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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 11701. Findings
The Congress finds that:
(1) Native Hawaiians comprise a distinct and unique indigenous
people with a historical continuity to the original inhabitants
of the Hawaiian archipelago whose society was organized as a
Nation prior to the arrival of the first nonindigenous people in
1778.
(2) The Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve,
develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral
territory, and their cultural identity in accordance with their
own spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices,
language, and social institutions.
(3) The constitution and statutes of the State of Hawaii:
(A) acknowledge the distinct land rights of Native Hawaiian
people as beneficiaries of the public lands trust; and
(B) reaffirm and protect the unique right of the Native
Hawaiian people to practice and perpetuate their cultural and
religious customs, beliefs, practices, and language.
(4) At the time of the arrival of the first nonindigenous
people in Hawaii in 1778, the Native Hawaiian people lived in a
highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistence social system
based on communal land tenure with a sophisticated language,
culture, and religion.
(5) A unified monarchical government of the Hawaiian Islands
was established in 1810 under Kamehameha I, the first King of
Hawaii.
(6) Throughout the 19th century and until 1893, the United
States: (A) recognized the independence of the Hawaiian Nation;
(B) extended full and complete diplomatic recognition to the
Hawaiian Government; and (C) entered into treaties and
conventions with the Hawaiian monarchs to govern commerce and
navigation in 1826, 1842, 1849, 1875 and 1887.
(7) In the year 1893, the United States Minister assigned to
the sovereign and independent Kingdom of Hawaii, John L. Stevens,
conspired with a small group of non-Hawaiian residents of the
Kingdom, including citizens of the United States, to overthrow
the indigenous and lawful Government of Hawaii.
(8) In pursuance of that conspiracy, the United States Minister
and the naval representative of the United States caused armed
naval forces of the United States to invade the sovereign
Hawaiian Nation in support of the overthrow of the indigenous and
lawful Government of Hawaii and the United States Minister
thereupon extended diplomatic recognition of a provisional
government formed by the conspirators without the consent of the
native people of Hawaii or the lawful Government of Hawaii in
violation of treaties between the two nations and of
international law.
(9) In a message to Congress on December 18, 1893, then
President Grover Cleveland reported fully and accurately on these
illegal actions, and acknowledged that by these acts, described
by the President as acts of war, the government of a peaceful and
friendly people was overthrown, and the President concluded that
a "substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for
our national character as well as the rights of the injured
people required that we should endeavor to repair".
(10) Queen Lili'uokalani, the lawful monarch of Hawaii, and the
Hawaiian Patriotic League, representing the aboriginal citizens
of Hawaii, promptly petitioned the United States for redress of
these wrongs and for restoration of the indigenous government of
the Hawaiian nation, but this petition was not acted upon.
(11) In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii through the
Newlands Resolution without the consent of or compensation to the
indigenous people of Hawaii or their sovereign government who
were thereby denied the mechanism for expression of their
inherent sovereignty through self-government and
self-determination, their lands and ocean resources.
(12) Through the Newlands Resolution and the 1900 Organic Act,
the United States Congress received 1.75 million acres of lands
formerly owned by the Crown and Government of the Hawaiian
Kingdom and exempted the lands from then existing public land
laws of the United States by mandating that the revenue and
proceeds from these lands be "used solely for the benefit of the
inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for education and other
public purposes", thereby establishing a special trust
relationship between the United States and the inhabitants of
Hawaii.
(13) In 1921, Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission
Act, 1920 which designated 200,000 acres of the ceded public
lands for exclusive homesteading by Native Hawaiians, thereby
affirming the trust relationship between the United States and
the Native Hawaiians, as expressed by then Secretary of the
Interior Franklin K. Lane who was cited in the Committee Report
of the United States House of Representatives Committee on
Territories as stating, "One thing that impressed me . . . was
the fact that the natives of the islands who are our wards, I
should say, and for whom in a sense we are trustees, are falling
off rapidly in numbers and many of them are in poverty.".
(14) In 1938, the United States Congress again acknowledged the
unique status of the Hawaiian people by including in the Act of
June 20, 1938 (52 Stat. 781 et seq.), a provision to lease lands
within the extension to Native Hawaiians and to permit fishing in
the area "only by native Hawaiian residents of said area or of
adjacent villages and by visitors under their guidance".
(15) Under the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the
admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union", approved March
18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4), the United States transferred
responsibility for the administration of the Hawaiian Home Lands
to the State of Hawaii but reaffirmed the trust relationship
which existed between the United States and the Hawaiian people
by retaining the exclusive power to enforce the trust, including
the power to approve land exchanges, and legislative amendments
affecting the rights of beneficiaries under such Act.
(16) Under the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the
admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union", approved March
18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4), the United States transferred
responsibility for administration over portions of the ceded
public lands trust not retained by the United States to the State
of Hawaii but reaffirmed the trust relationship which existed
between the United States and the Hawaiian people by retaining
the legal responsibility of the State for the betterment of the
conditions of Native Hawaiians under section 5(f) of the Act
entitled "An Act to provide for the admission of the State of
Hawaii into the Union", approved March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4, 6).
(17) The authority of the Congress under the United States
Constitution to legislate in matters affecting the aboriginal or
indigenous peoples of the United States includes the authority to
legislate in matters affecting the native peoples of Alaska and
Hawaii.
(18) In furtherance of the trust responsibility for the
betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians, the United
States has established a program for the provision of
comprehensive health promotion and disease prevention services to
maintain and improve the health status of the Hawaiian people.
(19) This historical and unique legal relationship has been
consistently recognized and affirmed by the Congress through the
enactment of Federal laws which extend to the Hawaiian people the
same rights and privileges accorded to American Indian, Alaska
Native, Eskimo, and Aleut communities, including the Native
American Programs Act of 1974 [42 U.S.C. 2991 et seq.]; the
American Indian Religious Freedom Act [42 U.S.C. 1996, 1996a];
the National Museum of the American Indian Act [20 U.S.C. 80q et
seq.]; and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act [25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.].
(20) The United States has also recognized and reaffirmed the
trust relationship to the Hawaiian people through legislation
which authorizes the provision of services to Native Hawaiians,
specifically, the Older Americans Act of 1965 [42 U.S.C. 3001 et
seq.], the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of
Rights Act Amendments of 1987, the Veterans' Benefits and
Services Act of 1988, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 [29 U.S.C.
701 et seq.], the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988, the
Health Professions Reauthorization Act of 1988, the Nursing
Shortage Reduction and Education Extension Act of 1988, the
Handicapped Programs Technical Amendments Act of 1988, the Indian
Health Care Amendments of 1988, and the Disadvantaged Minority
Health Improvement Act of 1990.
(21) The United States has also affirmed the historical and
unique legal relationship to the Hawaiian people by authorizing
the provision of services to Native Hawaiians to address problems
of alcohol and drug abuse under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986.
(22) Despite such services, the unmet health needs of the
Native Hawaiian people are severe and the health status of Native
Hawaiians continues to be far below that of the general
population of the United States.
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