7/20/10-7/22/10

Hey guys glad you made it to my first blog ever. So I’m really excited and nervous to be sharing my experiences with all of you but hey here it goes.

Yesterday was my first day of work in the Congressional office of American Samoa, and I have to tell you, I had a blast. Well before I go on I have to tell you that I actually went into the office last Friday to introduce myself and fill out some paper work. However instead of simply visiting the office I was invited to attend a luncheon with the Representative along with all of the other interns. So while yesterday was my first official day in the office it was not my first time meeting with all the staff in the office. Now continuing with yesterday, I spent the majority of the day in a training session for the capital building. As an intern in the office of American Samoan, one of my duties is to provide tours of the capital building for guests of the representative. After my capital training I returned to the office for a surprise birthday party for the office desk host, Hana.

After celebrating Hana’s birthday with all of the staff myself and one other intern, Patrick, were requested to provide representative Faleomavaega with an update on H.R. 02314, aka the "Akaka Bill". Now if you don’t already know H.R. 02314 is a very controversial bill and has actually been on the floor for a very long time, almost 10 years now. The main idea of the Akaka Bill is that the U.S. government would reconstruct and recognize the independent governing body of the native Hawaiian people. Originally the concept was that native Hawaiians living in Hawai’i would be allowed to establish their own government and commerce on lands appropriated to them by the U.S. government. Some of you may now be asking, “Since when did native Hawaiians want independence?” or “Why would native Hawaiians want to be separated from the United States?” Since I would rather not go into the entire history of the U.S. – Hawaiian relationship I will provide a detailed summary.

Before U.S. citizens moved to Hawai’i, it was territory of Great Britain. Under the leadership of Great Britain Hawai’i established themselves as a well developed and well governed nation. The government of Hawai’i resembled that of Great Britain of the time with a King and Queen, who followed in the Hawaiian Chiefly line, and a parliament, which consisted of tribal chiefs. After receiving their independence from Great Britain U.S. citizens began to immigrate to Hawai’i, however the islands were still recognized as a sovereign nation by the majority of the western world including the United States. While these immigrants were not allowed to own land, they were allowed to establish businesses and homes. After some time the U.S. citizens in Hawai’i wanted to push the islands into joining the Union as the 50^th state. However the sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i was not in agreeance with the immigrant’s desires. In response, the U.S. citizens living in Hawai’i staged a well planned coup d’état of the native government, led by one Lorrin Thurston, on January 17^th 1893. The coup d’état revolved around tricking the U.S. Marines into imprisoning the Hawaiian government in the royal palace, under the cover that they, and their property, were threatened by the native people. Their efforts were assisted by John L. Stevens, the U.S. Government Minister to the Kingdom of Hawai’i. After the rapid approval of annexation; actually the fastest annexation in U.S. history, President Grover Cleveland fired Mr. Stevens and put out a report noting the illegal taking of the Hawaiian Islands. Then in 1993 President Bill Clinton signed a formal letter of apology from the United States to the people of Hawai’i for the illegal annexation of their land. In the end it was not the native people of Hawai’i who pushed the annexation of Hawai’i but the minority American settlers.

For many, the dethroning of Queen Liliuokalani and the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands is the largest breach in human rights and sovereign society relations committed by the United States. Since that time the Hawaiian people have been treated with such a lack of concern by the U.S. that it can only be recognized as neglect. Today Hawaiian women have the highest rate of breast cancer in the world and the people as a whole suffer the highest level of poverty. Of all the “public” land in Hawai’i, native Hawaiians only own rights to some 11% of it. In response to these injustices Senator Daniel Akaka, half Hawaiian and half Chinese, of Hawai’i has proposed H.R. 02314, and bills similar to it, since the year 2000. H.R. 02314 will reestablish the Kingdom of Hawai'i with similar restrictions as the Native American tribes of the continental U.S., without the gambling rights. Today the major debate among constituents is, “Should the native people of Hawai’i support H.R. 02314 and essentially become the "Pacific Indians," with their own separate part of Hawai’i, or should the natives seek full reparations and independence from the United States?”

Ok now it’s your turn. Please respond to my prompt and if you would like further information on the history of Hawai’i please don’t hesitate to ask or check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Hawaii#The_overthrow.

Question: “Should the people of Hawai’i become the “pacific Indians” with their own separate part of Hawai’i, or should the natives seek full reparations and independence from the United States?”