HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian congressman has introduced legislation to change requirements for passing down Hawaiian homestead leases to relatives.
Under federal law, about 200,000 acres across Hawaii are reserved for Native Hawaiian people who have at least 50% Hawaiian blood.
Families who have obtained leases to those acres may pass them on to spouses, children, grandchildren and siblings who have at least 1/4 Hawaiian blood.
U.S. Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele’s proposal would lower this blood quantum requirement for passing down leases to 1/32.
The circumstances of Patrick Kahawaiolaʻa, the president of the Keaukaha Community Association, which is the oldest Hawaiian homestead community on the Big Island, illustrate the challenges facing families.
Under the current law, Kahawaiolaʻa’s children may inherit his lease. But if his children don’t marry Native Hawaiians, his grandkids may not qualify.
The blood quantum policy in the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act is a divisive issue in the Native Hawaiian community, Cedric Duarte, spokesman for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, told Hawaii Public Radio.
The 50% amount was a compromise by Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana’ole, who spearheaded efforts to create the program.
“It was never Kūhiō’s intent to apply any sort of limit or blood quantum,” Duarte said.
Ranchers and sugar plantation interests lobbied to limit the program to full-blooded Hawaiians, while Kūhiō insisted on a blood quantum of 1/32.
File cabinets at the department contain birth certificates and other vital records that can help applicants prove they are at least 50% Native Hawaiian.
I “feel” like we are watching Game of Thrones…..and we are talking about the next King because of the “blood line”.
Really, we are going to have a process to test people, in the 21st century, for their blood line in order to get some land?? “My lottery ticket won today…..I have .03% Native Hawaiian Blood in me”!!!
Create a law that makes the land a Park and be done with it. How much does it cost the taxpayers to run this Keystone Cops operation? Who has time for this ridiculousness?
There shouldn’t be a blood quantum period! Indigenous people should have rights to their Aina. All Hawaiians… we are kanaka Maoli , these are our legacy and our right to own .
Sounds crazy but I always had this feeling that Hawaiians were being bred out of existence, so America can have full control of Hawaiian homelands.
I also believe a hundred years from now there won’t be such thing as 100% Hawaiians.
And two hundred years from now all you have is his descendants of native Hawaiians
Really? Free land for blood quantum below 50%? There is an argument that a 50% blood quantum is acceptable to get free Real Estate for life of the family, there is no argument that anyone who gets the Real Estate benefits with any less is gaming the system. And Ms. Huff/conspiracy, the government isn’t breeding the Hawaiians out of their “rights”. The government doesn’t breed! There is nothing “free” in this world! Everything is paid for by someone else who has sacrificed for your “free” stuff! The Hawaiians have made their decision to breed themselves out of blood quantum. Please quit trying to massage reality to give away your dreamed of “free” stuff that was created by someone else who actually worked for it! Just stay tuned! Soon we will have Socialism forced on us by the naïve “free” stuff junkies like you. But wait! You do realize that under Socialism all Hawaiian benefits will disappear and be spread out evenly to everyone? Don’t you?
If you research the history of the Hawaiian Islands going back to around 600 AD there’s good consensus that the Marquesan’s were the first race of people to discover and live on the Hawaiian Islands. Records show that they lived in peace on the Islands for around 6 Centuries until approximately 1200 AD when Tahitian voyagers from Tahiti showed up. The Marquesan’s welcomed and helped the Tahitians get established only to have the Tahitians turn on and subjugate the Marquesan’s, which led to their genocide at the hands of the Tahitians. All of the “Hawaiians” of today are descendants of the Tahitians, who it seems stole Hawaii from the Marquesan’s. If true, does this raise any questions? Does this change the narrative of Hawaii rightful ownership? Should it impact the reparations demanded by the Tahitians, and instead turn the rights of ownership back to the Marquesan’s? The complexities of life are many times confined to things being as they seem, rather than how they actually are.