A Kanaka ʻōiwi Affair: Native Hawaiian Resistance To U.S. Federal Recognition At The 2014 Interior Department Hearings In Hawaiʻi
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2022
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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In the summer of 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior embarked on a two-week journey throughout the Hawaiian Islands to seek a consensus on a proposed administrative rule that would allow Native Hawaiians to seek federal recognition and reestablish a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Meetings were held in community spaces across Hawaiʻi and the continental United States where testifiers overwhelmingly said ʻaʻole (no) to the proposal—a rejection of U.S. intervention in a uniquely Kanaka affair. This thesis highlights Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) resistance to the U.S. federal government’s federal recognition push in summer 2014. This project also contains a discussion on key government officials who advocated for federal recognition, most notably then-Assistant Secretary of the Interior Esther Kiaʻāina. Kiaʻāina was the next generation in a long genealogy of Native Hawaiians who sought to provide “better” for the Lāhui (nation, people). Her active participation on United States’ behalf created an opportunity for Kānaka (Native Hawaiians) to speak with a senior administration official, although some believed she was the incorrect liaison for such an issue. The project also examines the meeting transcripts through a critical historical lens. Introductions and even full testimonies were reduced to “Speaking Hawaiian” in the official DOI transcripts. The omission of Hawaiian language from these records thus served two purposes: suppressing Native Hawaiian voices and misinforming the Interior Department’s final decision.
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Hawaiians--Legal status, laws, etc., Self-determination, National, Hawaiians--Government relations, United States. Department of the Interior
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Hawaii
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