Hawaii nationalist movement. WTF?

[Geek_Mecha]

*Originally posted by Dave Stewart *
Are there any members of the Hawaiian royal family left? Do they get symbolic recognition?

There are a few families who are descendants of the old royalty, but they do not have special titles or statuses granted upon them. I think some are active in the community and in politics, but for the most part, you seldom hear from them.
From the linked article:

The state’s population is about 20 percent Hawaiian…

I have my doubts about this number-- it seems too high to me. And I’m having difficulty finding cites to back myself up, because many sources, such as the US Census page, lump Asians and Pacific Islanders into the same ethnic group. Hawaii has a good-sized population of Asian people; I think if you put Japanese, Chinese, and Korean folks together, you’d have well over half to 75% of the state population. Including Hawaiians in that group only serves to inflate their numbers.

If you counted only full-to-half-blooded Native Hawaiians, the percentage would be much lower, perhaps by as much as half.

Originally posted by kniz
There aren’t very many native Hawaiians left, so some of the ideas put forth aren’t very practical.

What makes things worse for the movement is that during the peak of the movement, which was at the centennial of the overthrow, there were quite a few activist groups who unfortunately all disagreed over what Hawaii should become. And key figures within those organizations lacked the respectability, credibility and (for lack of a better word) temperament to win over the rest of the public’s sentiment. Had the groups been able to unify on some level, and had they had fewer Trasks and “Bumpy” Kanaheles, they might have had greater public support for sovereignty and had something significant come from their efforts. But they couldn’t, and nothing happened.

On a side note, one of my fears on this issue is that the rest of the US will look at the Trask sisters (both professors of Hawaiian Studies at UH-Manoa) and assume that every person who lives or has ever lived in Hawaii has similar feelings towards the US and fate of Hawaii. This is emphatically not the case. There are Native Hawaiians who do not wish for Hawaii to become independent. There are Native Hawaiians who feel that Hawaii is fortunate to be a part of the United States. (I can only imagine how Trask and other extremist activists view these folks.)

I would venture to say that whereas most Hawaii residents would not have a problem with Native Hawaiians being recognized as an indigenous people (as Native Americans are), they would have problems with Hawaii becoming an autonomous nation, with Native Hawaiians governing, because of the above-mentioned unification and leadership problems.
martinez, I think you’re talking about Ni’ihau. From this site:

Out of the starboard windows of the salon, we are passing the island of Ni’ihau and its small neighbor, Lehua. Until today, like most people in Hawai’i, my only view of Ni’ihau has been from the east, from the island of Kaua’i. Ni’ihau was sold to private landowners in the 1800’s and since then visitation has been very tightly regulated. Now there are only a few hundred people on Ni’ihau, mostly working for the ranching company who own the island. The controls on visiting the island have sheltered it from much of the modern world’s changes and because of this, the population of Ni’ihau speaks Hawaiian as their first language and they maintain many cultural traditions forgotten or out of fashion in other places throughout Hawai’i.

I have never heard the disgruntled Hawaiian guy story before.

I’d just like to emphasize that it was off-limts because it was privately owned, not out of a hatred or distrust for Caucasians.
december, you are no doubt referring to the case of Rice v Cayetano.

If anyone’s interested in learning more about the case and hearing opinons about the case, try Googling “Supreme Court Freddy Rice”.

[JRDelirious]

[hijack]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by AudreyK *
**

On a side note, one of my fears on this issue is that the rest of the US will look at the Trask sisters and assume that every person who lives or has ever lived in Hawaii has similar feelings towards the US and fate of Hawaii. This is emphatically not the case. There are Native Hawaiians who do not wish for Hawaii to become independent. (I can only imagine how Trask and other extremist activists view these folks.)

**

As a Puerto Rican, this paragraph gives me such a sense of déja vu…

[/hijack]

[JRDelirious]

*Originally posted by SuaSponte *
**I gotta ask, why do people with legitimate greivances so damn often sabotage themselves by advocating crackpot theories that are secondary to their main point?

Prof. Trask seemed to be doing fine and dandy, if a bit extreme, until she claimed that native Hawaiians had been there forever, and fossil, etc., evidence that humans originated in Africa was a “Haole view of the world.” What a way to insult your entire race! “We Hawaiians don’t give a damn about truth and facts. Those are Haole concepts.”
**

Heck, this is the battle cry of the ultraseparatist everywhere. It is essentially designed to make sure the hardcore followers close their mind to ALL “outside” ideas – specially the very “Western” idea that “leaders” should hold their post based on how well they deliver jobs and services to the people, not on how many letters are after their name, or how pure their ideology.

OTOH, it would make for a fascinating debate, and a nice payback to the missionaries, if it ever comes down to a dispute as to whether the schools should teach Hawai’ian creationism as an alternative to Darwinism (instead of the Christian brand therof).