Note: This is part 11 of a larger webpage. The larger webpage is entitled "Dialogs with a racist -- Bringing to public awareness the explicit, enthusiastic, and unapologetic racism of Trisha Kehaulani Watson, a featured blogger on the public website of the largest circulation newspaper in Hawaii." To see that larger webpage, go to
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/DialogsRacistWatson.html
11. Biographies and statements of several panelists in the Statehood Day
"Native Hawaiian" plenary panel, together with Ken Conklin's rebuttal to each.
Trisha Kehaulani Watson dialog started August 18, 2009
Honolulu Advertiser featured blog He Hawai'i Au
http://hehawaiiau.honadvblogs.com
==============
http://hehawaiiau.honadvblogs.com/2009/08/18/native-hawaiian-panelists-write-on-statehood-trisha-kehaulani-watson/
Trisha Kehaulani Watson biography and statement
Biography
Trisha Kehaulani Watson, JD, PhD, was born and raised in Manoa, Hawai'i. She earned a BA in Sociology and American Studies from the University of Hawai'i in 1999. Her MA is from Washington State University in American Studies where she wrote her thesis on environmental justice on O'ahu's Leeward Coast. She earned a JD and environmental law certificate from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i in 2003 where she focused on non-profit organizations, civil rights and environmental law.
She owns her own consulting company that specializes in non-profit organizations, environmental and cultural assessments, facilitation, strategic planning, community consultation and mediation. In 2008, she completed her PhD in American Studies. Her dissertation, Ho'i Hou ia Papahanaumoku: A History of the Ecocolonization of the Pu'uhonua of Wai'anae, focused Native Hawaiian natural resource management.
She has worked with numerous Native Hawaiian and conservation organizations; she is a member of 'Ahahui Ka'ahumanu, the Daughters of Hawai'i and is a Board Member with the Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu. Her academic areas of interests are law, natural resource management practices, and economic and community development.
Statement
I kikilo aku i na mamo
Way into the future to the descendants
For the last 116 years, the Hawaiian people have continued to look back on a single, split-second decision made by Queen Lili'uokalani on January 17, 1893.
". . . Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands."
It is not fair to second-guess this decision. None of us have since encountered such awesome responsibility. It was surely an impossible decision to make: yield sovereignty or authorize bloodshed. We cannot begin to phantom what went through our Queen's heart that day, but we can look back on her words: "Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority…"
She made a decision under protest and duress that protected lives: lives of her Hawaiian people and lives of Americans.
What could possibly be a greater testament to the humanitarian ways of the Hawaiian people more than their leader's decision to choose diplomacy over violent conflict?
We cannot know the outcome if she has chosen to fight.
We only know she chose for us to live. And those of us who have been given the gift of life from our Queen's decision to trust the United States and diplomacy over bloodshed are obligated to make the most of our lives.
I cannot know what went through Queen Lili'uokalani's heart that day, but I can know what goes through mine now:
I am tired of seeing Hawaiian children living in squalor on beaches.
I am tired of Hawaiians being denied adequate health care benefits and educational opportunities.
I am tired of people who discriminate against us.
I am tired of the attacks against us.
I am tired of feeling like the options for Hawaiians are "little" or "nothing."
We must find something better.
We have a responsibility to find something better.
In 1986, with the encouragement of Aunty Pilahi Pākī, the State legislature passed the "Aloha Bill." It made "aloha" the governing law of this land. It reads in part: ""Aloha" is more than a word of greeting or farewell or a salutation. "Aloha" means mutual regard and affection and extends warmth in caring with no obligation in return. "Aloha" is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence. "Aloha" means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen and to know the unknowable." HRS §5-7.5
We know from these two events that Hawaiians have given this land and those who came to it the gift of life and the gift of love. What are we as community to make of these gifts going forward?
We used to be a local community that stood by each other. Our diverse ancestry used to be our greatest strength. When did it become a source of conflict? That is not who we are as local people. We are the embodiment of how beautiful diversity can be.
We can all recognize that what occurred in 1893 was wrong. Those thirteen men were dishonest and betrayed the Hawaiian people who had taken them in and given them a home. It was not Hawaiian, but nor was it American. Queen Lili'uokalani's actions upheld both Hawaiian and American values. Therefore, correcting the injustice that followed is not simply about restoring the Hawaiian people, but about restoring and honoring true American values: liberty, freedom and justice.
President Obama has said: "The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them."
Therefore, before we can move forward, we must face our collective past. We must recognize the failing to restore the well-being of the Hawaiian people in a manner that is just and fair. We must together rise to meet the challenge of restoring honor to this land we all love. We must not let the injustice of that one day continue to shape our lives. We must instead right the wrongs of the past to shape a future that is rich and prosperous for everyone.
We must not do this for ourselves. We must do this for our children, our descendants. Let us commit on this day to ensure that they do not inherit a Hawai'i still marred by conflict, but instead inherit a Hawai'i with a renewed sense of community.
In 50 years, I hope to be able to tell my grandchildren that we helped to shape a community that did much more than speak of aloha; I hope to show them that we shaped a community that lived it.
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Rebuttal by Ken Conklin
The Queen's decision not to fight in 1893 was a cynical political ploy. She knew the forces at her disposal were very weak compared to the (entirely local!) revolutionary forces led by the Committee of Safety. So she surrendered -- but chose to surrender not to the revolutionaries themselves, but to the United States, and to surrender only "temporarily." Pretty clever if you can get away with it. She delivered her letter of surrender not to the U.S. representative Stevens, but to President Dole of the local revolutionaries who really defeated her. She knew well enough to deliver the surrender to the guys who were ready to attack, rather than to the neutral peacekeepers who were not threatening her.
Liliuokalani is portrayed by sovereignty activists today as a practitioner of non-violence along the lines of Gandhi or Martin Luther King. But in fact she conspired with Robert Wilcox on two occasions to launch violence in which men were killed. Her behavior on those two occasions shows her disposition to commit violence if she thought she could win.
In 1889 U.S. troops came ashore, and stayed for a week, to restore order after 7 men were killed in an attack by Robert Wilcox on Iolani Palace to carry out a coup plot by Liliuokalani. She wanted to overthrow her brother Kalakaua so she could become monarch and get rid of the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887.
January 1895: An attempted counterrevolution by Robert Wilcox' militia was defeated by the Republic (zero U.S. involvement). Guns and bombs were found buried in the flower bed of Liliuokalani's home (Washington Place), and indoors were letters she had signed appointing cabinet ministers and department heads for her new government. Liliuokalani was imprisoned in a huge upstairs bedroom in the Palace for a few months, with private bathroom and maidservants, and later she was pardoned by President Dole.
Her disposition toward violent revenge was also shown during the Summer and Fall of 1893 when U.S. diplomats did their best to try to broker a deal between Liliuokalani and the Provisional Government. The U.S. repeatedly asked her whether she'd be willing to offer clemency and a pardon to the revolutionaries, in return for putting her back on the throne. But she repeatedly refused to consider it, and insisted she would behead them. Such bitter demand for violent revenge made it impossible for the U.S. to hope for any negotiated settlement. Finally, in December, U.S. Minister Willis "ordered" President Dole to stand down and restore the Queen, and he very strongly refused.
Now let me respond to some of Ms. Watson's statements of her hopes by using sentences with parallel construction to tell my own.
I am tired of seeing people of any race living in squalor on the beach, and I deplore Watson's racism in caring only about ethnic Hawaiians.
I am tired of anyone being denied adequate health care benefits and educational opportunities, and I deplore Watson's racism in caring only about ethnic Hawaiians.
I am tired of people like Watson who discriminate against every race lacking a drop of Hawaiian native blood.
I am tired of the attacks against us all by racists who want to divide the State of Hawaii along racial lines (Akaka bill) or rip the 50th star off the flag in order to establish a multiracial independent nation with first class citizenship for ethnic Hawaiians and second-class citizenship for all who lack a drop of the magic blood.
I am tired of feeling like the options for Hawaii are to rip off half of the 50th star or to rip off the entire 50th star.
We must find something better.
We have a responsibility to find something better. What's better is unity, equality, and aloha for all.
He ali'i ka 'aina, he kauwa ke kanaka. Land is chief, people are its humble servants. (An 'olelo no'eau). This land was here for millions of years. The first people came here less than 2000 years ago. It violates the primacy of and respect for the gods and the land when some of the servants pick fights with the other servants to see which servants can take over the land in the name of the gods.
We used to be a local community that stood by each other. Our diverse ancestry used to be our greatest strength. When did it become a source of conflict? That is not who we are as local people. We are the embodiment of how beautiful diversity can be. [I agree 100%, but Watson really does not]
What occurred in 1893 was a local revolution. Those thirteen men were very brave leaders who overthrew a corrupt and ineffective monarchy and replaced it with a Provisional Government followed by a Republic. There is no injustice in overthrowing a monarch who is on the verge of unilaterally proclaiming a new Constitution giving herself dictatorial powers.
President Obama has said: "The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them."
Therefore, before we can move forward, we must face our collective past. We must recognize that the revolution of 1893, annexation of 1898, and statehood of 1959, were just and fair. We must together rise to put aside ill-founded grievances so we can live together in peace and love. We must put aside the culture of grievance to shape a future that is rich and prosperous for everyone.
We must not do this for ourselves. We must do this for our children, our descendants. Let us commit on this day to ensure that they do not inherit a Hawai'i still marred by conflict, but instead inherit a Hawai'i with a renewed sense of community. [I agree 100%, but I think Watson wants to bring us together only if "her people" are in charge]
In 50 years, I hope to be able to tell my grandchildren that we helped to shape a community that did much more than speak of aloha; I hope to show them that we shaped a community that lived it. [Amen, even if I have no grandchildren]
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http://hehawaiiau.honadvblogs.com/2009/08/17/native-hawaiian-panelists-write-on-statehood-kimo-alama-keaulana/
Kimo Alama Keaulana, biography and statement
Biography
An 8th generation professional musician, dancer, chanter, teacher, composer, and entertainer, Kimo is a recognized authority on ancient and modern hula and its music. He is also the founder of Lei Hulu, a family of experienced musicians trained in playing traditional Hawaiian music. Kimo is also a professor of Hawaiian language at Honolulu Community College, and gifted his Hawaiian music collection, translations, and annotations to the Bishop Museum Archives in the "Kimo Alama Keaulana Mele Collection."
Statement
The expressions of every cultural group are channeled through their music and dance. It has been my life to have been born into the Hawaiian music and dance culture. I can account for 7 generations before me of hula dancers, teachers, composers, performers, arrangers and recording artists. I was trained both formally and informally in Hawaiian music and hula in both its ancient and modern forms. For the past 38 years I have continuously taught, performed and presented lectures on both Hawaiian music and hula in its many facets and periods. The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Archives houses the "Kimo Alama Keaulana Mele Collection," the "museum's most widely used collection," to allow researchers and scholars to find out more about our Hawaiian lyrical heritage. It is a privilege to have been asked to be a part of an important and distinguished panel to share and explain our Hawaiian attitudes toward our homeland, Hawaii, as reflected in our poetics, mele.
The Hawaiian sense of place is different from westerners. Hawaii is not only the name of this state but it is also the name of a people with a unique culture, our birthplace and homeland. We see our äina, our land, as a living entity rather than a mere commodity. Fee simple ownership was unknown to us in traditional times. We understand the land to be a part of divine providence and so we celebrate its generosity, beauty and spirit in mele. Our families can account for many, many generations in a locality and therefore recount that appreciation in the carefully selected words in a mele. Winds, rains and ocean currents are personified with names just as people are given names for both have character. Unique features of a place are honored or even bragged about and rightfully so. Our dead are returned to the earth from where we came, keeping our connections to our special place here on Earth, our Hawaii nei.
The next 50 years of statehood must be mindful, most of all, in that we native Hawaiians have only this homeland to go to. Other ethnicities have a homeland to return to but ours is here. Our music and hula has been a large part of the lure for others to our shores. If we just take the time and effort to understand our expressions and attitudes toward our Hawaii nei as seen through the eyes, perceived through the mind and felt through the heart of our indigenous mele, we will all benefit in creating a more wholesome Hawaii that embraces respect for our äina and the people who call her "home."
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Rebuttal by Ken Conklin
Almost everything in this essay is focused on the beauty of Hawaiian culture. I agree that Hawaiian culture is the core of what makes Hawaii a special place. That's why I have spent so many years learning the language and culture -- both out of respect and out of a desire to understand and participate in my hanai homeland.
I also believe Hawaiian culture is not limited to a particular race, but is celebrated and shared and actively practiced by many people with no Hawaiian blood -- many Caucasians and Asians spoke Hawaiian during the Kingdom, and many also do today. Hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of people with no Hawaiian blood dance hula in the serious way it is done in halau. Some people with no Hawaiian blood give oli, pule, and ho'okupu when helping to restore heiau (as I have done; and I know of others).
However, the beauty of Hawaiian culture is irrelevant to the question whether there should be race-based political sovereignty. The entire Hawaiian renaissance of language, culture, voyaging, heiau and fishpond restoration, etc. has taken place under the sovereignty of the State of Hawaii and the United States of America. There is nothing stopping Hawaiians from practicing their culture. And there is great assistance to those who choose to do so.
Anyone in Hawaii is free to practice whatever culture he wishes and to speak whatever language he wishes. When I look at the flourishing of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean cultures in Hawaii, I see that those cultures are also doing very well here, even though the families usually have only a few generations of residence here. If immigrants or recent arrivals can maintain their own cultures here, then it is certainly much easier for ethnic Hawaiians to do that in a place where their ancestors have lived for a thousand years and where the ancestral spirits are immediately available. Race-based political sovereignty is not necessary for the thriving of culture.
One thing about Professor Keaulana's message troubles me. He said "The next 50 years of statehood must be mindful, most of all, in that we native Hawaiians have only this homeland to go to. Other ethnicities have a homeland to return to but ours is here."
I have heard that same statement from many Hawaiian activists, and I consider it to be maha'oi and disrespectful. Vicky Takamine said exactly the same thing in her "Kau Inoa" TV commercial, and Beadie Dawson said it on a televised panel discussion; and I cannot put in words how much this concept troubles and disgusts me.
Families who have lived in Hawaii for multiple generations do NOT have anywhere else in the world to call home. They are Hawaiian in every sense of the word except race. We no longer tell African-Americans they should go "home" to Africa. America is their home. Very few of them have ever been to Africa, or would know how to fit in if they were to go there, because their culture and language as Americans is totally different from what they would find in Africa. Please give the same respect to people of all ethnicities here in Hawaii. I recommend a book whose title is "Jan Ken Po." The author describes how ethnic Japanese whose families have been in Hawaii for several generations could never go to Japan to live, because the language and culture in Japan nowadays is very different from the version of Japanese language and culture practiced in Hawaii; and likewise they do not feel at home if they travel to Japanese communities in California because the culture and way of speaking there are very different from here -- and that's even assuming they speak Japanese at all. Hawaii is their home. There is nowhere else in the world for them to "go back to." This is their birthplace and their home.
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http://hehawaiiau.honadvblogs.com/2009/08/17/native-hawaiian-panelists-write-on-statehood-jonathan-k-osorio/
Jonathan K. Osorio: statement (biography is a large part of statement)
I am a scholar of nineteenth century political and social history in Hawai'i and have written a book Dismembering Lahui which details the colonization of Hawai'i as a slow and insinuitive process that heavily depended on Hawaiians being converted to the law. I have also been a constant activist and advocate for Hawaiian self-determination, attending and organizing protests and demonstrations for Hawaiian language immersion schools, protection of the land from military abuse, in opposition to imperialism, including American imperialism and I submitted an intervention at the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues at the UN calling for decolonization in Hawai'i. I am a full professor on the faculty at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies where I have developed and taught classes in history, law as culture, music as historical texts, and research methodologies for and from indigenous peoples.
I am a faithful husband and an engaged father who has sent all of his children to public schools unless or until they were admitted to the Kamehameha Schools, coached AYSO soccer for four of my children and have fostered and adopted our latest child. I am a Christian, or more specifically a Lutheran (ELCA), which is important to me since our brand of Lutherans tend to be religious skeptics and fiercely independent politically.
I think that Hawaiian sovereignty is about restoring our faith in the law and its ability to restore justice and fairness. I think it is much less about acquiring resources and much more about protecting them and assuring the survival of these islands for the generations to come. I think it is about safeguarding our right to live, speak, think and behave as Hawaiians and to teach our children that they may be Hawaiians and not Americans if they wish. I think that the Hawaiian sovereignty movement will ultimately produce a nation and government devoted to peace and disarmament, careful management of our lands and waters, and protective of the cultural diversity that has defined this place. I don't really see that these aims are compatible with federal recognition and believe that our people should work for a much greater vision: the restoring of full independence under a multi-ethnic nation state that is culturally Hawaiian. I do not believe that such a nation, honoring public service, personal responsibility, sharing and non-violence would appeal to everyone.
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Rebuttal by Ken Conklin
I have read professor Osorio's book "Dismembering Lahui" and regard it as a solid work of scholarship.
One thing that was not clear in his book is whether he uses the word "Lahui" in the sense of "nation" or whether he uses it in the sense of "race." I think Kalakaua, Lili'uokalani, and Osorio are happy to exploit the kaona -- the double-meaning ambiguity -- of that word.
And that's an important issue. Professor Osorio's book provides many pages of information about the racial composition of the Kingdom's House of Nobles and the House of Representatives. Osorio apparently thinks the Caucasians craftily insinuated themselves into the legislature and the various departments of the government, but were never really a part of the "Lahui." He seems to think the Caucasians staged a nonviolent but effective coup by worming their way into the government until they had essentially taken it over long before the revolutions of 1887 and 1893.
But I see Osorio's evidence of multiracial participation in the Kingdom government as proof that in fact the "Lahui" was multiracial. Ethnic Hawaiians exercised self-determination by welcoming newcomers and building a full partnership with them. Kamehameha could never have "unified" the islands without Caucasian help, which is why John Young's tomb is in Mauna Ala and guarded by a pair of pulo'ulo'u (sacred taboo sticks). Welcoming newcomers was not something Hawaiians did just to be nice, and for which they are now being punished. On the contrary, Caucasians and Asians were full partners who helped create the Kingdom and helped it flourish. That's why they belong as full-fledged members of the "Lahui" of Hawaii. I believe Professor Osorio gives only lip service to the multiracial character of the "Lahui", but is not really comfortable with it.
Because when the revolution of 1893 overthrew the monarchy, only 5 people lost their jobs -- the Queen and her 4 cabinet ministers. The head of government, Queen Liliuokalani, was replaced by a new head of government, President Sanford Dole. That's all. A change of government. Hawaii continued as an independent nation for more than 5 additional years. The "Lahui" did not change; only the person who was at the head of it. If Osorio cannot accept that fact, then it is clear his concept of "Lahui" is about race and not nationality.
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http://hehawaiiau.honadvblogs.com/2009/08/17/native-hawaiian-panelists-write-on-statehood-kamanamaikalani-beamer/
Kamanamaikalani Beamer: biography and statement
Biography
Kamanamaikalani Beamer PhD received bachelors degrees in both Philosophy and Hawaiian Studies in 2002. "Kamana" received his M.A. in Geography in 2005 and completed his PhD in Geography in 2008. He has recently completed a Mellon Foundation Post-doctoral and is completing a book on Hawaiian Aliʻi, Geography, and land tenure.
Kamana has been an active member of the Native Hawaiian community through his involvement with traditional Hawaiian resource management initiatives, political activism, and Hawaiian music. He has worked with family restoring loʻi (traditional wet-land taro fields) in Waipiʻo Hawaiʻi and is a songwriter and composer for the Hawaiian music band Kāmau, who released an album titled "Live From the Loʻi." Kamana comes from a long line of Native Hawaiian educators and composers. He credits his grandmother Nona Beamer as his greatest inspiration and motivator.
Statement
In 1895 Samuel Damon, a driving force in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom government and a Minister of the Republic of Hawaiʻi stated, "If we are ever to have peace and annexation the first thing to do is to obliterate the past."
As a person of ʻŌiwi ancestry and an educated Hawaiian I find the words of Samuel Damon to be revealing. His words inform me of the intentions of those who overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom government to annihilate significant aspects of Hawaiian identity including the Hawaiian language, culture, and nationalism. His words also illuminate to all that call Hawaiʻi their home a segment of the injustices of Hawaiian history, the unresolved illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom government and the systematic oppression of the Hawaiian culture and people, the very foundation which the State of Hawaiʻi is built upon, that will continue to follow the State of Hawaiʻi like a shadow each time one steps into the light. Until the State honestly confronts its past the direction forward will persist to be clouded by wrong.
I welcome but have yet to hear the State address the fact that there was never a Treaty of Annexation to extinguish Hawaiian sovereignty but rather a domestic joint-resolution which purported to annex Hawaiʻi to the United States, neither the fact that a majority of Native Hawaiians in the 1890s actively opposed ever relinquishing their Hawaiian national identity to become Americans, that they were politically astute and earnestly protested "against the annexation of the said Hawaiian Islands to the said United States of America in any shape or form." Nor have I heard state officials express that the voice of the Hawaiian people had never been heard through plebiscite until the demographics had shifted so dramatically that the vote for Statehood in 1959 was all but in the bag. Instead I have witnessed balloons and banners, even endured one representative who dressed up as the Statue of Liberty to celebrate annexation by waving the Torch of liberty at ʻIolani Palace. Welcoming thoughtful debate after years of rigorous study I have grown to see increasing attacks against Hawaiian institutions, fear mongering, and deaf-ear politics.
I am grateful to those who continue to assault things Hawaiian, for teaching me tolerance over ignorance, for keeping me knowledgeable of my limitations while being steadfast in my beliefs, and for being the breeze that spreads the flame. I am thankful to those who came before me that the words of Samuel Damon were never absolutely fulfilled, that the Native Hawaiian past was never completely obliterated. I am confident that the adversities they endured with dignity have led my generation to a better place. With humility, respect, and aloha I seek to continue in the footsteps of my kūpuna who were fearless in the face of injustice, loved with a gentle hand, and who chose to speak while others remained comfortable in their silence.
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Rebuttal by Ken Conklin
That sentence by Samuel Damon quoted by Dr. Beamer was very unfortunate. Everybody says things they later regret. I wonder if Dr. Beamer has ever said anything bad?
But Damon went on the do great things whose goodness for ethnic Hawaiians continues even today. Too bad Dr. Beamer apparently never learned these things.
Samuel Damon, Curtis Iaukea, and William O. Smith were the three trustees of the Queen Liliuokalani Childrens Trust, appointed by Liliuokalani herself. Both Damon and Smith had helped obtain Hawaii's annexation to the U.S.; but the ex-queen trusted them to manage her wealth both before and after her death. Was she a fool? Well, Kuhio thought so, and filed a lawsuit against the creation of the QLCT, claiming that she was mentally incompetent and he should take over her estate and have her land for himself. Kuhio lost. Anyway, as far as Liliuokalani was concerned, Samuel Damon was a "good guy", not the villain that Dr. Beamer portrays him to be. Most recently the Damon Trust donated the land under Moanalua Gardens where the Prince Lot Hula Festival is held. O Damon, 'a'ole pau Kona pono.
I was pleased that Rep. Marumoto carried a model of the Torch of Liberty at the Palace 3 years ago. I stood right next to her while people like Watson and Beamer were screaming, cursing, and spitting. So much for aloha. I wonder if I should behave like that when Beamer gives his speech on Friday.
Among the lies Dr. Beamer told in his bitter, hate-filled essay is this: "the fact that there was never a Treaty of Annexation to extinguish Hawaiian sovereignty but rather a domestic joint-resolution which purported to annex Hawaiʻi to the United States."
Well, I guess he needs some education. There was indeed a Treaty of Annexation offered by Hawaii and accepted by the U.S. It's up to the U.S. to decide what method to use for accepting an offer of a treaty. The U.S. chose joint resolution. Too bad if Beamer doesn't like that. The point is that the U.S. did not simply pass an internal resolution out of nowhere and use it to reach out and grab Hawaii. Hawaii offered itself first, and the U.S. accepted the offer.
I guess I'll need to educate Dr. Beamer and readers of this blog a little more. So here's a summary of a new webpage. I'll post the URL in an immediate followup message for fear that including a URL in this post would delay its being posted until it clears the spam filter. Meanwhile, here's the summary.
"Hawaii Statehood -- straightening out the history-twisters. A historical narrative defending the legitimacy of the revolution of 1893, the annexation of 1898, and the statehood vote of 1959"
It's time to set the record straight about the history of statehood, and to defend the legitimacy of the revolution of 1893, annexation of 1898, and statehood vote of 1959. A gang of racial separatists (Akaka bill) and ethnic nationalists (independence) are flooding the media with distortions and outright lies. Even Senators Inouye and Akaka have repeatedly told history falsehoods on the Senate floor. To honor the 50th anniversary of Hawaii Statehood I have written a narrative filled with links to document each main point. Here's a summary.
King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III offered treaties of annexation in 1849 and 1854 (full text available).
U.S. troops sent ashore in 1874 to stop the rioting after Kalakaua was elected; and 1889 to restore order after 7 men were killed in an attack by Wilcox on Iolani Palace to carry out a coup plot by Liliuokalani against Kalakaua. So troops landing in 1893 when violence was expected was not unusual.
1887 an armed militia of 1500 Hawaii people staged a revolution, surrounding the Palace and forcing Kalakaua to sign a new Constitution stripping him of many powers and reducing him to a figurehead. No involvement by U.S. forces.
1893 revolution was done entirely by local residents, mostly veterans of the revolution of 1887, led by 7 native-born subjects of the Kingdom plus 6 denizens with voting rights including some from Europe. 162 U.S. peacekeepers never pointed guns, never took over buildings, never patrolled streets; many gone in a few days, all gone in a few weeks.
U.S. President Grover Cleveland, personal friend of Liliuokalani, spent 10 months trying to destabilize Provisional Government and restore monarchy. Sent political hack James Blount to secretly talk with royalists and then write highly biased report. Having failed to restore the Queen through negotiation and destabilization, Cleveland published Blount report and sent it to Congress, hoping they would support sending troops to restore Liliuokalani.
U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs 2-month hearing; testimony under oath with cross examination, open to public. Produced 808-page Morgan Report (now on internet) which repudiated Blount Report. Senate, under Democrat control, passed resolution telling Democrat Cleveland to stop interfering in Hawaii.
Republic of Hawaii, 1894, had Constitution (on internet); House Speaker was full-blooded Hawaiian. By end of 1894 Republic got full recognition de jure as the rightful government, in letters personally signed by emperors, kings, queens, and presidents of at least 20 nations on 4 continents in 11 languages -- originals in Archives, photos on internet.
January 1895 attempted counterrevolution by Robert Wilcox militia was defeated by Republic (zero U.S. involvement). Guns and bombs found buried in flower bed of Liliuokalani's home (Washington Place), plus letters she had signed appointing cabinet ministers and department heads for her new government. Liliuokalani imprisoned in Palace for a few months, later pardoned by President Dole.
Annexation 1898. Treaty offered by Republic was accepted by U.S. joint resolution: Senate 42-21, House 209-91. Ineffective petition opposing annexation by perhaps half of ethnic Hawaiians; 21,269 signatures (many disputed) were 18% of Hawaii population.
All public lands were legitimately given to U.S. in treaty offered by internationally recognized Republic, then returned to new State of Hawaii in 1959. Supreme Court confirmed in 2009 that apology resolution carries no legal weight and Hawaii government owns ceded lands in fee simple absolute.
1959: 94.3% of voters said "yes" to Statehood. Results by district on internet. Molokai, heavily ethnic Hawaiian, 1904 to 74 = 96.2%
Dueling histories: whom do you believe? Morgan Report 1894, 808 pages, two months of sworn testimony under cross examination; Native Hawaiians Study Commission report 1983 after 2 years of research, writing, and public hearings; vs. 1993 apology resolution: House no hearings no debate voice vote, Senate no hearings 1 hour debate about consequences no debate about history.
It's time to move forward with unity, equality, and aloha for all. 1840 Constitution says we are all kokokahi (one blood). Supreme Court says there can be no debtor race in America (1995), the U.S. Constitution is the heritage of all Hawaii's people (2000), and the ceded lands belong to the State on behalf of all our people (2009). Imua!
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