaming, lodging and other entrepreneurial endeavors.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), vice chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, told the Star-Advertiser in an email that while the Native Hawaiian community currently does not have a formal government-to-government relationship with the U.S. like that of federally recognized Indian tribes, the relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian Community has the substantive attributes of a government-to-government relationship.
“This was reaffirmed in 2016 when the U.S. adopted administrative procedures to re-establish a formal government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian Community if and when they choose to move forward with that process,” Schatz said.
The process, however, is not unanimously accepted within the Native Hawaiian community, and it has not been implemented because the Native Hawaiian community has not unified under a single government to utilize the process.
When panel attendees were asked their opinion on government-to government federal recognition, some raised their hands in support, some raised their hands against it, and most chose not to answer.
Teri Gobin, chair of the Tulalip Tribes board of directors, told the Star-Advertiser that the diversity of opinions that Hawaii is sorting through is not unlike what her people have experienced.
“They think they are so much different than we are, but in this state alone we have 29 tribes. You don’t think we were at that point at one time?” Gobin said. “We were talking to a group this morning (Monday) that we met with (from Hawaii) and it is all about — you are so much stronger together. When there is an attack on Indian country, we stand together.”
Organic conversation
Kuhio Lewis, Hawaiian Council CEO, said discussion around the political recognition of Native Hawaiians must be organic so “having discussions that are healthy are important to help it get there — not forcing it.”
“There are conversations at the convention about self-determination. Honestly, the Hawaiian Council is probably the only organization that could push federal recognition,” Lewis said. “But I’ve chosen to focus on economic sovereignty, which I believe is necessary to support federal recognition. Otherwise, you have a populous of everybody’s broke, homeless.”
He opined that conversations about federal recognition eventually will move forward, but said that’s probably at least another two years out given the current political environment and the pressing need “to focus on helping our people live well.”
Schatz said that a federal grant freeze would put $47 million in federal funding to Hawaii for the Native Hawaiian Community at risk, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of U.S. spending data.
“We have been closely monitoring any threats to funding for Hawaii and are working with the state and community organizations to mitigate the impact and fight back any way we can — in Congress and in the courts,” Schatz said.
Kai‘aina said Lewis’ idea of economic sovereignty is good; however, she said, “I don’t see any danger in trying to seek federal recognition now, as opposed to Kuhio’s version of pursuing economic sovereignty first.
“A lot of the funds for all the federal programs could actually be delegated to the governing entity to administer — like all of the acts — the Native Hawaiian Education Act is over $30 million,” Kai‘aina said.
She is among those who view former President Barack Obama’s Department of the Interior rule as a meaningful effort by the U.S. government to act on the 1993 Apology Resolution, a joint resolution that was passed by Congress that acknowledges and apologizes for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893.
She told those attending a Sept. 30 panel on the“Political History of Native Hawaiians,” hosted in Honolulu by the Honolulu City Council and the Mayor’s Office of Culture &Arts, that “we were worse off during the 1980s and early 1990s than we are now even with the federal threats and cuts coming down from Washington, D.C.”
Range of views
Schatz told the Star-Advertiser in an email that “Congress has consistently and expressly acknowledged a special trust relationship with Native Hawaiians based on their status as the Indigenous people of Hawaii. These are the same trust principles that Congress has recognized is owed to other Native peoples of the United States, including American Indians and Alaska Natives.
“For more than a century, Congress has enacted laws and established policies to promote education, health, housing, and many other federal programs to improve the lives of Native Hawaiians,” he said.
Still, some Native Hawaiians see current government efforts as falling short, while others oppose utilizing the Department of the Interior rule because they question the U.S. government’s authority to grant sovereignty. Another portion of the Native Hawaiian community is disillusioned by past failures and broken promises.
Makaio Villanueva thanked Tuesday’s panelists for their hard work, but said, “Another school of thought is that the slave owner will never give the keys to the slave.”
Brandon Maka‘awa‘awa, Nation of Hawai‘i vice president, who assists president Dennis “Bumpy” Kanehele in the operations of Pu‘uhonua O Waimanalo, said the Nation of Hawai‘i favors a nation-to-nation sovereignty model.
Maka‘awa‘awa, who attended the Tuesday panel along with Kanehele and John Kealoha Garcia, the Nation of Hawaii’s second vice president, told the Star-Advertiser, “For us at the Nation of Hawai‘i, we don’t believe federal recognition is a pathway to anywhere — to us it’s status quo. It doesn’t change enough, especially with this new administration.”
He said the Nation of Hawai‘i has signed peace and friendship treaties with several Native American tribes, including the Timbisha Shoshone in Death Valley National Park; the Yurok, the largest federally recognized Native American tribe in California, which resides along the Klamath River; and the Bear River Band tribe in Humboldt County, Calif.
Maka‘awa‘awa said the treaties, which are more than symbolic, mark “the beginnings of building an independent nation and also the beginnings of a union or a coalition of independent, Indigenous and aboriginal nations working together, sharing culture with each other, sharing economic ideas and resources with each other.”
He added that the Nation of Hawai‘i has met with the Tulalip Tribes during the convention and has proposed a peace and friendship treaty.
Source: The Garden Island