History of efforts to create a Hawaiian tribe from May 1, 2019 through August 31, 2019; including efforts to create a state-recognized tribe and efforts to get federal recognition through administrative rule changes, executive order, or Congressional legislation; and efforts to get local and international recognition of an alleged continuing independent nation of Hawaii. Independence activists Keanu Sai, Leon Siu, Henry Noa get publicity. Large protests blocking construction of 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea allegedly because of sacred place are actually an insurgency to build unity and practice tactics for push toward race-supremacist sovereign nationhood.

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History of efforts to create a Hawaiian tribe from May 1, 2019 through August 31, 2019; including efforts to create a state-recognized tribe and efforts to get federal recognition through administrative rule changes, executive order, or Congressional legislation; and efforts to get local and international recognition of an alleged continuing independent nation of Hawaii. Independence activists Keanu Sai, Leon Siu, Henry Noa get publicity. Large protests blocking construction of 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea allegedly because of sacred place are actually an insurgency to build unity and practice tactics for push toward race-supremacist sovereign nationhood.

INDEX OF NEWS REPORTS AND COMMENTARIES FROM MAY 1, 2019 THROUGH AUGUST 31, 2918

May 11, 2019:
(1) Leon Siu, yet another Ke Aupuni Update: [At the United Nations] Our primary strategy has been implementing a "public relations" campaign -- to share our story, make friends, build partnerships, project optimism for a peaceful resolution to the problem. It has taken time to develop, but the building of relationships and credibility are now beginning to produce fruit ... 4 main reasons we are there ... We are not at the UN to seek "recognition" from, or to "join" the UN. We are there to request the UN to act to bring the US in compliance to its international obligation with respect to the Hawaiian Islands and its people.
(2) Ian Lind, retired newspaper reporter, major blog entry about State of Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection bringing prosecutions against sovereignty activists Keanu Sai and [attorney] Dexter Kaiama regarding longtime mortgage rescue fraud where they collect fees from clients facing foreclosure, providing them with documents for filing in court, alleging that there is no State of Hawaii because the overthrow of the monarchy and annexation to the U.S. were illegal and therefore the court has no jurisdiction, and the title insurance company should pay for the mortgage.

May 13: Additional information from Ian Lind: "Keanu Sai claimed 'diplomatic immunity' shielded him from fraud allegations" But OCP says that after more than 100 attempts, no judge has ever blocked a foreclosure action based on the so-called sovereignty defense, a fact the three certainly know. So, according to OCP, they are committing a form of consumer fraud by selling something the three know doesn't work in state or federal courts, even if they believe it is ultimately a valid argument and believe it should be accepted by the justice system. ... OCP made the obvious point that the United States does not recognize the Hawaiian Kingdom and, therefore, Sai simply isn't entitled diplomatic immunity based on his supposed position. Second, even if the U.S. did recognize the existence of the kingdom, Sai is only one of a number of people claiming to represent it, and therefore has no authority to be the true representative. ... Finally, according to OCP, diplomatic immunity does not extend to activity engaged in for personal profit.

May 14: On May 15 Keanu Sai will make a presentation to the Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee of the Maui County Council, relating to an update on land use and planning in consideration of Hawaii's status under international law and other related matters. Later 3 hours of video were made available on YouTube.

May 24: Maui Time weekly headline article provides detailed description of Keanu Sai's presentation to the Maui County Council; Ken Conklin online comment provides detailed rebuttal.

May 25: Leon Siu gives still another Aupuni update, saying there needs to be a unified statement of basic principles from all factions of independence activists in order to encourage United Nations members to provide support, as happened with West Papua.

May 27: Henry Noa, Prime Minister of the Reinstated Kingdom of Hawaii, gives lectures to about 30 people in three small towns on Kaua'i; says he's going to all the islands.

June 5: Keanu Sai gives another 3-hour presentation to committee of the Maui County Council, who fail to cross-examine him. Sai's media team provide 4 YouTube videos of it all (links provided).

June 10: Hawaii News Now (3 TV stations) report that Keanu Sai is the focus of a criminal referral for his scam that violates the state's Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act.

June 15: Leon Siu gives still another Aupuni update, about visiting with high officials of foreign governments not only at U.N. or other meetings, but now also by visiting them in their nations' capitols. Example: the independent nation of Samoa.

June 18: Leon Siu will give a speech in Boston tomorrow about current environment issues in Hawai'i, its impact to tourism, the economy and to Hawaiian culture.

June 29: Leon Siu gives still another Aupuni update. Attending U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, working closely with a "Hawaiian Kingdom subject" of Okinawan ancestry who represents Okinawa people seeking independence from Japan. They held a joint 90-minute media briefing.

July 2: Christian Science Monitor reports views of the usual Hawaiian secessionists: "Whose independence? Why some Native Hawaiians don't celebrate on July 4."

July 4: Big Island Now: "July 4 Is a Triple Holiday for Hawaii, Celebrating 1776, 1894, 1960" By Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.

July 7-8: Tax Foundation of Hawaii weekly essay published in numerous news media asks "Do we have a legitimate government?" focusing on people losing their homes to foreclosure when they follow advice from sovereignty activists that the laws of Hawaii are not legitimate because Hawaii is not legitimately part of the U.S. Ken Conklin 5 online comments.

July 9: Sovereignty activists proclaim never-ending opposition and resistance to building a 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea because the mountain is sacred to ethnic Hawaiians.

July 13: Leon Siu Ke Aupuni update just after returning from another trip to United Nations headquarters in Geneva and New York. Basically the same report as June 29.

July 20-21: Washington Post and many other newspapers publish AP story "Native Hawaiians say telescope represents bigger struggle"

July 23: Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial says Governor "Ige needs to use the authority vested to him by Hawaii voters, to enforce the Thirty Meter Telescope permit now, lest all the astronomy work being done at the Mauna Kea summit, which is now suspended, be put entirely at risk."

July 24: Former majority leader of Hawaii state Senate touts huge rally planned for Sunday on Kaua'i against telescope on Mauna Kea; supports ending telescope project.

July 25:
(1) Statements by Episcopal Bishop of Kaua'i and two of his ethnic Hawaiian priests say Mauna Kea is sacred to Hawaiians and project should be ended;
(2) Racialist weekly columnist touts "kapu aloha" "peaceful" resolution of Mauna Kea conflict by suspending the project; Conklin comments that the Confederacy in U.S. Civil War just wanted to be left in peace to establish their secessionist nation and preserve sacred lifestyle.

July 26: Lengthy essay in "Indian Country Today" is testimony of University of Hawaii Professor of Law Williamson Chang, asserting that the State of Hawaii and University of Hawaii lack jurisdiction to set regulations for the use of Mauna Kea, nor to use force to remove protesters against the 30-meter telescope project, because a proposed Treaty of Annexation between Hawaii and the U.S. was improperly ratified by the U.S. Ken Conklin replies that It is an attribute of national sovereignty that the U.S. alone can decide by what method to agree to the treaty after Hawaii offered it; and provides a link to photos of letters from foreign heads of state formally recognizing the Republic as the rightful successor government after the Hawaiian revolution of 1893.

July 28: Former newspaper reporter and longtime blogger Ian Lind [small quantum ethnic Hawaiian] essay summarizing his views on intersection between "sacred" and sovereignty regarding Mauna Kea; plus Ken Conklin's online comment debunking the "sacred" element.

July 29: Keanu Sai goes to Mauna Kea encampment and speaks to protesters -- YouTube videotape

Sunday August 4 Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
(1) So-called news report "Mauna Kea protests seen as generational shift, pivot point";
(2) Editorial: "Time to find compromise in TMT standoff";
(3) So-called news report: "Kanuha confident Mauna Kea standoff will end peacefully"

Aug 9-11: On Friday August 9 retired lawyer, judge, and mayor Bill Fernandez, a Kamehameha School graduate recently honored with a Waikiki parade as a distinguished alumnus, authored a lengthy commentary in The Garden Island [Kaua'i newspaper]. Fernandez supported the Mauna Kea protesters on account of a very long list of Hawaiian victimhood historical grievances, most of which are either false or badly twisted. On Aug 10 Ken Conklin published a detailed rebuttal on a blog, and on Aug 11 Conklin published a webpage "dialog" providing full text of Fernandez' commentary and Conklin's detailed point-by-point rebuttal.

Aug 12: Sam King, ethnic Hawaiian former candidate for OHA who is now a leader in the pro-telescope movement, has a commentary in West Hawaii Today [Kona] describing strong bullying and threats against himself and other pro-TMT supporters. He encourages people with no Hawaiian ancestry to step forward as well. A link is provided to a Hawaii Bar Association biography of his lawyer parents and federal judge grandfather after whom he is named.

Aug 16: The State of Hawaii was admitted to the Union as a State on August 21, 1959. By law the third Friday in August is the official state holiday commemoration that event each year, which falls on August 16 this year which is the 60th anniversary. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser published a snarky "news report" noting the absence of major celebratory events, and touting a panel discussion at the main branch of the library where 4 Hawaiian secessionists will say Hawaii isn't really a state because of historical grievances and alleged improprieties in the process of annexation and the statehood vote. Online comment by Ken Conklin

Aug 17: Online newspaper poll has 558 respondents who feel Hawaii Statehood Day holiday should be more actively celebrated or current low-key observance is OK; vs. only 46 who want no celebration because Statehood is dubious.

Aug 18
(1) Kamehameha Schools, OHA provide support to Mauna Kea protesters (plus Conklin comment)
(2) President of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii describes economic and reputational damage caused by political indecisiveness and waffling regarding Mauna Kea

Aug 19
(1) Former Maui Mayor Arakawa recalls how he successfully shut down a protest against telescope project on Haleakala 4 years ago and two years ago, and says Hawaii leaders should have been more decisive to quickly shut down the Mauna Kea protest whose leaders were also involved in Haleakala protest;
(2) Letter to editor attacks OHA's board member from Maui, a wealthy realtor, for her grandstanding on getting arrested on Mauna Kea.

Aug 21 (Actual 60th anniversary of official Hawaii admission to Statehood)
Honolulu newspaper editorial says
THERE ARE TWO NATIONS LIVING SIDE BY SIDE, NOT ALWAYS COMFORTABLY, IN HAWAII. ONE IS THE HAWAIIAN NATION, AND DESPITE THE OVERTHROW OF THE KINGDOM 126 YEARS AGO, IT STILL LIVES ON IN MANY HEARTS AND IS REFLECTED IN NUMEROUS STATUTES AND COURT DECISIONS. THE OTHER IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THIS TERRITORY BECOMING THE 50TH OF THOSE STATES 60 YEARS AGO TODAY. WITH ALL THE NUANCES AND COMPLEXITY OF HISTORY, BOTH ARE WORTHY OF CELEBRATION AS PART OF THE DUALITY THAT IS HAWAII.
Conklin online comment says that's nonsense: There can be only one sovereign and it is the USA.

Aug 26, 2019: Leon Siu yet another "Ke Aupuni update." Siu says the fake State of Hawaii shows weakness and self-doubt in failure to celebrate 60th anniversary of statehood admissions day; and says he is starting work at United Nations to review as a fraud the 1959 U.N. resolution which accepted results of statehood plebiscite and removed Hawaii from U.N. list of non-self-governing territories eligible for independence.

Aug 27: Far-left blog "Common Dreams" [subsidiary of "Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting"] has lengthy article with numerous links to other similar media. "Protectors of Mauna Kea Are Fighting Colonialism, Not Science. While proposals to compromise might appear fair, protectors say, they dismiss the historical context in Hawaii of colonialism and the usurpation of Indigenous land that continues today."

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FULL TEXT OF ITEMS LISTED IN THE INDEX, FROM MAY 1, 2019 THROUGH AUGUST 31, 2019

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - MAY 2019

By Leon Siu - Hawaiian National
Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

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The Quick Facts Series ...
THE SITUATION OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
QUICK FACTS #9

WHAT ARE WE DOING AT THE UN?

Hawaiians have been significant participants and contributors to various United Nations platforms since the 1970s. Over the past 10 years we have targeted the issue of restoring the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent country.

Our primary strategy has been implementing a "public relations" campaign -- to share our story, make friends, build partnerships, project optimism for a peaceful resolution to the problem. It has taken time to develop, but the building of relationships and credibility are now beginning to produce fruit -- like the memos from UN expert, Dr. Alfred deZayas and the favorable coverage in diplomatic journals and the international press.

There are four main reasons we are involved with the United Nations:

1) To make certain that the United Nations, its officers and its agencies are duly informed that the United States' presence in the Hawaiian Islands is in violation of customary international laws -- and, specifically, in flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter;

2) To petition the UN General Assembly to hold the US accountable to its obligations under the UN Charter (with respect to Hawaii); and to utilize the UN system to bring the US into compliance with those international obligations;

3) To have access to member states of the UN (193 countries) to tell our story and enlist their help in the effort to Free Hawaii;

4) To partner with and assist the dozens of captured peoples and nations struggling for liberation.

We are not at the UN to seek "recognition" from, or to "join" the UN.

We are there to request the UN to act to bring the US in compliance to its international obligation with respect to the Hawaiian Islands and its people.

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty (life) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

The Campaign to Free Hawai'i is funded by people like YOU...
We cannot do this crucial work without your help... your kokua.
It takes funding to make these important accomplishments happen and we deeply appreciate all financial contributions, large or small.
Any amount you contribute will make a huge impact on our ability to continue this work (and can be tax-deductible if needed).
We have much to accomplish in 2019 and your contributions toward that are very important and needed.
Your KŌKUA is greatly appreciated!
To contribute, go to - GoFundMe.com/FreeHawaii

----
Malama pono,
Leon Siu

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https://www.ilind.net/2019/05/11/two-sovereignty-advocates-hit-with-allegations-of-mortgage-rescue-fraud/
Ian Lind blog, May 11, 2019

Two sovereignty advocates hit with allegations of mortgage rescue fraud

The Office of Consumer Protection, the state's top consumer watchdog agency, has accused three people, including two prominent Hawaiian sovereignty advocates, of committing mortgage rescue fraud through a scheme "targeting homeowners desperate to save their homes from foreclosure."

In a series of legal filings in both state and federal court since the beginning of 2018, the consumer protection agency alleges the scheme involves David Keanu Sai, an activist scholar who has vigorously promoted his own theory that the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom invalidates subsequent laws and land titles; attorney Dexter Kaiama, who has defended a number of sovereignty activists with arguments based on Sai's theory; and Rose Dradi, a former Kapolei resident.

In court filings, Sai and Kaiama have strongly denied doing anything illegal. Dradi could not be located and has not responded to the allegations.

The agency alleges homeowners facing imminent or threatened foreclosure were told, both explicitly and implicitly, that a legal defense based on Sai's sovereignty beliefs would result in the foreclosures actions being dismissed and their homes being saved.

According to OCP:

Sai, who claims to be an expert on sovereignty issues, maintains that the continued existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii means that the State of Hawaii does not exist. According to Sai, there are no state laws, and there are no state courts. Sai claims to know all of this first-hand because Sai claims to be an acting minister/diplomat for the Kingdom, and Kaiama is supposedly the Kingdom's acting attorney general.

Sai, the agency alleges, has a standard written contract that clients are asked to sign which requires them to pay a fee before services can be provided. Dradi often serves as Sai's assistant, soliciting clients, obtaining payment, and coordinating with them in advance of court appearances, the agency says. She has often been the "primary point of contact between consumers and Sai."

Once fees are collected, Sai then allegedly provides a written answer to the foreclosure lawsuit or a "motion to dismiss" that contests the court's jurisdiction based on his theory that all U.S. or Hawaii law is unenforceable here because Hawaii remains an independent state. The motion is provided in a standard format which the property owners are advised to sign and file in court "pro se," without the benefit of an attorney.

The agency alleges this scheme "in which Sai's supposed expertise on Hawaiian sovereignty issues is packaged as part of a motion to dismiss, has been shown to be of no benefit ... No judge presiding over a foreclosure case has yet to be convinced that the case must be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based upon the continued existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and yet Sai keeps offering his services and illegally collecting his fees in advance."

And when the sovereignty argument fails in court, as it consistently has, the agency says the home owners have incurred additional costs and delays, and as a result "have essentially squandered any meaningful chance they had to save their property...."

The Office of Consumer Protection's allegations became public beginning in early 2018 when it intervened in an existing foreclosure against an Ewa Beach couple who had stopped making their mortgage payments in 2011, and defaulted on the remaining loan balance of more than $300,000.

The lender initiated foreclosure proceedings in March 2015. OCP alleges the couple paid a total of $7,250 in advance fees in their attempt in order to obtain the services they believed could block the foreclosure and save their home. Most of the fees went for the services of Sai and Dradi, with additional amounts going to Kaiama, who was paid to make a "special appearance" in court to present a defense based on Sai's written motion.

OCP alleges Kaiama has appeared on behalf of consumers facing foreclosure in no less than 200 cases. In at least 100 of those cases, the agency says Kaiama argued that the court lacked jurisdiction based on Sai's sovereignty theory.

OCP alleges Sai, Kaiama, and Dradi's actions violate provisions of Hawaii's Mortgage Rescue Fraud Protection Act, Section 480(E) HRS, first passed by the Legislature in 2008 to protect homeowners whose desperation "makes them vulnerable to persons who claim they can stop, prevent, or delay foreclosures, liens, or encumbrances, or claim they can reduce, modify, or eliminate mortgage loan obligations or other filed or threatened liens or encumbrances."

The law includes a long list of prohibited acts by those advising or assisting owners of financially distressed properties.
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol11_Ch0476-0490/HRS0480E/HRS_0480E-0010.htm

Attorneys and consultants offering services to owners of distressed properties are barred from accepting advance fees and from misrepresenting, "expressly or by implication, any material aspect of any mortgage assistance relief service." The law also requires written contracts with full disclosure of fees and other details of services to be provided, and requires detailed record keeping and clear notice that the homeowner can cancel the contract at any time before all promised services have been provided.

Violations of the law are considered unfair and deceptive trade practices, and the specifically prohibited acts are punishable as Class C felonies with up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The Office of Consumer Protection was seeking civil remedies, including a "cease and desist" order, along with penalties to stop the alleged scam. OCP itself is a civil agency and cannot bring criminal charges, but the agency disclosed in court proceedings that it has referred the matter to prosecutors for criminal investigation.

After a year of legal wrangling, Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled that the Office of Consumer Protection should not have been allowed to piggyback its case against Dradi, Sai, and Kaiama on the preexisting foreclosure case. Crabtree acknowledged that the Office of Consumer Protection's allegations were "detailed and comprehensive," and "concern important issues of consumer protection which are in the public interest."

However, Crabtree found the consumer agency had "attempted to take a procedural short-cut while trying to move too far too fast," and concluded it had been procedurally improper to allow OPC to intervene in the bankruptcy. Judge Crabtree then dismissed the OCP case without prejudice, and said the agency could instead pursue its allegations by filing new complaints containing the allegations that have already been spelled out.

On April 16, 2019, OCP filed such a complaint against Dexter Kaiama for failing to use written contracts, failure to deposit client funds in a client trust account, and failure to keep client funds in the trust account until all of the contracted services had been performed.

It is seeking to bar Kaiama from aiding or representing any owners of distressed property in the future in any manner, as well as seeking restitution, fines, and penalties. Although the new complaint describes the roles allegedly played by Dradi and Sai in the sovereignty scheme, it isn't clear how they would be affected if the Office of Consumer Protection prevails in this action against Kaiama.

This isn't the first time Kaiama's reliance on Keanu Sai's theories have landed him in some trouble. In 2017, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued an "Order of Public Censure" against Kaiama, affirming findings of the Office of the Disciplinary Counsel that he violated the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct in 2012 when he accused Circuit Court Judge Greg K. Nakamura of being a "war criminal."

It is also a rerun of sorts for Keanu Sai, who was convicted of attempted theft for his role in the so-called Perfect Title case in the late 1990s which also involved his theory about the impact of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/12/02/news/story2.html

As the Los Angeles Times reported in 1997, Perfect Title was "...a partnership formed by Donald Lewis and David Keanu Sai in December 1995, which has been challenging ownership of parcels of land by tracing titles back to the days of the Hawaiian kingdom. While the details of each case differ, the company invariably concludes that because the U.S.-backed overthrow of Hawaii's monarchy in 1893 violated international treaties, any government or land title since then is invalid."
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-03-20-mn-40156-story.html

Some home owners, using these "title reports," stopped paying their mortgages and argued their title insurance should be required to pay because their titles were now "clouded."

Although Rose Dradi could not be located by the Office of Consumer Protection, she has left a paper trail. In late 2018, federal investigators reportedly issued a subpoena for records of a Google Mail account controlled by Dradi as part of "an alleged criminal investigation." She disclosed the existence of the subpoena in a rambling pro se filing in Honolulu's Federal District Court in January 2019. In that document, she also referred to "an unlawful series of raids against two associates...." It is not known whether the investigation is related to the alleged mortgage foreclosure rescue scam or to Dradi's other business dealings on the U.S. mainland.

Dradi used a mailing address in the state of Washington in recent court filings. Last year, she filed for personal bankruptcy in Atlanta, Georgia, listing two local businesses, Bank of Hawaii and a Honolulu Land Rover dealer, among her creditors. She is listed in Florida business registration records as a principle in and agent for Nuwaii Holdings LLC, a company registered in Florida, while Dradi's LindIn.com listing identifies her as the owner of Dradi Financial Services. That company is not registered to do business in Hawaii, although Dradi was listed as an officer of The Dradi Organization LLC, which was administratively terminated by the state in 2011 after failing to file its annual business reports for several years.

Also see:

"Critical reporting needed on self-proclaimed sovereigns," ilind.net, Jan 30, 2019.
https://www.ilind.net/2019/01/30/critical-reporting-needed-on-self-proclaimed-sovereigns/

Ian Lind: Here's Why Hawaii Judges Are Not 'War Criminals', Civil Beat, May 11, 2017.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2017/05/ian-lind-heres-why-hawaii-judges-are-not-war-criminals/

"Hawaii Monitor: Is Part of the Sovereignty Debate Just a Matter of Faith?" Civil Beat, Mar 5, 2014.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2014/03/hawaii-monitor-is-part-of-the-sovereignty-debate-just-a-matter-of-faith/

"Reminder: Always check the footnotes," ilind.net, Sept 13, 2011.
https://www.ilind.net/2011/09/13/reminder-always-check-the-footnotes/

"Pseudo-legalistic sovereignty case makes my head spin," ilind.net, Dec 4, 2010.
https://www.ilind.net/2010/12/04/pseudo-legalistic-sovereignty-case-makes-my-head-spin/

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https://www.ilind.net/2019/05/13/keanu-sai-claimed-diplomatic-immunity-shielded-him-from-fraud-allegations/
Ian Lind blog, May 13, 2019

Keanu Sai claimed "diplomatic immunity" shielded him from fraud allegations Posted on May 13, 2019 by Ian Lind | Leave a comment The Office of Consumer Protection has a pretty straightforward view of the case against three people it alleges have been ripping off homeowners.

In the agency's view, the three�David Keanu Sai, Dexter Kaiama, and Rose Dradi�sell homeowners facing foreclosure a package of services which is supposed to rescue the consumers' homes by relying on Sai's beliefs about Hawaiian sovereignty (see yesterday's post, "Two sovereignty advocates hit with allegations of mortgage rescue fraud").

But OCP says that after more than 100 attempts, no judge has ever blocked a foreclosure action based on the so-called sovereignty defense, a fact the three certainly know. So, according to OCP, they are committing a form of consumer fraud by selling something the three know doesn't work in state or federal courts, even if they believe it is ultimately a valid argument and believe it should be accepted by the justice system. "Although Sai would have the world think of him as an expert, in reality Sai is merely using his views on sovereignty to exploit people for his own personal gain," the agency said.

It gets weirder and more interesting pretty quickly.

Sai responded to the allegations by triggering the option to move the case out of state court and into federal court. Sai argued that the federal court should have jurisdiction "because the State of Hawai'i seeks remedies involving Sai who [is] a foreign diplomat." Sai claimed he is a foreign diplomat because he has "served as Minister of the Interior and Agent for the Hawaiian Kingdom." And, he says, he is therefore protected by diplomatic immunity against charges like those raised by the OCP.

The consumer protection agency, in response, called Sai's claim to diplomatic immunity "ludicrous" and "without merit." The agency then addressed the issue point by point. The common law doctrine of head-of-state immunity is available where the United States government has officially recognized (i) the legitimacy of a foreign government, (ii) a particular individual's authority to serve in a representative capacity of that government, and (iii) the individual is not engaging in conduct excepted from immunity.

First, OCP made the obvious point that the United States does not recognize the Hawaiian Kingdom and, therefore, Sai simply isn't entitled diplomatic immunity based on his supposed position.

Second, even if the U.S. did recognize the existence of the kingdom, Sai is only one of a number of people claiming to represent it, and therefore has no authority to be the true representative. It bears noting, however, that Sai's claim to the Kingdom is but one of many. As reported by Honolulu Magazine in November 2009, Sai is but one of "[m]ore than 10 factions [that] currently claim to be the legitimate government of the Hawaiian kingdom." (Michael Keany, "Contenders to the Throne," Honolulu Magazine, November 2009.) "Diplomatic immunity turns on whether the United States recognizes the foreign government and an individual serving as a duly authorized representative of that government," OCP continued. "Here there is no recognition, diplomatic immunity fails...."

Finally, according to OCP, diplomatic immunity does not extend to activity engaged in for personal profit. The Office of Consumer Protection noted, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ("VCDR") and the Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978, recognize several exemptions to the protections of diplomatic immunity, including on exception for "an action relating to any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in the receiving State outside his official functions."

In short, don't expect any deference to be given to Sai's claims of diplomatic immunity.

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https://www.hawaiiankingdom.info/?p=3003
Scott Crawford Hawaiian sovereignty blog, May 14, 2019

Dr. Sai presentation to Maui Council Planning Committee

On Wednesday, May 15 at 9:00 am, Dr. Keanu Sai will make a presentation to the Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee of the Maui County Council, chaired by Tamara Paltin.

From the agenda:

Pursuant to Rule 7(B) of the Rules of the Council, the Committee intends to receive a presentation from Dr. David Keanu Sai relating to an update on land use and planning in consideration of Hawaii's status under international law and other related matters.

The committee meeting will take place in the Council Chambers on the 8th Floor at 200 S. High Street, and will also be broadcast live in Akaku cable access channel 53, and at www.akaku.org.

** Note from website editor Ken Conklin: Two YouTube videos became available a few days later:
(1) Two hour lecture including power-point slides, at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG9Z6mlEPWE,
(2) 53-minute interactive question/answer session between Keanu Sai and committee members, at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6eL3GArq3U&t=5s

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** Ken Conklin's online comment to the 2-hour YouTube video:

Keanu's whole theory is based on his assumption that the U.S. "illegal occupation" of Hawaii began with the landing of 162 sailors in January 1893, and continues to now. He assumes that Lili'uokalani remained the rightful sovereign head of state. He's wrong.

Keanu is correct that the nation of Hawaii was not overthrown in January 1893 -- all that was overthrown was the monarchial government. The nation of Hawaii remained a sovereign independent nation until annexation in 1898. So what happened in the meantime? The same thing that happens in all revolutions. First there was a revolutionary Provisional Government, which received de facto recognition within a day or two from every consulate that had a consul in Honolulu. Then, in July 1894, the PG published a Constitution establishing the permanent successor government, the Republic of Hawaii (there were at least 6 ethnic Hawaiians on the Constitutional Convention, and the Speaker of the House was former royalist John Kaulukou).

I would add that after Cleveland's Minister Plenipotentiary With Paramount Power, Blount, ordered the few remaining sailors to get back on their boat in the harbor, on April 1, there were no longer any U.S. military anywhere in Hawaii. No "occupation." Indeed, Cleveland and the U.S. Navy staged a display of gunboat diplomacy in December 1893 called "Black Week" trying to intimidate the Provisional Government to reinstate Lili'uokalani, and Cleveland's diplomat wrote a letter to President Dole "ordering" Dole to step down, which Dole refused to do. This was clearly not a puppet regime, and there was no U.S. "occupation" keeping Lili'uokalani off the throne.

What Keanu does not tell you is that the Republic received formal recognition as the de jure (rightful) successor government of the continuing independent nation of Hawaii -- recognition came in letters in 11 languages, which arrived in Honolulu during Fall 1894, addressed to President Dole, personally signed by emperors, kings, queens, and presidents of at least 19 nations on 4 continents. Those letters are in the Hawaii archives, and I have photos of them on my website. The letters include from Queen Victoria, the Tsar of Russia, the King and Queen of Spain, the President of France, the head of the Swiss federation, the Emperor of China, etc.

As the internationally recognized rightful successor government, the Republic of Hawaii had the right under international law to speak on behalf of the still-independent nation and to offer a Treaty of Annexation 4 years later to the U.S. The U.S. as a sovereign nation had the right to use whatever method it wished to use to ratify the treaty. You may say that a joint resolution is not allowed for ratifying a treaty. But that's not for you to decide -- that's for the U.S. alone to decide. The Senators who opposed the Treaty could have filed a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court claiming that joint resolution deprived them of their sole authority to ratify treaties, but they never filed any such complaint. They would have had "standing"; neither Keanu Sai nor any international court has any standing to complain about what method a sovereign nation uses for making its own decision about whether to ratify a treaty. Yes indeed, a joint resolution is an internal decision that has no power to reach out and grab a foreign nation. It is an internal decision whereby the U.S. decided to ratify the treaty offered by Hawaii; there was no "grabbing."

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https://mauitime.com/news/politics/hawaii-the-fake-state-dr-david-keanu-sai-talks-to-the-maui-county-council-about-the-ongoing-american-occupation-of-the-hawaiian-kingdom/?fbclid=IwAR2Kecvju9d2JS2YPTZ1lKdX5AIlfpQDxsEQ8w-kMAZ7TzahISIzz8ZU7NM
Maui Time weekly, May 24, 2019, headline article

Hawai'i: The Fake State - Dr. David Keanu Sai talks to the Maui County Council about the ongoing American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom

BY AXEL BEERS

Don't call Dr. David Keanu Sai a sovereignty activist. Despite decades of research into the 1893 overthrow and ongoing occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the UH faculty member and political scientist takes pains to avoid the word "sovereignty" and emphasizes that he is not a political activist.

Sai's low-key approach is unusual in a field that "still has the air of conspiracy theory," as one newpaper put it last year. Yet, the idea that the Hawaiian Kingdom exists as a nation illegally occupied by the United States has become so legitimized that it was recently a Maui County Council agenda item.

In a May 15 meeting of the County Council Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee, Chair Tamara Paltin invited Sai to present an "Update on Land Use and Planning in Consideration of Hawaii's Status Under International Law." Paltin is currently investigating disputes regarding ceded lands (lands that were designated as "Crown Lands" during the Hawaiian Kingdom but following the overthrow were considered surrendered to the U.S. as government lands).

"That's assuming something got ceded," Sai told the committee. He added that a better term would be "seized lands."

Because of statements like that "A lot of people tend to paint this image of me as if I'm a Hawaiian activist," Sai said. "A lot of people think I'm in Hawaiian Studies and I say, 'Hey, that's racial profiling,'" he added with a laugh.

Sai's roots as a leading expert on the overthrow and occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom come from a surprising place: the U.S. Military. As an artilleryman, he gained a sense of pragmatism and the importance of drawing conclusions based on comprehensive intelligence, which during his military tenure often related to the Gulf War. As he learned about the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, Sai noticed a familiar pattern, which he outlined in a video shown to the committee.

Sai learned from Desert Storm intelligence briefings that after invading Kuwait, Iraq established a puppet government called the Provisional Government of Kuwait. "And here I'm looking at Hawai'i and these guys [who overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom government] called themselves the Provisional Government of Hawai'i. And then, later, that Provisional Government of Kuwait changed its name to the Republic of Kuwait. That's exactly what the provisional government did in Hawai'i. They changed their name to the Republic of Hawai'i and then asked to be annexed, just as the Republic of Kuwait was asking to be annexed... they were disguising themselves to be Kuwaitis when they were in fact Iraqi nationals. And then just as Iraq unilaterally seized Kuwait, the United States did the same in 1898 in a joint resolution of Congress.'

"The parallels were unbelievable and I quickly saw Hawai'i's situation," he said.

Subsequent research caused Sai to conclude that Hawai'i is not not a part of the United States "and that we're occupied... Just as Iraq was not complying with the law of occupation � the Hague and Geneva Conventions � the United States was not complying with the law of occupation either."

Since then, he has worked to deepen his understanding of the situation, and share his knowledge with others through his work as an educator and in legal cases regarding the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Sai analyzes international law and precedence, and uses that framework to study the actions and events related to the Hawaiian Kingdom's independence, the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, and how the United States' takeover of the Hawaiian Kingdom government fits that framework.

In Kuwait's case, despite the Iraqi occupation, the U.S. and the world understood that Kuwait still existed, Sai said. During that time, Iraq was still expected to administer Kuwaiti law until a treaty of peace was signed.

"Jurisdiction under international law is through treaties," Sai said. "One country can have jurisdiction over another country under the Hague Convention, the Vienna Convention, or the Status of Forces Agreement."

These agreements have been the norm in the history of the United States' land acquisition. Through treaties, such as the 1803 treaty with France that set the terms of the Louisiana Purchase, lands were voluntarily ceded from foreign countries. In the case of the Mexican Cession that included what's now California and Texas, land was acquired through post-war treaty.

When it comes to Hawai'i, however, no such treaty of annexation between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom exists. Instead, the annexation of Hawai'i and the long-held belief that it is a part of the United States stems from an 1898 joint resolution of the U.S. Congress.

But, Sai clarified, "A joint resolution is not a treaty."

That means the joint resolution that "annexed" Hawai'i had no authority and jurisdiction within the Hawaiian Kingdom, a sovereign nation recognized by other countries worldwide. Yet, the U.S. continued to pass laws governing the occupied kingdom, including the Organic Act of 1900 which named Hawai'i a territory of the U.S. and the 1959 Statehood Act which enrolled Hawai'i as the 50th state.

Sai recalled the words of Nebraska Sen. William Allen, who opposed the 1898 joint resolution. "[A]n attempt to annex or acquire territory by act or joint resolution of Congress is in violation of the letter, spirit, and policy of the Constitution... I utterly repudiate the power of Congress to annex the Hawaiian Islands by a joint resolution such as passed the Senate. It is ipso facto null and void."

The U.S. Supreme Court has also recognized the limit of municipal laws. "Neither the Constitution nor the laws passed in pursuance of it have any force in foreign territory," Sai said. "Operations of the nation in such territory must be governed by treaties, international understandings and compacts, and the principles of international law."

So, if the so-called annexation of Hawai'i has no authority and the Hawaiian Kingdom still exists, but under occupation, what does that mean to us today?

In 1893, following the overthrow, President Grover Cleveland addressed Congress about what he called an "armed invasion." Said Cleveland, "By an act of war the Government of a friendly and confiding people has been overthrown."

To Sai, "Overthrowing the government does not equate to an overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent state."

To understand the implications, one has to look at the international law of occupation that existed at the time the American occupation began � January 17, 1893, the date of the overthrow.

"The law of occupation in 1893 obligated the United States to administer Hawaiian Kingdom law," said Sai. However that never happened.

One legal consequence of the government failing to fulfill these obligations or properly annex Hawai'i involves land titles. Hawaiian Kingdom law requires these transactions to be signed by a Hawaiian Kingdom notary. But none existed after the overthrow. "Deeds of conveyance of real property and mortgages after January 17, 1893 could not be considered lawfully executed," said Sai.

In 1996 the Council of Regency was formed, authorized by a provision in the Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution of 1864 for times when there is no monarch. The Council was formed similar to other governments in exile in World War II, and includes Sai in the Cabinet Council as chairman and minister of the interior.

Sai explained the three phases of the Council of Regency's strategic plan: Verification of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent state and subject of international law (phase one), exposure of Hawaiian statehood within the framework of international law and the laws of occupation as it affects the realm of politics and economics at both the international and domestic levels (phase 2), and restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent state and a subject of international law (phase 3).

By 1999, the Council of Regency was representing the Hawaiian Kingdom at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organization in the Netherlands formed under the 1899 Hague Convention to solve international disputes. The case involved an individual who claimed the Hawaiian Kingdom was obligated to defend him from U.S. law. As a result of the proceedings, the first phase of the Council of Regency was completed: The Permanent Court of Arbitration verified the Hawaiian Kingdom to be an independent state and subject of international law, and the Council of Regency as the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The case caught the attention of Rwandan Ambassador Jacques Bihozagara. According to Sai, Bihozagara, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, urged the Council to report to the United Nations General Assembly about the prolonged occupation of Hawai'i, because "Rwanda understands what happens when international law is violated but the international community does not step in until it's too late." The Council declined Bihozagara's offer and decided to engage, educate, and build community around the issue instead.

So began phase two of the Council of Regency's plan, exposure of the facts through "education, education, education." This phase, still ongoing, has unfolded through Sai's work as an educator within the University of Hawai'i system, the publishing of his history book Ua Mau Ke Ea Sovereignty Endures: An Overview of the Political and Legal History of the Hawaiian Islands, corrections to American-centric textbooks, articles published for the National Education Association, journal papers, and more.

In turn, that's resulted in more recognition and exposure. Last year, Dr. Alfred M. deZayas, professor of international law and then United Nations independent expert, wrote in a memo: "I have come to understand that the lawful political status of the Hawaiian Islands is that of a sovereign nation-state in continuity; but a nation-state that is under a strange form of occupation by the United States resulting from an illegal military occupation and a fraudulent annexation. As such, international laws (the Hague and Geneva Conventions) require that governance and legal matters within the occupied territory of the Hawaiian Islands must be administered by the application of the laws of the occupied state (in this case the Hawaiian Kingdom), not the domestic laws of the occupier (the United States)."

"I'm not into arguing, I'm just into defending the research," Sai stated, emphasizing again the need to present facts without politicizing the issue.

Given the politically charged situation, that's asking a lot, especially when war crimes enter the discussion. Sai listed possible crimes committed by the United States and its agents in the Hawaiian Kingdom, including denationalization (the obliteration of the national consciousness of an occupied state), pillaging, unlawful appropriation of property, depriving a protected person of a fair and regular trial, destruction of property, unlawful confinement of a protected person, removing protected persons from the country (shipping prisoners to Arizona), and involuntary conscription into the U.S. armed forces (the draft).

To be guilty of these crimes, it's necessary for the perpetrator "to know the connection between his or her acts and the existence of occupation," Sai said. Part of his goal is that pleading ignorance on the issue will no longer be an acceptable excuse, now that he and his colleagues are turning the tide with research and education.

Yet, Sai maintained that he is committed to solutions, not exacerbating existing problems.

To this end, the Council of Regency announced in 2014 that laws that "have emanated from an unlawful legislature since the insurrection began on July 6, 1887 to the present, to include United States legislation, shall be provisional laws of the Realm subject to ratification of the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Kingdom once assembled." A provision excludes laws that are contrary to the spirit of Hawaiian Kingdom law, the international laws of occupation, or international humanitarian law.

And last month, the Council of Regency announced that a Royal Commission of Inquiry will be formed to thoroughly investigate the U.S. occupation of Hawai'i, its consequences, and the possibility of war crimes committed. The selection of academics from around the globe to serve on the Commission is still underway.

"For the first time, this Commission of Inquiry is gonna be huge, broad, task-oriented, unbiased, professional," Sai said. "That's all we have to engage attacks. We can only speak to professionalism; we can only speak to qualification; we can only speak to demeanor and having a reputation above reproach."

In terms of immediate practical advice for the County Council in righting a 100-year-old historical wrong, Sai suggested a task force, which "can be established to look into issues of taxation, legislation, and to seek out experts for recommendations for decision-making," specifically as they relate to Hawai'i's status under international law.

"I found Dr. Sai's approach of providing information and education as a means of creating awareness a good way to approach an emotionally charged subject like this," said Councilmember Shane Sinenci after Sai's presentation. "I appreciate that Dr. Sai asked that people take time to understand the information that he provided and pause and reflect. It's important we all be informed, especially legislators, so that we can ask the right questions and make better informed decisions."

Sinenci added that "Understanding how native people were treated by the government after Annexation helps to explain the current sense of disenfranchisement felt by Native Hawaiians. It is encouraging to see the resurgence of Hawaiian culture in today's society. Only by understanding the past, can we move forward into the future."

Indeed, for his dedication to the facts, some of Sai's most moving words were the aspirational thoughts shared in his conclusion, in which he implored the audience to be unafraid to look to the past in order to move forward.

"This is a kakou thing. This is how we move forward in light of our situation, but we cannot whitewash anymore what happened in our past," said Sai. "The practical value of history is that it's a film of the past, run through the projector of today, onto the screen of tomorrow. That film never changes but you have to update the projector. Once you update the projector, you now see something that you didn't see before, and now it's called decision-making. Don't make a decision until you get the information. That's the process."

Still have questions? As Dr. Keanu Sai said, that's a good place to start. Watch his presentation to the PSLU Committee at Mauicounty.us. His blog is at Hawaiiankingdom.org/blog.

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** Ken Conklin's detailed online rebuttal

Keanu is correct about one thing -- that the nation of Hawaii was not overthrown in January 1893 -- all that was overthrown was the monarchial government. A majority of the leadership "Committee of Safety" were native-born or naturalized subjects of the Hawaiian kingdom. The armed men who took over buildings and disarmed the Royal Guard and patrolled the streets were from the same group of 1500 armed local men who surrounded the Palace in 1887 and forced Kalakaua to sign the "Bayonet Constitution" under threat that he would be ousted if he refused -- no U.S. participation in the 1887 partial revolution. The 162 U.S. sailors in 1893 were peacekeepers just like in Granada, Liberia, and other recent situations -- they were held in reserve, stayed in barracks, and left after a few weeks -- no U.S. "occupation." Their job was to protect American lives and property and to stop any rioting or arson; but it turned out they were not needed and not used.

In 1893, Cleveland's "fact finder" to Hawaii, James H. Blount, wrote in his report that the 5,500 members of the city's Annexation Club at that time included 1,218 Americans (22 percent of the club); 1,022 Native Hawaiians (19 percent); 251 Englishmen (5 percent); 2,261 Portuguese (41 percent); 69 Norwegians (1 percent); 351 Germans (6 percent), along with 328 persons unclassified but making up the balance. Note that the Portuguese, not Americans, were by far the largest group agitating for overthrow and annexation.

The nation of Hawaii remained a sovereign independent nation until annexation in 1898. So what happened in the meantime? The same thing that happens in all revolutions. First there was a revolutionary Provisional Government, comprised entirely of local men. The PG received de facto recognition within a day or two from every consulate that had a consul in Honolulu. Then, in July 1894, the PG published a Constitution establishing the permanent successor government, the Republic of Hawaii (there were at least 6 ethnic Hawaiians on the Constitutional Convention, and the Speaker of the House was former royalist John Kaulukou). Sometimes a revolution produces a peace treaty whereby the overthrown government recognizes its successor (as with the Treaty of Paris between Britain and the U.S). But more often there is no such treaty nor even a surrender document -- ask Sun Yat-sen for the surrender document from the Emperor; ask Lenin for the Tsar's treaty recognizing the Bolsheviks; ask Castro for Batista's documents. Hawaii was lucky to have only one policeman shot in the shoulder during the revolution, and the ex-queen was neither shot nor beheaded.

I would add that after Cleveland's Minister Plenipotentiary With Paramount Power, Blount, ordered the few remaining sailors to get back on their boat in the harbor, on April 1, 1893 there were no longer any U.S. military anywhere in Hawaii. No "occupation." Indeed, Cleveland and the U.S. Navy staged a display of gunboat diplomacy in December 1893 called "Black Week" trying to intimidate the Provisional Government to reinstate Lili'uokalani. Cleveland's diplomat Willis wrote a letter to President Dole at that time "ordering" Dole to step down, which Dole refused to do. This was clearly not a puppet regime, and there was no U.S. "occupation" keeping Lili'uokalani off the throne. The U.S. was trying to overthrow the Republic and restore the ex-queen, and the Republic was strong enough to stand up and refuse to obey. Not a U.S. "occupation."

As the internationally recognized rightful successor government, the Republic of Hawaii had the right under international law to speak on behalf of the still-independent nation and to offer a Treaty of Annexation 4 years later to the U.S. The U.S. as a sovereign nation had the right to use whatever method it wished to use to ratify the treaty. You may say that a joint resolution is not allowed for ratifying a treaty. But that's not for you to decide -- that's for the U.S. alone to decide. The Senators who opposed the Treaty could have filed a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court claiming that joint resolution deprived them of the Senate's sole authority to ratify treaties, but they never filed any such complaint. They would have had "standing"; neither Keanu Sai nor any international court has any standing to complain about what method a sovereign nation uses for making its own decision about whether to ratify a treaty. Yes indeed, a joint resolution is an internal decision that has no power to reach out and grab a foreign nation. It is an internal decision whereby the U.S. decided to ratify the treaty offered by Hawaii; the joint resolution did not reach out or grab anything, it was an internal decision by the U.S. agreeing to accept the Treaty that had been offered by the Republic of Hawaii a few months previously.

Keanu's arbitration tribunal at the Hague did NOT proclaim any assertions about Hawaii's history or alleged continuity of the Kingdom as being true -- it only did what any arbitrator is required to do -- it merely accepted and summarized all the "illegal occupation" nonsense which both Sai and Larsen agreed upon, and then said "case dismissed" regarding the only issue in dispute (Larsen's claim that Sai owed him money for failing to protect him).

Shame on the Maui County Council, the National Education Association, etc. for failing to do due dilligence -- these groups have not done their own independent research or heard from scholars with evidence to debunk one-sided history-twisting propaganda. The Maui CC was never told about international recognition of the Republic, nor how the Republic had to stand up against U.S. President Cleveland -- not a U.S. "occupation." I wonder whether Sai's "Royal Commission of Inquiry" will invite the participation of the infamous hate-America fake Indian "scholar" Ward Churchill, who served as a judge on another similar Hawaii "Tribunal" circus back in 1993, when Keanu was just getting started on his "Perfect Title" scam. I guess Francis Boyle is today's Ward Churchill.

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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/05/ke-aupuni-update-may-2019-8y-leon-siu_25.html
Free Hawaii blog, May 25, 2019

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - MAY 2019

8y Leon Siu - Hawaiian National
Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

� A Unified Position

One thing that's been on my mind for some time is: what if the countries start asking for proof that the Hawaiian people really want independence? What are we going to say? So far, the diplomats and international groups to which I've been speaking have seen the outward appearances of the protests, rallies, articles, academic papers, websites, etc. ...But what is the tangible proof that shows the political will people? Although they know that nation-building can be very involved and often messy, still it would be reassuring if there was some kind of consensus... better yet, a unified front.

West Papua struggled for years with different factions vying for attention from the international community. It was confusing. Finally, Vanuatu sat the competing leaders down and said, we can't help you unless you form a coherent body... to work together to get over the first major hurdle. Thus, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua was born. Vanuatu threw their support behind the ULMWP and got the Melanesian Spearhead Group to grant them observer status. Then Vanuatu gave the ULMWP some land and a building in Port Vila from which to operate... instructed their missions in New York and Geneva to give WP exposure, etc.

I believe we have a solution to satisfy the immediate proof of consensus, and one that will lead to unifying the movement as well.

I brought this up this concern in a meeting I had last week with a friend. How do we show there is significant support for Hawaii as an independent nation when we are so factionalized? He thought about it for a moment and said, "We need a memorial." A document that simply says we stand for independence, something which everyone in the movement can subscribe, regardless of group affiliations or pre-conceived agendas. The precedent is the memorial that accompanied the Ku'e Petition to Washington, D.C. on 1897. This way, when asked about the political will of the Hawaiian people, we can say, here it is, a simple, no-frills memorial with the signatures of all the leaders and thousands, upon thousands of Hawaiians.

The beauty of this memorial is that it will unify us in purpose; get us standing and working for the same outcome of independence. It will be a foundational mission statement for us to use to build the nation... We are working on plans to make this happen.

To better understand what we are doing in Foreign Affairs, go to:
HawaiianKingdom.net/HawaiianKingdom.net/Foreign_Affairs.html

It's part of the website: HawaiianKingdom.net

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https://www.thegardenisland.com/2019/05/27/hawaii-news/a-call-to-action/
The Garden Island [Kaua'i], Monday May 27 [Memorial Day]

'A call to action'

By Ryan Collins

The "Prime Minister" of the Kingdom of Hawaii stands before about 30 people at the Anahola Marketplace earlier this month, eagerly awaiting his chance to speak about his plans for action in the coming months and years.

Henry Noa was on Kauai for three days to give presentations each night to locals about the illegal occupation of the Kingdom of Hawaii by the United States and to encourage people to take action on what he believes is an inevitability -- the recognition of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign nation.

Noa said his goal of the presentations was to educate the Kanaka base and get them to understand there is a process that is going to be followed in the path to the reinstatement of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

"I think the fact that we didn't have a land base, our government didn't have a land base, that's what I have been trying to acquire is our land base, so I went to take Kaho'olawe," Noa, who operates with The Reinstated Hawaiian Government, said on his third night of presentations when asked how the Kingdom of Hawaii goes about official recognition as a kingdom. "You actually have to fulfill, there are certain elements to make the claim under international protocol, these elements that you are now a recognized nation," he said. "Recognition is a very interesting application. Very interesting. Some people think that you have to get somebody else to recognize you. No. In our case, it's not getting somebody else to recognize us, it's us being able to fulfill our obligations so that we can execute our sovereign authority. Without the land, we haven't fulfilled the last protocol."

Noa said the amazing thing that happened in the presentations he gave on Kauai and is giving on all the Hawaiian Islands, except Ni'ihau, is that the tables have turned in the quest for official recognition. Even more so after President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Apology Bill" was signed into law, recognizing Hawaii's perfect right to sovereignty. "It's no longer about us asking for recognition," he said. "The tables have been beautifully changed or flipped. Now we're in the position to take back all this land. We're not the first nation that was ever acknowledged of reclaiming lands. There's plenty of them in the world, loaded. Some of them were done with the army, you're talking war, you're talking war. Others, they accepted the facts.

"The owners worked it out with those who under good faith bought land, like (Mark) Zuckerberg. He bought land under good faith, that's all I see. So, how do I work with it? First, go get the land. Otherwise, they are not going to go lease it, but once they see we are taking back our lands, yours next, you're going to work with us or not."

Noa, in his Kauai three presentations, at Anahola, Salt Pond Beach Park and Kalihiwai, points to American Samoa and the land system that exists in the nearby island, where the United States pays "rent" to the ruling chiefs to this day. It's something that he says never happened in Hawaii. "American Samoa is considered the independent nation of Samoa, but American Samoa, I always thought that American Samoa is like Hawaii," Noa said. "Because America came and took over your country, they not only came and took over your country, but they took your lands." It led Noa to ask the question, who owns the lands in American Samoa? He was told the lands still belong to the Samoan people. "I was like, 'what went wrong with us?'" he said.

Noa, who gained notoriety through his political activism starting on the island of Kaho'olawe and the 11-year legal battle that has taken place between the state over trespassing charges brought forward by the state, in a case that continues to drag through the state court system. Noa has been a catalyst in the Reinstated Hawaiian Government represented by Kanaka Maoli ancestry from across the Hawaiian Islands which convened on March 13, 1999, on Oahu to, "return their true and lawful government from its century-long exile." It's a fight that he has been a part of for over 40 years.

"I started with Kaho'olawe," Noa said of the island that was used for bombing practice by the U.S. Navy until 1990. "At the time it was all, I guess you could say, emotions. And then I realized that emotions are not going to get this done, that I gotta go find another way. Then I went into finding out about how other countries went about getting their recognition. They did processing, they did applications. That's what we ended up doing and I felt that 'gee, within four or five years we should be done,' not realizing our oppositions." Noa and two other men, Nelson Armitage, and Russell Kaho'okele, argued that their occupation of Kaho'olawe, which the three sailed to Kaho'olawe to claim for the Kingdom of Hawaii on July 31, 2006, was done as a sovereign entity under international law. The trio were cited for a violation of "Entrance into the Reserve," state statute 13-261-10.

Attorneys for the state argued that the sovereign entity argument was "irrelevant in the case at hand, specifically because this court is bound by the laws and rules of the State of Hawaii, as well as the U.S. Government. And at this point in time (Jan. 2009) the U.S. Government, nor the state of Hawaii, has recognized the defendants' entity as being a sovereign government."

The three defendants were granted a motion to dismiss the Kaho'olawe case on May 27, 2008, after which the state later attempted to recharge the trio for the following seven years before it was dismissed again on Aug. 28, 2015, despite being dismissed by the Hawaii Supreme Court on Jan. 28, 2014.

The state court of appeals has again reopened the case this month, attempting to charge the three for the initial citation they were given in 2006, according to Noa's one-time lawyer in the case, Dan Hempey.

The Kaho'olawe case has served Noa in many capacities, he said. "I put all of my faith into an abstract thought, an abstract application," Noa said. "It's sovereignty. Sovereignty is very abstract, but that's when I started to tell myself, 'why cannot I get substance connected to that abstract? I don't think I'll be able to finish what I started.' When we did Kaho'olawe, I got interested, but because our land system is so diluted, I could never find our land law book. There is no land law book in Hawaii, which means there are no land laws that we can actually apply. And that was the hardship. Now figuring that out only took me five years."

Noa said through his land occupations after Kaho'olawe, on Oahu, that the opposition has revealed their offense. "Our case lasted five and a half years," Noa said. "We were able to stay in the court against the biggest corporation, and we are still in it. "Now I've learned how this system is so bent that there can only be one way. Sometimes if you work hard enough and you believe in what you are doing, hopefully, you are going to get in favor. That's how I feel. That's what the presentation is about. It's about understanding why all of these lands still belong to us."

Noa added that it took three years to convince himself to go out into the general public with his message, a message that he has now delivered on Kauai.

Ryan Collins, county reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or rcollins@thegardenisland.com.

----------------------

On June 5, 2019 Mr. Sai returned to the planning and sustainable land use committee of the maui county council where he spent more than three hours (including a 10 minute break) expanding and extending his earlier presentation. Committee members showed no interest in cross-examining him; only a few friendly questions were asked toward the end. Mr. Sai's media people created 4 YouTube videos; descriptions written by Sai, and links, provided below.

(Part 1) Dr. Keanu Sai to Maui County Council June 5th 2019 In part 1 of this historic presentation Dr. Keanu Sai shares about the role of the Council of Regency in establishing a Royal Comission of Inquiry comprised of international law experts in various fields to investigate war crimes against Hawaiian Nationls under prologned U.S. Occupation. Maui County Council Members share their thoughts on the issue. (29 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KixyfERrOo&t=224s

(Part 2) Dr. Sai at Maui County Council June 5th 2019 (24 minutes) In part 2 of this historic presentation Dr. Keanu Sai shares more about the details of international law, and how it applies to war crimes being committed against Hawaiian Nationls under prologned U.S. Occupation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58heORXhYs

(Part 3) Dr. Sai at Maui County Council June 5th 2019 (48 minutes) Dr. Keanu Sai Ph.D continues his presentation; explaining how Maui County can come into compliance with International Law, while honoring Hawaiian Kingdom Law in the process of de-occupation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TqUSsjoAko

(Part 4) Dr. Keanu Sai Q and A from Maui County Council June 5th (49 Minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prafR6O68Bo&t=104s

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https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/06/11/controversial-hawaiian-scholar-comes-under-fire-amid-calls-an-investigation/

Hawaii News Now (3 TV stations)
June 10, 2019 at 7:08 PM HST - Updated June 10 at 8:02 PM

A controversial Hawaiian scholar comes under fire amid calls for an investigation

By Rick Daysog

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state Office of Consumer Protection has made a criminal referral for controversial Hawaiian scholar David Keanu Sai, saying he has committed a felony.

In a court filing, OCP attorney James Evers said Sai violated the state's Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act by taking nearly $8,000 advance fees from distressed homeowners.

"Sai's conduct constitutes a felony and Sai's criminal wrongdoing has been referred to the proper criminal authorties for investigation," Evers wrote. The criminal referral came from a foreclosure case involving a property in Ewa Beach. Despite Keanu Sai's efforts, the owners lost their home.

"This is just ... one in a long line of scams that take advantage of people who find themselves in desperate financial situations," said longtime investigative reporter and former Common Cause Director Ian Lind. "It's really a shame."

Sai, a lecturer in Hawaiian Studies at the Windward Community College, has argued that the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 has rendered land titles invalid.

Sai's attorney said he was not aware of the criminal referral and declined comment.

This isn't the first time Sai has gotten into legal trouble. Nearly two decades ago, he was sentenced to five years of probation for theft. At the time, he tried to convince distressed homeowners to stop making mortgage payments.

"Outrageous smear," Sai said during a presentation in the Maui County Council chambers last month. "When you speak the truth you get hit. I was just speaking the truth."

The University of Hawaii said Sai continues to be employed, teaching Hawaiian Studies at WCC.

-------------------

http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/06/ke-aupuni-update-june-2019-8y-leon-siu.html
Free Hawaii blog, June 15, 2019

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - JUNE 2019

By Leon Siu - Hawaiian National
Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

The Quick Facts Series...
THE SITUATION OF
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
QUICK FACTS #10

VISITING CAPITALS

According to Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention, one of the four qualifying factors of a sovereign state is the capacity to enter foreign relations with other states.

After having spent years in conversations with diplomats from various countries (ambassadors, charg� d'affaires, attach�s, counsels, deputy reps, secretaries, etc.), sharing our situation and learning of theirs, we have embarked on the next stage known as "visiting their capitals." This means we have gotten to the point in our discussions where the diplomats are recommending we go and talk to their countries' leaders -- presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers... those who make decisions...

This is the stage where nation-to-nation bilateral discussions take place to develop relationships and talk strategies.

In the past I have met a number of heads of state usually at conferences, regional group meetings or at their missions at the UN or the EU. It has always been encouraging and productive.

My most recent diplomatic visit was two weeks ago in Apia, Samoa with Prime Minister Malielegaoi of the Independent State of Samoa. We discussed several matters of mutual interest. We also talked of the prospects of Samoa supporting two initiatives we are preparing for introduction at the United Nations in the Fall. His response was very positive.

The pace is beginning to pick up. In the next few months I will be visiting more of the Pacific as well as other regions.

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty (life) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

----------------

http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/06/hawaiian-kingdom-foreign-minister-to.html
Free Hawai'i blog, June 18, 2019

HAWAIIAN KINGDOM FOREIGN MINISTER TO SPEAK TOMORROW IN BOSTON

Hawaiian Kingdom Foreign Minister Leon Kaulahao Siu is EPA New England's Guest Speaker as part of it's 2019 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration.

Leon Siu will talk about current environment issues in Hawai'i, its impact to tourism, the economy and to Hawaiian culture.

The negative environmental effects of over tourism in Waikiki and other popular destinations throughout the Hawaiian Islands is one of several topics for this hour long program.

The public is invited to this free event.
WHEN - Tomorrow, June 19. 2019 at 10:30am � 11:30am
WHERE - EPA � New England on the 15th Floor, Courtroom 6, McCormack Federal Building, 5 Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02109

Leon Siu is a lecturer on Hawaiian culture, history, and contemporary issues, and serves as the Minister of Foreign Affairs representing the interests of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the international arena.

In 2016 he received the Knights Grand Cross Award of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, 1865, the highest honor conferred by the Hawaiian Kingdom.

He was nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and in June 2017, he received the Gold Medal for the UN Peacemaker, Sergio Vieira de Mello Award from the International Parliament.

He has also been a Hawai'i contact and contributor to the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and the International Diplomat.

-------------------

http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/06/ke-aupuni-update-june-2019-with.html
Free Hawaii blog, SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2019

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - JUNE 2019

8y Leon Siu - Hawaiian National
Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

� Back At The UN In Geneva
Over the years at the UN, we have developed friendships and mutual support among many peoples and nations (Alaska, Kashmir, Western Sahara, West Papua, etc.) working to free themselves from captive situations. Working together gives us some real advantages as we help to bolster each other's efforts.

I'm back at the UN in Geneva attending the 41st Session of the UN Human Rights Council. With me are two representatives of the Okinawa independence movement whom we assisted in getting accredited and oriented to attend the UN meeting.

The leader is Robert Kajiwara, who is actually a Hawaiian Kingdom subject of Okinawan descent. Rob is an envoy sent by our Hawaiian Kingdom Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Okinawa to hook up with their independence movement.

Okinawa is in a situation very similar to the Hawaiian Islands ... invaded and illegally "annexed" by a foreign power; in their case, Japan. Then, after everyone else had been liberated, consigned by UN action to remain in the hands of their captors who turned their paradise into an armed fortress.

Rob read a 2-minute intervention (statement) at the HRC on Tuesday calling for a draw-down of military installations and self-determination for Okinawa. It created a huge sensation in Japan! It was the number one news item in all of Japan's media.

Today, a joint Hawai'i and Okinawa briefing was held for the UN press corps. These are usually 30-minute affairs. Ours lasted for over 90 minutes! The press asked about the subjugation of our islands by the U.S.; the TMT on Mauna Kea; what we thought of the nuclear threat to our people ... I told them about the arbitrary detention of Bradley Pai, Robert Warren and Alfred Spinney as being politically motivated ... and the systemic discrimination against Hawaiian subjects by the State of Hawai'i and agents of the United States. They were taken aback... This is going on in Hawai'i?

The world is waking up and beginning to listen.

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty (life) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

------------------------

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2019/0702/Whose-independence-Why-some-Native-Hawaiians-don-t-celebrate-on-July-4
Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2019

Whose independence? Why some Native Hawaiians don't celebrate on July 4.

WHY WE WROTE THIS
What does American liberty mean? It depends on whom you ask. While Independence Day is a joyful celebration for many Americans, for some Native Hawaiians, it is a painful reminder of the loss of sovereignty.

By Noelle Swan Staff writer @swannoelle HONOLULU

This July Fourth, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu won't be celebrating American freedom from Britain. She'll be commemorating the loss of her ancestors' independence at the hands of Americans.

As Americans gather in backyards and public parks around the United States, Ms. Wong-Kalu will be performing at the 'Iolani Palace, the cultural heart of Honolulu. There, she will be portraying Hawaii's Queen Lili'uokalani, who was imprisoned in the palace during the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by American businessmen and plantation owners. Within five years, the U.S. government annexed the islands, setting the stage for Hawaii to become the 50th U.S. state in 1959.

But Ms. Wong-Kalu doesn't feel much like an American. She is first and foremost a Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian. "I feel a sense of duty and obligation to Hawaii because Hawaii is my homeland," she says. "It is the heart of my existence. This is the part of my life that is my dominant identity."

Connecting with that identity has not always been easy for Native Hawaiians. And for some, America's Independence Day is a reminder of that separation from their heritage.

Today, Ms. Wong-Kalu works to inspire young Native Hawaiians to learn about their cultural roots as a kumu, or teacher. Kumu Hina, as she is known throughout Hawaii, splits her time between correctional facilities and local schools, where she promotes the Hawaiian values of aloha: love, honor, and respect.

Talking story

"I'm going to tell you a story," Konia Freitas says with a warm smile, her neck framed by a pink and red lei. "Talking story is important to us Hawaiians." "I was a little girl and my mother and I were watching TV, and a movie with Hawaiian subject matter was on," she says. She can no longer recall the precise film but remembers watching as actors portraying the first American missionaries to arrive in Hawaii stepped off the ship, Thaddeus, in 1820. "I was sitting at my mother's feet and I heard a sniffling behind me. And I looked up and she was crying," says Dr. Freitas. "But she wasn't crying because she was sad." "'This is when they stole all of our land,'" she recalls her mother seething through furious tears.

Throughout her childhood, Dr. Freitas heard this refrain with little explanation. It wasn't until high school and college when she started branching her studies beyond the sanctioned curriculum that she began to understand the context for that sense of loss. Now the director of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in Honolulu, she has devoted her work to furthering Native Hawaiian scholarship.

When the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown, the adult literacy rate in the Hawaiian language was nearly 100%, says historian Jonathan Osorio. Protestant missionaries had brought the Roman alphabet and the printing press in the 1820s. Their intent was to spread the study of the Bible. But the Hawaiian people soon began to devour Hawaiian language translations of classics such as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Ivanhoe."

In the decades that followed, several Hawaiian newspapers sprung up with news from around the islands and the outside world. "American Christians brought the written word," says Dr. Osorio, dean of Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. "Hawaiians made [scholarship] into a national ethos."

A cultural renaissance

Dr. Osorio, Ms. Wong-Kalu, and Dr. Freitas all came of age at a time when many young Native Hawaiians were beginning to reconnect with their history. After decades of emphasis on assimilation into American culture, they were rediscovering cultural traditions of hula, canoe building, and taro cultivation. Interest in learning the native tongue grew, inspired in part by a series of oral histories broadcast in Native Hawaiian over the radio by local Hawaiian language activist Larry Kimura.

Today, children with Native Hawaiian ancestry can enroll in Hawaiian language immersion programs, though instruction in Hawaiian history remains limited in public schools. A revived sense of scholarship has emerged as Native Hawaiian scholars have carved out a home at the University of Hawai'i.

And a quiet but emphatic sovereignty movement persists as a steady undercurrent throughout the Native Hawaiian community.

Ikaika Hussey supports the idea of Hawaiian sovereignty, but not just for Native Hawaiians. He imagines independence as a multicultural, inclusive, and socially democratic nation. Historically, the Hawaiian Kingdom was an incredibly diverse nation, with citizens from all over Asia Pacific and the world. Mr. Hussey, like the majority of Native Hawaiians, is of mixed heritage. "We're all mixed race. I'm half Filipino," says Mr. Hussey, a journalist and community organizer. "We're all mixed up -- in a good way."

On the day the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown, a group of farmers of Chinese descent from the plantations of western Oahu marched in defense of Hawaii's constitutional monarchy, Mr. Hussey says. The United States had just passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halting immigration of Chinese laborers. Similar sentiments were pervasive throughout many European nations. In Hawaii, they had felt a welcome that they feared would disappear under U.S. control.

On the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, then-President Bill Clinton formally apologized to the Native Hawaiian people for the U.S.'s role in that coup. "The problem with the apology resolution is that it is aimed at the wrong people: Native Hawaiians," says Dr. Osorio. "In actuality it was the kingdom government, the sovereignty of this multiethnic state that was wronged."

Dr. Freitas saw hope in that apology that a chance for political independence might soon be in sight.

But for others, like former state Rep. Hermina "Mina" Morita, the idea of sovereignty has other meanings. 'We belong to the land' "The issue of sovereignty and taking back the nation is really hard for me to grasp," says Ms. Morita. "What I see as sovereign is how I conduct myself. It is where I can contribute not only to making a better life for Hawaiians, but for everybody in general." She doesn't consider herself an activist, but she does see hope in the willingness of people to come out and not just participate in Native cultural practices but to defend them.

On the island of Kauai, where Ms. Morita lives, Native Hawaiian salt farmers have been lobbying the planning commission to block permits for a helicopter company to operate next to the salt beds on the west side of the island. The Native community has harvested pa'akai, or sea salt, from the Hanapepe Salt Ponds since ancient times.

Throughout the islands, Native communities are waging similar battles to protect the natural resources that they see as their birthright. A network of activists across the state is preparing to protest construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop the Big Island's Mauna Kea, a sacred mountain to Native Hawaiians. Seeing communities come out to help each other protect their natural resources is heartwarming, Ms. Morita says, because it represents a renewed embrace of environmental stewardship. "We belong to the land," she says. "That's the most significant part of being Hawaiian; we are a part of this place."

This story was produced with the assistance of local reporters Chad Blair, Anita Hofschneider, and Blaze Lovell at Honolulu Civil Beat as part of a pilot partnership between the Monitor and local newsrooms.

------------------------

http://bigislandnow.com/2019/07/04/letter-july-4-is-a-triple-holiday-for-hawaii-celebrating-1776-1894-1960/
Big Island Now (Hawaii Island online newspaper), July 4, 2019, Letter to Editor

July 4 Is a Triple Holiday for Hawai'i, Celebrating 1776, 1894, 1960

By Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., Kane'ohe, Hawai'i

July 4 is a triple holiday for Hawaii, celebrating 1776, 1894, 1960.

July 4, 1776 marked the creation of the United States through publication of the Declaration of Independence. Hawaii proudly celebrates that date as part of our heritage because Hawaii joined the union.

July 4, 1894 marked the creation of the Republic of Hawaii through publication of its Constitution. At least five delegates to the Constitutional Convention were native Hawaiians; the Constitution was published in both English and Hawaiian; the Speaker of the House was former royalist John Kaulukou.

July 4, 1960 marked the date when the U.S. flag with 50 stars was first officially displayed, by being raised at 12:01 AM at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland (where Francis Scott Key had written "The Star Spangled Banner"). Hawaii had become the 50th State in 1959; and the tradition is that the next July 4 after a new State is admitted shall be the date for official display of the new flag.

Let's remember what Hawaii was like on America's birthdate in 1776. Captain Cook had not yet arrived. Hawaiians were living in the stone age. They had not yet invented the wheel, had no written language, and no pottery. They had only extremely small amounts of metal that washed up in driftwood from sunken ships. There was constant warfare among competing warlords. There was no concept of human rights -- both slavery and human sacrifice were "normal." The death penalty was imposed on anyone who stepped on the shadow of a high chief, or any woman who ate a banana or coconut (because they embody the gods of masculinity).

Things had functioned that way for a thousand years and would have remained unchanged except for the arrival of British explorers in 1778, followed by European and American whalers and businessmen, and then American missionaries in 1820. In a triumph of cultural appropriation, Hawaiians eagerly embraced reading and writing, Christian religion, human rights, private property rights, a market economy, the rule of law, etc. In 1893 a revolution led by a local militia with 1500 members put an end to a corrupt and ineffective monarchy, replacing it with a republic in 1894.

Thus we Hawaiians celebrate a triple holiday on July 4, for 1776 (U.S. independence) 1894 (Republic of Hawaii), and 1960 (50th star added to U.S. flag). Unfortunately most citizens today don't know why the Republic's creation was an important step on the path toward joining the United States.

The Republic was internationally recognized as the lawful legitimate government of Hawaii. Formal letters of recognition were rediscovered in our state archives during February and March, 2008. They had been sent to President Sanford Dole in the Fall of 1894, personally signed by Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of at least 20 nations, on four continents, in eleven languages. Photographs of the originals, along with Liliuokalani's letter of abdication and oath of loyalty to the Republic, are on a webpage you can reach by copy/pasting the following line of 4 words into your browser or google:
letters recognize hawaii republic

Thus Hawaii continued as an independent nation for 5 more years, whose internationally recognized government was no longer the Kingdom but the Republic.

Queen Victoria's gracious letter recognizing the Republic, calling Sanford Dole her "friend", was especially significant because of Britain's long and close relationship with the Hawaiian monarchy. Princess Liliuokalani had attended Victoria's coronation. Victoria was godmother to Queen Emma's baby Prince Albert. Emma herself was granddaughter of British sailor John Young, without whom Kamehameha could not have succeeded in unifying Hawaii. Young's bones are the oldest in Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum, where his tomb, built to resemble a miniature heiau, is protected with a pair of sacred puloulou (kapu sticks). Queen Victoria knew the Hawaiian monarchy was finished, and did her duty as head of her nation by switching her diplomatic recognition to the Republic.

For further details, copy/paste the following line of 6 words into your browser or google:
july 4 hawaii triple holiday angelfire

** Ken Conklin's note: This newspaper has a policy of not allowing html links, so I worked around that by putting in the string of keywords. Here's my webpage which shows up at the top of the google search for
july 4 hawaii triple holiday angelfire
https://tinyurl.com/68u7nz

And here's the webpage for
letters recognize hawaii republic
https://tinyurl.com/y5bsdg79

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https://www.tfhawaii.org/wordpress/blog/2019/07/do-we-have-a-legitimate-government/
Tax Foundation of Hawaii, weekly news release for July 8, 2019, published in many newspapers July 7-8 including Civil Beat, West Hawaii Today, Maui News, and Hawaii Free Press

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/07/tom-yamachika-do-we-have-a-legitimate-government/

https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/07/08/business/tax-founation-of-hawaii-do-we-have-a-legitimate-government/

https://www.mauinews.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/2019/07/do-we-have-a-legitimate-government-in-hawaii/

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/23826/Do-We-Have-a-Legitimate-Government.aspx

Do We Have a Legitimate Government?

by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation Hawaii

Every so often, the news reports on people who deny the legitimacy of the government we have here in Hawaii. "We're not subject to those laws," they say, "so we don't have to follow rules or pay taxes." It pains me to read stories of people who lost their homes after being told that they didn't have to pay back their mortgages because the laws under which they were made were invalid in Hawaii.

It's true that the path from Kingdom of Hawaii to Territory of Hawaii was peppered with events that were morally questionable...of course depending on your morality. Some people value strength--"Might makes right!" Some have ideas of a moral objective, and the path to get there isn't important--"The ends justified the means."

What is legitimacy? I'll start with the first clause of the first article of the Hawaii Constitution: "All political power of this State is inherent in the people and the responsibility for the exercise thereof rests with the people. All government is founded on this authority." That sounds a lot like "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government," Article 21(3) of the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," from the 1776 document that the United States celebrates this month. So I propose that legitimacy of a government comes from the consent of those governed.

There are, of course, those in the "Haole go home!" camp who may say that the only voices who matter in Hawaii government are those of the kanaka maoli, perhaps meaning "any descendant of not less than one-half part of the blood of the races inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands previous to 1778," as section 201 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act defines "Native Hawaiian." Are we talking about a favored race here? They are entitled to their opinions, but they appear to be in the minority.

In 1959, the U.S. Congress passed our Admission Act. One unusual thing about this act was that it wasn't a declaration like most laws are. Rather, it was an offer. If the people of Hawaii, at a referendum election, accepted statehood, then the United States of America would welcome us in. That's what section 7 of the Admission Act says. The Act specified three questions to be put before the voters, and if any one of them were not approved by a majority of the voters the Admission Act would have no effect.

On each of the three ballot questions, more than 132,000 people voted in favor while fewer than 8,000 voted against. There were 155,000 registered voters then, and the voter turnout was the largest we have ever had. When we became a state, sirens blared, horns honked, bells rang, fireworks were launched, and there was literally dancing in the streets.

We accepted statehood and all that came with it, including submission to the federal government of the United States. We accepted it even though our history with the United States included an unprovoked attack on the Queen of Hawaii, Japanese internment, and sixty years of being an "insular possession" (a second-class status that no one should have to endure for that long). The acceptance was not unanimous, but it was decisive. It was a clear expression of the will of the people. That's why I conclude that our government is legitimate.

In no organized society can everyone do what they want, when they want, and where they want all the time. We have a set of rules that all of us must follow. We can't just walk into a random person's property and pick their mango tree bare because we happened to be hungry. We can't expect to borrow money from a bank and then forget about repaying it. We can't just accept the benefits of government and force the rest of us who pay taxes to pay more to make up for those who refuse to pony up. Those who have a different opinion can have it, but acting upon it may land them in the hoosegow. Instead of having that happen, let's work together, even with our differing opinions, to make the best out of our civilized society.

-----

** Ken Conklin wrote 5 comments, each focused on one issue and complying with requirements for a limit of 1,000 characters with no internet links. The 5 comments were published in West Hawaii Today immediately below Mr. Yamachika's essay; Civil Beat refused to publish any of them (they often censor Conklin); Maui News has a limit of 300 characters which is ridiculously short, and Free Press does not allow online comments. I then posted the Yamachika essay and my 5 comments on my Facebook page. Just to be sure my comments will survive even if West Hawaii Today later removes them [it has happened before], I posted Yamachika's essay and my 5 comments on my Facebook page
https://tinyurl.com/y4f3fsl3
and then sent out a tweet linking to the Facebook page.

Thanks to Tom Yamachika. I will identify a few issues one by one, to encourage discussion on each without getting sidetracked by others.
1. Mr. Yamachika is wrong that Hawaii's "history with the United States included an unprovoked attack on the Queen of Hawaii." Google Morgan Report Hawaii to find an 808-page transcript of sworn testimony under cross-examination, in open session, in 1894, proving that no such thing happened. All scholars, including the competing Blount report, agree that the 162 U.S. peacekeepers who landed in Honolulu in January 1893 did not take over any buildings, did not enter the Palace grounds, did not arrest the Queen or anyone else, did not give food, weapons or ammunition to the revolutionaries. The entire Hawaiian revolution was done by local men of the same 1500-man militia which surrounded the Palace in 1887 and forced Kalakaua to sign the "bayonet constitution" (with zero U.S. military presence). In 1893 they simply finished what they had started.

2. Mr. Yamachika seems to endorse the concept "might makes right." Someone said "We Americans stole Hawaii fair and square, and now we're gonna keep it." Mr. Yamachika seems to say that even if there was something immoral or illegal about the way the Queen was overthrown and Hawaii became a territory, all that history was forgiven and condoned by the overwhelming 1959 vote -- 94.3% of voters said "Yes" to statehood.
There's something unsavory, but recognized in law, by this concept of condonation. In divorce law before the "no fault" era, if a husband "cheated" on his wife with another woman, the wife could use that as evidence why she deserved a divorce and a large alimony payout; but if the wife then welcomed her husband back and had sex with him, she thereby condoned the cheating and lost the right to use it to bolster her demands. By this theory the statehood vote of 1959 condoned and forgave historical misdeeds. Bygones! Get over it and move on. But beware of issue #3.

3. Today's Hawaiian activists and their non-native supporters say it's immoral that massive inflows of non-natives allowed them to overwhelm the natives, getting economic and political control and causing loss of culture and language. Yet those same leftwing liberals favor allowing unlimited immigration into the U.S. from Mexico and Central America, including free housing, healthcare, food and schooling; and perhaps also voting rights. Those who bemoan the way Hawaiian natives lost "their" nation and way of life because of unfettered immigration should certainly be sympathetic to today's conservative Americans who oppose open borders and demand deportation of illegal aliens.
Those who think U.S. troops illegally caused the Hawaiian revolution should consider that the American revolution of 1776 could not have succeeded without massive help from French soldiers, ships, and guns. Did that make the American revolution illegal or immoral?

4. Mr. Yamachika asks "Are we talking about a favored race [of Kanaka Maoli]?" He thinks that issue concerns those with 50% native blood. Most activists believe all that's needed is one drop of the magic blood to be "kanaka maoli." And yes, they are a very highly favored race. In 2011 a webpage had described 856 government-funded racial entitlement programs exclusively for "Native Hawaiians" defined by the one-drop rule. Google "For Hawaiians Only." By now there are hundreds more. It's bad public policy to have one favored group entitled to all the same rights as everyone else plus special additional rights based solely on race. If such programs alone aren't divisive enough, the Akaka bill in Congress from 2000 through 2012 tried to create a phony Hawaiian tribe, and a 2016 regulation in the Department of Interior provides a way to make it happen. Do we really want to rip apart the lands and people of Hawaii along racial lines, to protect special privileges for 20% of us?

5. Mr. Yamachika complains about activists who cause people to lose their houses -- they refuse to pay mortgages because the state laws of Hawaii are not legitimate. Those activists favor making Hawaii an independent nation. But although they point out that the Kingdom (and therefore the new nation) had full voting and property rights for all native-born or naturalized subjects regardless of race, these activists conceal their belief that ethnic Hawaiians nowadays would be entitled to racial supremacy under a theory of special rights of "indigenous people." The most prominent advocates base their demand for independence on the bogus claim that the revolution was actually a belligerent military "occupation" of Hawaii by the U.S. which lasted continuously from 1893 to now. But actually the Hawaiian revolutionary government struggled against President Cleveland; it was not a puppet regime; there were zero U.S. troops after April 1893 for 5 years until annexation. See my website item 422.

----------------------

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/07/09/hawaii-news/council-committee-hears-concerns-about-police-protecting-tmt/?HTH=4951e3cf0ab50ed9d2dea4df15f4208ee2758540
Hawaii Tribune-Herald [Hilo], Tuesday July 9, 2019

Council committee hears concerns about police protecting TMT

By NANCY COOK LAUER

Prayers, chants and tears -- and an outburst or two -- marked an afternoon of testimony Monday as more than 50 people shared their mana'o about Maunakea and the impending construction of a massive telescope there.

It was an opportunity for the people to address at a county forum what is essentially a state issue. In particular, people wanted to know how the county police force will act as the state's agent in keeping peace and at what cost to county taxpayers.

The briefing comes at the start of planned construction of the 180-foot-tall state-of-the-art observatory, after a notice to proceed was issued last month. There are already 13 telescopes on the mountain, but some of the older telescopes will be taken down as part of the construction plan.

Mayor Harry Kim tried to defuse the tension with the announcement that he's gotten Gov. David Ige's permission to talk about a new "umbrella" management structure for the mountain that will include the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Royal Order of Kamehameha, Queen Liliuokalani and other Native Hawaiian groups. More details will come later, he said.

"There's a lot of anger up there that we as non-Hawaiians don't understand," Kim said. "It goes back to 1894. Let these words be more than just words. ... The issue is not just Maunakea for me and the telescope."

Police Chief Paul Ferreira agreed. "This is a long-term vision. It's not about Maunakea and the telescope," Ferreira said. "It's about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement."

Protests against the $1.4 billion project interrupted groundbreaking in 2014 and halted construction the following year prior to the state Supreme Court overturning its land use permit because of due process violations. Dozens of protesters, who call themselves protectors of a sacred mountain, were arrested for blocking construction equipment's access to the mountain.

To some degree, the telescope has become the line in the sand for Native Hawaiians.

"This is a huge very sensitive, sensitive issue," said South Kona/Ka'u Councilwoman Maile David, a Native Hawaiian. "This is like the final frontier on whether the Native Hawaiian rights are going to be protected like it was meant to be."

Puna Councilman Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder cited a recent negative experience on the mountain as one of the reasons he put the discussion on the council Finance Committee agenda. Kanealii-Kleinfelder said he and his family went up to stargaze and found the area dark, the visitor center closed, the security staff unfriendly and the public telescopes unavailable.

"I did not get a sense of anything even aloha being offered on that mountain," Kanealii-Kleinfelder said. "It doesn't matter what side we're on. It comes down to how we're taking care of the people who live here and who are visiting."

There's no estimate of the cost, although Kim has said the state will pay the county back.

"It's unfortunate that we're using police force to protect a corporation rather than using police force to protect our people," said Hamakua Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter. "This is our kuleana -- all of us who live here."

Ultimately, there's little the county can do.

"I'm at a loss where to go from here," said North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff. "I'm not sure we have any say-so on spending on the police."

Several testifiers decried police policy of requiring officers to be assigned to security on the mountain in the event of a protest. This will pin brother against brother, forcing officers who believe in the protectors' cause to have to arrest their own family, testifiers said.

But Ferreira said officers take an oath to enforce the law when they become part of the police force. If officers are allowed, as opponents call it, to become conscientious objectors on this issue, what's to stop officers from refusing to enforce laws protecting gay rights and abortion clinics or any other controversial subject, Ferreira said. "We don't take a position as far as pro or anti but we did take a oath to do our duty," he said.

Both Ferreira and Kim talked about a vision for Maunakea that sees the protection of cultural rights working alongside instruments of advanced science. "(I envision) Maunakea to be a symbol of nations working together for the pursuit of peace and harmony, a beacon of hope and discovery for the world," Kim said, reading from his formal vision for the mountain. "This is not just about science. It is about combining culture and science."

Testifiers remained skeptical, especially about a police presence. "We don't need them up there. We're peaceful people," said Cindy Frietas. "We need them down here." "I'm a taxpayer," said Josephine Keliipio. "I don't want the police department up there harming the protectors."

With the three or four TMT supporters who testified as well as several of the Maunakea protectors saying they've gotten death threats, Pua Case asked the council to find out exactly what kind of confrontation is expected once the construction equipment starts rolling. "We come in here and we're not just some Hawaiians. We're many different people," Case said. "What are we going to be facing?"

Whatever it is and no matter how much taxpayer money gets spent, the opponents plan to continue the battle against telescope construction. "We'll run you broke," said Hanalei Fergerstrom. "We are about protecting the most sacred place on Earth to us."

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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/07/ke-aupuni-update-july-2019-h.html
Free Hawaii blog, SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - JULY 2019

** Photo caption: H.E. [His Excellency] Leon K. Siu giving a Press Briefing at Palais des Nations, Geneva
-- Photo by ACANU

8y Leon Siu - Hawaiian National

Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

* Press At The UN

I just returned again from another trip to the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva.

The main benefit in attending meetings at the UN is to be able to tell our story and drum up interest among diplomats, UN officials and agencies, NGOs and all the other onlookers. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, is an ideal platform to tell our story by presenting interventions on the items being discussed in the plenary sessions, speaking on various panels, and mingling with people in the margins of the meeting.

One of the most important components in the talk-story mix is the international press.

Over the years, we have established solid credibility through dozens of articles published by various news agencies from around the world. A recent article that got much attention at the UN was in the January 2019 issue of Diva International Diplomat, a quarterly glossy magazine published at the UN in Geneva.

ACANU (the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the United Nations) oversees the press corps at the UN. On June 28, ACANU hosted a press briefing featuring Rob Kajiwara, Catherine Fisher and me, about human rights violations occurring in Hawaii and Okinawa. Interest was so keen, the briefing lasted over 90 minutes (far exceeding the allotted 1 hour) during which we were able to answer a lot of questions and cover a lot of ground ... our history, living under foreign rule, current conditions, the struggle to restore self-governance and self-reliance; the TMT and Mauna Kea, illegal detentions, discrimination and persecution of Hawaiian subjects, falsification and transferal of land titles to foreign interests, economic tyranny, pillaging of Hawaii's resources, etc.

As I said before, the world is waking up and beginning to listen. Briefings like this is to prepare the international press so they won't be surprised when we start to move... Imua!

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty (life) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/standoff-on-hawaii-mountain-is-about-more-than-a-telescope/2019/07/20/8480a824-aafc-11e9-8733-48c87235f396_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9a3a8eac622c
Washington Post (and dozens of other newspapers via Associated Press), Saturday July 20, 2019 online; then Sunday July 21 in print editions with biggest weekly circulation.

Native Hawaiians say telescope represents bigger struggle

By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher | AP
[** She is a local Filipina/Hawaiian activist from Kaua'i, using the twitter name @jenhapa]

HONOLULU -- Walter Ritte has been fighting for decades to protect Native Hawaiian rights, inspiring a new generation of activists trying to stop construction of a giant telescope they see as representative of a bigger struggle.

In his early 30s, Ritte occupied a small Hawaiian island used as a military bombing range. Now at 74, he's still a prolific protester, getting arrested this week for blocking a road to stop construction of the one of the world's most powerful telescopes on Hawaii's tallest peak, which some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

For activists who say they're protecting Mauna Kea, the long-running telescope fight encapsulates critical issues to Native Hawaiians: the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, clashes over land and water rights, frustration over tourism, attempts to curb development and questions about how the islands should be governed.

It's an example of battles by Native Americans to preserve ancestral lands, with high-profile protests like Dakota Access pipeline leading to arrests in southern North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.

For Native Hawaiians, opposition to the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope isn't universal -- some support the educational opportunities from the project and are facing backlash from those questioning their identity.

Ritte's first taste of activism came during a resurgence of cultural pride and identity that began in the late 1960s and 1970s. He and other Native Hawaiian men hid on the small island of Kahoolawe that the military used for bombing practice. They were arrested, but the U.S. eventually stopped the training.

"We didn't know anything about ourselves as Hawaiians," Ritte said of his youth. "When we got involved with Kahoolawe, we had no language, no history."

The young people leading the fight against the telescope grew up learning about his experiences and speaking Hawaiian amid an ongoing cultural renaissance. A 30-year-old leader of the telescope protest, Kaho'okahi Kanuha, credits Ritte and the Hawaiian movement for allowing him to grow up rooted to his culture.

"Uncle Walter can talk about not knowing the language and not knowing the history. But he knew how to stand up, and he knew how to fight," Kanuha said. "Because of the things they did, the results were Hawaiian language programs. The results were revitalization of the culture and of understanding and of awakening."

At Mauna Kea, Kanuha wears a traditional battle helmet as he speaks Hawaiian with protesters and negotiates with law enforcement. Thanks to the movement, he said he was able to learn Hawaiian at an immersion preschool and eventually earn a bachelor's degree in Hawaiian language from the University of Hawaii.

He's fighting a project that dates to 2009, when scientists selected Mauna Kea after a global campaign to find the ideal site for what telescope officials said "will likely revolutionize our understanding of the universe." The mountain on the Big Island is revered for its consistently clear weather and lack of light pollution.

The telescope won a series of approvals from Hawaii, including a permit to build on conservation land in 2011. Protests began during a groundbreaking in 2014 and culminated in arrests in 2015.

Last year, the state Supreme Court upheld the construction permit, though protesters are still fighting in court and at the mountain.

Thirty-four people, mostly elders, were arrested this week as officials try to start building again.

The swelling protest is a natural reaction to the pain Native Hawaiians have endured and the changes the islands have seen, said Glen Kila, program director of Marae Ha'a Koa, a Hawaiian cultural center. "The pain began when they took people off the land," he said. "And then they took governance and stewardship of the land, like Mauna Kea."

The battle is bigger than the telescope, said Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a teacher and cultural practitioner. "The TMT and Mauna Kea is just the focal point. For me it's just a galvanizing element," she said. "It goes back to the role that foreigners played and continue to play in Hawaii."

From 18th century explorer James Cook's arrival in the islands, to laborers brought to plantations and today's tourism, the telescope is another example of outside interests overtaking Hawaiian culture, she said. "They capitalize and commercialize our culture," Wong-Kalu said. "They prostitute the elements that make us Hawaiian. They make it look pretty and make it look alluring in an effort to bring more money into this state."

But not all Native Hawaiians see the telescope as representative of past wrongs.

"My family feels that they're trying to use the TMT to boost their sovereignty issue," said Annette Reyes, a Native Hawaiian who supports the telescope project. "I want sovereignty for the Hawaiian people. I want them to have their country back. But TMT shouldn't be the lightning rod for it." Reyes pointed to telescope officials' pledge to provide $1 million every year to boost science, technology, engineering and math education. She said opponents have called her a fake Hawaiian for supporting the project.

For some, it's not just a political issue. It's spiritual for Kealoha Pisciotta, who's long fought the telescope. "The problem is being Hawaiian today is a political statement," she said. "We have to take political action to practice religion." Mauna Kea is a "living entity" that "gives life," Kila said. "So that's a different philosophy from the scientific world, that it's just a mountain that can be used for an observatory. It can be developed. For us, that's sacrilegious," he said.

For Ritte and others, the telescope is the latest battle over Hawaiian culture. He spent 11 hours Monday lying attached to a grate in the road leading up to Mauna Kea's summit with seven other protesters. "We protected and saved Kahoolawe from the United States military," Ritte said. "Now we have to save and protect the rest of our islands."

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** Ken Conklin's online comment (limit 2000 characters)

Mauna Kea is part of Hawaii's public lands. It belongs to ALL the people of Hawaii, not just a minority among an ethnic group who claim to believe in a dead religion that was abolished exactly 200 years ago by the native Hawaiian spiritual and political leaders in 1819, the year before any Christian missionaries arrived. Today's activists disrespect their ancestral leaders, the ancient religion, and all the people of Hawaii by falsely asserting their pseudo-religious claims as an excuse to grab political power.

Today's activists are like the Ku Klux Klan after the Confederacy lost the Civil War -- trying to intimidate us for the purpose of maintaining racial supremacy over land and political power. Distinguished Harvard Professor of Black Studies Henry Louis Gates recently described (PBS, 2 hours) how the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws were implemented to protect white nationalism in the defeated South. We must never let a comparable racial supremacist doctrine grow here in the "Aloha State." Activists say anyone with Hawaiian blood is descended from the gods and sibling to the land - "blood & soil" theory.

The protesters have placed elders in the front line, similar to how kidnappers and hoodlums grab kids or elderly to hold in front of them as hostages so cops won't dare arrest them -- similar to how guerrillas put their machine guns, ammunition, and rocket launchers inside hospitals, schools, or mosques because it would be bad public relations for a legitimate government to actually attack such a place of refuge.

It is unfortunately a very bad joke to refer to the protesters' tactics on Mauna Kea as "kapu aloha" (prohibition against violence). Blocking roads and forcing astronomers to abandon telescopes is violence.

Please read my book, whose title is self-explanatory -- 27 copies available for free in the public library system; portions free on my website: "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State."

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/07/23/editorial/our-view/editorial-ige-needs-to-act-on-building-tmt/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, July 23, 2019, EDITORIAL

Ige needs to act on building TMT

The problem facing Gov. David Ige has compounded in recent days. To say it is now mountainous, rivaling the dimensions of Mauna Kea itself, would not be an overstatement.

And as a result, Ige needs to use the authority vested to him by Hawaii voters, to enforce the Thirty Meter Telescope permit now, lest all the astronomy work being done at the Mauna Kea summit, which is now suspended, be put entirely at risk.

More than a week after construction of the TMT was to begin, the first trucks to begin the work have not rolled an inch closer to the summit. Instead, the protests against the controversial project have grown and evolved into a movement that is about more than the TMT, more than astronomy in general.

It has morphed into a symbol for all the Native Hawaiian grievances arising from loss of land in the annexation. After a decade, the permit to build TMT was finally issued, but opponents of any further telescope construction have argued against putting it on a summit they view as sacred.

The 13 observatories already there were constructed at a time when the anti-telescope viewpoint was considered fringe. That is no longer the case, judging from the past week's surging activism.

Also, the profile of these issues has been raised, with social media widening their reach to those not ordinarily connected with Hawaiian sovereignty concerns.

That is evident in the protests seen not only at the base of the mauna but also statewide, as well as in places such as Las Vegas where many Hawaii residents have relocated. It's becoming a full-fledged movement. Just as it did in 2015, it's attracting some celebrity attention, but given the stakes, it's even more intense now.

This has become an increasingly complex conflict, but it won't be made any simpler by standing on the sidelines. And that's what Ige has been doing.

Late last week, the governor traveled to Hawaii island, having declared a state of emergency, an action that broadens the scope of government actions that are possible, including the authority to close more public lands. However, Ige has not moved on that prerogative, leaving the Big Island without even visiting the access road, now blocked by the swelling crowd.

A makeshift blockade has been built. Its occupants have been arrested, many being carried away, but until the blockade is dismantled it will be impossible for the state to keep the access road clear.

Meanwhile, the state's lieutenant governor, Josh Green, went to talk with the protesters on-site on Monday morning. A Hawaii island physician, he said he was there to check on people's condition rather than to make "a political statement."

But then he made one, opining on camera that TMT should "move on" if negotiations don't result in a deal.

That didn't help. And if Ige doesn't want to be undermined by his lieutenant, he is going to have to tell the protesters himself, face-to-face and on camera, what his intentions are. He should say words to this effect: The state of Hawaii has put the TMT through the legal process for 10 years, and now, as governor, I am obligated to fulfill the state's commitments and allow the project to proceed, in a way that's respectful of culture and mindful of safety.

If the protesters say no, they will have to say it directly to the governor. Notice will be given, and the governor should delay no further. More delay will only harden the impasse, which is happening with each passing day.

The protesters' position is sincere -- and in many ways, the state's failure to deliver on promises to Hawaiians in ways that would improve so many lives -- Hawaiian home lands and housing, for instance -- is indisputable. It's tragic that their protests and focus are not trained directly on any of that.

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** Ken Conklin's online comment

Protesters are NOT sincere about religion regarding "sacredness" of Mauna Kea. It's shibai; political propaganda; and they know it. Disgusting.

Protesters say Mauna Kea is sacred. Do they mean merely that it's beautiful, majestic, nifty? Or do they actually believe in the old religion and pray to the old gods? Get serious!

Human sacrifice is an essential part of the old religion. A human had to be killed when cutting down a tree to make a canoe. 4 people were killed and bodies placed into the holes for the 4 corner posts of a house for an ali'i. So far, no bodies on Mauna Kea altar. No altar. Just a big week-long party; a way for rudderless people to create an identity and feeling of belongingness.

Anthropologist Valerio Valeri's book "Kingship and Sacrifice" described what level of mana the victim must have depending on the importance of an event; even a high chief or king might have to be chosen as victim. Your Hawaiian studies teacher never told you?

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https://www.thegardenisland.com/2019/07/24/opinion/moving-forward-on-mauna-kea/
The Garden Island [Kaua'i], July 24, 2019; commentary

Moving forward on Mauna Kea

By Gary Hooser

This coming Sunday July 28th more than a thousand residents are predicted to gather at Vidinha Stadium at 11:30 a.m., and march down Rice Street "in support of our kia'i standing on the front line for the protection of Mauna Kea". The march will conclude on the grounds fronting the Historic County Building where there will be music and educational events.

To their great credit, organizers of the Kauai march are giving strict instructions to participants emphasizing the importance of maintaining Kapu Aloha.

A recent FB post stated:

"All ages welcome! Absolutely NO smoking, NO drinking, NO drugs, NO drama. This is not a parade or a party this is a demonstration of our rights and sovereignty as a people. Please come firmly grounded in Kapu Aloha! Please remind others constantly that everything we do is a reflection of our kia'i on the front line so help each other remember their place."

How did we get here? How did we get to a place where residents are now marching and gathering on all islands, through-out the continent and even the world -- in support of the protection of a mountain? How did we get to a place where hundreds of Hawaii police officers dressed in full riot gear are arresting kupuna and carting them off in paddy wagons?

More importantly, how do we get out of this very dangerous situation before it blows up further? There is a path, but our leaders must first listen to their na'au and then take the hard stops required to make things right on the Mauna.

The roots of the conflict go back 50 years. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) stated in testimony to the Hawaii Supreme Court on October 30, 2018: "Despite four state audits and generations of Native Hawaiians expressing concern about the threats to Maunakea, the state and the University of Hawai'i have continuously neglected their legal duties to adequately manage the mountain. Instead, they have consistently prioritized astronomical development at the expense of properly caring for Maunakea's natural and cultural resources. After 50 years of empty promises to the mauna and our community, the state needs to be held accountable. Mauna Kea deserves better."

A 2007 report by the TMT developers, commissioned to provide an independent evaluation stated: "Should TMT decide to pursue a Mauna Kea site, it will inherit the anger, fear, and great mistrust generated through previous telescope planning and siting failures and an accumulated disbelief that any additional projects, especially a physically imposing one like the TMT, can be done properly," the report said. (Honolulu StarAdvertiser 7/23/19)

Our state government has mismanaged the telescope issue since inception. Too many promises have been broken and too many concessions already have been made. There are at least 13 other telescopes already on Mauna Kea. The TMT will be 18 stories tall, encompassing an area equivalent to 4 football fields. The cumulative impact of the new proposal and the existing development equates to a massive industrial complex � all situated on conservation land and a site most sacred to Hawaiians. Our government has yet to follow-through to ensure the decommissioning and removal of the 5 telescopes that are currently obsolete or scheduled to be closed (of the 13 total).

Being against the TMT does not translate to being "anti-science" or "anti astronomy". Similarly, being against a hotel development on the beach that will generate jobs does not equate to being "against jobs".

The science will not stop, neither will the exploration of the universe and all the incredible value that will be yielded from the telescope's development. You can be sure this work will continue, whether on the Canary Islands where the developers already have secured permits, or elsewhere.

The TMT advocates will say "it's not fair" and that the developers have "checked all the boxes and followed all the rules" and therefore entitled to build the 18 story structure situated on an area equivalent to 4 football fields.

The protectors will say (and rightfully so), "don't talk to us about being fair".

The University/TMT obtained a state permit to build on Mauna Kea. The Hawaiian demonstrators also have un-relinquished claims to the (un)ceded lands of Mauna Kea. The state permit did not address those claims. The courts have said that this is a "political question" that they cannot address. Here and now on the Mauna, without recourse to the court and without relief from the legislature, people have properly decided to press their claims over lands that matter most.

The lands upon which the TMT is proposed are state-owned public trust conservation lands, considered sacred by Hawaiians. Our state constitution states these lands "...shall be held by the State as a public trust for native Hawaiians and the general public." There are no private property rights being violated.

In addition to the poor stewardship and broken promises directly associated with Mauna Kea...there is a vast litany of government negligence, ongoing mismanagement of public resources, and an abuse of the public trust � on all islands.

And all of this takes place against a backdrop of statewide political and governmental corruption that is in the news every day.

It is not surprising that people across the island chain, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian alike, have had enough and consequently have drawn the proverbial line in the sand...on the Mauna.

Gov. David Ige is between that proverbial rock and a very, very, very hard place. The situation seems intractable, but it is not. Attempting to arrest and detain the 2,000 people that are estimated to now be on the mountain is I would hope, not an option. Logistically there is no space for that many people, and unless detained most would return immediately to the Mauna, reinvigorated as to commitment and purpose.

There are children and kupuna present in large numbers. The trauma, all caught on camera and beamed around the world -- would cause huge harm on many levels. Mass arrests are not possible, and morally reprehensible. At least not possible in a sane and rational world.

The only responsible action by the governor at this point is to acknowledge the situation is untenable, that the state cannot ensure the safe passage of people or equipment, and at a minimum, call for a 90-day moratorium of activity on both sides.

The developers of the TMT should by now see the writing on the wall. They have a "plan B" and have already gotten their permits to develop the project in the Canary Islands. They were forewarned in their own 2007 study, yet they chose to move forward anyway. It is time for them to move on. And it is well past time that those in positions of leadership in both the administration and at the legislature, rise to the occasion -- unite behind calling an end to the TMT debacle and put forward meaningful initiatives that preserve and protect our public trust resources.

This is about much more than a single telescope being built on this particular mountain.

Gary Hooser formerly served in the Hawaii State Senate, where he was Majority Leader. He also served for eight years on the Kauai County Council and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves presently in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) and is executive director of the Pono Hawaii Initiative.

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https://www.thegardenisland.com/2019/07/25/opinion/bishop-concerns-run-deep-with-tmt/
The Garden Island [Kaua'i], July 25, 2019

Bishop: Concerns run deep with TMT

The following statement was prepared by two kanaka maoli clergy of the Diocese of Hawaii.

While recognizing that there are differing opinions regarding the building of a new telescope on Maunakea, it has become clear to me that the concerns are much deeper than the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). I concur with the statement's intent and call. As Bishop of Hawaii, I am compelled to offer a teaching as we seek to understand the Gospel's call to justice and long-term reconciliation in the Hawaiian Islands today.

At this point, I suggest the imprudence of and the insult caused by the arrest last week of the kupuna and the Governor's emergency order will not soon be forgotten.

The actions inhibit conversation and reconciliation. The events, however, have brought attention to the alienation of the indigenous people of these Islands, the kanaka maoli, from their own land. Issues of power, control, identity, culture, and history are brought to focus on Mauna a Wakea, but have meaning for all these Islands and our future together.

As Episcopalians, we must not be afraid to speak honestly together about past wrongs and the current injustices. We must talk and, more importantly, deeply listen and act. While we engage in such conversations, there will be conflict. Our faith does not promise freedom from conflict or from disagreement. We are called to seek together peace with justice in the Beloved Community.

The Beloved Community must be one where all people experience dignity and abundant life, and wherein they see themselves and others as beloved children of God. Such conversations will take time � even years. It will certainly call for patience and honesty. Our conversation must deepen now.

When I was ordained a Bishop, I promised to "show compassion to the poor and strangers, and defend those who have no helper." At this time, I think fulfillment of that promise means standing with the "protectors" on Maunakea. It means standing with the Hawaiian people as they seek to protect their culture and seek their own path as a sovereign community.

It also means, I think, a call for an immediate moratorium on all moves to begin construction of the TMT. It will likely mean that such a new telescope should never be built. I acknowledge that the livelihoods of some will be impacted and the hopes of others overturned by such a move. I am saddened by that reality and it certainly must be part of our conversations, but we must continue together.

The Right Reverend Robert L. Fitzpatrick, Bishop, The Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii

---

Kapu Aloha is the Way of Love

A Statement from Two Kanaka Maoli Clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii

The Episcopal Church in Hawai'i stands proudly on the shoulders of our ancestors, who were faithful ali'i. Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV invited and welcomed our Church into these islands. Queen Lili'uokalani was an honored member of our Church. Our history as Episcopalians is tied with them, and, therefore, with the sovereign nation and people of Hawai'i.

As such, our responsibility is to the welfare of this 'aina, and the kanaka maoli people whom our monarchs loved and served so dearly. As Episcopalians, our Baptismal Covenant asks us, "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

We boldly answer, "I will, with God's help." We fear that the dignity of kanaka maoli people is not being respected, and with the militarized police presence, there can be no peace. Hawaiians are a living, breathing people, whose cultural practices do not belong in museums, or merely on display for tourist consumption. The cultural practices lead many to protect Mauna a Wakea as she is perceived to be genesis point of the people of these Islands � she is a part of us.

The conflict on Maunakea has escalated with a "state of emergency" being declared to counter those who are standing to protect Maunakea as a sacred place. This is not an issue of being anti-science, as Hawaiian people have a long and proud history of technological advancement. We reject a colonialist world view that sees indigenous peoples as ones whose intelligence is inferior.

We recognize the 'eha, the hurt, that are on many sides of the issue. We acknowledge and respect the many police officers sent to keep peace on Maunakea. We know they often have relationships with the protectors and that they respect the kupuna. Emotional harm has been done and that deeply divides an island community. The police officers are upholding the law, as they have vowed to do. We also are keenly aware that sometimes a law or its enforcement can be unjust or immoral.

In another age, it was legal to bomb Kaho'olawe and to ban 'alelo Hawai'i from public schools, though these were injustices. We also encourage and respect the Kapu Aloha, which is nothing but aloha � the experience of reverence � that is being kept on the mountain. We believe that Kapu Aloha is the Way of Love, it is the journey of Jesus, and it is ultimately the only way forward for these Islands.

This conflict centers on efforts to respect Maunakea as a sacred space -- as wao akua, realm of the gods. In our Judeo-Christian heritage we can well understand and appreciate such a perspective about a place. Mount Horeb, Mount Carmel and Mount Zion were sacred dwelling places for God. Sacredness is not merely a concept or a label. It is a lived experience of oneness and connectedness with the natural and spiritual worlds.

Nature is not inert, but a place where our Creator is known and honored. Maunakea is such a holy place for the Hawaiian people and many others. Seeing the land and seas as nothing more than something created for human consumption and benefit has deep colonial roots, and one that for indigenous peoples is maliciously articulated in the now discredited Doctrine of Discovery2 that shaped much of Christian history.

Maunakea isn't simply part of what God has created, but it is the very reflection and abiding place of the Holy. Honoring the creation is honoring God, as an 'olelo no'eau tells us, "He ali'i ka 'aina, he kauwa ke kanaka ." Meaning, "the land is chief, and man is her servant."

We, the Episcopal Church in Hawaii, stand in service to Maunakea as a sacred place, and in solidarity with those who are protecting her. We add our prayers for just resolution to this issue, that the dignity of all people will be upheld, and the sacredness of Maunakea will be honored and protected.

The Reverend Jasmine Hanakaulani o Kamamalu Bostock
The Reverend Paul Nahoa Lucas

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https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/07/trisha-kehaulani-watson-kapu-aloha-is-holding-everyone-together/
Honolulu Civil Beat, July 25, 2019

Kapu Aloha Is Holding Everyone Together
Long-held divisions are melting away. Hawaiians are healing, not only as individuals, but as a community.

By Trisha Kehaulani Watson

When I wrote about aloha two weeks ago, I could not have predicted, or even imagined, the events that have transpired over the last week.

I am a staunch believer in the Hawaiian people, in the lāhui (nation). I have never wavered in my belief that a thriving, strong, independent Hawaiian nation was possible and even inevitable. I cannot fully explain my conviction, as it has often been met with strong resistance, even from other Hawaiians who have long believed that the best way forward would require significant comprise and concessions.

Most know I have long worked at the side of Uncle Walter Ritte, but few know that it was not Uncle Walter who drew me into the movement � it was his wife, Aunty Loretta. It was a short clip of her in the documentary "Kaho'olawe Aloha 'Āina" in which she gave the following testimony against the continued bombing of Kahoolawe.

Here is what she said:

First I'd like to say aloha and welcome you to our home. My name is Loretta Ritte and I'm speaking as a Hawaiian and as a native of this 'āina. One thing I've learned from my kūpunas as a Hawaiian is the great respect for the 'āina, for the 'āina is the giver of life, of life. And if we do not respect the land, then where would we be? How do we take care of Papa, our earth? By filling her pores with concrete, her beauty, so she cannot breathe? By digging into her, drilling into her, bombing her, to leave wounds and scars on this earth. Is that how we take care of our land?

I remember being completely struck by her perfect merging of conviction and love. It was unlike anything I had ever seen and certainly unlike what I was seeing among Hawaiians in those days, which was often rhetoric wrought with searing anger.

What she displayed then and continues to display to this day is aloha in its purest, most powerful form. Aloha as an extraordinary force of love. Love like water, with its many forms. Solid and impassable when it needs to be. Fluid and thirst-quenching when it wants to be. And sometimes, like the mist, it was just everywhere.

I have to admit that I scrunched my nose the first time I heard the phrase "kapu aloha." I'm a bit of a traditionalist, and it isn't a traditional phrase I was familiar with nor was it a phrase many other people seemed to be familiar with, but as time wore on, I began to appreciate that it was a new phrase for the oldest of our values.

The aloha of our kupuna.

Talk to Uncle Walter and Aunty Loretta and they will tell you it was the leadership of the kupuna and the power of aloha that won the battle for Kahoolawe.

Aloha that is serene and vast. Aloha that demands self-restraint, in the manner of our most revered and respected kupuna, who held themselves with a grace that is too often missing in today's world.

Kapu, not as in forbidden, but sacred and closely regulated. This is what we are witnessing on the mauna. This is what we are witnessing everywhere. Something sacred. A form of regulation long unpracticed in these lands, but native to them nonetheless.

Something truly extraordinary happened that morning the kupuna were arrested. In telling all the younger people around them to sit, to lower themselves to the ground, in silence, it was a physical manifestation of ho'oha'a � to lower oneself and in turn, humble oneself. It was an incredible mass display of Hawaiian humility, when in a moment that very easily could have turned violent, every Hawaiian present needed to absorb their own anger, hurt, and rage to create an environment that was peaceful.

It is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, and I have no doubt that in that moment, when an entire people were forced to humble themselves before the sacrifice of those 35 kupuna, a nation began to rise up.

They rose up not only at Mauna Kea, but they rose up everywhere.

Hawaiians and their allies are wholeheartedly embracing the spiritual edict from the protectors of the mauna who have asked all of us to act always, in honor of kapu aloha. To act with self-discipline and hold ourselves to the highest standards of behavior, not just at the mauna or in the pu'uhonua, but everywhere, always.

The growing power of kapu aloha is being widely discussed among Hawaiians. In this time of great sadness and strife, we all marvel at how good and even powerful this recommitment to aloha feels. I recently spoke to Loea Hula and Haku Mele Kawaikapuokalani Hewett, award winning composer, particularly of mele about Mauna Kea. He noted, "Kapu aloha is holding everyone together."

It truly is. Long-held divisions are melting away. Hawaiians are healing, not only as individuals, but as a community. Kapu aloha is not only holding everyone together, it is bringing everyone together.

-----

** Ken Conklin's online comment:

"Kapu Aloha" -- great propaganda phrase. What it means is: We're gonna take over public lands and make them our own. And we demand everyone else let us get away with it. Things will be peaceful as long as they leave us alone. It's a silent form of violence where force is needed to restore the rule of law. Blocking roads is violence.

Remember the U.S. Civil War. The Confederacy said: "We reassert our right to protect and preserve our culture, way of life -- the independence we are rightfully entitled to." All they wanted was kapu aloha: just let us do our own thing. We're not attacking anyone. Leave us alone. Some people in the South still call 1860-65 The War of Northern Aggression. Stone Mountain Georgia is a sacred Mt. Rushmore of the South -- huge images of Confederate heroes carved into the mountain. Millions of people visit it in memory of "the lost cause." If Abe Lincoln had simply observed Kapu Aloha and left the Confederacy alone there would have been no violence.

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https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/opinion/hawai-i-law-professor-provides-insight-on-mauna-kea-to-university-of-hawai-i-board-of-regents-mtsT94lbqE61-23Sy404Fw/
Indian Country Today, July 26, 2019

Hawai'i law professor provides insight on Mauna Kea to University of Hawai'i Board of Regents

by Williamson BC Chang

Testimony of Williamson B.C. Chang, Professor of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law, on "The Management of Mauna Kea and the Mauna Kea Science Reserve," April 16, 2015, University of Hawai'i at Hilo

I have had the honor and pleasure to serve as a Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i for the last 39 years. I have served the University and the community well. I am also grateful for the opportunity to serve and work in the University.

Let me start by saying this: I know a place, I know a country where there would never be a question whether to build an eighteen-story thirty meter telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea. That country, that nation is "Hawai'i."

Before 1893, it would have been unthinkable that the Government of the Kingdom of Hawai'i would ever conceive of such a plan. Yes, Kalakaua loved astronomy. All Hawaiians loved the stars. However, they loved Mauna Kea even more. Mauna Kea is "sacred" it is the Sky-Father it is the essence, the beginning of the creation chant of the Hawaiian people. All Hawaiians, all Islands, even Taro are descendants of Mauna Kea.

When I say "Mauna Kea" is sacred, I do not mean to use "sacred" the way most people use that term. I mean "sacred" not in the same sense of worship. I use "sacred" in the sense of "precious" and "so important that nothing else counts" -- I apply it to those things and people that we care so much about that we would do anything, even flout and break the law, to preserve their existence.

The child of a parent, especially a young child is "sacred" in this sense. So are parents to their children. So are grandparents. Even the family pet is "sacred." If your house was burning down would you risk your life to go into the burning house to rescue your children, your mother, your grandparents, even your beloved dog or cat? Would you go even if forbidden by first responders, firemen or policemen? Yes, many of us would go without hesitation�without thinking of the consequences. Would you give a kidney to save or extend the life of your child, your brother, your uncle? Would you spend all of your money to save a loved one from cancer? from Lou Gehrig's disease or from a life in prison without parole? Yes, we all would.

Moreover, we praise such emotions and desires of others who make such sacrifices every day. We understand the soldier who sacrifices himself by instinctively jumping on a grenade. We understand the parent or grandparent who gives all their money to see their child or grandchild through college.

Whether one worships Mauna Kea or not, whether one considers it "sacred" does not matter as much as understanding the instincts that drive those to defend and save Mauna Kea -- much as one would understand the absolute love for a child, or a parent even if such acts break the law.

When we see the instinct of family, of brotherhood, of sisterhood of love for mankind in others we celebrate that--we gravitate to that. We love and defend Mauna Kea because it reminds us what makes us human. Sacred is not necessarily a place. It is a relationship, a deep visceral relationship: beyond reason, beyond law, beyond rationality.

The Mauna Kea movement is a movement that has grown because of young people. They live in new confusing world themselves--a world of cognitive dissonance. That is they live within an outright contraction--a Hawaii in decline where there is nothing they can do. They see their world being attacked and destroyed, its water taken, its plants doused with foreign chemicals, its agricultural lands disappear in the name of gentlemen farmers, its open lands used for artillery practice, and its shoreline becoming high-end condominiums that only rich foreigners can afford.

Moreover, to the young, Hawaii is unlivable, there is no viable future: There are no places to rent, no jobs that fit their training, no money for retirement and the endless, life-sapping traffic congestion. And now an eighteen story telescope on Mauna Kea!

It would never be built on other sacred sites: not over the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, Angor Wat, Gettysburg, Arlington, or the Arizona Memorial? No one would think of putting a pair of glasses on the eyes of God. Why then, Mauna Kea? We, and our youth are inundated today with the attacks on the treasures of the earth and why?

So, what happened to this "nation" called Hawai'i, where Mauna Kea was loved and adored? Hawai'i was a nation, that by a series of events, starting with an overthrow in 1893 and ending with annexation in 1900, by which another nation, the United States, forcefully took the sovereignty of Hawai'i.

What do I mean by that? -- to take one nation's sovereignty? Sovereignty is the monopoly of a government on the legitimate use of violence. By that I mean the State, the police and DLNR are the only ones today who can do so-called "legal" violence to Mauna Kea. Similarly, the police of Hawai'i County and the officers DLNR are the only ones who can use the violence of arrest and jail or fine to force down the protectors of Mauna Kea. Protect the mountain and you go to jail. It is legal. It is called law. It is a power possessed only by the sovereign of a nation. There once was a time in Hawaii when that monopoly on the use of legal power protected not defiled Mauna Kea.

In 1893 and 1900 a new Nation took over in Hawai'i -- a new nation with new rules. These were new rules that had the power to interfere with our very human, emotions and instincts, instincts derived over time from our kupuna, our ancestors and the culture of this nation of Hawai'i. Hawai'i has changed.

Today, government has the legitimate power to do violence to families as well. Government agencies can take a child away from a parent. Government agencies can put a Hawaiian in prison for the smallest of offenses -- denying him or her freedom and the chance to be with and raise their families. The world of Hawai'i has been turned upside down.

The answer lies in power, that is law -- the shift over their lives by which all is reversed.

In 1898 the United States, by Joint Resolution took the nation of Hawai'i. I am a legal historian. In the appendix attached I show my work -- that concludes definitively that the joint resolution had no such power. It was impotent, it was an act of Congress not a treaty. It could no more take Hawai'i by a law then Hawai'i by a law could take America.

It was a fraud -- it created a disease that spread, a malaise we all suffer -- called the myth of annexation. We all believe we are part of America, we all act as if that were true. We have been taught that way. We follow the lead of others who act that way.

The truth is that the joint resolution did not give to the United States the monopoly on the use of legitimate violence -- a violence to build on Mauna Kea, the violence to arrest those who seek to stop that building. Most of all the University claims Mauna Kea by lease -- a lease derived from the Joint Resolution.

It is said that the Joint Resolution gave Mauna Kea to the United States, which gave it to the State, which gave it to the University. As a matter of law that is false. It is a lie. The University has no power over Mauna Kea. It cannot build, it cannot give permits, it cannot arrest us.

The mass of young people are here today in protest because we live in a world of cognitive dissonance. They live in a world where they are learning, at the University about the truth of the Joint Resolution, which gives no power, no sovereignty to the state. Outside of their classes they see the State taking what they love--preventing them from running into the burning house to save their Mauna Kea, their father, their sky-father.

And this dissonance makes them ill. It makes our youth sick. It is a crisis that creates mental illness. In short, to build on Mauna Kea is to cast a sickness throughout these islands, a sickness and sadness, not only on Native Hawaiians but on all people who live here.

I have included an appendix, taken from my work, which speaks to the myth of annexation and demonstrates that the Joint Resolution had no capacity to take the Nation of Hawai'i. I will place this testimony and my appendix on my "Scholar Space" at Hamilton Library, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, under my name. This is the link to that site.
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/35797

Mahalo and Mahalo Ke Akua.

Williamson B.C. Chang is Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law. Professor Chang has taught at the William S. Richardson School of Law since 1976. He is a graduate of Princeton where he concentrated in international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International affairs. He obtained his A.B. degree at Princeton in three years. Professor Chang attended the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He was an associate editor of both the California Law Review and the Environmental Quarterly. After graduation Professor Chang clerked for the Honorable Dick Yin Wong, United States District Court for the District of Hawai'i.

During his four decades at the William S. Richardson School of Law Professor Chang has taught courses ranging from Corporate Taxation and Securities Regulation to Jurisprudence. In 1983 he received a grant from the American Bar Association to study Zen and the Law. Professor Chang spent his sabbatical in Tokyo and published an article and taught a course on the role of language in Zen practice and western legal systems. Currently Professor Chang teaches Conflict of Laws, Professional Responsibility, and Native Hawaiian Sovereignty.

He practiced antitrust and securities regulation with the firm Chun Kerr, and Dodd of Honolulu, Hawaii. He also served with the Legal Aid Society of Honolulu, developing the immigration law unit. Professor Chang also was appointed a Special Deputy Attorney General representing the Hawai'i Judiciary. In 1989- 1990 Professor Chang served was Senior Legislative Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

During the 1980s he was the Reporter for the State Advisory Commission and assisted in drafting the State Water Code. He also served as the Reporter for the Hawai'i State Bar Association's Commission revising the Hawaii Corporation code. He has been an officer of the Corporations Section of the Hawai'i State Bar Association and editor for the Hawai'i Bar Journal.

He has been the primary investigator on numerous grants from the Federal Agencies such as the United States Geological Survey and the Administration for Native Americans. The grant from the Administration for Native Americans was used to fund the work of a non-profit to assist Hawaiians as to water rights. Professor Chang was the litigation director of Native Hawaiian Advisory Council and led a drive to file some 5000 claims of Native Hawaiians and small farmers to register their water rights. In 1982 and 1995, he was recognized by the Honolulu City Council for his outstanding community work.

He has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of San Francisco, the National University of Hiroshima University, and the University of Western Australia. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Australia studying indigenous rights. In the past three years, he given presentations at a United Nations NGO forum in Geneva, at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. and at Nagoya University in Japan. In 2016, Professor Chang was elected as one of forty delegates to draft a constitution for the Native Hawaiian nation. He has made numerous presentations on water rights to community and corporate groups. He has testified before Committees of the United States Senate and before the Hawai'i State legislature. In 2017, Professor Chang was recognized as the Native Hawaiian Patriot of the year.

Note: Published with express permission from Williamson B.C. Chang.

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** Ken Conklin's online comment:

Professor Chang's entire essay is based on his belief that the 1898 annexation of Hawaii to the United States is not valid and therefore U.S. law has no jurisdiction in Hawaii. But that assertion is historically, legally, and morally wrong. Here's why.

In 1893 there was a revolution in Hawaii which abolished the monarchy. Of course the revolution was illegal, even as the U.S. revolution of 1776 was illegal. But the Hawaiian revolution was internationally recognized as legitimate. The U.S. revolution could not have succeeded without huge involvement of French arms and ammunition, and troops fighting in battles; there were no outside forces engaged in battles in Hawaii.

1. The Hawaiian revolution was done by an armed militia composed entirely of local men who had previously forced King Kalakaua to sign the "Bayonet Constitution" in 1887; and was recognized as legitimate by all the nations who had diplomatic relations with Hawaii.

Within 2 days after the revolution every foreign consulate in Honolulu that had diplomatic relations with Hawaii gave de facto recognition to the revolutionary provisional government. U.S. President Grover Cleveland, a friend of the ex-queen, spent a year trying to undermine and overthrow the PG and restore the ex-queen through both diplomatic means and gunboat intimidation. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs held hearings for a month in open session with testimony under oath and severe cross-examination, and produced an 808-page "Morgan Report"
http://morganreport.org/
concluding that 162 U.S. peacekeepers in 1893 did not provide any arms, ammunition, food, or money to the revolutionaries, did not patrol the streets or take over any buildings; and after a few weeks of inactivity they returned to their ship and left Hawaii. The Senate then passed a resolution ordering President Cleveland to stop interfering in Hawaii's internal affairs.

The provisional government held a Constitutional Convention including at least 6 native Hawaiian delegates, and produced the Republic of Hawaii whose Speaker of the House was a full-blooded native Hawaiian former royalist. The Republic was given full-fledged diplomatic recognition as the lawful government of the still-independent nation of Hawaii, by letters sent to President Sanford Dole personally signed by Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of at least 19 nations on 4 continents in 11 languages; photocopies on the internet at
https://tinyurl.com/y5bsdg79

The Republic continued as the internationally recognized government of the still-independent nation of Hawaii from its creation in July 1894 until annexation in August 1898.

2. A Treaty of Annexation was offered by the Republic of Hawaii in 1897, and was agreed to by the United States in 1898. Each government exercised its own sovereign right to use whatever method was acceptable to itself for offering and accepting a Treaty.

In each nation there was robust debate in both the legislative and executive branches about the concept and details of annexation, and methodology for achieving it, including lobbying by supporters or opponents of the Treaty from political factions of the other nation. But in the end, the decision was made by executive and legislative majority rule despite minority dissent.

In recent years proponents of undoing annexation and returning Hawaii to its former status as an independent nation, including Williamson Chang, have asserted that there is no Treaty of Annexation because U.S. agreement to the Treaty was done by a joint resolution of Congress and signature of the President rather than by the usual process of simply a 2/3 vote by the Senate. These secessionists actually use inflammatory language saying the U.S. reached out and grabbed a foreign nation merely by passing an internal law. Mr. Chang says "In 1898 the United States, by Joint Resolution took the nation of Hawai'i. ... the joint resolution had no such power. It was impotent, it was an act of Congress not a treaty. It could no more take Hawai'i by a law then [sic] Hawai'i by a law could take America." But of course the Treaty was offered by Hawaii which proposed it in 1897; there was no reaching out and grabbing of a hapless victim.

The Treaty of Annexation passed by votes of 42-21 in the Senate and 209-91 in the House, and was signed by President McKinley. For details see "Treaty of Annexation between the Republic of Hawaii and the United States of America (1898). Full text of the treaty, and of the resolutions whereby the Republic of Hawaii legislature and the U.S. Congress ratified it. The politics surrounding the treaty, then and now." at
https://tinyurl.com/2748fgg

The sovereignty of a nation means that no outside government, individual, or court has standing to intervene or nullify such decisions. The only way the U.S. agreement to annexation could have been nullified was if the Senators who opposed annexation had brought a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court claiming injury that their Constitutional rights had been violated by a process that used a majority vote in House and Senate rather that requiring a 2/3 vote in the Senate alone. But no such lawsuit was ever filed; and numerous court decisions since then have established stare decisis by citing the Treaty of Annexation as the source of U.S. sovereignty and legal jurisdiction over Hawaii -- for example, the Treaty is cited regarding both court jurisdiction and U.S. ownership of the ceded lands in Liliuokalani v. United States, 45 Ct. Cl. 418 (1910).
https://tinyurl.com/56czl

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https://www.ilind.net/2019/07/28/several-ideas-worth-repeating
Ian Lind blog, July 28, 2019

Several ideas worth repeating

by Ian Lind

I've been looking back at prior things I've written that deal with issues raise by the current Hawaiian uprising on Mauna Kea.

On the top of my list: "Ian Lind: Dangerous Intersection of Social Policy and 'Sacred'", Civil Beat, April 29, 2015.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/04/ian-lind-dangerous-intersection-of-social-policy-and-the-sacred/

To the extent that opposition to the construction of the TMT is grounded in ideas of what is considered "sacred" according to particular current beliefs about Native Hawaiian religious traditions, we're in that dangerous territory where public policy and religious beliefs collide. Working through such differences in a diverse society such as ours is necessarily difficult.

Luckily, we've evolved a legal approach to religious rights that, with time and a bit of luck, allows different religions and religious communities to co-exist within our society.

With this in mind, it's instructive to look at how the issues of the sacredness of Mauna Kea, along with the protection of traditional Hawaiian religious and cultural practices, were dealt with during the prolonged contested case hearing conducted under the auspices of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

"Ian Lind: The 'Kingdom Defense' Is a Dead End for Mauna Kea Protesters," Civil Beat, July 22, 2015.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/07/ian-lind-the-kingdom-defense-is-a-dead-end-for-mauna-kea-protesters/

I can understand and sympathize with those who rely on the Kingdom defense in order to make a very public political statement that they oppose the state's policy for development of Mauna Kea. That's well and good. But they shouldn't have any expectation that this particular defense has any chance of prevailing in court or shielding them from the legal consequences of civil disobedience.

Asserting the jurisdiction of the Kingdom may make for lively political theater, but as a legal argument, it's clearly a loser. And holding the approach out as a realistic legal strategy does a disservice to these and other potential defendants.

"Hawaii Monitor: Is Part of the Sovereignty Debate Just a Matter of Faith?", Civil Beat, March 5, 2014.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2014/03/hawaii-monitor-is-part-of-the-sovereignty-debate-just-a-matter-of-faith/

Here's the problem that I see. Hawaiians have experienced a prolonged period of downward relative social mobility. They might be better off than before, but have lost ground relative to other ethnic groups. In my view, this decline doesn't date back to 1893, or 1898, but to the post-WWII period.

After all, in the first decades of the 20th Century, following annexation, Hawaiians made up the largest segment of the islands' electorate. Many Hawaiians, probably a majority, followed leaders like Prince Kuhio and John C. Lane, into the Republican Party, even during those decades when the Big Five and the Caucasian elite dominated the islands' politics and economy through the GOP.

During the decades that followed, up through World War II, Hawaiians benefited greatly from political patronage, and dominated the ranks of police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other government employees.

That changed in the post-war years, as the Democratic Party gained power by building a political coalition around the Japanese-American voting block. Although many Hawaiians also worked hard for Democratic victories, the ethnic makeup of the government workforce clearly changed, to the detriment of the Hawaiian community.

Somehow, while other, more recently arrived ethnic groups have climbed up the social ladder, Hawaiians still have more than their share of poverty, ill health, poor housing, imprisonment, unemployment, and other social problems. Progress, economic development, and the passage of time have brought fewer benefits to Hawaiians than to other segments of the community, or so it seems.

Anyway, the links will take you to the full columns. Food for thought.

-------

** Ken Conklin's online comment
https://www.ilind.net/2019/07/28/several-ideas-worth-repeating/comment-page-1/#comment-252575

UH law professor Williamson Chang has a lengthy essay in Friday/Saturday's online newspaper "Indian Country Today." https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/opinion/hawai-i-law-professor-provides-insight-on-mauna-kea-to-university-of-hawai-i-board-of-regents-mtsT94lbqE61-23Sy404Fw/

Chang explains that the concept of Mauna Kea being "sacred" is not at all about religion -- he explains "sacred" is used in the sense we say a child is sacred to its parents, or even a dog [dare I add cat?] is sacred to a family. Chang's main point is his view that neither the State of Hawaii nor UH has jurisdiction over Mauna Kea because (he claims) there is no Treaty of Annexation. I wrote an online comment providing evidence Chang is wrong about the Treaty. But my main point from Chang is that the whole brouhaha over Mauna Kea is about Hawaiian Sovereignty, not religion.

In my own view the whole religion "sacred" thing for Mauna Kea is pure shibai. The adz quarry up there proves that even before Western contact the natives did not hesitate to send low-class maka'ainana there (not "wao Akua" reserved for high chiefs or priests) to dig into the ground (desecration?) to harvest basalt rock for commercial purposes (they took it down and traded it for goods and services). They further desecrated the place by leaving behind their piles of poop and trash whose middens are still there.

Very few ethnic Hawaiians today actually believe in the old gods or pray to them for anything other than ceremonial protocol to honor the ancient culture.

Today's activists disrespect the clear choice of their ancestral leadership by trying to revive the dead religion they killed, and also by using it as a mere pawn in today's political game.

The old Hawaiian religion was abolished in 1819, the year BEFORE the Christian missionaries came. It was abolished by the freely made decision of the 4 top leaders of the natives themselves, exercising self-determination on behalf of their "lahui", who abolished it at a huge lu'au by publicly breaking the 'aikapu (men and women must eat separately). They jointly ordered the destruction of all heiau and burning of the god idols, throughout the Kingdom.

1. King Liholiho Kamehameha II; the elder son of Kamehameha The Great;

2. Keopuolani, his biological mother, the "sacred wife" of Kamehameha The Great, had the highest spiritual mana in all Hawaii and the kapumoe (anyone nearby must lie face down in the dirt to avoid polluting her mana);

3. Ka'ahumanu his stepmother and favorite wife of Kamehameha The Great, who made a political coup by stepping forward at the lu'au immediately after breaking the 'aikapu, standing next to Liholiho, and announcing "We two shall rule together" and proceeded to be his kuhina nui (regent) for many years;

4. Hewahewa, the kahuna nui (high priest) of the old religion.

Today's activists disrespect the clear choice of their ancestral leadership by trying to revive the dead religion they killed, and also by using it as a mere pawn in today's political game.

------------------

Keanu Sai visits Mauna Kea encampment and speaks to protesters: YouTube video about 50 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0autKHOi9I&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3maT_6vi_hT63wI-eoWhQbGvfPe96hPBgSpCErEYzSDLlyM3ExEpc5HkU

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/04/hawaii-news/mauna-kea-protests-seen-as-generational-shift-pivot-point/?HSA=e896b698e597c2056543147ab94b28598e5e4fc8
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 4, 2019

Mauna Kea protests seen as generational shift, pivot point

By Kevin Dayton

MAUNA KEA >> As they enter their fourth week, the protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope are beginning to look like something new and powerful in Hawaii politics, a magnetic and growing movement that has captivated thousands, including even some committed Hawaiian supporters of the TMT.

Some establishment politicians including Democratic House Speaker Scott Saiki describe the TMT controversy as a pivotal shift for Hawaii as an educated new generation of activists rallies at the base of Mauna Kea, finds its voice, and demands to be recognized.

"It's a defining moment for our state," said Saiki, a top political leader in the Hawaii and a longtime supporter of the TMT project. "I really believe that the way we deal with this will set the character and soul of Hawaii."

There have been very large Hawaiian demonstrations in the past, such as the gathering for the Onipa'a event at Iolani Palace in 1993 to mark the centennial of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. But this protest is different, Saiki said.

"I think it's different because it's now a generational movement. You have protectors on the mountain now whose parents and grandparents may have been at Iolani Palace years ago, but the younger generation has come forward now, basically to vindicate the mistreatment of their parents, grandparents and great- grandparents," he said.

One experienced Democratic political operative declared, "What they have going is stronger than any current political party in this state." Several politically connected people agreed to discuss the situation on Mauna Kea only on condition they are not identified because the standoff on Mauna Kea remains divisive, tense and fluid.

Another political veteran who asked not to be identified said the Mauna Kea movement has tapped into Hawaiians' spiritual values in ways that no protest has since the demonstrations in the mid-1970s against the military's target-practice bombing of Kahoolawe.

Those Kahoolawe protests eventually led to an end to the bombing, and were a harbinger of what is often called the "Hawaiian Renaissance," the grassroots rebirth of Hawaiian language and culture fostered by Hawaiian-language immersion schools, charter schools grounded in Hawaiian culture, and expansion of college-level Hawaiian studies programs.

Today, the students and graduates of those programs are very well represented in the protests on the mountain, along with many of their instructors and professors. The daily activities of the protest camp are steeped in protocol, prayer and chant in Hawaiian language reflecting the deep religious component in the resistance to the telescope.

Power challenge

The protests represent a direct challenge to the existing power structure. Development of world-class observatories on Mauna Kea has been a goal of the ruling Democrats for decades, including the most powerful Hawaii Democrat ever, the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

To many in the party, the observatories are a "clean" industry that provides jobs and a toe-hold in high technology development. Astronomy is one of the few things that can be done better here than anywhere else, and Mauna Kea telescopes such as those at the W.M. Keck Observatory have produced astonishing discoveries that changed the way scientists think about the universe.

But many Hawaiians consider TMT to be a desecration of a sacred mountain, and there is a long history in Hawaii of building on sites that have cultural or religious significance. Many examples are almost forgotten today, such as construction of a Pearl Harbor dry dock in 1909 over submerged caves that Hawaiians believed to be the home of a shark goddess.

"I believe that what we're looking at here is probably the first greatly significant religious issue that has arisen," said Mililani Trask, a lawyer and cultural practitioner who has been involved in many Hawaiian causes and protests. Trask was among 38 people, mostly kupuna or elderly Hawaiians, who were arrested July 17 on Mauna Kea for blocking the Mauna Kea Access Road. That sit-in was an effort to prevent heavy equipment from reaching the summit area to start construction on TMT.

"When you look at the vast diversity of people who have come over a very short period of time without having a central organizing body or organization...what we're seeing with Mauna Kea is significant support from all islands, all groups," she said. "There's isn't one or two groups steering this, but several, and I think it is because Mauna Kea is such an issue relating to religious expression. It is also something that is particularly under the care of Hawaiian women."

John De Fries, a Hawaiian and former CEO of the controversial Hokulia luxury housing development in Kona, calls this a "huliau" or turning point, a moment of transformation. He even compares this to pivotal historic moments such as Kamehameha's drive to unify the islands, or the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.

"What's going on there is a demonstration of what Native Hawaiian potential is all about as a leader in a kamaaina society," he said of the protests.

Decades in the making

TMT has followed the land use and permitting processes in Hawaii, and De Fries maintains TMT has a legal right to proceed with the project. However, "for whatever reason, TMT hit kind of a nerve here that was festering, and now is expressing itself." He added: "This has been decades, maybe centuries in the making.

"We have not been here before," said De Fries, who has friends he loves and respects among the kupuna or Hawaiian elders protesting on the mountain. "There is an evolution of public protest happening here, something that has transcended previous forms of protest in Hawaii. Emotions are being channeled through aloha and ohana and kuleana, and not through anger."

A road is blocked in violation of the law, but "law enforcement has been neutralized by this spiritual power and this code of conduct," he said.

The movement on the mountain also incorporates issues far beyond land use law and telescopes, which makes it much more difficult to resolve the dispute and find a compromise short of banishing TMT to its alternate site in the Canary Islands.

"As many of the protesters have said, this is not about TMT or science," said Gordon Squires, TMT vice president, external relations. "TMT has become a platform for larger issues within the Hawaii community such as Hawaiian sovereignty and past injustices.

"We respect those who express opposition and understand the pain they feel. However, TMT is a bystander in that larger conversation that has been going on for many years. We're concerned that those who oppose TMT are now combining the issues into one. Fortunately, there are other conversations about these larger issues that are taking place with the Mayor (Harry Kim) and others, and we support that."

Saiki agrees. "This dispute is not just about TMT, but is about historical wrongs perpetuated by government and institutions such as the military and tourism," Saiki said. "TMT is about achieving social justice. How do Native Hawaiians achieve social justice? The 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom is an unresolved issue."

And Saiki, De Fries and others are concerned that the protesters refuse to accept the legal processes that gave TMT permission to start construction, and are illegally blocking Mauna Kea Access Road to prevent construction from starting. The protesters say they will not compromise, and the telescope will not be built.

What's at stake

Saiki asked, "Is it OK for people who disagree with a law or a court decision to take matters into their own hands? This is a concern not only for the governor and the Legislature, but also for the Judiciary. The Judiciary is irrelevant if the general public believes that it does not have to follow the law.

"At stake is Hawaii's reputation and stability. Our population and economy will shrink if people do not believe that they can invest here," he said. "It is easier said than done, but there must be an immense effort to reconcile past wrongs and to achieve social justice."

Kaho'okahi Kanuha, a prominent leader in the protest movement, replied at a press conference on the mountain last week that "legal does not always make it right."

"There was a time when slavery was legal. I think we could all agree, that never made it right. There was also a time when women did not have the right to vote. I would hope that we can all agree that never made it right," he said. "It was through actions like this that got those things overturned and changed so that those legalities could eventually become pono and become right."

For Kanuha, the protests on Mauna Kea fit into a larger picture of politics and political action in Hawaii. The immediate goal is to stop the TMT, and Kanuha hopes all telescopes will one day be cleared off of Mauna Kea, but "I think it goes way beyond that. We're building up our nation, our people," he said.

"The existing political process is the problem. Mauna Kea is not the problem. Mauna Kea is a symptom of the problem. The sickness, I believe, is occupation, is the fact that kanaka have never consented to the taking of our lands and our country, and since that time we've been marginalized, and we've been cast to the side," he said.

"I think in order for us to truly fulfill our destiny and to fully have control of our future, we do need to address the political system," Kanuha said. "That's a huge task. I don't think that's going to come out of this movement directly, but I think this movement will contribute toward the unifying of our people that will allow us to begin to take steps forward to that larger goal."

---

** Ken Conklin's online comment:

Here are four fundamental principles helpful for analyzing the situation:

1. We are all equal in the eyes of God regardless of race.

2. All people, regardless of race, should be treated equally under the law by our government.

3. Unity with America: Hawaii is in fact the 50th State of the USA, whose laws rightfully have jurisdiction here.

4. Unity of Hawaii: The people and lands of Hawaii should remain unified under the single sovereignty of the State of Hawaii, and should not be divided along racial lines.

From my testimony on Mauna Kea rule-making:

Two obvious conclusions for Mauna Kea rule-making can be derived from those fundamental principles. Many proposed rules should be improved to reflect these two conclusions. These conclusions motivate and underlie all the comments I have made about specific proposed rules.

(A) Every rule should apply equally to people of all races; there should be no racial set-asides or special privileges.

(B) If rule-makers believe Article 12 Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution requires certain rights to be granted to one particular racial group, then the best way to fulfill that requirement is to grant those same rights to all Hawaii's people regardless of race. There is legal precedent that a law requiring benefits for one racial group can be satisfied by granting those benefits to all persons regardless of race. Furthermore, the Aloha Spirit and the need for pono require such inclusiveness rather than racial exclusion.

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/04/editorial/our-view/editorial-find-common-ground-on-tmt/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Sunday August 4, 2019, EDITORIAL

Time to find compromise in TMT standoff

As the current blockade of the Mauna Kea Access Road goes into its fourth week, there have been developments in the Thirty Meter Telescope standoff that ought to invite those with a long view of this controversy to step up -- to the negotiating table.

One was the decision by Gov. David Ige to withdraw his emergency proclamation governing Mauna Kea, which had given the state license to shut down areas and access funds more liberally than was ordinarily the case.

Also, he approved a request by the leaseholder of the TMT site, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, to extend the deadline for the construction start by two years, until Sept. 26, 2021. This should provide an opening for willing participants to have a meaningful exchange. It's past time to reject the "no-compromise" stance, and to end the rancor that has caused such bitter discord within our communities.

There's no doubt about the resonance of the protest, with an expanding circle of sympathizers. The social-media fire lit under the issue -- with Jack Johnson, Jason Momoa and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson among the celebrities chiming in -- has been seen before, in 2015.

But this time, it seems to have a greater presence beyond Hawaii island. On Oahu, trucks and other vehicles displaying the distress symbol of the upside-down Hawaiian flag have become a common sight.

Also on Oahu, there have been counter-demonstrations by those who support the TMT at the state Capitol, with a gathering of Mauna Kea self-described "protectors" facing them, across South Beretania Street.

In sum: The protectors have proven to be a force to be reckoned with -- though by itself that assures the opponents of nothing.

To begin with, leaders among the protesters will have to decide if they are willing to do some of the reckoning, setting aside earlier pledges not to compromise. Compromise is absolutely essential, as it is the only way to reconcile two opposing claims peacefully and justly.

After all, there is a powerful countervailing force the state must protect. While the Native Hawaiian population can assert their legally protected rights to access the mountain for traditional cultural and religious practices, the lessees of the astronomy precinct of the summit have their rights of access, too.

First in line with a legitimate claim are the astronomy crews with research ongoing on the summit. In recent days, some technicians have been allowed to return, in exchange for access by cultural practitioners.

This half-measure is unacceptable. The "protectors" have no business blocking people from doing their legitimate work -- much of it exceedingly time-sensitive. Precluding their access is simply unjustifiable, and correcting this should be the first wrong to be righted.

Further, TMT has the permit, the legal right to proceed. Promises made by state government must be kept. Many Hawaii residents, including Native Hawaiians, support the TMT as an overwhelmingly beneficial development.

The opponents to the project like to point to the Navy's use of Kahoolawe as a bombing target until 1990, and the protracted battle to stop it, as an example of how resolute opposition can win out.

The issues are completely different. TMT would be conducting research, not dropping bombs. And while construction brings environmental risk, it is certainly manageable, whereas the ordnance cleanup and replanting efforts on Kahoolawe have been a decades-long enterprise, still ongoing.

That said, Kahoolawe does offer a template for a kind of partnership, with the restoration of the mountain environment to be the long-term goal. In the earlier case, the federal funds financed the work of the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, an agency formed by the Legislature as caretakers of the island until it can be transferred to a Native Hawaiian sovereign entity. In other words, an agreement reached in good faith by all the parties involved.

Could something akin to the commission be set up to oversee summit restoration? Perhaps. There is already an agency, the Office of Maunakea Management, chartered to oversee day-to-day management of the Maunakea Science Reserve. Its guidance includes a plan dealing specifically with decommissioning retired telescopes among the 13 located on the summit campus.

Surely this protest has brought to the fore some additional voices that should be added to the conversation about implementing that plan. Some telescopes have been identified for decommissioning include the oldest one, the Hoku Kea Observatory, as well as the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. Seeing that this happens in a timely way could be a focal point of long-range discussions.

Some have pointed to a trend toward space-based telescopes supplanting ground-based observatories such as those on Mauna Kea. Will there come a time when these mountaintop installations will have outlived their useful life? Again: perhaps.

But in order to plot a course toward that brave new world, people must talk to one another, starting with the people who hold out their love for the mauna, each for his or her own reasons.

** Ken Conklin's note: I posted the same online comment to the editorial as I posted to the news report. In both cases the comment had to be split in two because of their limit of 1000 characters.

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/04/hawaii-news/kanuha-confident-mauna-kea-standoff-will-end-peacefully/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Sunday August 4, 2019

Kanuha confident Mauna Kea standoff will end peacefully

By Kevin Dayton

When he isn't serving as spokesman for the activists on Mauna Kea who oppose the Thirty Meter Telescope, Holualoa resident Chase Michael Kaho'okahi Kanuha teaches Hawaiian language and social studies, and coaches paddling.

Kanuha, 30, grew up in Kailua-Kona, and has been fluent in Hawaiian language since childhood. He attended the first class in Punana Leo O Kona Hawaiian immersion preschool, and attended the Kula Kaiapuni 'o Hawaii immersion school at Konawaena through the sixth grade.

Starting in seventh grade he attended Kamehameha Schools Kapalama campus, graduating in the class of 2007, and earned a bachelor's degree in Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is now seeking his master's degree in Hawaiian language at UH-Hilo, and is a founding member of the Hawaii Unity and Liberation Institute.

His upbringing and education pulled him toward involvement in Hawaiian issues, and Kanuha initially became engaged in Mauna Kea issues during his last semester at Manoa in 2013 through a project for a class on land tenure and use in Hawaii.

With that background fresh in his mind, Kanuha made certain he was present to protest at the TMT groundbreaking the following year. "We are not compromising on another telescope. We are not giving in, we are not backing down. This is our home, and we will do whatever it takes to protect it," Kanuha said recently.

He has now been arrested three times for protesting on the mountain, and once at a meeting of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources related to Mauna Kea issues. He has been acquitted or the charges have been dropped in each case, with one charge of obstruction of government operations still pending.

Kahuna said he has learned "on the fly" about nonviolent protest tactics -- the activists on the mountain use the term "kapu aloha" -- since those first protests years ago. "I believe with all my heart it's going to end peacefully," he said of the current standoff on the Mauna Kea. "The only way it doesn't end peacefully is if the opposition, the law enforcement officers and those agencies, resort to violence. I'm absolutely committed to peace and nonviolence. That's the only thing that I believe in. I would never, ever resort to any type of violence because not only is it wrong, it's also a game we'll never win."

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** Ken Conklin's online comment:

Mauna Kea protesters are wielding the Hawaiian flag as an emblem of hatred in the same way as some Southern bigots have used the Confederate battle flag -- as an assertion of secession from the U.S. and continuing sovereignty for a long-dead 19th Century regime. "The South [Hawaiian Kingdom] shall rise again!"

--------------------

On Friday August 9 retired lawyer, judge, and mayor Bill Fernandez, a Kamehameha School graduate recently honored with a Waikiki parade as a distinguished alumnus, authored a lengthy commentary in The Garden Island [Kaua'i newspaper]. Fernandez supported the Mauna Kea protesters on account of a very long list of Hawaiian victimhood historical grievances, most of which are either false or badly twisted. Please read my point-by-point rebuttal debunking those falsehoods. These claims are publicized all the time by the tycoons of the Hawaiian grievance industry. Their attitude is: Here are the bad things that have made us victims, now you owe us sympathy, political power, money and reparations (like stopping TMT).

A link to Fernandez' commentary in the Kaua'i newspaper, together with full text of Conklin's rebuttal was published on a blog on Saturday August 11 at
https://historymystery.kenconklin.org/?p=648

Both the full text of Mr. Fernandez' newspaper commentary and Conklin's detailed point-by-point rebuttal are provided in the form of a webpage "dialog" published Sunday August 12 at
https://tinyurl.com/yxtq33az

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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/07/ke-aupuni-update-july-2019-h.html
Free Hawaii blog, SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019

Free Hawaii blog, August 12, 2019

8y Leon Siu - Hawaiian National

Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono.

* 203rd Birthday of Kauikeaouli
Today, August 11 is the 203rd birthday of Kauikeaouli, King Kamehameha III, the amazing, enlightened ruler of the Hawaiian Islands. He presided over some of the most important events in the history of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kamehameha III transformed his Kingdom into being not only on an equal footing to the leading sovereign nations of the world, but a significant contributor to the advancement of benevolent governance.

Hauoli Lā Hanau Kamehameha Ekolu, Mo'i.

* Mauna Kea
It's not simply about the telescope. It's about saying enough is enough. For the past 150 years Hawaiians have seen our lands carved away to be used by foreign business interests under the guise of "progress." Hawaiians have been not only pushed into corners, but many have been forced completely outside the room. Kapu Aloha is the way to restore pono. Onipa'a!

* 60th Anniversary of the Fake State
On August 21 the Fake State of Hawai'i will turn 60 years old. The 3rd Friday of every August was designated "Statehood Day" to create a 3-day weekend to accommodate the delirium of the state's biggest celebration. This year, Friday, August 16 is Statehood Day. It will probably be "celebrated" as it has been for years ... with profound indifference and deafening silence.

The lack of enthusiasm for "Statehood Day" indicates people don't see anything to celebrate. Perhaps many have heard of the shameful, illegal origins of the state, or see Hawaiians being abused by the system, or just have the feeling that something is not right. Even the state lays low on its own birthday, downplaying it so much as if they're trying to hide something.

This year, with the TMT debacle, we can add extreme embarrassment to the reason the state is dodging the event.

The governor's emergency proclamation; mobilizing the sheriff's department, police officers from 3 counties, the DLNR enforcement unit and the Hawai'i National Guard, equipped with a full complement of riot gear, including vehicles, tear gas and sophisticated crowd-control weapons... was, to say the least... overkill. And what for? To arrest 38 kupuna protecting the mauna by sitting in peaceful defiance under a tent in the middle of the access road.

No wonder no one wants to "celebrate" statehood... not when it shows its true colors like this and people everywhere can see how the state has been operating. The tipping point is coming soon!

Kū'e! Kū Kia'i Mauna! Kapu Aloha!

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty (life) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

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https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/08/13/opinion/my-turn-threats-effective-at-silencing-pro-tmt-hawaiians/
West Hawaii Today [Kona], August 13, 2019, Commentary

Threats effective at silencing pro-TMT Hawaiians

By Sam King

The polls conducted so far on the TMT show overwhelming support from the people of Hawaii for TMT.

In 2018, 72% of Native Hawaiians supported TMT. A recent Civil Beat poll found that 64% of Hawaii supports TMT. Support among Native Hawaiians dropped, however, to 44%. What happened? And if nearly half of Native Hawaiians still support the project, why are they not speaking out, especially online? The answer is obvious: They don't want to deal with the "backlash."

Any Native Hawaiian supporter of TMT that has posted online can regale you with stories of being called a traitor, not Hawaiian, a fake Hawaiian, or had their very Native Hawaiian identity challenged. In a recent five-hour text conversation I had with one protector, TMT was barely discussed but there was extensive discussion about whether or not I was a real Native Hawaiian. Kalepa Baybayan, one of the original Native Hawaiian Hokulea navigators, was called a traitor in the comments to one recent interview. There are also threats of physical violence, such as kidnapping or having one's throat slit. This is the language of bullies.

Need more examples? There is an entire Instagram feed dedicated to it.

Some of these threats have been reported to police. However, the protesters intimidation campaign is smart and dynamic. Most online threats are just on the edge of illegal. Social and peer pressure on Native Hawaiians offline is not strictly illegal. The protesters even tried to create a fake TMT supporter account to post violent rhetoric in an attempt to show that TMT supporters are equally vitriolic online.

The threats are having an effect offline. Numerous Native Hawaiian supporters of TMT report that they have friends that would speak out but do not want to upset their friends, deal with online trolls, or have their business boycotted.

The protesters have also called for protests in schools, which will inevitably lead to bullying of Native Hawaiian children who support TMT. University professors are also supporting TMT, which will be a strong hint to students to tow the anti-TMT line. The daughter of the Dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Hawaiian Knowledge chained herself to a cattleguard on Maunakea. What do you think native Hawaiian students studying Hawaiian language at UH are going to say about TMT while at studying under such a dean? The pressure on Native Hawaiians to conform with the protesters' narrative is immense.

Protesters have also targeted local businesses with boycotts.

There are also the lies. The most popular for a while was that the TMT was going to be nuclear powered. Next is that an aquifer is being polluted. That has been debunked repeatedly. The size of the TMT has regularly been misrepresented. If I believed everything the protesters posted in their echo chambers I would not support TMT either. But most of what they post is false, and the TMT is in fact a great project.

"First they came for the Native Hawaiians, and I did not speak out because I was not a native Hawaiian..." These words will be the epitaph of the State of Hawaii if non-Native Hawaiian members of our community do not speak out now.

One non-Native Hawaiian supporter of the protesters explicitly told me that he was helping Native Hawaiians regain sovereignty and that he believed the Native Hawaiian people "would allow those who can live under new leadership to stay." Gee, thanks.

There is no reason a child born to a native Hawaiian mother in Utah has more of a claim to "Hawaiian" citizenship than a fifth-generation Japanese child who was born and raised on Oahu. Where will that Japanese child go when the racially privileged kingdom returns? When all the land is sacred and its use subject to the whim of religious authorities, who will decide where people can live, work, and play?

The system of government impliedly proposed by the protesters' illegal blockade of access to Maunakea is non-functional. It rests on the basis that a subset of a single racial group can claim property rights based on a state-backed "host culture" religion.

Their philosophy violates fundamental tenets of what makes for the highest functioning societies � the rule of law and the separation of church and state. Everyone therefore has a stake in this discussion, and no one should feel they are not entitled to an opinion merely because they are not a certain race. Indeed, those of us who are Native Hawaiian and support TMT need the support of everyone in our community.

I visited Maunakea during the recent hurricanes. I can personally attest to the fact that I saw no violence, no trash, was not threatened in the camp, and I ran into old friends in the camp with whom I had pleasant conversations about TMT.

But whatever discipline the core protesters at the camp maintain, their Kapu Aloha does not appear to extend into the community or onto the internet. I have not heard them say it extends into the future, either.

Thus, when someone threatened me and my pro-TMT rally co-organizer online (on a picture of us posted by the Governor of the State of Hawaii, no less) by saying, "one day we come for you both," Kapu Aloha did not give me much comfort. I reported the threat to the police. But if they thought the threat would silence me, they were wrong.

Sam King is a resident of Honolulu.

** Ken Conklin's note: Sam King II is descended from a distinguished line of attorneys, including a federal judge Sam King who was Native Hawaiian. The Hawaii State Bar Association published a 5-page biography of the family:
https://hsba.org//images/hsba/Communications/Family%20Connections/2015/April%202015/April_2015_Family_Connections.pdf

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/16/hawaii-news/hawaii-hits-6-0-as-a-state-without-fanfare/?HSA=94a8ca1c9823459e5ff9d36fe56b11051c548dcf
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 16, 2019 (Statehood Day official state holiday)

Hawaii hits 6-0 as a state without fanfare

By Susan Essoyan

State and local government offices are closed today, and that's about the only way the 60th anniversary of Hawaii becoming a state will be formally celebrated.

A group of Republicans, disappointed that they could not find any official events, have booked space at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at Ala Moana for a reservation- only dinner for about 60 people in honor of Admission Day.

"We're a state now for 60 years, and it seems like we ought to set off some fireworks or something," said Eric Ryan, president of the Hawaii Republican Assembly and an organizer of the event. "It's kind of a shame that everyone's hiding under their desks. ... We are still very proud to be American and proud to be Hawaiians in the statehood sense. There's no real turning back, so we might as well enjoy it."

State legislators passed no resolutions this year to mark the date that President Dwight Eisenhower signed the official proclamation declaring Hawaii a state on Aug. 21, 1959. Gov. David Ige's press secretary, Jodi Leong, said she was not aware of any proclamations or official events planned.

>> Photo Gallery: 50 historic photos of Statehood Day in Hawaii

The hoopla over the 60th birthday of Ala Moana Center, which opened just days before statehood, will almost certainly eclipse the statehood events. Ala Moana Center is staging "60 days of celebration," featuring performances by top local musicians and a coffee-table book chronicling the history of "the world's largest shopping center," with proceeds going to Goodwill Hawaii. It is offering commemorative items ranging from wine stoppers to limited-edition pairs of Island Slippers.

"Admission Day has been sneaking up for months, and we took a look online and searched and searched and made a few calls and couldn't find a single government agency, a nonprofit, a company, a political party, nobody doing anything," Ryan said in an interview. "It's this big sovereignty hot potato."

As it turns out, there is a forum planned for Saturday at the Hawaii State Library to kick off an exhibit titled "The promise of statehood: Looking back, moving forward." But even that is decidedly low-key.

One of the sponsors, the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, has a flyer on its website. But the exhibit opening isn't among the events listed online at websites for the state library system or the Daniel K. Inouye Institute, two other sponsors.

The panel features former Gov. John Waihee; historian John Rosa; Dean Saranillio, author of "Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaii Statehood"; and Anne Misawa, director of the documentary "State of Aloha."

In an interview, Waihee remembered when news of statehood arrived in his hometown on the Hamakua coast of Hawaii island, when he was 13. "What I remember most about statehood was the celebration," Waihee said. "The people literally celebrated. I remember taking off to go walk around Honokaa town and listen to the cars driving up and down the street, honking and celebrating." "Nobody said we were celebrating because we are now part of the United States -- we were already part of the United States," he said. "What we didn't have was equal rights like the rest of the country."

Hawaii residents couldn't elect their own governor and had just a nonvoting delegate in Congress, not their own senator or representatives. Statehood changed that and many other aspects of life in the islands, including a school system that separated children based on their ability to speak standard English, Waihee said.

"What statehood meant was there was a possibility that if you got injured on the job, you couldn't get fired," Waihee said. "Statehood meant that there wouldn't be segregated schools in Hawaii. Statehood meant you wouldn't have to only go to a company store, for example. It meant there would be a great deal of freedom. We were in schools that taught what American democracy was all about, yet it didn't exist in Hawaii."

Admission Day, also known as Statehood Day, is observed on the third Friday in August, close to the actual Aug. 21 anniversary. The Admission Act was approved by Congress in March 1959. That June, Hawaii voters approved a referendum on the question, "Shall Hawaii immediately be admitted to the union as a state?" with a vote of 132,773 "yes" to 7,971 "no," or 94% to 6%.

On Aug. 21, after the president called to say he had signed the official proclamation, Hawaii's appointed governor, William Quinn, announced, "Hawaii is a state!" He was at Iolani Palace, the former home of Queen Lili'uokalani, who had been ousted in a coup in 1893.

Jonathan Osorio, dean of the Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, harks back to the overthrow to underscore why statehood is not celebrated today as it was in 1959. "The most important change from then has been the issue of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement that understands the fraudulence of statehood and discusses it openly -- and it's not just some fringe movement," he said. "It starts with the intimidation and the takeover of a nation state that was fully recognized by all the other nation states in the world," Osorio said. "It then moves on into the way in which Hawaii was taken off the list of non self-governing territories in 1958, which allowed the United States then to present Hawaii as eligible for statehood when in fact Hawaii was eligible for decolonization." "There is no way you can have a 'celebration' of this without then running into a good deal of pushback," he said. "It's really kind of similar to the way people think about Columbus in the 21st century." Instead, he said Native Hawaiians celebrate other holidays such as Queen Lili'uokalani's birthday and La Kuokoa, or Hawaiian Independence Day, commemorating Great Britain's and France's official diplomatic recognition of the nation of Hawaii in 1843.

During the most recent legislative session, a bill (SB 1451) to create an official state holiday for "La Ku'oko'a, Hawaiian Recognition Day" passed the Senate and two House committees before dying in the Finance Committee.

Waihee said another factor also puts a damper on the subject of statehood. "There are some people who claim that the arrival of statehood for Hawaii somehow justified the illegal overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani," he said. "I think that's kind of revisionist bunk." "People like my father and other Native Hawaiians worked very, very hard supporting the concept of statehood," Waihee said. "If they believed for a second that it had anything to do with the overthrow, they would not have been supporting it. What they believed was we would finally have a better deal."

Ironically, Ryan, who is is staging the Bubba Gump celebration, says his mother was one of the 6% who voted against statehood in 1959. "She didn't want Hawaii to be hooked on federal money," he said.

STATEHOOD EXHIBIT

What: "The promise of statehood: Looking back, moving forward" exhibit and program

When: Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., activities for youth; forum at 10:30 a.m.

Who: Panelists include former Gov. John Waihee; historian John Rosa; Dean Saranillio, author of "Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaii Statehood"; and Anne Misawa, director of the documentary "State of Aloha."

Where: Hawaii State Library, 478 S. King St.

Cost: Free

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** Ken Conklin's online comment:

Susan Essoyan has a very long history of writing sovereignty propaganda at Star-Bulletin and Star-Advertiser. I don't know her motive, but today's article is another example. Her main focus is to trash not only the Statehood Day holiday but actual Statehood itself. One of her main topics today is to publicize the event at the library where a gang of Statehood haters will have a forum that nobody would have heard about except for Essoyan's article. For example the film by Anne Misawa "State of Aloha" produced just before the 50th anniversary was a student film project through UH which gathered plenty of film interviews of people who celebrate Statehood (including me) but the film then used only snippets portraying them negatively, including stuff her students never filmed. The film was televised once on PBS; then went into the morgue.

Copy/paste this phrase into your browser or Google to read a great message from a Governor far better than our current wimp:
Cayetano Statehood Day Message

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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/18/hawaii-news/institutions-offer-support-to-mauna-kea-protesters/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 16, 2019

Kamehameha Schools, OHA provide support to Mauna Kea protesters

By Kevin Dayton

The opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope who are demonstrating on Mauna Kea are getting logistical support from some major Hawaii institutions, including Kamehameha Schools and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The University of Hawaii has also authorized federally funded trips by staff to the demonstrations against the TMT, and has authorized class options that will allow student protesters to remain on the mountain after classes begin on Aug. 26.

At times 3,000 or more opponents of the $1.4 billion TMT project have gathered at the intersection of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and the Mauna Kea Access Road, and the access road has been closed since July 15. Police arrested 38 people -- most of them elderly Hawaiian protest leaders -- for blocking the access road on July 17, and the project has been at a standstill.

The protesters consider the TMT project to be a desecration of a mountain that many Hawaiians consider to be sacred, and have said they will not allow the project to be built. But TMT supporters note that project sponsors spent a decade navigating the state and county permitting processes and fending off legal challenges to the project, and say TMT now has the legal right to proceed.

Kamehameha Schools last week acknowledged it has provided help for the demonstrators camped at the base of the access road, and that assistance is being coordinated through Kanaeokana, a network of Hawaiian schools that includes Kamehameha.

"This includes providing a large tent as well as support of Kanaeokana's efforts to provide accurate documentation of events through live streams, photos and videos," according to a written statement from KS spokeswoman Elizabeth Ahana.

"KS has provided kokua in ways that foster education on this important issue across the globe while also addressing the health and well-being of the people on Mauankea who are making their voices heard," Ahana said in her statement. Ahana did not provide any additional information about the cost of the KS assistance.

Kamehameha Schools is a multibillion-dollar private charitable educational trust endowed with more than 375,000 acres of Hawaii land by the will of Hawaiian princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. It operates K-12 school campuses on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island as well as 30 preschool sites statewide.

As for OHA, last month the OHA board of trustees unanimously approved a resolution authorizing OHA staff to advocate for the protesters and to do "assessment and provision of health, safety and legal needs" for the activists.

A source familiar with those activities said OHA has been supporting the work of lawyers who will represent the protesters who were arrested last month, but OHA did not respond Thursday or Friday to requests for more detailed information about what sort of assistance it is providing.

OHA Trustee Carmen Hulu Lindsey was among the demonstrators who were arrested on July 17, and OHA Chairwoman Colette Machado has visited the site of the protests at least twice.

OHA sued the state and the university in 2017 over alleged mismanagement of Mauna Kea, citing a state audit in 1998 and three follow-up audits that found problems with UH management of the natural and cultural resources on the mountain.

UH-Hilo applied for the conservation district use permit for TMT, and the university is now offering class options this fall that will allow student protesters to remain on Mauna Kea at the site of the anti-TMT demonstrations. Most of the remote classes for student demonstrators are being offered through UH-Manoa, and the subjects include Hawaiian religion, mythology, culture and language.

UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl also said about 30 UH officials and students have gone to the protests -- including the visit by UH President David Lassner on July 28 -- but the university did not pay for 26 of those visits. Information was not available on the source of funding for the remaining four. Among those from the UH system who traveled to the protest site was Kapiolani Community College Chancellor Louise Pagotto -- who paid her own way -- and eight members of the KCC Native Hawaiian Council on Monday. Their travel was paid for with Title III federal funds that are earmarked for Native Hawaiian student success, Meisenzahl said a written statement.

Another three employees from UH-West Oahu including two from the Native Hawaiian Council and a social worker also attended using Title III grant funding. Another person from Windward Community College also made the trip on Title III funds, but "as this was a federal grant, no one was engaged in political activity or protest," Meisenzahl said in his statement.

"Campus leaders and staff went to Mauna Kea for the purpose of understanding what is going on so we will be able to support our students and faculty during what we expect will be a very difficult semester ahead," Meisenzahl wrote.

Also attending from UH were members of the Hawaii Papa o Ke Ao task force, which is made up of representatives from each of the university campuses. That task force is intended to develop and implement ways to make UH a leader in indigenous education, and the group will make recommendations to Lassner, Meisenzahl said.

-----

** Ken Conklin's online comment:

The mob on Mauna Kea is engaged in a civil war against the State of Hawaii, seizing control of government roads and government lands to prevent implementation of construction permits awarded after 10 years of due process. OHA is a state government agency spending government money to support an anti-government insurgency. OHA's board of directors ("trustees") should be impeached for violating their oath to support and defend the Constitutions of the U.S. and the State. Both the OHA and Kamehameha board members should be sued personally for monetary damages and imprisoned under RICO as accessories to criminal activity. It's long overdue to shut down the hate-America secessionist "peace and luv" Hawaiian Woodstock on the Mauna. No need for violence. Ticket and tow all illegally parked vehicles, have police use same tactic as protesters - block access for people and supplies headed to the intersection and invoke "Kapu Aloha" (don't commit violence against police who are blockading).

-------------------

https://www.staradvertiser.com/staradvertiser-poll/should-hawaiis-statehood-be-more-publicly-observed-celebrated-on-admission-day/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Saturday August 17, 2019

THE BIG Q [daily online poll for a single question]

Should Hawaii's statehood be more publicly observed/ celebrated on Admission Day?

A. Yes; should be more celebrated (309 Votes)
B. Not really; low-key status quo fine (249 Votes)
C. No; statehood is dubious (46 Votes)

-------------------

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/24021/Leadership-on-the-Mauna.aspx
Hawaii Free Press [and many other news media], August 18, 2019

Leadership on the Mauna

by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation of Hawaii [weekly policy media release]

Leadership entails not only planning for possible obstructions to your chosen plan of action, but also having the resolve to follow through with your plan.

Sadly, this is not what was demonstrated on Mauna Kea.

Ever since the state issued its Notice to Proceed to the folks that are building the Thirty Meter Telescope, the state knew that there was going to be opposition and civil disobedience. Its apparent plan was to have law-enforcement show up in force, not only with sheriffs, Department of Land and Natural Resources officers, and Big Island police, but also police from Oahu and Maui who were sent over for the occasion together with equipment such as helmets, long batons, and police vans.

It was going to be "shock and awe." Law-enforcement folks were thoroughly prepared, specially trained, and were ready. They would give the protesters plenty of time to disperse and, if they did not, were prepared to sweep them all off to jail.

Dawn broke on Monday, July 14. Protesters gritted their teeth and braced for the worst. And then? The Governor caved.

What then happened to the specially mobilized forces? They flew home.

All that preparation for shock and awe took place, and what were the results? Bills. The counties of Honolulu and Maui are going to send their bills to the attorney general, and they aren't cheap. Maui has racked up at least $68,000, and the Big Island spent more than $258,000. Honolulu has yet to release its tally, but it sent roughly twice as many officers as Maui.

And, of course, there is other collateral damage that the protest inflicts daily.

Staff in the other 13 telescopes already on the mountain were told to stay off the mountain. But if they can't get up there to maintain their instruments, they risk damaging the instruments, maybe permanently.

New equipment unrelated to TMT, such as a $400,000 three-camera instrument named Namakanui that was intended for immediate delivery and installation at the summit, has to sit in a lab back in Hilo. Researchers can work on it a little but really need to get it to the summit where weather conditions are much different from those at the sea-level lab. In any event, that equipment can't be installed on schedule and the whole world may have to wait for the results.

At the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, one UH astronomer was tracking the orbits of 30 space objects but now has to give up on that research because those objects are now lost.

The Keck Observatory contracted for a solar electric system. It would normally require 60 days' work. The contractor can't start the job and was forced to lay people off.

This is a real mess.

So who winds up paying for this mess? Taxpayers, for one. Someone needs to pay for the sheriffs, Land Department officers, and police.

And how do you even start to quantify the costs of lost knowledge or discoveries?

Enough of this foolishness! The protesters have concerns about the sanctity of Mauna Kea? Their argument may have made sense if TMT were the first telescope on the summit, but it's the 14th. We have a government, we set up a process for approving the construction that included getting input from stakeholders. It took seven agonizing years for the process to play out, and it's time for the law to be respected and for the collateral damage to end. If the protesters want to negotiate about rent, disposition of the proceeds, or getting rid of the decommissioned telescopes, those may be good ideas, but why do we have to negotiate with them at all? If they are hell-bent on stopping the telescope and are willing to go to jail for it, let's give them their wish and haul them off.

--------------------

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/19/hawaii-news/officials-should-follow-mauis-example-former-mayor-says/?HSA=87aedd5761fd75fd7d4d885e539e67b5a096dc91
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 19, 2019

Hawaii leaders needed to be more decisive in enforcing law on Mauna Kea, former Maui mayor says

By Timothy Hurley

Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope has been blocked at Mauna Kea for more than a month by a Native Hawaiian protest that seeks to safeguard what many regard a sacred mountain against a lawfully permitted project.

Meanwhile, another cutting-edge observatory, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope atop Haleakala, is nearing completion after escaping a similar fate during protests in 2015 and 2017 involving some of the same people embroiled in the TMT protests.

While the Maui incidents weren't exactly on the same scale, former Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa says authorities handling the TMT protest would have been wise to follow Maui's example.

"We didn't fool around," Arakawa recalled. "It was, this is what the law is, and this is how you enforce it."

Arakawa said the time for negotiation with TMT protesters was long past as the $1.4 billion project survived a lengthy governmental review plus legal challenges that went all the way to the state Supreme Court.

"It comes down to a simple question: Are we a community of laws, or are we a community where anyone who raises an objection can defy those laws?" he said. "We are legally bound to uphold the laws of the state of Hawaii and the U.S. That's our obligation.

"We're going to let a handful of people stop what most people believe is a good project? It hardly makes sense in a democratic society," he said.

Arakawa said authorities should have taken decisive action at the beginning of the TMT protest because the task is only going to get harder. "The governor is making decisions how he sees fit. He is the leader of the state," he said. "If he did what we did, construction of the TMT would be underway. But the longer he delays and plays around with this ... What goals are accomplished? We may not have a telescope."

On Maui the $344 million Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will be the largest solar telescope in the world, providing unprecedented views of the sun's atmosphere from a 4-meter mirror inside a 13-story dome that towers over its Science City neighbors. The telescope is expected to achieve first light in the coming months.

But its construction was thrown into doubt four years ago. A group of mostly Native Hawaiians, inspired by the 2015 TMT protests and citing the same concerns about desecration, decided to make a stand against nighttime, wide-load shipments of telescope parts intended for delivery to the construction site.

After demonstrators blocked an initial shipment, Maui police were ready for subsequent ones, moving decisively to enforce the law twice in 2015 and once in 2017, each time facing between 100 and 200 demonstrators, some of whom traveled to Maui from other islands.

Police arrested 34 people over the three protests, including 20 in one night in 2015. Among those arrested were Kahookahi Kanuha, Kaleaikoa Kaeo and Lanakila Manguil, each of them leaders of the Mauna Kea "protectors."

Arakawa said Maui police gave clear instructions about what would happen if the demonstrators deliberately tried to obstruct the trucks. They also came with enough officers to handle the job when the activists did get in the way, he said.

"Nobody was beaten up or physically hurt," he said.

But that's not how the protesters remember it.

Kanuha accused officers of being overly aggressive, "militaristic" and using unnecessary tactics against a group of peaceful protesters. "We were there with ti leaf lei," he said following the 2017 attempt to block delivery of DKIST's last major shipment, the telescope's 4-meter mirror. "They were there dressed in riot gear, as if they were going to war."

Jennifer Noelani Ahia claims a fellow protester was slammed to the ground, held down forcefully and was having trouble breathing during the August 2017 conflict on the road in Kula. Ahia said the man was left on the ground handcuffed while police officers prevented bystanders from rendering aid. He lost consciousness for a time, she said, and ended up with a permanent brain injury. "Despite the fact that the law enforcement officers are first responders and trained to deal with medical emergencies, they did nothing. Their callousness towards his safety and health was incredibly unsettling and traumatizing to all the kiai and supporters who were there that night," she said.

For its part, the Maui Police Department reviewed the incident and determined that the officers accomplished what they were trained to do and did not use excessive force.

Arakawa said the protesters were told they can demonstrate all they want, but if they cross the line and create a hazard, they would be arrested. "If they did, they were arrested. If they didn't, they were left alone. The same thing should have happened at Mauna Kea," he said.

On the Big Island police took action July 17 in the conflict's first week, arresting 38 people, mostly kupuna, who were blocking Mauna Kea Access Road.

Despite a sizable contingent of Hawaii island police and state officers reinforced by 56 Honolulu and 27 Maui police officers, law enforcement ended up retreating as more than 1,000 people stood their ground.

Some type of enforcement action appeared imminent in the next few days after Ige issued an emergency proclamation giving authorities additional powers. But no police engagement occurred.

Ige said at a news conference July 30 that he trusts in the judgment of the law enforcement personnel at Mauna Kea. "They do understand that we are interested in using as little physical effort as possible in order to implement the law. Certainly they are trained fully and will take defensive actions if they need to. I can assure you that state and county law enforcement will not initiate any violence. But clearly they are there to provide for the safety and security of everyone, and certainly will be taking action as necessary," he said. Ige added that no one was talking about making any further arrests at that time.

After the governor asked Hawaii island Mayor Harry Kim to take over efforts to resolve the impasse, Kim said he couldn't support using physical force.

Thayne Currie, an astronomer who is part of the group called Yes2TMT, said, "My hope is that the state will act shrewdly and decisively to uphold the laws that all of us must follow." "Similarly, I hope that Mayor Kim working with community leaders can resolve long-standing issues to allow us to more peacefully move forward."

---------------------

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/19/editorial/letters/letter-leaders-of-tmt-protest-out-for-own-power-gain/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 19, 2019, Letter to editor

Letter: Leaders of TMT protest out for own power gain

Maui Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Carmen Hulu Lindsay's TV news performance while being arrested for protesting the Thirty Meter Telescope was vile.

This Realtor who sells Hawaii to the highest bidder lives in a posh Kula neighborhood on Maui with more than 9,500 square feet of living space on two acres. I had ohana die on the Hawaiian Homes list who never got land.

OHA and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands should be dismantled. Like the greedy fat cats who run them, I believe the "leaders" of the TMT protests, many of whom own land, are manipulating disenfranchised kanaka around a false narrative for their own power gain.

I do not feel sorry for a very tiny number who claim they can't pray on the mauna, while I get on a plane once again, leaving my ohana, because I can't afford a home. Step aside and let the TMT be built. Address substantive issues.

Kanani Stephens
Kahului

---------------------

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/21/editorial/our-view/editorial-reconciling-statehood-with-sovereignty/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 21, 2019, EDITORIAL

Editorial: Reconciling statehood with sovereignty

There are two nations living side by side, not always comfortably, in Hawaii.

One is the Hawaiian nation, and despite the overthrow of the kingdom 126 years ago, it still lives on in many hearts and is reflected in numerous statutes and court decisions. The other is the United States of America, this territory becoming the 50th of those states 60 years ago today.

With all the nuances and complexity of history, both are worthy of celebration as part of the duality that is Hawaii.

Called "Admission Day" until 2001, this year's official Statehood Day holiday was observed Friday, but Hawaii actually was formally admitted to the union on Aug. 21, 1959. So much has changed in those six decades, not the least of which is the nature of the observance itself.

"What I remember most about statehood was the celebration," John Waihee, the state's first governor of Native Hawaiian ancestry, recalled in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He described the horns honking in his boyhood home of Honokaa: "The people literally celebrated."

The occasion now is marked in far more subdued fashion, because of mixed emotions and sensitivities among many residents.

Waihee said that some people saw statehood as a justification of the injustice of the overthrow, a notion he bluntly dismissed as "revisionist bunk." In fact, he said, his own parents celebrated because statehood was a far better outcome for the people than the territorial status that persisted for the first half-century.

He's right, but that doesn't negate the deep feelings of those who find it hard to reject the overthrow and annexation of the islands to the United States while accepting statehood. Some of these emotions are plainly on display now, in the ongoing protests over the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea.

Elements of Hawaiian culture, especially the native language, long suppressed, became reinvigorated in the 1970s Hawaiian renaissance. Artistic traditions, old spiritual practices grew in strength. Culture-based education was strengthened in public and private school settings, including the establishment of public Hawaiian-focused charter schools.

Along with the validation of Hawaiian pride, members of a generation immersed in indigenous culture grew up and gained influence, as well as an affinity for technology that amplified their voices.

And there have been many efforts, on various tracks, to reassert Hawaiian sovereignty in some form, debates that have stirred their own controversies, outside as well as among the native people.

All of this may help explain the low-key way the 50th State marks its admission to onlookers more accustomed to the conventional fireworks and marching bands. In lieu of those we have events such as the panel discussion that included Waihee on Saturday, titled "The Promise of Statehood: Looking Back, Moving Forward." Perhaps thoughtful reflection rather than fireworks is more appropriate, in fact.

Still, Hawaii's melting-pot population comprises a majority, too often silent, that does embrace statehood heartily for the clear advantages it brings. Statehood meant that Hawaii became fully represented in American decision-making as well as connected to its economic development. It's not only about the money and power, of course. Democratic values have flourished here, ultimately producing a society that's both enriched and challenged by its diversity.

Some may feel they need to pick only one, Hawaiian or American identities, to celebrate, but it doesn't have to be a binary choice. Most people here will find a way to cherish both. Straddling two worlds and keeping balance is something we've managed after 60 years of practice.

------

Ken Conklin's online comment:

The bottom-line question is this: Should the U.S. have sovereignty over Hawaii? That's a yes/no question. This editorial fails by trying to have it both ways.

Either our primary loyalty is to the U.S. while we also respect and appreciate the special contributions of Hawaiian history, culture and language as essential ingredients in our multi-ethnic society where "all men are created equal"; or else our primary loyalty is to a sovereign independent nation of Hawaii where ethnic Hawaiians exercise racial supremacy by law on account of a creation legend which they interpret to mean that anyone with a drop of Hawaiian blood is a child of the gods and brother/sister to these islands in a way nobody else can ever be.

Those two concepts are incompatible and at war with each other. I know which side I am on. I oppose Hawaiian religious fascism. I support equality in the eyes of God and under the law regardless of race; and I support the unity of Hawaii with the U.S. and unity of Hawaii's people in an undivided State of Hawaii.

A dear friend of mine says he is proud to be an American and proud to be a [ethnic] Hawaiian. I admire and respect that fused identity. But in the end he will need to make a choice, not about personal identity but about which concept of governance deserves sovereignty -- just as someone cannot truly believe in both Christianity and the old Hawaiian religion, or someone cannot both be a Catholic and approve of abortion.

----------------------

http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2019/08/ke-aupuni-update-august-2019-8y-leon_26.html
Free Hawaii blog, Aug 26, 2019

Ke Aupuni Update
Keeping in touch and updated on activities regarding the restoration of Ke Aupuni o Hawaii, the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono.

----

The Floundering Fake State

Things are not going well for Hawaii the Fake State. On the 60th anniversary of "statehood" the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's front-page, above-the-fold headline was: HOLIDAY HO-HUM pointing to the state's strange disinterest in its own anniversary. When contacted, state officials' response was basically: "No comment." Their avoidance indicates they are obviously not proud of their own state's birthday. And rightfully so. The false narrative of Hawaii as the 50th State of the United States of America has been steadily unravelling for decades and recent events have accelerated the unmasking of the Fake State.

The Hawaiian people's stand to protect Mauna Kea has brought global attention to the profound concepts of Aloha Aina, Pono and Kuleana and the practice of Kapu Aloha. It also poses the over-arching moral questions of right and wrong. In doing so, Ku Kia'i Mauna exposes the operations of the State of Hawaii regarding ownership, authority, jurisdiction and trust obligations. They may be 'legal' but are they right?

In the past week alone, state officials have begun to admit 'some problems' with the State's administration of Mauna Kea: the State doesn't appear to have proper authority to regulate the Mauna Kea Access Road; the State Supreme Court ruled the State breached its trust duties regarding the Pohakuloa Training Area; the first 9 of the 38 kupuna went to court to plead not guilty to charges of obstruction of the MKA Road... Add to these the plethora of cases regarding land titles, targeted arrests and arbitrary detention of Hawaiian subjects, falsified reports to the United Nations, and so forth, and the U.S. and its fake state are in deep trouble.

If state officials admit that, because procedures were not followed to acquire the land under the access road, it would possibly invalidate the state's authority to regulate that road, then shouldn't that same principle apply to all the lands and territorial waters of the Hawaiian Islands?... none of which was acquired by any lawful process.

Speaking of Procedure...

In 1959 the U.S. fooled the United Nations into passing UNGA Resolution 1469, accepting the United states' report that through a plebiscite, the "people of Hawaii" had overwhelmingly consented to Hawaii becoming a state of the United States. In passing that resolution accepting the U.S. report, as far as the UN was concerned, Hawaii (and Alaska) were states of the United States.

But that sneaky move by the U.S. is also it's Achilles heel. As it turns out, UNGA Resolution 1469 is the sole thread holding up the U.S.' claim to Hawaii. We are about to snip that thread by calling on the UN General Assembly to initiate a review of the conditions and procedures that led to the adoption of that resolution accepting the U.S. report.

An honest review of the facts will uncover that major fraud was involved and UNGA Resolution 1469 was made in error. At that point, not only will the claim of Hawaii statehood be discredited, but the long history of wrongful acts is unleashed, flooding in to wipe out all U.S. claims of dominion over the Hawaiian Islands.

NOTE: The next two months are critical to getting the review initiated at the UN. Your kokua is needed to move this forward! Imua!

Kū'e! Kū Kia'i Mauna! Kapu Aloha!
Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

----

We cannot do this crucial work without your help... your kokua.
We deeply appreciate all financial contributions, large or small.
Your contribution will greatly help us to carry on this work.
Your KŌKUA is greatly appreciated!
To contribute, go to https://GoFundMe.com/FreeHawaii
Mahalo Nui Loa!

---

Malama Pono, Leon Siu Hawaiian National

-----------------------------

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/27/protectors-mauna-kea-are-fighting-colonialism-not-science
Commom Dreams, August 27, 2019 ["This Is Not Corporate Media. It's Common Dreams. Want a better world? Support Independent News and Views Today."]

Published on Tuesday, August 27, 2019
by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

Protectors of Mauna Kea Are Fighting Colonialism, Not Science
While proposals to compromise might appear fair, protectors say, they dismiss the historical context in Hawaii of colonialism and the usurpation of Indigenous land that continues today.

byJulianne Tveten

Thousands of Native Hawaiians and their supporters have been congregating since July 15 at the base of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano and mountain on the island of Hawaii. Known in Hawaiian as the kia'i, the protectors--a term the group prefers to "protesters"--seek to deter construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Business owners and state officials promise the telescope will provide jobs, educational opportunities and high-resolution astronomical imagery.

The protectors' mobilization stems from a number of concerns about the vulnerability of the mountain to the effects of a new, 18-story telescope, as well as a fight for Indigenous self-determination in the face of colonialist control. Mauna Kea is an environmentally sensitive conservation district; it's also sacred in Native Hawaiian traditions and religions, remaining one of the few bastions of Indigenous cultural preservation and sovereignty in the state.

The current demonstrations at Mauna Kea are the culmination of decades of state land mismanagement and broken promises over the mountain, dating back to 1968, when the state leased the mountain to the University of Hawaii. Since then, Mauna Kea has been prized by astronomers for its high altitude and lack of atmospheric pollution, leading to the construction of 21 telescopes within 13 observatories. The TMT would be the 22nd telescope; https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/divisive-giant-telescope-cleared-construction-hawaiian-peak the Washington Post (7/18/19), Associated Press (7/16/19) and other outlets have erroneously tallied the telescopes at 13. [** Ken Conklin's note: That's because the "outrigger group" of very small telescopes is properly counted as a single unit]

National media coverage of the protectors' struggle accelerated around 2014 and 2015, when the kia'i first assembled at Mauna Kea in opposition to the TMT, preventing its construction. Yet this reporting fell woefully short. https://www.staradvertiser.com/2014/10/07/breaking-news/protesters-halt-mauna-kea-telescope-groundbreaking/

"In 2014 and 2015," corporate media outlets "were obsessed with this idea of science versus culture, as if our kupuna [elders] haven't practiced applied science," Kaniela Ing, a Mauna Kea protector and Hawaii Community Bail Fund manager,
https://hawaiicommunitybailfund.org/
told FAIR. At that time, as Marisa Peryer recently noted for the Columbia Journalism Review (7/29/19),
https://www.cjr.org/opinion/mauna-kea-telescope-protest-hawaii.php
CNN (8/27/15)
https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/us/tmt-hawaii-telescope-controversy/index.html published an article headlined "Science and Religion Fight Over Hawaii's Highest Point."

Other coverage was outright condescending. In 2014, the New York Times (10/20/14)
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/science/seeking-stars-finding-creationism.html called the protectors' movement "creationism," ridiculing activists' claims that the telescope was a profit-seeking venture, omitting the TMT's status as an LLC funded largely by multibillionaire Intel founder Gordon Moore's philanthropic organization.
https://www.tmt.org/page/about
The article dismissed the cooperation between Native Hawaiians and environmentalists as a "marriage of convenience," condemning the protectors for "waging skirmishes against science."

Peryer also cited a New York Times editorial (5/2/15)
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/opinion/sunday/star-crossed-on-a-hawaiian-mountaintop.html
portraying the TMT as an innocent scapegoat caught in the middle of a battle dating back to the US's 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. The piece lamented that "coexistence may never satisfy the core group of protesters who have been demanding the total erasure of technology from Mauna Kea's peak."

Many kia'i agree that media outlets have been more careful in recent months to avoid such facile binaries. Still, protectors face the challenges of specious narratives.

One of these relates to portrayals of public support of the TMT. A 2018 poll from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser indicated that 77 percent of respondents, and 72 percent of Native Hawaiian respondents, supported the construction of the TMT.
https://www.scribd.com/document/374711098/The-Hawaii-Poll-March-2018-TMT?fbclid=IwAR0vAuXFvXZDHV1KODKJqTRSNfIHPgW4yy2JHg89B_BhMT4oN_xTWJGBYMM
The poll was referenced in various local and national media outlets, in addition to the Star-Advertiser: Hawaii News Now (7/21/19;
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/07/22/tmt-spokesman-mauna-kea-remains-preferred-site-no-plans-back-out/
7/22/19),
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/07/23/tmt-supporters-say-they-are-silent-majority/
Hawaii Public Radio (7/29/19),
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/personal-opinions-crystallize-hawai-i-enters-week-three-tmt-standoff#stream/0
AP (3/26/18),
https://www.apnews.com/d2a7b62c008240f28b2a2dbe856f9193
HuffPost (10/31/18)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hawaii-thirty-meter-telescope-permit-supreme-court_n_5bd93964e4b0da7bfc150bb3
and the New York Times (7/10/19).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/science/hawaii-telescope-tmt-mauna-kea.html

It's imperative, however, to consider whose opinion was sought. The Star-Advertiser surveyed a total of 800 registered voters, only 78 of whom were Native Hawaiian; notably, Native Hawaiians have historically been subjected
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2018/11/21/native-hawaiians-allege-voter-suppression-leeward-polling-sites/
to voter suppression.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2018/11/06/advocates-rally-push-native-hawaiian-voters-polls/
"There were all these internally invalid measures of how this poll could really have any weight," Uahikea Maile, a Mauna Kea protector and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told FAIR. "I'm fearful of the misrepresentation, because it's obviously disproportionate to the reality of the situation."

Mischaracterization of the protectors took other forms. The Associated Press (7/16/19),
https://www.apnews.com/3076af06bf364e92a8dc4d36ef076b79
for example, reported that protesters were "bullying" supporters of the telescope, a claim that the protest's organizational structure and tactics directly contradict.
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/24/hawaii-mauna-kea-telescope-protest/
The story was republished on NBC News (7/17/19)
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/telescope-viewing-suspended-protesters-block-hawaii-road-ncna1030646
and in the Washington Post,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/native-hawaiians-protests-stop-researchers-from-studying-the-skies/2019/07/17/65db8688-a286-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html
under the headline "Native Hawaiians' Protests Stop Researchers From Studying the Skies."

The Associated Press (8/10/19)
https://www.apnews.com/b0f1eb75a110437f83145abacd9afb75
propagated a similar narrative in an article headlined "Amid Protest, Astronomers Lose Observation Time." The story bemoaned astronomers' reported loss of some 2,000 hours of viewing time at Mauna Kea's existing telescopes in light of the protests. It also paraphrased astronomers' statements that the resistance had denied them "regular, guaranteed access to their facilities, which puts their staff and equipment at risk."

According to veteran Mauna Kea protector Kealoha Pisciotta, who was quoted in the Associated Press article, astronomers weren't blocked by the kia'i; rather, their employers ordered them to descend the mountain. Astronomers "haven't been blocked from the beginning. When they were allegedly blocked, it was really their own choice, because the observatories made their staffs stay down" amid the demonstrations, Pisciotta told FAIR. "They tried to argue that they were losing science because of us. How can you say it's because of us? You're the ones who ordered your people down. Not us."

Pisciotta also noted that media coverage has muted the cultural and religious significance of Mauna Kea. "For a long time, the Associated Press [7/16/19,
https://www.apnews.com/3076af06bf364e92a8dc4d36ef076b79 7/18/19],
https://www.apnews.com/29a0d0ce2f734a189759c5bffad8bdce
everybody," including USA Today (8/21/19),
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/21/mauna-kea-tmt-protests-hawaii-native-rights-telescope/1993037001/
"kept using the words 'some Hawaiians'" in reference to who holds the mountain sacred. "At one point, we said, 'It's not 'some Hawaiians.' We are the majority.'"

She added that Native Hawaiians' right to ascend the mountain for "subsistence, cultural and religious purposes" is enshrined in the Hawaii State Constitution.
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol01_Ch0001-0042F/05-Const/CONST_0012-0007.htm
Despite this, state government temporarily denied cultural practitioners access to the mountain in mid-July, later permitting them one vehicle to ascend the mountain per day (Big Island Video News, (8/9/19).
https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2019/08/09/mauna-kea-telescopes-announce-return-to-work/

As the protests continue, outlets report that the kia'i and TMT supporters are at an impasse, and suggest that negotiations might allow the project to proceed on Mauna Kea (Hawaii News Now, 7/25/19;
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/07/25/hawaii-county-mayor-proposes-deal-with-tmt-opponents-seeks-their-trust/
NBC News, 8/18/19;
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/huge-telescope-hawaii-could-lead-us-alien-life-first-it-ncna1042826
Honolulu Civil Beat, 7/31/19).
https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/07/do-negotiations-offer-a-way-forward-on-mauna-kea/
"What is tragic," the aforementioned 2015 New York Times editorial cried, "is the missed opportunity for shared understanding."

While proposals to compromise might appear fair, protectors say, they dismiss the historical context in Hawaii of colonialism and the usurpation of Indigenous land that continues today. Thus, these suggestions elide the stark power asymmetry between historically disenfranchised and marginalized Native Hawaiians and the billion-dollar, state-backed TMT project.

"The point that that misses is there's not anything to negotiate. Either the Mauna is sacred or it's not. When you talk about these issues, how do you compromise that?" said Kenneth Lawson, a Mauna Kea protector and law professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

"We have shared the mountain since 1968," said Pisciotta. "It's our temple, it's our church, it's our house of worship."

At the heart of the Mauna Kea action is thus a challenge not only to a telescope, but to capital and the pursuit of unmitigated industrial growth at any cost. It's no wonder, then, that when corporate-owned media are tasked with examining this movement, their limitations rear their heads.

"Is the advancement of a certain field of science worth the further disenfranchisement, the pain of a marginalized group?" asked the Bail Fund's Ing. "I think that's a valid question for the media, but [the media] scrapes the surface of what this is really about."

Julianne Tveten writes about the intersection of the technology industry and socioeconomic issues. Her work has appeared in Current Affairs, The Outline, Motherboard, and Hazlitt, among others.

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