Are native Hawaiians still angry?

Question

It was interesting when I read http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/16/palace.takeover.ap/index.html. I think it's minority Hawaiian natives, but are there still Hawaiian independence movement? If it came to fruition, it would be a secession from the union, and I think treason.

How big of an issue is the Hawaiian independence ideology in Hawaii?

Answer 1

Yes, more than you could possibly imagine.  What they don't realize is that if we didn't take over Japan would have and the entire world would most likely be live under a n**i rule.

Answer 2

YES! the movements are very much alive and well....

hawaiian sovereignty movements are indeed at work.

whether or not they will ever succeed is a separate issue but they are fighting....and i for one am a strong supporter!!!

anger, yes lots of it, but it isn't that simple. its not only what was done, but how it was done.....which led to not only the loss of a country, kingdom, land, culture, and an almost complete wipe out of its people. there is so much more to it, but in general yes, it is a big issue. now many people in hawaii may not feel that way, but the natives sure do. and of course by natives i don't simply mean people born in hawaii, but HAWAIIANS themselves.

Hawaii's experience with the US is looked at by other polynesian cultures as an example of what to avoid. its sad, it truly is. and if hawaii could possibly one day gain sovereignty....my what a beautiful day that would be!

but until that day, the movement continues.....

Answer 3

1) Yes, they are still angry and so am I for that matter, but I'm Appalachian-American!

Maya Angelou makes a distinction between anger and bitterness in her famous conversation with Dave Chapelle for the "Iconoclasts" series for the Sundance Channel (also available on iTunes). She says, "You use that anger, you march it...But you must not be bitter! There's a difference." Bitterness, you can't use to achieve your goals. It eats you up inside. But I think it's safe to say that there are those in Hawaii that are angry, and there are definitely those who are bitter.

There are many expressions of that anger across the generations. I have seen a college-age Hawaiian kid curse at the Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and I've seen her elders reprimand her. I couldn't hear what they were saying for her screaming, but I imagine it was something like, "Look, we're Hawaiians, we don't act like that." Uncle Charlie Maxwell addressed the marchers the next day, saying, "Pretend your Tutu (Grandma) is here. No say nothing get your ear pulled!"

As a friend of mine, a teacher of Hawaiian Studies used to say, "If we don't have Aloha (meaning Love), what makes us Hawaiian?" But even the mellow kupuna (elders) are pushing for Sovereignty in their own quiet way, often through song.

2) Yes, many movements but they're called Hawaiian Sovereignty, instead of Independence. American Independence was a new thing in 1776. Hawaiians had a sovereign nation, but their sovereignty was taken away by threat and by force. Ironically, the American sugar planters overthrew Liliuokalani because she wanted to replace the Bayonet Constitution with something more democratic.

3) The annexation of Hawaii more than a hundred years ago was also illegal, by the United States' own laws. That's why Bill Clinton apologized during his administration.

It turns out, that before the US annexed Hawaii, tens of thousands of Native Hawaiians organized politically and signed petitions asking the US government not to annex Hawaii. Their representatives travelled to "Wakinekona, DC" to deliver the petitions, and the Presidential Adminstration and the US Senate agreed with them.

But a new President was voted into office, and the USA declared war against Spain. The US wanted to ensure the security of the naval base they'd maintained for decades in the Kingdom and then the "Republic" of Hawaii, so they annexed it anyway. It was done in a time of war, when people are more likely to tolerate such things (hmmm...torture? kangaroo military tribunals? the suspension of habeas corpus? concentration camps for Americans of Japanese Ancestry?).

4) Not necessarily treason. There are many schools of thought about what form Hawaiian Sovereignty would take. The most viable tend to be Nation within a Nation, pointing to examples like Dinetah (the "Navajo Nation").  

5) It's pretty darn huge, but you run into the movements in some places more than others.

There are other issues, too, which sometimes seem more immediate. Among the issues that are hot among Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) activists: water rights (water diverted to grow things like sugar cane and lawns for luxury gated communities instead of agriculture in Hawaiian Home Lands), Hawaiian Home Lands (which leases agricultural tracts and home lots to people who can prove 50% Hawaiian ancestry or more), the blood quantum (that 50% bit), Kamehameha Schools' admission policy, rampant overdevelopment, affordable housing, genetic modification of kalo (the taro plant, a staple crop of the Pacific Islands), the fight against invasive species (such as the apple snail, brown tree snake, and miconia), the cleanup of Kahoolawe (bombed for more than 50 years by the US Navy), getting diacritical marks into Hawaiian placenames on US Geological Survey maps, and how education in Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs fits into No Child Left Behind's emphasis on reading comprehension in English.

So occasionally, people talk about things like, how to get the US military out of Pearl Harbor. But there are many pressing issues in the meantime.

6) No, very different. It wasn't the Indians of North and South America that were rebelling against the European Colonizers in the American and South American revolutions. It was people who were genetically very similar to the people running the governments of their colonial powers. But having been born and raised in the colonies, the Spanish, in particular, always thought them permanently inferior. We know better now, just as we know it was wrong to punish kids for speaking Olelo Hawaii (the Hawaiian language) at school, even on the playground, as happened a hundred years ago.

Hawaiian Sovereignty, instead, is an indigenous people struggling to regain control over their natural resources and their own destiny. George Helm Jr. used to say, "If you don't know what 'Aloha Aina' means, do your homework." Seems like you've already started that!