TMT Mauna Kea testimony September 2022

by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.

CONTEXT FOR THE TESTIMONY

After 20 years of hearings, environmental impact statements, lawsuIts, permits, and protests, the Hawaii state legislature passed a bill in 2022 creating a new oversight board to regulate the summit area of Mauna Kea; and NASA is repeating its attempt from 20 years ago to get funding from the National Science Foundation for the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope project. Federal regulations require NSF/NASA to begin all over with a new environmental impact statement, allowing opponents a renewed opportunity to oppose the project in hearings, street demonstrations, lawsuits and other delays; and forcing project supporters to once again submit testimony in support.

On July 19, 2022 NSF published a 3-page notice in the Federal Register on pp. 43062-43064 announcing that a series of public hearings would he held on Hawaii Island in August where people and organizations could appear in person to give testimony. The announcement also provided a way for anyone to submit written testimony, either by USPS mail or through an internet portal, not later than September 17. The July 19 Federal Register announcement is permanently available at
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/19/2022-15349/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-an-environmental-impact-statement-and-initiate-section-106-consultation

Following is the testimony of 53 pages submitted by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies.

The testimony includes numerous internet URLs. Some of those URLs that are especially important have been converted into clickable links for easy direct access; but any URL including those not clickable can be copy/pasted into an internet browser.

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SUMMARY

The testimony in this document is intended to debunk and discredit two racially divisive and politically diversionary claims asserted by TMT opponents. The false claims are: (1) Native Hawaiians, as a group, regard Mauna Kea as a sacred place which would be desecrated by TMT; (2) Native Hawaiians are an indigenous people whose genealogical relationship to Hawaii's 'aina (land, sea, air) gives them an inherent right to govern Hawaii and especially to have decision-making political power over land-use decisions. Those two claims are the core of arguments opposing TMT, but they are false and divert attention from the analysis of scientific or environmental topics concerning telescopes on Mauna Kea. Even if they were true, it would be both illegal and immoral to rely upon those claims as decisive factors in rejecting the TMT project. Another reason to dismiss those claims is that they are asserted as essential elements in a larger agenda of racial separatism and ethnic nationalism which must be decisively rejected in order to protect the unity of Hawaii's lands and the peaceful cohesiveness of our multiethnic people.

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INTRODUCTION
* Kenneth Conklin's background and expertise.
* Reasons for testifying.
* Asserting the view that there is a special sacredness in the human soul which the Mauna Kea telescopes help us to discover; but protesters ignore this sacredness and would prevent us from accessing it. A claim of sacredness asserted by one minority of a minority must not be allowed to supersede or negate the sacredness all humankind (including them) should have a right to access.
* Identifying four fundamental moral and legal Principles which are violated by the concepts and actions of Mauna Kea protesters.

Aloha kakou. I am Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., a retired professor of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Teacher Education. I held full-time post-doctoral tenure-track faculty positions at Boston University, Emory University, Oakland University (branch of Michigan State), and Norwood High School (Massachusetts), as well as positions as guest instructor at University of Illinois (Summer), University of Michigan (Summer), and University of Hawaii at Manoa (Lifelong Learning). I visited Hawaii during three summers starting in 1982, and have been a permanent resident of Kane'ohe since 1992. People evolve; we continue to explore and learn. During the past 30 years my area of greatest expertise has become Hawaiian sovereignty. I maintain a huge website on that topic including historical and legal documents, compilations of news reports, and personal commentaries. "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Thinking Carefully About It"
http://tinyurl.com/6gkzk
I published a book "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State"
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa

I speak Hawaiian with moderate fluency, having learned it (and continuing to learn it) the same way most ethnic Hawaiians do: as a second language learned in classrooms (in my case 3 years at night-school with parents of language-immersion school kids struggling to keep up with their kids) and through listening, reading, writing, TV/internet, and friendly conversations. During the early years of my permanent residency, when younger and more physically fit, I participated in community activities led by Hawaiian sovereignty activists including rebuilding loko i'a (fishpond) and lo'i kalo (wetland taro patch); and marching from Mauna Ala (Royal Mausoleum) to Iolani Palace to commemorate a historic event. During the past 20 years I have submitted testimony several times to federal and state hearings specifically about telescope projects on Mauna Kea; and also more generally about bills in the legislature related to Hawaiian sovereignty and protests against the use of Makua Valley for military training: some of these materials will be cited below when appropriate to the flow of discussion.

Environmental impact statements must include a section about cultural impacts. I have no expertise on scientific or environmental topics related to the issue of telescopes on Mauna Kea. However, I have great expertise on philosophical, moral, historical, and cultural topics related to that issue. The positive intellectual, cultural, and social impacts of moving forward with the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) vastly outweigh any real or imagined negative impacts.

My expertise applies to assertions made by a minority among ethnic Hawaiians who oppose TMT on the grounds that Mauna Kea is sacred. I also have expertise regarding claims by some ethnic Hawaiians, and by their non-ethnic-Hawaiian supporters, that ethnic Hawaiians have racial entitlement to political sovereignty over Hawaii in general, and decision-making authority over land-use decisions in particular. I also have personal experience being subjected to the bullying and abusive behavior, both physical and verbal, displayed by many of these same opponents during the past 25 years concerning Hawaiian sovereignty and Mauna Kea. Most assertions of sacredness are made by non-religious hypocrites as a merely cynical political ploy.

Everyone agrees that the summit of Mauna Kea is the best platform for astronomy in the northern hemisphere. TMT protesters have gotten huge publicity for their so-called "indigenous" or tribal concept of Mauna Kea's sacredness. But there's another concept of sacredness which is universal among all ethnicities because it is inherent in the way humans comprehend the universe and our place in it.

I offer some information about how astronomy shaped my own growth of spirituality during my early years. This is testimony affirming one person's childhood inklings, and continuously growing adult understanding, of the existence and nature of a profound spirituality accessible by all humans regardless of race, which powerful telescopes on Mauna Kea can bring forth. I cannot speak for others, but am confident that thousands of astronomers, other scientists, mathematicians, scholars, religious leaders and spiritual pilgrims of all faiths and ethnicities will understand my experiences and recognize the similarity of their own backgrounds, insights, and spiritual quests.

As a boy and young teenager in a lower middle class home, I was awed by the beauty of the stars. Grandpa gave me a small telescope mounted on a tripod which I placed in a weedy vacant lot next door on clear nights. I learned how to use two cheap plastic school protractors to measure vertical and horizontal angles in hopes I could find individual constellations and stars again -- and felt disappointed when I couldn't find them at the same angles the next night because they kept shifting position in ways I didn't understand! (Grandpa explained that it wasn't the stars that had moved, but the Earth!) I began reading books not so much about the night sky and constellations, but about the science of nuclear fusion which fuels the stars; and had an exchange of letters with George Gamow (theoretical physicist and cosmologist) regarding my doubts about a nuclear transmutation equation in one of his books. Later I became a fan of science fiction; then mathematics as a way to understand the role of proof and logical structure; then evolved into topics in specific religions, spirituality in general, and philosophy where I remain today. I have a deep understanding of "sacred" both as an intellectual concept and as the core of my own spirituality. I know that very few of the TMT protesters have any inkling what they are talking about. That conclusion is based on what they write, what they say, how they conduct themselves, and my own experiences with some of their ilk whose lives are taken up entirely with sovereignty politics and not the spirituality they bloviate about but do not experience.

I strongly support the construction of TMT on Mauna Kea not merely for its scientific usefulness but primarily for the inspiration its anticipated discoveries will provide to the spiritual advancement of all humankind: the stunning beauty of our universe; how order and chaos are synthesized; the quest for a unified theory of space, time, and gravity that will explain both an enormous galaxy swirling around a black hole and also the quantum mechanics of subatomic particles (or are they waves?) that are in two places simultaneously. My first published article in a scholarly journal, while still in graduate school, discussed the hidden structure whereby all academic subjects are unified: "The Integration of the Disciplines"
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/IntegOfDiscpEdThryJuly1966.pdf For examples of my awareness that beauty is an essential ingredient of intellectual knowledge, see also "Knowledge, Proof, and Ineffability in Teaching"
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/conklinpubsbeforehaw/KnowldgProofIneffEdThry1974.pdf
and
"The Aesthetic Dimension of Education in the Abstract Disciplines"
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/conklinpubsbeforehaw/AesthEdAbstDiscJAesEd1970.pdf
I had 43 publications in refereed scholarly journals from 1966 to 1985. Many of them analyze the ineffable, spiritual beauty of knowledge, and how to help students enjoy the exhilaration of perceiving it (for example, analyzing how a teacher can convey knowledge despite the fact that it is ineffable). My view on epistemology is the "absolutist" or "objectivist" one that knowledge is "out there" waiting to be discovered; it is not the "conventionalist" or "relativist" one that knowledge is artificially invented by our imagination and socially adopted merely by consensus. 32 of those articles are available at
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/conklinpubsbeforehaw

Large marches, loud chanting and praying, shouting, and displaying replicas of ancient weaponry during Kamehameha Day parades or "La Hoiho'i" rallies, are intended to intimidate observers and drown out opposing views. The public scoping hearings in Hilo regarding the thirty-meter telescope, in August 2022, gave clear examples of such religious fascism which must not be allowed to suppress the views and voices of concerned members of the public. Placing frail elders or children on the front line of a road blockade as the first to be forcibly removed or arrested was a tactic to dissuade police from performing their duty -- it is just as despicable as terrorists or invading armies placing hostages or children as shields in front of themselves. Using prayers or sacred chants for purely political messaging is disrespectful to the gods, the culture, the ancestors who actually worshiped them, and to the few people who actually worship them today -- especially when the prayers and chants are performed cynically by people who do not truly adhere to those gods or who prolong the street-theatre to delay proceedings or to silence opposing views.

After many years of thought, meditation, reading, and writing I have finally been able to identify and succinctly state four fundamental Principles underlying my civil rights beliefs and work. Aspects of these Principles will be applied when debunking and discrediting the claims of the TMT opponents.

The Four Principles stated simply in one sentence apiece (Most TMT opponents disagree, either explicitly or implicitly, with all four in ways which will be described):
*1. Equality before God: All humans are equal in the eyes of God regardless of race.
*2. Equality under the law: Government should treat all people equally under the law regardless of race.
*3. Unity with America: Hawaii is 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, not divided along racial lines.

Somewhat more-detailed explanations of these four Principles can be found in a webpage "Four Principles of Equality and Unity"
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/4Principles.html
and at
https://historymystery.kenconklin.org/2022/08/17/hawaii-statehood-day-holiday-reaffirming-the-four-principles-of-equality-and-unity/

On September 27, 2018 I provided testimony to University of Hawaii regarding its proposed regulations for public and commercial activities on Mauna Kea lands, explaining the 4 fundamental principles of unity and equality, and applying them to criticize and improve the proposed regulations. See
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/MaunaKeaRulesSept2018.html

My testimony about telescopes on Mauna Kea goes back 20 years. See also "Ken Conklin testimony March 11, 2002 to Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources: How the telescope campus on Mauna Kea serves the spiritual essence of this sacred place in accord with Hawaiian creation legend."
https://tinyurl.com/y7vkmf66
and
"Ken Conklin testimony January 12, 2004 NASA EIS scoping hearing: How the telescope campus on Mauna Kea serves the spiritual essence of this sacred place in accord with Hawaiian creation legend; why testimony from Hawaiian sovereignty activists should be discounted in view of their motives."
https://tinyurl.com/4fhkx

On May 21, 2015 Honolulu Star-Advertiser published a major commentary I authored: "Protesters use claims of sacredness for political agendas" Full text of the commentary, plus greatly expanded analysis, is available on my webpage "Mauna Kea 2015: Sacred Place; Political Pawn; Profane Demagoguery; Recreational Activism" at
http://tinyurl.com/omjuj3p
See item 8 in that webpage for the 5/21/15 newspaper commentary.

See also "Mauna Kea Sacredness: Debunking the assertion of religious sacredness as a cynical ploy by activists seeking race-based political power and money for racially exclusionary government handouts."
https://www.angelfire.com/hi5/bigfiles/MaunaKeaSacredness.html

The autobiographical testimony above is intended to affirm that Mauna Kea is sacred as the best place in Earth's northern hemisphere for telescopes to reveal the beauty and knowledge of the cosmos, helping all humankind to achieve spiritual growth.

The testimony below is intended to debunk and discredit two racially divisive and politically diversionary claims asserted by TMT opponents, which might otherwise command your attention to them rather than to the serious issues which should be the focus of your work in preparing an environmental impact statement. While it is your obligation to hear the protesters' claims and acknowledge that you have heard them, it is both legally and morally necessary for you to dismiss their claims when considering what projects and regulations to approve for Mauna Kea. The false claims are: (1) Native Hawaiians, as a group, regard Mauna Kea as a sacred place which would be desecrated by TMT; (2) Native Hawaiians are an indigenous people whose genealogical relationship to the gods and to Hawaii's 'aina (land, sea, air) gives them an inherent right to govern Hawaii and especially to have decision-making political authority over land-use decisions.

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(1) DEBUNKING THE FALSE CLAIM THAT NATIVE HAWAIIANS, AS A GROUP, REGARD MAUNA KEA AS A SACRED PLACE WHICH WOULD BE DESECRATED BY TMT. Some explanations and proofs of the following points are provided later.
* TMT protesters use the word "sacred" in its religious meaning; not merely as a synonym for "majestic", "inspiring", "valuable", etc..
* In 1819, the year before American missionaries arrived, and soon after the death of Kamehameha Ka Na'i Aupuni [Conqueror], the four top political and spiritual leaders of the Kingdom of Hawaii officially abolished the old religion in a solemn public ceremony. They then defeated, on the battlefield, a minority faction who fought to the death waging a civil war trying to defend the old religion. That losing faction was headed by Kekuaokalani, possessor of the war god Kuka'ilimoku, whose wife Manono picked up his spear to continue fighting and was killed moments after her husband.
* Most Native Hawaiians today are Christians or unaffiliated. Prayers, chants, and hulas honoring the old gods are merely for cultural preservation or ceremonial recollection, much like Christmas is a secular holiday enjoyed by people of all faiths. It is not only misleading but actually fraudulent when protesters and news media repeatedly say "Mauna Kea is sacred to Native Hawaiians."
* Many TMT Protesters identify emotionally with Kekuaokalani and Manono -- they are part of a minority among ethnic Hawaiians reviving the old religion in rebellion against the Christian religion which they feel was imposed upon their ancestors by American colonialist oppressors; and they feel justified in using tactics of a "holy war" against "desecration" of a sacred place (i.e., Mauna Kea). Their irrational zealotry is displayed in their repeated statements that they will never surrender or compromise. Take them at their word! Such protesters should be excluded from efforts to compromise, because TMT supporters will give up some points in hopes for the opponents to give up some points which their zealotry stops them from ever doing.
* Native Hawaiian distinguished scholars and groups of ordinary citizens have stepped forward publicly to support TMT and to rebuke claims that Native Hawaiians regard Mauna Kea as a religiously sacred place or that TMT would be a desecration.
* For centuries before Captain Cook came to Hawaii, and afterwards, Native Hawaiians used an area very near the summit of Mauna Kea, 900 times the size of the telescope campus, as a rock quarry to harvest basalt rock used as cutting blades in adzes (hatchets) for harvesting trees and carving canoes -- these were ordinary commoners, not priests, who stayed onsite for days or weeks, dug into the ground, removed rocks which they then carried down the mountain for personal use or for business purposes to trade for other items; and they left behind their human waste and trash. Mauna Kea was NOT treated as "Wao Akua" (sacred place where only the gods or priests could go). A few small shrines or carved images found in the quarry area were for household worship in the same way as some Christians, Buddhists, Shintoists, etc. today keep shrines or images in their homes or while traveling in order to focus individual prayers, not because that particular place is especially sacred.
* The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment says there must be no establishment of religion by government; thus, even if Native Hawaiians today overwhelmingly were to regard Mauna Kea as sacred and TMT as a desecration, that religious belief could not lawfully be used by federal or state government as a basis for deciding against TMT.
* Federally recognized Indian tribes have special rights exempting them from some elements of the Constitution, including the rights to engage in racial discrimination and to establish an official religion on tribal lands. But Native Hawaiians are not a federally recognized tribe. For 13 years continuous efforts were made to pass the "Akaka bill" to create a Hawaiian tribe, from 2000 through 2012; but Congress rejected all such attempts. Unilateral bureaucratic proclamation of regulation 43CFR50 in 2016 by Obama's Dept. of Interior established a process for federal recognition but Native Hawaiians have not pursued it; and, if they do, litigation would probably conclude by rejecting it as unconstitutional.
* It's easy for a small faction to use "sacred place" as a way to grab power against an overwhelming majority, at least temporarily, by delaying an event or dominating a hearing room. Should Druids in England be allowed to take control of the world-heritage place Stonehenge because it is sacred to their religion? Should it be forbidden every day for anyone to climb Devils Tower national monument in Wyoming because some tribes consider it a sacred place? Reasonable accommodation is made in such places to set aside specific days for minorities to allow free exercise of religion; but they are not allowed to take permanent ownership or set unduly burdensome regulations barring public access for lengthy periods.
* Another technique used by aggressive protesters is to put children or frail elders on the frontline, similar to the way hoodlums or invading armies place hostages or children in front of themselves to discourage efforts to defeat them. When protesters expected construction equipment to begin going up the access road on Mauna Kea, a young trans-woman Jamaica Osorio (child of famous UH Manoa Hawaiian Studies head Jon Osorio) was chained to a cattle-guard grate on the road alongside a few men. On another occasion, when police began arresting protesters massed in a blockade an elderly woman Noe Noe Wong-Wilson was in the front row and delighted to be arrested.

HERE ARE SOME EXPLANATIONS AND PROOFS OF THE POINTS LISTED AT THE BEGINNING OF SECTION (1) DEBUNKING THE FALSE CLAIM THAT NATIVE HAWAIIANS, AS A GROUP, REGARD MAUNA KEA AS A SACRED PLACE WHICH WOULD BE DESECRATED BY TMT.

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SCIENTIFIC OPINION SURVEYS SHOW THAT SOMETIMES A MAJORITY OF NATIVE HAWAIIANS SUPPORT THE TMT PROJECT FOR MAUNA KEA; AND EVEN ON OCCASIONS WHEN THAT IS NOT TRUE, A VERY LARGE PERCENTAGE OF NATIVE HAWAIIANS SUPPORT IT.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/03/25/hawaii-news/support-is-building-for-tmt-even-among-Hawaiians
Honolulu Star-Advertiser March 25, 2018
"On the eve of a court ruling that could determine the fate of the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii, public support for the stalled $1.4 billion project has never been stronger. And that goes especially for Native Hawaiians, who have shown a dramatic shift in opinion regarding the proposed next-generation observatory, according to the latest Hawaii Poll commissioned by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Conducted March 13-18 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy of Washington, D.C., the poll asked 800 randomly selected registered voters across the state if they support or oppose the construction of the TMT on Mauna Kea. Some 77 percent of the respondents said they support the TMT, whose fate may rest in the hands of the Hawaii Supreme Court in the coming months. Only 15 percent were opposed, while 8 percent were undecided. The last Hawaii Poll to ask the question of voters statewide — in January 2016 — found that the TMT was backed by 67 percent of those queried. But an even more dramatic change was seen among Native Hawaiians. Two years ago, some 59 percent of Hawaiians statewide told the Hawaii Poll they opposed the TMT’s construction, while only 39 percent offered support and just 2 percent declined to give an opinion. In the latest poll, 72 percent expressed support for the telescope, while 23 percent were against and 5 percent were undecided. What happened in the last two years? "People are starting to realize this opportunity is once in a lifetime. We can’t afford to give it away,” said Richard Ha, director of Perpetuating Unique Educational Opportunities (PUEO), the Native Hawaiian nonprofit that formed to help support the TMT."

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/08/civil-beat-poll-strong-support-for-tmt-but-little-love-for-ige
Honolulu Civil Beat online newspaper August 7, 2019 reported the results of a survey conducted by a professional polling company hired by the newspaper. "The Civil Beat Poll surveyed 1,367 registered voters statewide Aug. 1-3. The results were weighted to reflect a mix of 60% landlines and 40% cell phones. The overall margin of error is 2.7 percentage points. By a more than 2-to-1 margin — 64% to 31% — of registered voters in Hawaii who were polled say they favor building the state-of-the-art telescope, most of them strongly in support. That support crosses most political ideologies and party affiliation, as well as income and education levels. Majorities of Caucasians, Japanese, Filipinos and Chinese say they back the TMT, too. Native Hawaiians, in contrast, were more likely to oppose the telescope — 48% of those surveyed said they are against building the TMT, compared to 44% who support it. There is also a wide generational split in views. Registered voters identifying as 50 years of age or older overwhelming support the telescope, with 74% in favor of building the project. By contrast, 54% of those surveyed under the age of 50 oppose the TMT, with just 42% supporting it."

Comment by Ken Conklin: The generational split noted in the Civil Beat article could very well account for the fact that Native Hawaiians were the only ethnic group where a narrow majority opposed TMT -- in every racial group young people were more likely to oppose TMT than middle-aged or elderly; and Native Hawaiians are disproportionately young by a very large margin. Census data from the decennial 2020 Census have not yet been sufficiently disaggregated to report separately on Native Hawaiians ("pure" or "mixed"), who are usually lumped together with "other Pacific islanders". It took about 2 years after each of the previous two decennials before such details became available; and we all know that data analysis from decennial 2020 had numerous political difficulties and pandemic-related delays. But in both decennial 2000 and decennial 2010, "Native Hawaiians alone [i.e., "pure" or in combination with others [i.e., mixed race NH] were far younger than the rest of Hawaii's population. In 2010 the median age of Native Hawaiians in Hawaii was only 26, compared to a median age of 42 for the rest of Hawaii's people. The 2010 age gap of 16 years widened significantly from 2000, when the median age of Native Hawaiians was 25 and the median age of everyone else was 39 (a gap of 14 years). The actual numbers in Census 2010 said Native Hawaiians (at least one drop of native blood) living in Hawaii had a median age of 26.3 and were 21.3% of the population, while Hawaii's total population (including Native Hawaiians) had a median age of 38.6. Doing some arithmetic to statistically remove Native Hawaiians from the total population shows that the median age was 41.9 for the 78.7% who lack Hawaiian native blood. See citations to official Census data; and Conklin's calculations, at
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/Census2010NativeHawaiian.html

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MASSIVE WIDESPREAD PROPAGANDA ASSERTING THAT ALL NATIVE HAWAIIANS REGARD MAUNA KEA AS THE MOST SACRED PLACE IN HAWAII

News media in Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and around the world have persisted for years in producing news reports, editorials, commentaries, films, etc. asserting that Native Hawaiians regard Mauna Kea as a sacred place. Of course everyone agrees that it is a special, majestic, inspirational place. Some people call it "sacred" in the sense that parents call their child sacred, or millionaires call their wealth sacred; meaning that they proclaim personal pride in owning or fostering it and they will defend it with every means at their disposal. But when the news media say Mauna Kea is sacred to Native Hawaiians that word "sacred" is clearly intended in a religious sense such as, for example, the sacraments of Baptism or Communion. The Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation says the metaphysical substance or essential nature (but not the outward appearance) of bread and wine become sacred when a priest invokes a special phrase and rings a bell during the ceremony of Holy Communion because they are literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Throughout centuries "holy wars" have been fought and atrocities committed for control over "sacred" places; for example, Christian kings in Europe sent thousands of crusaders to take sacred Jerusalem and Bethlehem from the Muslims, while the Muslims defended their sacred Dome of the Rock against crusaders who might desecrate it.

TMT protesters always say Mauna Kea is sacred in this religious sense, and use that assertion to demand rejection of TMT and removal of other telescopes. They believe that the sacredness of Mauna Kea justifies using force to sabotage equipment or to bodily block roads necessary for construction of TMT; and they feel justified in using force in the form of physically packing a hearing room or shouting, chanting, praying as methods to block TMT supporters from testifying. They engage in cultural appropriation, commandeering techniques of Ghandhi's satyagraha or Martin Luther King's non-violent resistance, labeling them "Kapu Aloha". But their techniques are actually subtle threats of violence against anyone who would violate their blockades; similar to the silent but very visible presence of beefy thugs with billy clubs in picket lines during "peaceful" labor union strikes against businesses. Under international law a blockade is considered an act of war and warrants the use of military force to overcome it. When President Kennedy used Navy ships to blockade Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis, every American knew there might be nuclear-tipped missiles bombarding us with virtually no warning (I was in graduate school at the time, felt terrorized, and stayed close to my radio and a bomb shelter).

Following are some references providing evidence of the testimony above.

On August 29, 2022 the State of Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs website subpage with header "Maunakea" at
https://www.oha.org/maunakea
said "Maunakea is a deeply sacred place that is revered in Hawaiian traditions. It’s regarded as a shrine for worship, as a home to the gods, and as the piko of Hawaiʻi Island." [Conklin's note: "piko" = navel; umbilical cord]. Those slogans for Mauna Kea's sacredness are part of Native Hawaiian folklore and find their way into numerous publications, some of which purport to be scholarly.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo online library at
https://hilo.hawaii.edu/maunakea/library/reference.php?view=3223
approvingly provides a copy of a masters degree thesis at a far-away college -- University of Oslo, Norway --- in October 2015 by Abby Starr Herhold
https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/49032/ASHerhold-Mauna-Kea-Thesis-Final.pdf?sequence=1
which provides detailed explanation about the sacredness of Mauna Kea:
"Hawai’i’s Thirty Meter Telescope: Construction of the World’s Largest Telescope on a Sacred Temple"

In the Abstract on p. IV Ms. Herhold clearly states why Mauna Kea is sacred to ALL Native Hawaiians (it's not merely an individual or family legend). She says:
"Mauna Kea is also considered to be the most sacred place in all of Hawai’i for Native Hawaiian people. Mauna Kea is the spiritual center of the Native Hawaiian people, connecting them to their akua (gods), kupuna (ancestors) and ‘aina (land). Mauna Kea is the piko (umbilical cord) that connects the Native Hawaiians to their original creators, Papahānaumoku, the Earth Mother, and Wākea, the Sky Father."
In Section 3.2, pp.43-47, Ms. Herhold writes:
"According to the Hawaiian creation chant, known as the Kumulipo, Mauna Kea is the place where all life originated. ... Mauna Kea is considered to be the most sacred place in all of Hawai’i. “Mauna Kea is more than a mountain; it is the embodiment of the Hawaiian people” (Ho'akea 2009; pp. 1-1). Mauna Kea literally translates to “White Mountain,” referring to its snow covered summit in the winter months. However, Mauna Kea means much more than “White Mountain.” Mauna Kea is the shortened version of its original name, Mauna a Wākea. Mauna a Wākea is the name that connects the mountain to Wākea, the Sky Father. Wākea means “expansive space” or “heaven.” The Sky Father is also referred to as simply Kea, which is translated to “white,” the color of spiritual enlightenment and male procreative fluid (Ho'akea 2009; pp. i). Papahānaumoku, or Papa, is the Earth Mother or creator goddess. Papahānaumoku literally translates to “broad place who gives birth to islands” (Beckwith 1970; pp. 294). Wākea, the Sky Father, symbolizes the upper regions of air where sunshine and rain descend to fertilize the Earth. Papa, the Earth Mother, symbolizes the warm top layer of the Earth which contains the seeds fertilized by the Sky Father (Beckwith 1951; pp. 118). In the “Mo’olelo Hawai’i” by David Malo, Wākea and Papa are considered to be “the beginning of the Hawaiian people” (Malo 1903; pp. 36). The intercourse between Wākea and Papa gave birth to the islands of Hawai’i—the solid foundation for life. The Big Island is their haipo or eldest child. Mauna Kea is the child’s piko, which is translated to umbilical cord, navel, or belly button (Puhipau 2006). The reference to Mauna Kea being the first-born is seen in mele hānau (birth chants) like this one for Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) ..."

A feature story by Associated Press was published in dozens of newspapers in Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and around the world from Friday August 19 through Wednesday August 24, 2022. This massive piece of propaganda is typical of many others circulated by AP and other media regarding Mauna Kea for more than 20 years.

Since this particular "news report" is published worldwide just now, when scoping for an EIS is underway, it's a good opportunity to see how widespread and intense the propaganda campaign actually is at present and has been for decades. The AP story was amplified in the Deseret News, a newspaper headquartered in Salt Lake City Utah and owned by the Mormon Church. It is especially egregious and troubling when a church newspaper speaking on behalf of a quasi-Christian religion expands and magnifies the claim that Mauna Kea is sacred within a resurgent paganism, embellishing that assertion with false statements about the role of Mauna Kea in the historical religious practices of Native Hawaiians.

AP stories usually provide local editors with a suggested headline and several suggested photos. Each newspaper is free to change the headline, publish the text in full or in part, and to choose one or more of the photos. The full AP recommended headline seems to be "Hawaii seeks end to strife over astronomy on sacred mountain." Notice the words SACRED MOUNTAIN.

The story in Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday August 22 seems to be the full text from AP; see:
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/08/22/hawaii-news/state-seeks-end-to-strife-over-astronomy/
Among several accompanying photos from AP the one most universally published worldwide was this one also found in the Honolulu story:
https://www.staradvertiser.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/web1_12866727-098faf27640e4ea3bf395165e2044ddd.jpg

On Saturday August 20 the Washington Post published the full AP story with the same photo showing a mystical prayer at a shrine in front of the mountain, but the newspaper later changed the online photo to a non-religious one showing the array of telescopes at the summit:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hawaii-seeks-end-to-strife-over-astronomy-on-sacred-mountain/2022/08/20/4703e044-20a4-11ed-9ce6-68253bd31864_story.html

The Yakima [Washington] Herald-Republic provided the same mystical shrine prayer photo on August 20
https://www.yakimaherald.com/ap/business/hawaii-astronomy/image_82228aa8-9c38-5795-a5e5-8165039f2a20.html
with this caption (emphasis added by Conklin):
FILE - Native Hawaiian activists pray at the base of Hawaii's Mauna Kea, in the background on July 14, 2019. For over 50 years, telescopes have dominated the summit of MAUNA KEA, A PLACE SACRED TO NATIVE HAWAIIANS and one of the best places in the world to study the night sky. That's now changing with a new state law saying Mauna Kea must be protected for future generations and that science must be balanced with culture and the environment. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File APupdated Aug 20, 2022)

The same AP article in Indian Country Today on Tuesday August 23 featured a photo not seen elsewhere: someone holding a large Hawaiian flag standing below the telescope array and next to a human-size statue of a man with bent knees, presumably made of carved wood, resembling the ancient sacred Hawaiian war god Kuka'ilimoku (which Kamehameha used to intimidate enemies in his wars of conquest).
https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/hawaii-seeks-end-to-strife-over-astronomy-on-sacred-mountain

The AP article made it all the way to India (which is a partner in the TMT project): See New Delhi Times August 24 (note SACRED MOUNTAIN in the URL)
https://www.newdelhitimes.com/hawaii-seeks-end-to-strife-over-astronomy-on-sacred-mountain

The full AP story, with the mystical shrine prayer photo, was published in an online newspaper headquartered in Delhi, at
https://opoyi.com/world/hawaii-seeks-balance-between-science-and-sanctity-730926/
The opoyi photo's separate URL is
https://opoyi.com/images/opoyi_KB2pvehRF.jpg?tr=w-600,q-70,dpr-auto

Here's the famous elderly female TMT protester Noe Noe Wong-Wilson in the Fort Worth Texas newspaper's version of the AP story:
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article264719289.html
Actually, Noe Noe's gesture with 2 hands raised looks like a joyful gesture made by evangelical Christians "Praise the Lord"; or perhaps it's the ultimate gesture of vulnerability or surrender, as a way to elicit public sympathy.

On August 27, 2022 the Deseret News published an embellished version of the AP news report, magnifying the claim that Mauna Kea is sacred to Native Hawaiians and including some outright falsehoods about the way the mountain allegedly was set aside as a sacred place in ancient times. The Deseret News is headquartered in Salt Lake City Utah and owned by the Mormon Church. When a religious newspaper publishes a claim that something is sacred, it gives an imprimatur of added credibility to false propaganda asserting that claim.
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2022/8/27/23323515/mauna-kea-telescope-debate
The Deseret News article includes a section with the headline "Why is Mauna Kea sacred?" "For Native Hawaiians, the summit of Mauna Kea is a holy place where humans aren’t meant to dwell. The mountain is viewed by many as an ancestor, since a “centuries-old chant” presents Mauna Kea as the child of “Wakea and Papawalinu’u, the male and female sources of all life,” the AP reported. "In other words, for Native Hawaiians, ... Protecting the mountain from desecration is more than a cultural responsibility; it’s a lineal duty to those who came before them and the generations who will succeed them ... Historically, only select individuals — such as the kahuna, or priests, or the ali‘i, high chiefs — were permitted on the mountain in order to perform ceremonies of affairs, and they wouldn’t stay long ..."

---------

BUT MOST NATIVE HAWAIIANS TODAY DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE OLD GODS AND DO NOT REGARD MAUNA KEA AS SACRED IN A RELIGIOUS SENSE. EVEN BEGINNING IN 1819 DURING THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM THE OLD GODS WERE ABOLISHED, AND THEIR SACRED IDOLS AND HUMAN-SACRIFICE TEMPLES WERE DESTROYED, BY THE NATIVES THEMSELVES, WHO THEN RAPIDLY ADOPTED CHRISTIANITY WHEN THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES ARRIVED THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

Most Native Hawaiians support having telescopes on Mauna Kea, including the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), and do NOT regard Mauna Kea as sacred (in a religious sense).

Perhaps the best summary of factual evidence debunking the alleged sacredness of Mauna Kea, even prior to the arrival of Captain Cook, is in a detailed scholarly essay authored by seven distinguished people in July 2021, including Native Hawaiians born and raised in Hawaii, attorneys, and astronomers. The essay explains that even in the context of a culture where the old Hawaiian religion was a fact of daily life, Mauna Kea was not venerated as a sacred shrine. The mountain's summit was actually used as a source of rock; ordinary laborers lived there from time to time while digging out basalt rock to take down the mountain and use as tools for themselves or to trade. The essay, containing numerous documentary footnotes, is entitled "The Historical Context for Sacredness, Title, and Decision Making in Hawai‘i: Implications for TMT on Maunakea".

The most permanent, stable link to view the essay at the present time is in written testimony presented to the Hawaii legislature on Saturday, February 19, 2022 before a joint hearing of 3 House committees: Water and Land; Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs; and Finance. About 20% of the way down this lengthy transcript are a letter of introduction by Samuel Wilder King II et al and a brochure, and then the essay starting at about page 71.
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2022/Testimony/HB2024_TESTIMONY_WAL-JHA-FIN_02-19-22_.PDF
Imua TMT is a Native Hawaiian organization supporting the TMT project, whose webpage is at
https://www.imuatmt.org
In September 2022 the scholarly essay mentioned above is easily available as a single item in pdf format on the ImuaTMT website at
https://www.imuatmt.org/project/uploads/2021/11/Maunakea___sacredness_title_decisionmaking_casca_20210729.pdf
In September 2022 the brochure included in testimony to the legislature is also available as a single item on the ImuaTMT website at
https://www.imuatmt.org/project/uploads/2020/12/Imua-TMT-brochure_121520.pdf

The following paragraph is assembled entirely from the above-mentioned essay, section 2, entitled SACREDNESS IN HAWAI‘I BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE Hawaiian KINGDOM ERA
"In ancient Hawai‘i (prior to contact with Captain James Cook in 1778) ... Archaeological evidence demonstrates that, while the kapu system was in effect, Hawaiians utilized Maunakea as a valuable resource for industrial activities for over 500 years until the time of western contact [8; 9]. Hawaiians excavated the upper slopes of Maunakea for stone of exceptional quality to make tools. As described by Hawaiian cultural practitioner and master navigator Kalepa Baybayan during the TMT contested case hearing, “[t]hey ... shaped the environment by quarrying rock, left behind evidence of their work, and took materials off the mountain to serve their communities, within the presence and with full consent of their gods.” [9; 10]. This adze quarry complex covers an area over 900 times the size of the permitted TMT site, which itself is small compared to the entire astronomy precinct [Figure 1; 9]. Hawaiians overthrew the kapu system in 1819 by themselves, before the arrival of American missionaries and without the support of western powers like Great Britain, France, or the United States. On October 4, 1819, Kamehameha II, who became king after the death of his father Kamehameha I (the founder of the Hawaiian Kingdom), ate dinner with Queen Ka‘ahumanu, Kamehameha I’s favored wife, and Queen Ke ̄opu ̄olani, the mother of Kamehameha II. The prohibition on men and women eating together, the ‘ai kapu, was one of the most ancient kapus or prohibitions: the penalty for its violation was death. Violating the ‘ai kapu at a public dinner, as Kamehameha II did, was a clear signal that the kapu system was abolished given Kamehameha II’s status as King, Kahamumanu’s status as Queen Regent, and Ke ̄opu ̄olani’s status as Queen. The guests at the dinner cried out “‘ai noa!” (free eating). Afterwards, Kamehameha II – with the support of his high priest Hewahewa – ordered the destruction of the ancient heiau temples [7, Chapter 11][11, Chapter 10] [12]. After the breaking of the kapu, a brief civil war then broke out, with Kamehameha I’s nephew, Kekuaokalani, opposing. Kekuaokalani’s forces were defeated by Kamehameha II’s at Kuamo‘o [12]. The victory by Kamehameha II’s forces established, as a matter of Hawaiian political history, that no Hawaiian could impose kapu prohibitions on another ever again. The Hawaiian Kingdom issued binding Constitutions in 1840, 1852, 1864, and 1887. Each constitution explicitly granted all citizens freedom of religion “according to the dictates of their own consciences”, not according to an official state-authorized religious organization [13; 14; 15; 16]. The 1852, 1864, and 1887 constitutions further clarified that religious freedoms are protected, so long as they do not interfere with “the peace and safety of [the Hawaiian] Kingdom”. The public-facing beliefs of the mo‘i (monarchs) of the Hawaiian Kingdom from Kamehameha II onwards provided no evidence that the kapu system or corpus of traditional (i.e. pre-western contact) religious beliefs were considered normative, including any surrounding Maunakea. Successors to Kamehameha II were either members of the Congregational Church or Church of Hawai‘i (Anglican). The last monarch of Hawai‘i, Queen Lili‘oukalani, was a particularly devout Protestant Christian whose autobiography contains a vivid description of and affinity with Mauna Loa and the crater lake of Kilauea but no similar focus on (or even mention of) Maunakea [17, Chapter 11]."

An interesting webpage providing biographical information about Hawaiian astronomers is at
https://discoverhawaiiscience.com/astronomy
Perhaps the most famous Native Hawaiian supporter of TMT is the master navigator captain of the Hokule'a voyaging canoe, the late Chad Kālepa Baybayan, awarded the highest navigator rank of pwo by Pius Mau Piailug from Satawal, Micronesia, who was responsible for training the original navigators in the Polynesian Voyaging Society when they began the resurgence of Hawaiian voyaging canoes in the 1970s. Mr. Baybayan was a strong supporter of the TMT project on Mauna Kea as can be seen in his biographical subpage at
https://discoverhawaiiscience.com/astronomy/kalepa-baybayan-and-astronomy/
There's also a subpage devoted to astronomer Mailani Neal (including her pro-TMT petition) at
https://discoverhawaiiscience.com/astronomy/mailani-neal/

--------

OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED REPRESENTATIVES SPEAKING FOR THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN COMMUNITY HAVE USUALLY SUPPORTED USING MAUNA KEA FOR ASTRONOMY, PARTLY BECAUSE THEY EXPECT MEGABUCKS FROM SUCH PROJECTS FOR RACIAL ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS. IF A GROUP TRULY BELIEVES SOMETHING IS SACRED AND WOULD BE DESECRATED BY USING IT FOR A SPECIFIC PROJECT, WOULD THEY SELL OR RENT IT FOR SUCH A PROJECT?

During two decades before 2015, the State of Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs consistently supported placing astronomy telescopes on Mauna Kea. In 2009 the OHA board passed a resolution supporting TMT. But then at a board meeting in April 2015 OHA withdrew its standing support for such projects and adopted a neutral stance. See
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/oha-trustees-rescind-support-for-thirty-meter-telescope/

OHA's main concern, both before and after 2015, was always money not sacredness (OHA by statute law is entitled to 20% of ceded land revenue, although the telescopes avoid that extortion by giving valuable telescope time to UH instead of cash). This is significant because OHA speaks on behalf of what's important to Native Hawaiians. Before the Rice v. Cayetano decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in year 2000, the only people who were allowed to vote for or run as candidates for the OHA governing board were Native Hawaiians. The Rice decision forced Hawaii to allow all registered voters regardless of race to vote for OHA board members, and the federal courts then followed up with a ruling that any registered voter could also run as a candidate for the OHA board, regardless of race. But only one board member has ever been actually appointed or elected who lacks Hawaiian native blood; so OHA remains the voice of the Native Hawaiian people.

Clayton Hee was elected and served as Chairman of OHA for many years, both before and after the Rice decision. In 2002, at a time when a telescope project proposed for Mauna Kea was the focus of heated controversy, Chairman Hee gave an interview saying that if NASA would give OHA $20 Million, then the protests would go away. Later Kealoha Pisciotta, a leader of the anti-TMT protesters, raised that figure to $50 Million. Andrew Walden, editor of the online newspaper Hawaii Free Press, has been keeping track for many years of OHA's demands for money for telescopes on Mauna Kea; and many of his articles provide clickable links to his previous articles and to other news reports. See
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/Articles-Main/ID/25098/OHA-in-Court-Mauna-Kea-Must-be-a-Money-Maker-for-Us

Of course Mauna Kea truly is sacred. WHAT?!! Didn't I just produce evidence debunking that? But of course every person, place, and thing in the universe is sacred. God is transcendent, above and beyond any limits, ultimately unknowable and unexplainable. But God is also immanent, present everywhere and throughout all time, in the biggest galaxies and the smallest subatomic particles; and even inside you and me. So yes, Mauna Kea is sacred in a religious sense -- but so also is everything else! If a Native Hawaiian tells you Mauna Kea is sacred, ask them to name or show anything that is not. Saying Mauna Kea is sacred is not really saying anything at all that differentiates it or restricts how it should be managed. I'm reminded of a Chancellor at Windward Community College who produced a slogan to be used for impressing and recruiting students: "From here you can go anywhere." Wow! Absolutely true, but meaningless because it is true for any location in the universe.

What's needed is a theology of sacredness, a taxonomy of how to describe it, and a theory of ethics describing our rights and duties toward sacred things; and those are completely absent from the discourse of Native Hawaiians about Mauna Kea. Will someone provide a list of the sacred places in Hawaii, ranked according to level of sacredness? If a Hawaiian tribe is eventually created and is given federal recognition, which "sacred places" must be held at all costs and which ones can be negotiated away in return for economically productive lands to fund the Kanaka government? Rank these from top to bottom: Mauna Kea; Iolani Palace; Waipi'o Valley; Kuamo'o; Mauna Ala; Nu'uanu Pali; Iao Valley; Kahana Valley; Leina a ka 'Uhane o Ka'Ena; Pu'u Honua o Honaunau; Pu'u Kohola; the taro patch at UH; Ala Moana shopping center; and how about that bridge in Haleiwa?

For those who like analogies: telescopes are as sacred to astronomers as crucifixes are to Christians, or as the thrones in Iolani Palace are to Hawaiian sovereignty activists. One of the photos accompanying some versions of the current AP news report shows a lineup of telescopes on Mauna Kea viewed from below
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hawaii-seeks-end-to-strife-over-astronomy-on-sacred-mountain/2022/08/20/4703e044-20a4-11ed-9ce6-68253bd31864_story.html

which is eerily reminiscent of the centuries-old lineup of moai waiting to be venerated on a platform in Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
https://imaginarapanui.com/en/rapa-nui-culture/moai-easter-island-statues/

Here are some additional webpages about the ancient Hawaiian religion, Christianity, and their intersection:

The role of religion in Hawaiian history and sovereignty. How the ancient native Hawaiian religion is being revived to serve the political goal of establishing race-based sovereignty. How the native religion and Christian religion shaped culture and politics in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Compilation of selected webpages and books.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/ReligionHawnHistSovRefs.html

Political conflict between Christian institutions vs. ancient Hawaiian religion (especially regarding the role of hula)
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/religchristvhaw.html

The rise and fall of Christianity in Hawaiian politics. Ethnic Hawaiian race-nationalists are currently rejecting Christianity and reviving their ancient Pagan religion as a political weapon to assert racial supremacy over government decision-making and land ownership. Something similar happened in the 1800s. A movie released December 6, 2019 portrays a heroic native Hawaiian chiefess publicly defying the volcano goddess Pele and invoking the Christian God to stop lava from destroying Hilo in 1824; but in 1881 a powerful native Hawaiian princess saved Hilo by publicly praying to Pele after Christian missionaries and their followers had failed to stop the lava.
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/RiseFallChrstHaw.html

A complete reproduction of the paper prepared by Rubellite Kawena Johnson, entitled, "Religion Section of Native Hawaiians Study Commission Report" (February 1983), written at the direction of and funded by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Rubellite Johnson is an Associate Professor emerita in Hawaiian Language, Department of Indo-Pacific Languages, at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus.
https://grihwiki.kenconklin.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=NHSC_Native_Hawaiian_Religion

===============
===============

(2) Discrediting the false claim that Native Hawaiians are an indigenous people whose genealogical relationship to Hawaii's 'aina (land, sea, air) gives them an inherent right to govern Hawaii and especially to have decision-making political power over land-use decisions.

The testimony below will focus on two aspects of that false claim:

(A) The United States government, and its puppet regime the fake State of Hawaii, allegedly have no legal jurisdiction in Hawaii.
(B) Native Hawaiians are an indigenous people who are allegedly the genealogical descendants of the gods and genealogical siblings of these islands; and therefore Native Hawaiians have an inherent right to govern Hawaii and especially to have decision-making political power over land-use decisions.

In the Introduction to this testimony, I identified Four Principles and stated them simply in one sentence apiece. Most TMT opponents disagree, either explicitly or implicitly, with all four in ways which will be described. Their utter contempt for these Principles, and their zealotry in working to undermine them, is prima facia evidence to discredit their words and deeds.

*1. Equality before God: All humans are equal in the eyes of God regardless of race. *2. Equality under the law: Government should treat all people equally under the law regardless of race. *3. Unity with America: Hawaii is 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, not divided along racial lines.

Somewhat more-detailed explanations of these four Principles can be found in a webpage "Four Principles of Equality and Unity"
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/4Principles.html
and also in a blog at
https://historymystery.kenconklin.org/2022/08/17/hawaii-statehood-day-holiday-reaffirming-the-four-principles-of-equality-and-unity/

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

(A) The United States government, and its alleged puppet regime the fake State of Hawaii, allegedly have no legal jurisdiction in Hawaii.

Protesters say that the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893 was illegal, the annexation of Hawaii to the USA in 1898 was illegal, and the Statehood plebiscite in 1959 was illegal; therefore Hawaii is not legally a part of the USA; therefore laws and administrative procedures of the U.S. or its puppet regime (The State of Hawaii) have no legal jurisdiction or moral validity in Hawaii. Relevant examples of such laws and procedures include the lease for management of Mauna Kea; the newly created Mauna Kea oversight authority established by the 2022 legislature's enactment of HB2024HD1SD2CD1 which Governor Ige signed into law as Act 255; and of course the "fake" State of Hawaii itself; and the federal and state procedures for creating and confirming an environmental impact statement.

Principles 3 and 4, the Unity Principles, apply to the false claim (A). Unity with America: Hawaii is the 50th State of the USA, whose laws rightfully have jurisdiction here. Unity of Hawaii: The people and lands of Hawaii should remain unified under the single sovereignty of the State of Hawaii, not divided along racial lines.

Over the years I have written many webpages on various aspects of these topics. Some webpages are free-flowing personal opinion; others are filled with numerous citations to historical facts or legal documents. To avoid burdening readers with hundreds of pages that might not address their specific concerns, I will simply provide headlines and links to those webpages, and perhaps small snippets to make clear what each webpage discusses.

Historical Issues Related to Hawaiian Sovereignty -- Revolution (Overthrow of monarchy), Annexation, Statehood, Indigenous Status, Hawaiian Language Ban, Ceded Lands, Etc.
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/historical.html

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.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/StatehoodHistUntwisted.html

Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D. vs. Bill Fernandez, retired judge and mayor, regarding a list of Native Hawaiian historical grievances asserted as reasons why a project to construct a 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea should be cancelled. Detailed point-by-point rebuttal.
http://big11a.angelfire.com/DialogConklinFernandezHistoricalGrievances.html

The following webpages are listed roughly in the order of the historical events they discuss: overthrow, annexation, statehood. The purpose of referring to these historical analyses is to demonstrate how the issue of TMT on Mauna Kea fits into the larger agenda of Hawaiian sovereignty activists seeking to drive the USA out of Hawaii, or to create a Hawaiian tribe and divide our people and lands along racial lines. The Mauna Kea hearings provide loyal Americans a platform to counteract the secessionist/separatist agenda, just as the hearings are used by the protesters as a platform where they are very aggressively pushing their own larger agenda. See my book "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State"
http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa

A revolution in 1887 by 1500 armed local men had forced King Kalakaua to agree to a new Constitution giving up most of his powers but retaining his figurehead status as King. The U.S. played no part in that event. On January 17, 1893 the same local revolutionaries took the final step and dethroned Queen Lili'uokalani. There were serious threats of violence and arson as the revolution moved from rumor to reality from January14-17. Therefore the U.S. representative in Hawaii sent 162 sailors and marines ashore to protect American lives and property and to prevent rioting -- the same sort of peacekeeping mission done in modern times in Granada, Haiti, and, quite recently, in Liberia -- the same sort of peacekeeping done previously in 1874 when Kalakaua defeated Emma by bribing the legislators with liquor and money. In January 1893 U.S. forces remained scrupulously neutral; did not conspire beforehand with the revolutionaries; did not provide assistance during the revolution; did not fire a shot or take over any buildings. The mere presence of U.S. troops in Honolulu might have encouraged the revolutionaries and discouraged the Queen's forces; although there is also evidence that some royalists thought the U.S. troops would support the Queen. From March through December 1893 the new U.S. President Grover Cleveland, through his diplomatic representative, tried to undermine the Dole government -- including "Black Week" at the end of December when he ordered two U.S. warships very near the Honolulu shore to conduct war-game cannon fire and simulated troop landings in an effort to intimidate the Dole government into resigning. In early 1894, after two months of hearing sworn testimony under cross examination in open session, the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by James Morgan, published an 808-page report concluding that the U.S. had not conspired with the Hawaii revolutionaries beforehand and had not assisted them during the revolution. The Morgan report repudiated a previous report by Cleveland's hatchet-man James Blount. It included evidence that Blount had listened to the royalists while excluding most of the revolutionaries, and had falsified or misrepresented some statements made to him. As a result of the Morgan report the Senate passed a resolution that there should be no further U.S. interference in Hawaii, thus destroying Cleveland's hope for approval of U.S. intervention to restore the Queen. Also as a result of the Morgan report, President Cleveland gave up any further efforts on the Queen's behalf; he signed a short letter giving formal diplomatic recognition de jure (rather than merely de facto) to the Dole government, and he engaged in diplomatic negotiations regarding further implementation of treaties. The Dole government held power for more than 5 years, including all 4 years of an initially hostile President Cleveland, and in the face of an attempted armed counter-revolution (January 1895) in which several men were killed and many were imprisoned. The Dole government was not democratic, and probably did not enjoy the support of the majority of Hawaii's people. But it was given diplomatic recognition by all the nations who had previously recognized the monarchy; just like other oligarchies around the world which might have lacked majority support among the populace. The Morgan report, and President Cleveland's turnabout, should have settled once and for all that the U.S. did not overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, and does not owe any reparations to Native Hawaiians. Indeed, the U.S. during the first year of Grover Cleveland's administration provided the best possible kind of reparations by trying aggressively to undo the Hawaiian revolution forthwith. But when the apology resolution came up in the Senate 99 years later, even the strongest opponents of that resolution had forgotten all about the Morgan report and meekly said they had no quarrel with the history contained in the "whereas" clauses of the apology resolution -- a historical narrative filled with errors and distortions that the Morgan report would have easily corrected.

THE MORGAN REPORT -- OFFICIAL U.S. SENATE REPORT OF 1894 REGARDING THE 1893 REVOLUTION THAT OVERTHREW THE HAWAIIAN MONARCHY. 808 PAGES of historical documents and testimony under oath in open hearings under cross-examination. On the webpage, start with "Outline of Topics", read the summaries of each testimony, and see "Morgan's Gems." Full text of all 808 pages is provided (digitized and searchable), along with photos of all the original pages.
http://morganreport.org

Book Review of William M. Morgan Ph.D., PACIFIC GIBRALTAR: U.S. - JAPANESE RIVALRY OVER THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII, 1885-1898 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011). Historian analyzes the Hawaiian revolution and annexation, and Grover Cleveland's attempt to overthrow President Dole and restore the Hawaiian monarchy. Special attention to Japanese immigration, Japanese diplomatic and military involvement in opposing annexation, and the normalcy of using joint resolution as the method of annexation.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/PacificGibraltarBookReview.html

Constitutional law scholar Bruce Fein provided a point-by-point criticism of the Hawaiian apology resolution on pp. 5-18 of his monograph "Hawaii Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand." That entire monograph in pdf format is available at:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi5/bigfiles3/AkakaHawaiiDividedFeinJune2005.pdf

Hawaiian REPARATIONS: NOTHING LOST, NOTHING OWED by Patrick W. Hanifin, esq.; Hawaii Bar Journal, XVII, 2 (1982). Mr. Hanifin's lengthy, heavily footnoted article can be downloaded in pdf format. An informal summary of it published in a newspaper is also available. A tribute to Mr. Hanifin with biographical information and some of his other publications is also available. To find all this material in one place, go to:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/hanifinreparations.html

U.S. apology resolution 20th anniversary -- A resolution was introduced in the Hawaii legislature to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the U.S. apology resolution; and testimony was offered to the Hawaii legislature in the form of a substitute resolution explaining that the apology resolution is filled with falsehoods, has produced bad consequences, and should be repealed.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/ApologyReso20thAnniv.html

The Republic of Hawaii was created on July 4, 1894, with the publication of its Constitution. At least five native Hawaiians were delegates to the Constitutional Convention; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic was full-blooded native Hawaiian John Kaulukou who had previously been a royalist supporter of Lili'uokalani. The full text of the Constitution, and information about the Constitutional Convention that produced it, are available at:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/RepubHawConst1894.html

Republic of Hawaii -- letters of formal diplomatic recognition in 11 languages personally signed by Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Presidents of at least 19 nations on 4 continents sent to President Sanford B. Dole in Fall, 1894. This webpage describes the context and significance of the letters
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/RepublicLettersRecog.html
This webpage provides photos of the actual letters, and explanations of why each letter is important.
https://historymystery.kenconklin.org/recognition-of-the-republic-of-hawaii/

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.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/TreatyOfAnnexationHawaiiUS.html

HAWAII STATEHOOD -- A Brief History of the Struggle to Achieve Statehood, and Current Challenges
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/statehoodhistandcurr.html

A webpage reviews the history of efforts to get official government recognition of ethnic Hawaiians as a political entity or Indian tribe -- a narrative summary covering 21 years 2000 through 2020, broken into two-year Congressional periods. Each "Congress" has a link to an index for that two year period, broken into sub-indexes in chronological order, linking to webpages providing full text of news reports, commentary, and lawsuits regarding the Akaka bill in Congress, stealth maneuvers by Senator Inouye, Obama Department of Interior regulatory process, Hawaii legislature bills and resolutions, etc.; and efforts to gain local and international recognition of Hawaii as an allegedly continuing independent nation, through protests and lawsuits in Hawaii regarding Mauna Kea and taxes on land, and lobbying activity in the United Nations (both New York and Geneva).
http://big11a.angelfire.com/AkakaHistSummary2000to2022.html

History of efforts to create a Hawaiian tribe during the 117th Congress (January 2021 through December 2022), including efforts to create a state-recognized tribe and efforts to get federal recognition through Dept. of Interior regulation, executive order, or Congressional legislation; and efforts to get local and international recognition of an alleged continuing independent nation of Hawaii.
http://big11a.angelfire.com/AkakaHist117thCong.html

134 pages of testimony by Kenneth Conklin submitted to the U.S. Department of Interior on November 26, 2015 in opposition to a proposed regulation to provide a pathway whereby Native Hawaiians can achieve federal recognition as the equivalent of an Indian tribe. After further work the regulation was finalized and unilaterally proclaimed into law by publication in the Federal Record on October 14, 2016 as 43CFR50
https://big09.angelfire.com/NPRM100115Conklin112615.pdf

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(B) Native Hawaiians are (allegedly) an indigenous people who are (allegedly) the genealogical descendants of the gods and genealogical siblings of these islands; and therefore Native Hawaiians have an inherent right to govern Hawaii and especially to have decision-making political power over land-use decisions.
* Native Hawaiians are not an indigenous people like other groups worldwide
* Hawaiian religious fascism and its dangers
* Sovereignty zealotry is a precursor to violence, as we see at Mauna Kea, Iolani Palace, and around the world
* Schools at all levels in Hawaii, from preschool through university, are propaganda factories brainwashing students with a twisted version of history, and Hawaiian religious fascism, thereby fueling anti-U.S. and racist zealotry as seen in the TMT protests.

NATIVE HAWAIIANS ARE NOT AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE LIKE OTHER GROUPS WORLDWIDE In recent years the word "indigenous" has become a favorite term used by Hawaiian activists to bolster their claim to having a special, mystical (spiritual), inherent relationship with the land. The Hawaiians would like to place themselves in the same category with Australian aborigines, American Indians, and African bushmen. But the histories and ongoing cultural practices of these truly indigenous groups are very different in regard to residency and cultural authenticity. In assessing the degree of indigeneity of a group, two obvious criteria stand out: length of tenure in their native land; and lifestyle displaying connectedness with land, language, and gods.

So-called "Native Hawaiians" have a shorter tenure in Hawaii than any truly indigenous group has in their own homelands. Anthropological research suggests that the Polynesian islands were settled by people originating from Asia, spreading through the south Pacific, and arriving in Hawaii very late in the process. Clearly Marquesas and Tahiti were settled long before Hawai'i. But China, Africa, and even the Americas had indigenous peoples living in those places for many thousands of years before anyone ventured into any of the Polynesian islands. So, among the peoples of the world, Polynesians have one of the shortest tenures in their so-called indigenous area. And within the Polynesian triangle, Hawaii is one of the most recently settled island groups. Until recently most scholars agreed there were two waves of Polynesian immigration. Some scientists say the first settlers came from Marquesas, sometime around the year 400. There are also stories of a group of people of particularly small stature, known as "Menehune." The final wave of Polynesian voyagers from Tahiti arrived around 1300 - 1400, conquering and largely destroying the original settlers. According to that theory, modern Hawaiians would be local to these islands only from about 1300. The tenure of kanaka maoli in Hawaii after the Tahitian invaders established their culture would be shorter than the tenure of Englishmen in England after the Norman invaders defeated the Saxons (starting AD 1066). Some might say that the issue of Tahitians vs. Marquesans is irrelevant, because all were Polynesians. But ethnic Hawaiians in Hawaii today do not recognize ethnic Samoans or Tahitians or other Pacific islanders as having any rights to sovereignty in Hawaii. Even if Hawaiian tenure in Hawaii is considered to be the tenure of Polynesians as a whole, that would still be only since about 400 according to the theory until recently, or perhaps as late as 1000 -- which is shorter than the tenure of the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic race as a whole in England-Ireland. Yet, most people recognized as indigenous would think it very odd if English or Irish showed up at indigenous people's conferences claiming to have indigenous rights. Some sovereignty activists like to say that Native Hawaiians have been in Hawaii since time immemorial. But that is clearly false, as the memories contained in their own genealogies tracing through Tahiti can testify, along with the stories of the voyaging canoes. Research was reported in a University of Hawaii press release dated January 3, 2011, which sets the date of first "discovery" of Hawaii at sometime in the 1200s.

Cultural practices are often invented to create the appearance of indigeneity and then used for asserting political claims. For example, in the case of the 'awa ceremony, Kamakau (writing in the mid-1800s) stated that even in his time it was no longer practiced and only a dim memory. In modern times that ceremony has been reinvented by Hawaiians following Samoan style, and the ceremony is used on public occasions to impress people with the alleged indigenousness of ethnic Hawaiians. The ancient Polynesian tradition of voyaging canoes navigating by the stars had been completely lost and forgotten throughout all of Polynesia, and was revived at the initiative of a White man from the U.S. mainland (Ben Finney) who organized the construction of the Hokule'a canoe and located a traditional Micronesian navigator (Mau Piailug) who taught the skill, with help of the Bishop Museum planetarium, to a part-Hawaiian politically-connected man (Nainoa Thompson) in the 1970's.

I personally have observed occasions when activist ethnic Hawaiians want to perform some sort of ceremony for political purposes but do not know any appropriate ceremony from actual personal experience; so they look up the words of an ancient chant as written in Fornander's book and invent hula motions and music to accompany it. This was the procedure followed in 1999, when Hawaiians wanted to assemble a welcoming party on a beach in Hilo for the World Indigenous People's Conference on Education. The beach party was created to look as though Polynesians coming from afar by canoe were being welcomed by local ethnic Hawaiians of Hilo. Numerous training sessions were held on several islands (I attended one in Kane'ohe) with printed instructions, prayers, and chants to be memorized (in traditional indigenous culture, these things would already be known to the participants from childhood and would be passed down through oral tradition and apprenticeship). The participants later got on airplanes and flew to Hilo, stayed in motels, drove by car to the beach, and performed their "indigenous" welcoming ceremony. Anyone would be able to do this sort of thing, regardless whether they have Hawaiian blood, even without having cultural experiences of that sort in ordinary daily life. In that sense, most modern Hawaiians are only "wannabe" indigenous, just the same as White American hippies who sometimes come to Hawaii and try to adopt an "indigenous" lifestyle.

"Are ethnic Hawaiians indigenous to Hawaii? Would the status of being indigenous give them special rights?"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/indigenous.html

"Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights -- The General Theory, and Why It Does Not Apply in Hawaii" Includes some discussion of copyright, patent, and trademark; and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Also references to NAGPRA; and aboriginal land title in the midst of fully developed Western legal systems.
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/indigenousintellproprts.html

Legislation in Hawaii in 2009 to declare ethnic Hawaiians as an indigenous people
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/IndigenousLegislature2009.html

HAWAIIAN RELIGIOUS FASCISM AND ITS DANGERS
* Blood and soil: Kumulipo creation legend says ethnic Hawaiians alone, not any others in Hawaii, are children of the gods and siblings to the land and therefore entitled to governance and racial supremacy
* Religion and zealotry in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement
* Hawaii bioprospecting bill
* Native Hawaiians as the state pet or mascot: Why the public tolerates Hawaii's institutional racism
* Similarities between Fiji and Hawaii: How native Fijians used military force to thwart an election where a large Asian Fijian minority was likely to gain more political power; and a significant number of Asian Fijian citizens left Fiji as refugees.

Kumulipo is an ancient Hawaiian creation legend passed down orally for centuries by priests who were trained to chant all 2102 lines perfectly, on pain of death if any hesitation or error occurred. The audience was also obligated to maintain absolute silence on pain of death including children, babies, and animals. When Captain Cook arrived in Kealakekua Bay he was treated as the Hawaiian god Lono because he arrived during Lono's annual makahiki season, the white sails of his ship looked like the banners of Lono carried in annual ceremonies, and prophecy foretold that Lono would someday return to this spot (Ke-ala-ke-kua literally means the pathway of the god). Cook was escorted to the nearby Hikiau Heiau (a human sacrifice temple) and given a ceremonial welcome appropriate to Lono, including recitation of the Kumulipo.

The elements of Kumulipo pertaining to the creation of the Hawaiian islands and the creation of humans can be summarized as follows.

The gods mated and gave birth to the Hawaiian islands as living beings, which remain alive to this day. Earth Mother's name, Papahanaumoku, literally means Papa-who-gave-birth-to-the-islands. Sky Father Wakea mated with Papa who gave birth to the goddess Ho'ohokukalani, whose name means she who placed-the-stars-into-the-heavens. Later when Papa was away on a journey, Wakea mated with his daughter Ho'ohokukalani (not child-molesting but a sacred ni'aupi'o mating), who then gave birth to a deformed stillborn baby Haloanakalaukapapili. Wakea and Ho'ohokukalani buried it, and from that burial grew the first taro plant. Wakea and Ho'ohokukalani mated again, and from that mating Ho'ohokukalani gave birth to a perfect human baby boy, to whom they gave the name Haloa to honor the stillborn elder brother. Thus the sacred Hawaiian family includes, in this order of seniority and importance: the gods, their children who are the Hawaiian islands (as still-alive sacred beings), all living taro plants (which are sacred because they are descended from the first taro plant which was the surviving body-form of the first-born human), Haloa (child of the gods but junior to the islands themselves and the taro), every human who is a descendant of Haloa (and therefore has at least one drop of blood infused with DNA from the gods themselves and from these islands and from Haloa). Beings higher on the list feed (or, more broadly, nurture and take care of and teach) beings lower on the list; while those who are lower owe loyalty, prayer, caregiving and life itself to those higher). Ancestors at all levels remain present in the bodies and souls of every being -- they can bestow wisdom, guidance, and protection; and might "speak" to descendants through ho'ailona (dreams or signs [physical manifestations in land, sea, or sky]) or in specific kinolau (plant or animal body-forms manifesting specific gods).

The place where this beautiful creation legend gets twisted in an evil way concerns what was the role of the perfect baby boy Haloa as ancestor of future generations.

A benign interpretation is that Haloa is a Hawaiian name for the Biblical Adam -- the ancestor from whom all humans are descended. Thus we are all children of the gods and brothers to the land, endowed with a divine right to receive sustenance and a stewardship responsibility to take care of the land and exercise authority over how it should be used. University of Hawaii professor emerita of Hawaiian language and literature Rubellite Kawena Johnson, designated a Living Treasure of Hawaii, who has translated Kumulipo, confirms that this is the correct interpretation of Kumulipo.

But Hawaiian sovereignty activists twist the creation legend to say that Haloa is the primordial ancestor only of ethnic Hawaiians. Anyone who has at least one drop of Hawaiian native blood is a descendant of Haloa, but nobody else is a part of this family. Only ethnic Hawaiians are children of the gods and brothers of the land, while nobody else ever can be who lacks a drop of the magic blood. Therefore ethnic Hawaiians have a divine right to rule Hawaii. This is an evil fascist theology to justify ethnic Hawaiian racial supremacy. The use of Hawaiian religion as a basis for justifying racial hatred and demands for race-based political power fuels excessive zealotry such as what we see in Iran, Afghanistan, and other places where Muslim hatred toward the existence of Israel threatens to cause nuclear war. It is comparable to similar beliefs known as "blood and soil" or "blood nationalism" which have caused great tragedies and horrendous atrocities throughout the world, including enslavement of Africans, events in Germany and Japan associated with World War II, and recent assertions of White nationalism in the USA. Here in Hawaii we hear phrases like "Hawaii for the Hawaiians", "Keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands", and racial epithets and violence by ethnic Hawaiians directed against "haoles" (Whites).

"Hawaiian religious fascism. A twisted version of a beautiful creation legend provides the theological basis for a claim that ethnic Hawaiians are entitled to racial supremacy in the governance and cultural life of the Hawaiian islands."
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/HawnReligFascism.html

"Religion and zealotry in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement -- how religious myths are used to support political claims for racial supremacy in Hawaii"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/religion.html

Hawaii Bioprospecting Bill -- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (a bill to regulate biological research on public lands is a trojan horse for racial supremacy in land use policy)
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/bioprospecting.html

"Native Hawaiians as the state pet or mascot: a psychological analysis of why the people of Hawaii tolerate and irrationally support racial separatism and ethnic nationalism."
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/hawnsasmascots.html

The history of Fiji has many similarities to the history of Hawaii; and recent ethnic strife in Fiji in the early 2000s raises important questions for Hawaii's future. Fiji and Hawaii are both tropical island archipelagos in the Pacific, separated from their neighbors by long distances across the ocean. In both Fiji and Hawaii, non-native immigrants and their descendants (some in Hawaii with 8 generations of residence) have come to feel entitled to equal rights with the natives. But in both Fiji and Hawaii, racial equality has been called into doubt in recent years. Some of the citizens with native ancestry assert with increasing stridency that they have a right to racial supremacy in political power and control of the land. Indo-Fijians are Asian citizens of Fiji whose ancestors were from India. They desperately want to have the rights that Asians have in Hawaii (Asians whose ancestors came from China, Japan, and the Phillipines rather than India). But the Native Fijians have always held racial supremacy by law, and in the early 2000s they used their control of the military to overthrow democratically elected governments that threatened to give full equality to Asians and establish race-neutral laws. Indo-Fijians had been nearly half the population but there has been considerable outmigration of Indo-Fijians as refugees because of violence and blatant racial discrimination; and they have now been reduced to around one-third of Fiji's population. See "Fiji and Hawaii Compared -- Racial Supremacy By Law in Fiji Resembles What Hawaiian Sovereignty Activists Are Seeking (both Akaka bill and independence proposals)"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/fiji.html

For the sake of protecting equal rights for all people regardless of race, and for the sake of protecting the unity of Hawaii with the United States, it is important for the team in charge of producing an environmental impact statement for TMT to dismiss claims of sacredness. Calling Mauna Kea a "sacred place" identifies it as a religious symbol -- a treasure to be defended at all costs, like the Kaaba in Mecca which all Muslims in the world face toward when praying five times every day. There have been threats of violence, even death threats, against supporters of the TMT telescope project. Such threats are especially vicious against TMT supporters who have Hawaiian native blood -- similar to the way an apostate Muslim is treated if he converts to Christianity or Judaism.

Some ethnic Hawaiian sovereignty activists, especially the Mauna Kea "protectors", think of Iolani Palace as a sacred place like that -- they say the soul of the overthrown Queen Lili'uokalani lives there; they make pilgrimages marching from Mauna Ala (Royal Mausoleum) to the Palace in early September to commemorate Lili'uokalani's birthdate and also to express still-simmering anger on January 17 (date when she was overthrown almost 130 years ago); they refuse to tolerate any flying of the American flag on the Palace where only the Hawaiian flag is allowed. Some splinter groups of activists (and even occasional individuals) have forcibly taken control of the Palace or its grounds, even claiming they have established a new government there to exercise control over all of Hawaii. The protesters at Mauna Kea have done similar things, setting up a toll-booth and/or information station alongside the access road, and set up a capitol at Pu'u Huluhulu complete with permanent tents, vehicles, medical station, cafeteria, etc. The ethnic Hawaiian members of the oversight authority established under Act 255 of 2022 (HB2024) will probably demand a regulation that all visitors to Mauna Kea must participate in a training session or listen to a lecture to indoctrinate them with propaganda about the alleged sacredness of Mauna Kea and rightful leadership of Native Hawaiians -- just as all visitors to Iolani Palace are forced to endure hearing twisted versions of history told to them in recordings on their headsets or in stories told by docent tour guides. If a decision is made that visitors to Mauna Kea must begin by participating some sort of orientation or introductory program, make sure the program focuses on practical topics such as where they can go and which places are off-limits, what they should do if they feel short of breath and need oxygen, stick with the group, ask a buddy to watch over you, etc. Do not digress into historical, religious, or political topics that are controversial and not related to practical rules governing conduct. For example: if there's an area that's prohibited to visitors, point out the fence and let them know it's off-limits; but avoid explanations like "It's a sacred place because someone's bones or umbilical cord are buried there." Perhaps some sort of short welcoming music could be played; but, when pointing out Pu'u Poliahu, avoid playing the song "Poliahu" or saying a prayer or chant, or explaining how she fits into the pantheon of gods.

SOVEREIGNTY ZEALOTRY IS A PRECURSOR TO VIOLENCE, AS WE SEE AT MAUNA KEA, IOLANI PALACE, AND AROUND THE WORLD
* Violence and threats of violence to push demands for Hawaiian sovereignty -- past, present, and future
* Critical Race Theory Hawaiian-Style
* Asian settler colonialism
* Statehood Day celebration at Iolani Palace
* Makua Valley military training

The anti-TMT protesters display a cult-like zealotry. Such zealotry, including thinly-veiled threats of violence (sometimes not-so-thinly-veiled), has been present in most political activities and public demonstrations by sovereignty activists, including anti-TMT protests. For a comparison of of Native Hawaiian zealotry with the zealotry of Muslim jihadists see "How the dogmatism and zealotry of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement compare with religious dogmatism and zealotry (especially Muslim Wahhabist fundamentalism)" at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/religdogzeal.html
For further discussion of actual or implied violence in specific sovereignty-related situations see
"Violence and threats of violence to push demands for Hawaiian sovereignty -- past, present, and future" at
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/HawSovViolence.html

"Critical Race Theory Hawaiian-Style: A Peculiar Ideological Combination Alleges Actual Native Hawaiian Victimhood; Asserts Native Hawaiian Inherent Racial Supremacy; Expresses Anti-U.S. and Anti-White Hostility; and Demands Asians in Hawaii to Ally with Native Hawaiians in the Interest of Social Justice."
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/CritRaceHawn.html

"Asian Settler Colonialism (Hawaii) -- book review"
A book published by the University of Hawaii Press (subsidized by taxpayers) is deeply insulting to Hawaii's people of Asian ancestry. The first insult comes by telling them that they are guilty of collaborating with Caucasians to oppress ethnic Hawaiians. The next insult comes by telling them that even if their families have lived in Hawaii for several generations, they are merely "settlers" in someone else's homeland and they have a duty to abandon their hard-won equal rights in order to accept a position of subservience to ethnic Hawaiians. Perhaps the deepest insult of all is the book's attempt to undermine the patriotism of Asian Americans by telling them they have a moral duty to help Hawaiian sovereignty activists liberate Hawaii from American colonialism and rip the 50th star off the flag. If anyone thinks this paragraph is an exaggeration, or a case of fear-mongering, then please read the entire book review, including the book's five-page celebratory explanation of the metaphors in a political cartoon showing Hawaii's first ethnic Filipino Governor, Ben Cayetano, lynching a Native Hawaiian in order to give pleasure to a Caucasian.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/AsianSettlerColonialism.html

On August 18, 2006 a Statehood Day celebration was held on the grounds of 'Iolani palace, sponsored by a state Senator who had an official permit to use Palace grounds for the event. It was disrupted by Hawaiian independence activists using terroristic threatening directed at adults and at a high school band. Webpage describes their tactics of playing loud music on boom-boxes at the beginning of the event, swarming participants to interfere and break up the event, one-on-one face-to-face yelling and cursing, etc. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/statehoodday2006.html

Insurrection (not mere protest) attempted at Iolani Palace on April 30, 2008, by so-called Hawaiian Kingdom Government
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/Insurrection043008.html

Hawaiian sovereignty activists have been in control of Iolani Palace for decades. The docent tour guides are trained to indoctrinate visitors with twisted versions of Hawaiian history; and insiders seem to have been involved in the numerous semi-violent takeovers of the Palace for political purposes (such as allowing protesters access to the building to stage their protests, and getting police to stay away from the disrupting of the Statehood Day celebration in 2006). Evidence of the way the Palace is controlled by zealots, and how the Palace is used as a tool to promote zealotry, is found in the fact that a book containing numerous absurd falsehoods about Hawaiian history was apparently produced by request of the Palace leadership, but in any case it was handed out for free to docents and other volunteers at a retirement party for a long-time volunteer. The book, published in May 2010, seems intended to serve three noble and benevolent purposes: show well-deserved appreciation to an elderly volunteer, Mrs. Anne Jurczynski, who had given 24 years of service to Iolani Palace; celebrate the importance of the Palace in Hawaii's history; and help children learn Hawaiian language by telling a story in simple words where every page has a paragraph in English and the same paragraph in Hawaiian. But the book "Ka Pu'uwai Hamama -- Volunteer Spirit" contains some commonly repeated historical falsehoods which serve the purpose of arousing resentment, anger, and racial hostility. In a webpage book review the worst falsehoods are quoted and disproved with explanations of what is true and citations where proof can be found. If the book's author Kim Hunter was innocently repeating commonly heard myths, then he should promptly recall the book and either refund the purchase price or else replace the book with a revised second edition, in the same way Tylenol capsules with cyanide were recalled in 1982 and Toyotas with accelerator problems were recalled in 2010. Otherwise the book will poison the souls of innocent readers as surely as cyanide killed seven Tylenol consumers, and the book's author will be deserving of a Goebbels Award for Outstanding Use of Media for Propaganda Disguised As Fact. See "Book review of Kim Hunter (author) and Patti Carol (illustrator), Ka Puuwai Hamama -- Volunteer Spirit (Waianae, HI: One Voice Publications, May 2010)." at
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/VolunteerSpiritBookReview.html

Red-Shirt Pro-Apartheid March of September 6, 2004 -- Die Jugend Marschiert
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/redshirtsept2004.html

Road Rage or Racial Hate Crime? (Thinking carefully about an actual incident of racial violence in February 2007, and how such violence can be used as a political tool to bolster demands for Hawaiian sovereignty)
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/RoadRageVsRacialHateCrime.html

Anti-Caucasian Racial Hate Crimes in Hawaii -- Southern Poverty Law Center brings the issue to national awareness in a flawed but valuable Intelligence Report article.
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/RacialHateCrimesHawSPLC.html

Regarding concerns over violence in the anti-TMT activism, attorney Sam Kalanikupua King, a candidate for OHA trustee and leader of pro-TMT groups, authored a guest commentary in the August 13, 2019 issue of "West Hawaii Today" newspaper [serving Kona and Hawaii island] entitled "Threats effective at silencing pro-TMT Hawaiians."
https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/08/13/opinion/my-turn-threats-effective-at-silencing-pro-tmt-Hawaiians/
Mr. King described specific examples of threats against himself and others, going far beyond mere name-calling, including some credible "threats of physical violence, such as kidnapping or having one’s throat slit." Mr. King noted "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 [giving] 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 studying under such a dean? The pressure on Native Hawaiians to conform with the protesters’ narrative is immense."

Mr. King gave an example of zealotry: "The daughter of the Dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Hawaiian Knowledge chained herself to a cattleguard on Maunakea." Here is a 26-second video of Jon Osorio and trans-daughter Jamaica Osorio at Mauna Kea July 15, 2019. Caption says "Jon Osorio, dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, sings to his daughter Jamaica Osorio, who is chained to the cattle guard on Mauna Kea Access Road on July 15."
https://www.manoanow.org/jon-osorio-at-maunakea/video_fe4465ea-a7a7-11e9-8116-774108bcbb92.html
Perhaps Osorio imagined his child as a modern-day mohai kanaka [human sacrifice] who will be run over by a construction truck and then canonized in the sovereignty cult comparable to Saint Sebastian (famous painting and story at
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sebastian)
or Saint Catherine of Siena, martyred in 1380. Her head has been preserved for centuries in a transparent glass box constituting the intersection of the vertical and horizontal bars of the large crucifix atop the main altar of the Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico in Siena, which I personally saw while on a trip to Europe. See photo and story at
https://strangeremains.com/2017/03/27/saint-catherine-of-sienas-divine-head/

On August 18, 2006 a Statehood Day celebration was held on the grounds of Iolani palace, organized by state Senator Sam Slom, who had an official permit. It was disrupted by Hawaiian independence activists using tactics of terroristic threatening directed at adults and at a high school band. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/statehoodday2006.html

"Makua valley military training vs. Hawaiian sovereignty: using environmental concerns and cultural preservation as ploys to force the U.S. military out of Makua and eventually out of Hawai'i"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/makua.html

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SCHOOLS AT ALL LEVELS IN HAWAII, FROM PRESCHOOL THROUGH UNIVERSITY, ARE PROPAGANDA FACTORIES BRAINWASHING STUDENTS WITH A TWISTED VERSION OF HISTORY, AND Hawaiian RELIGIOUS FASCISM, THEREBY FUELING ANTI-U.S. AND RACIST ZEALOTRY AS SEEN IN THE TMT PROTESTS.
* University of Hawaii and its Center for Hawaiian Studies
* Kamehameha Schools and its infiltration into curriculum at most other schools
* A legislative bill to create a separate statewide "public" school system for Native Hawaiians
* History of modern Hawaii as taught in Hawaii schools

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"University of Hawai'i and Hawaiian Sovereignty -- A Case Study in Political Correctness Run Amok"
The Center for Hawaiian Studies functions as a political propaganda factory, where conflicting views on history, law, and morality are not tolerated; and the CHS octopus reaches its tentacles into numerous other departments. In any first-rate university one would expect to find robust debate among partisans on opposite sides of important issues. In Hawai'i there is no more important issue than Hawaiian sovereignty. The historical, legal, and moral aspects of Hawaiian sovereignty are extremely complex, providing unlimited opportunities for scholarly inquiry and debate. But at Hawai'i's flagship university there is dreary conformity to an ideology that would preserve and expand an already-established racial supremacy for all persons having a drop of native Hawaiian blood. Trouble occurred in late July or early August 2002 when a "politically incorrect" course was listed in the small catalogue of an outreach program at the flagship Manoa campus of the University of Hawai'i (UH). Intimidation began the moment the course title and instructor's name were announced: "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Another Perspective" by Ken Conklin, Ph.D. Repeated in-person and telephone threats to the director of the Academy for Lifelong Learning were followed by repeated notification to administration, with repeated inaction. Elderly students, hearing about this, felt intimidated and were justifiably concerned for their safety. They withdrew from the course. At that point it would have been very easy to simply cancel the course and sweep the whole thing under the rug. After all, if nobody wants to take a course, there’s no point in offering it. But newspaper publicity forced university administrators to reinstate the course, which then went forward as planned but in a different location which course participants ironically called "the bunker." A full year after the course was successfully taught, the university president and his henchmen continued to waffle on whether the course was cancelled, whether there were threats and intimidation, and whether the university did anything at the time or since then to support academic freedom on the topic of Hawaiian sovereignty. The university remains a hostile work environment for anyone who opposes the dogmas of the Center for Hawaiian Studies. This webpage provides details about how the situation was (mis)handled, including a subpage providing other examples of threats, intimidation, property damage and career damage caused by CHS activists and timid administrators at that time. There has been zero improvement in academic freedom since then regarding Hawaiian sovereignty.
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/uhacafreeintro.html

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Kamehameha Schools: The mothership of education of ethnic Hawaiians, by ethnic Hawaiians, to perpetuate the Hawaiian race and culture and political activism. KSBE not only operates its own private, racially exclusionary school system but also infiltrates its racist concepts and history-twisting into nearly every private and government school in Hawaii and some on the U.S. mainland.

Kamehameha Schools (Bishop Estate) acknowledges having an endowment "valued at $14.7 billion as of June 30, 2021. A globally diversified financial assets portfolio of $10.7 billion, and Hawai‘i commercial real estate representing $4.0 billion at fair market value comprise the endowment’s value." See its glossy annual report at
https://www.pauahi.org/assets/KS_Annual_Report_2021.pdf

For several decades KSBE has maintained a large administrative department which produces research reports used in public relations campaigns designed to influence legislation and public opinion to support race-based political sovereignty and government-funded racial entitlement programs. The department also studies the effectiveness of school curriculum and teaching methods not only in its own racially segregated schools but also in government and private schools at all levels throughout Hawaii and also the U.S. mainland. In previous decades that KSBE research/propaganda department was named Policy Analysis and Systems Evaluation. Currently it is named Strategy & Transformation Group whose webpage is at
https://www.ksbe.edu/research/
A large collection of its research reports can be downloaded from
https://www.ksbe.edu/research/research_collection/

One research topic of special interest is culture-based education -- unique curriculum and teaching methods arising from the practices and insights of ethnic Hawaiian elders and historical sources, and useful in forming the minds and attitudes of today's students. By using this research today's racial separatists can shape the minds of children to foster more intense, more zealous race-focused future generations of ethnic Hawaiians. Of course that's not the way the folks at KSBE say it; but it's clearly what they have in mind. See Kamehameha Schools research collection on culture-based education:
https://www.ksbe.edu/research/research_collection/cberr/

Here's how KSBE describes it:
"Culture-Based Education Resource Collection
This HCBE [Hawaiian Culture-Based Education] collection includes exclusively research-focused resources that explore CBE and HCBE in varying contexts. Users should make their own assessments of the quality of the data from these sources. It is our hope that these resources will support your journey to ‘imi na‘auao, or seek wisdom, that would strengthen the lāhui."

[The word "lahui" means "race". During the Kingdom the word "Lahui" was used in a broader meaning of "nation" or "people" or "polity", which was multiracial; but today the wprd has become emotionally freighted as a synonym for "tribe" or "race."]

KSBE webpage continues:
"Culture-based education (CBE), and more specifically Hawaiian culture-based education (HCBE), is a key lever to achieving Kamehameha School’s (KS) Vision 2040 of a thriving lāhui. We believe that HCBE instills confidence and resiliency in Native Hawaiian learners to improve the well-being of the lāhui. An HCBE system engages Native Hawaiian learners to reach positive socio-emotional and academic outcomes. For that reason, KS is committed to creating and promoting an HCBE system where all students, Native Hawaiian learners in particular, will thrive and reach their full potential."

"What is Culture-Based Education?
CBE is grounded in the foundational values, norms, knowledge, beliefs, practices, experiences, and language of a(n indigenous) culture. It “places significance on Native language; place-based, and experiential learning, cultural identity; holistic well-being; and personal connections and belonging to family, community, and ancestors” (Alcantara, Keahiolalo, and Peirce, 2016). The literature base for CBE describes five basic elements that comprise this approach: Language, Family & Community, Context, Content, and Data & Accountability."

"What is Hawaiian Culture-Based Education?
In HCBE, the five elements of CBE are applied specifically from a Native Hawaiian perspective. For example, HCBE practitioners strive to incorporate ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language) in the classroom and involve family and community in the development of Hawaiian-centered curricula relevant to learners. By sustaining the values, traditions, and language of Hawai‘i through HCBE, we hope to see Native Hawaiians grow in success and contribute to their communities both locally and globally."

"Culture-Based Education Resource Collection
This HCBE collection includes exclusively research-focused resources that explore CBE and HCBE in varying contexts. Users should make their own assessments of the quality of the data from these sources. It is our hope that these resources will support your journey to ‘imi na‘auao, or seek wisdom, that would strengthen the lāhui.
If you would like a research study to be included in this collection, please email us at
strategy.innovation@ksbe.edu."

-----

"How Kamehameha School bribes other schools to be partners in racial segregation"
https://big11a.angelfire.com/KSBEBribesForSegregation.html

"Public education for ethnic nation-building in Hawai’i -- a legislative bill to create a separate statewide school system for Native Hawaiians"
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/Hawaiiansovereignty/edforhawnethnicnationbuilding.html

"History of modern Hawaii as taught in Hawaii schools"
All students in the Hawaii public schools are required to pass a course on the modern history of Hawaii before they can graduate. As a result of the history-twisting and victimhood mentality spawned by this course, thousands of teenagers and young adults now feel rising levels of anti-Americanism and anti-Caucasian racial resentment. Two textbooks are available for the course, and they are reviewed in detail, including analysis of the "standards" required by the state government
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/HawnHistPublicSchools.html

"Holding the State of Hawaii Department of Education accountable for propagating the lie that Hawaiian language was banned."
The State of Hawaii Department of Education must be held accountable for propagating the lie that Hawaiian language was banned. Dawn Kau'ilani Sang, Director of Hawaiian Studies, is responsible for a two-page webpage entitled "History of Hawaiian Education" which prominently proclaims the lie in three places, and which is cited as authority by news media when they repeat the lie and refuse to correct their publication of it. Thousands of children in the Hawaii Public Schools are undoubtedly being taught this racially inflammatory lie in the Hawaiian Studies curriculum that is compulsory in all grades K-12. A lengthy email was sent to Ms. Sang in mid-February 2016, with cc to her immediate supervisor Superintendent of Schools Kathryn Matayoshi, filled with proof that the statements are false. The email explained the importance of correcting the falsehoods. But Ms. Sang stonewalled, replying only "The Department appreciates your attention to the information provided on our website. We will review the website and make changes as deemed necessary." Later she never indicated that any progress was being made, despite a request for a progress report that was sent by email to her with cc to Superintendent Matayoshi. Meanwhile, in mid-March 2016, Director Sang engineered a resolution in the state legislature authorizing an expansion of her growing Hawaiian Studies empire; and the first "whereas" clause is the assertion that Hawaiian language was banned in the schools after the overthrow of the monarchy. Text of the resolution is provided along with Conklin's testimony in opposition. An email was then sent directly to Superintendent Matayoshi providing all the proof of falsity previously sent to Director Sang. On April 20 a letter was received by Ken Conklin through U.S. mail, signed by Superintendent Matayoshi on official letterhead, refusing to correct the falsehoods. On April 23, 2016 a Goebbels Award was issued jointly to Director Sang, Superintendent Matayoshi, and the Department of Education; and an email was sent to every member of the Board of Education providing a link to this webpage documenting the proof of falsehood and the steps that have been taken to hold Sang, Matayoshi, and DOE accountable; and asking the Board members to order Sang and Matayoshi to make appropriate corrections to the webpage and to the school curriculum. But no corrections were ever made. See
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/DOEHawnLangBan.html
Partly because of the falsehoods in the Dept. of Education's webpage, the Hawaii legislature of 2022 passed a concurrent resolution (both House and Senate) HCR130 apologizing to the Native Hawaiian people for banning the use of Hawaiian language as the medium of instruction in the Hawaii public schools from 1894 to 1984. The resolution will no doubt be used as a basis to justify spending large sums of money for future projects to help revive and normalize Hawaiian language, such as producing a Hawaiian language version of the state Constitution and the entirety of the Hawaii Revised Statutes; and extra money to expand the Hawaiian immersion program in the government schools. The legislature's webpage providing text and tracking of the resolution is at
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HCR&billnumber=130&year=2022
Ken Conklin submitted lengthy testimony to both the House and Senate absolutely disproving many of the "whereas" clauses in the resolution and arguing that the resolution is bad public policy, but Hawaiian activist zealotry prevailed and the legislators simply ignored the facts. See two versions of Conklin's testimony -- the second item immediately below OHA's testimony in both compilations -- at
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2022/Testimony/HCR130_TESTIMONY_HWN_04-05-22_.PDF
and
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2022/Testimony/HCR130_TESTIMONY_JHA_03-24-22_.PDF

==================

Send comments or questions to:
Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com

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