Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities.  NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  Don’t miss the biggest event in Native Hawaiian community development!  Register now for the 4th Annual Native Hawaiian Conference from August 30 – September 2 2005 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.  Special scholarships are available.  For conference registration, scholarship forms, and for information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

June 29, 2005

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

Akaka bill has votes to pass, Inouye says

 

By Dennis Camire
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — A bill recognizing Native Hawaiians could come up for a Senate vote as soon as the week of July 18-22, and Hawai'i's two senators said yesterday they believe there are enough votes for it to pass.

"It's supposed to come up," U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye said. "We'll have a majority."

In addition to Inouye, key senators are predicting they'll have the votes to pass the legislation, with six Republican senators joining 44 Democrats in support.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, the bill's chief sponsor and namesake, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist referred to a commitment he made last year to schedule a vote before Aug. 7 and said the only time left was in July.

"They were debating whether we should have the first week or the second week," Akaka said. "The leader (Frist) even asked me and I said sooner rather than later in the month."

Akaka's bill picked up additional Republican support yesterday with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., saying he will vote for it on the floor.

McCain, who had raised questions about the bill in the past, said he will vote for the bill primarily because it has the support of so many Hawai'i officials, including Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.

"Here in Washington, it's hard for us to go against the view of the governor, the Legislature — Republican and Democrat — the senators and the congressmen," said McCain, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

The legislation, originally introduced in 2000, calls for the federal government to recognize Native Hawaiians in the same way that it recognizes American Indians and Native Alaskans.

The measure would create a framework for Native Hawaiian governance, which would be able to negotiate with the United States and Hawai'i over disposition of Native Hawaiian assets.

Support questioned

Richard Rowland, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, said he was surprised by McCain's support of the Akaka bill.

"It certainly sounds like he's like many others that need a little education on the bill and what it says," Rowland said. "It would seem to me that as a senator, he should be concerned about the constitutionality (of the bill). Is it constitutional and is it good for the United States?"

Rowland added: "I think maybe we better see about getting him better educated."

The institute, Rowland said, does not know if the bill has enough votes for passage this summer but is not counting supporters and opponents. While he and other institute members are bothered by many aspects of the bill, it is not lobbying to defeat it, he said.

"Our main thrust here is education," he said. "We want to make sure this gets full disclosure. We don't think the opposing side has been aired, hardly at all."

For instance, when Hawai'i became a state, he said, there was a vote among residents. "Here, they're talking about starting a complete, separate sovereign entity without a vote of the people, any of the people."

Rowland said the institute "would be pleased with a delay in the vote until there was more time for discussing."

With McCain, the bill has six Republican votes. The other five — Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Norm Coleman of Minnesota — are co-sponsors of the bill.

With the backing of all 44 Democratic senators and the one independent — Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont — the bill would have at least 51 votes when it gets to the floor.

Akaka said he was confident that the entire Democratic caucus would vote for the bill, since none have said they are not backing it. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also told the Democratic caucus yesterday that he expects them to support the bill, Akaka said.

Influential opponent

Still, opposition remains from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Kyl, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and a long-time opponent of the Akaka bill, issued a report last week saying the legislation would create a race-based government for Native Hawaiians and promotes "racial division and ethnic separatism."

Smith, of Oregon, warned that Kyl is "a senator of genuine influence," but he added that he believes the bill will pass.

"But I think Jon Kyl has just begun working on it so I don't know how successful he will be," Smith said. "My own position on it is that the Hawaiians are not unlike Native Americans of North America and it costs us very little to treat them as they would like to be treated."

Inouye, Akaka, Stevens and other supporters of the bill said they doubted Kyl could prevail on the Senate floor and block passage.

"I still think we could do it," Inouye said.

Stevens said he believes the opponents have misunderstood what the bill does.

"It really isn't a sovereignty bill," said Stevens, a long-time supporter. "It's a bill to give people recognition and it could lead later to a sovereignty approach if Congress wants to go that far."

Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said the governor "appreciates the ongoing support of Sen. McCain on this issue that is important not just to Native Hawaiians, but all the people of our state."

Last week, Lingle criticized Kyl for making what she described as "false" and "mistaken" statements, adding that she is considering going to Washington to lobby if the vote is close.

Pang yesterday said the governor had not yet decided whether to make another trip. Lingle testified for the bill before the Indian Affairs Committee in March, and also in 2003.

Surpassing 51 votes

Clyde Namu'o, administrator for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, also was pleased by McCain's commitment.

"That's great because that will push it over the 51 mark," Namu'o said. It was assumed McCain would vote for the bill because it moved out of the Indian Affairs Committee — the panel he chairs — but until now supporters had no guarantee of that, Namu'o said.

Bill supporters want to be able to get 65 votes in the Senate to persuade the White House to support the measure, Namu'o said.

The Bush administration has to date been silent on the bill.

Advertiser staff writer Gordon Y.K. Pang contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, June 24, 2005

 

Lingle fires back at foe of Akaka bill

 

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has stepped up lobbying efforts against the Akaka bill, prompting a rebuke from Gov. Linda Lingle, a proponent of the bill and fellow Republican who yesterday called recent statements by Kyl "false."

"I'm disappointed because we've worked with him a lot, we've talked with him a lot; he simply has a different opinion on this issue," Lingle said yesterday. "His opinion is wrong, his facts are wrong and now it's up to us to make clear where he's mistaken, to make it clear to his colleagues."

Lingle's comments were in response to a report released Wednesday titled "Why Congress must reject race-based government for Native Hawaiians" issued by Kyl, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. The 13-page report lays out his basic argument against the bill — that it creates a race-based government for Native Hawaiians and promotes "racial division and ethnic separatism."

Lingle said the report incorrectly implies that — should the Akaka bill be approved and signed into law — Native Hawaiians would no longer be governed by U.S. laws, she said. "Continuing to put out misconceptions, really, it leaves you with a false conclusion based on facts that simply aren't true," she said.

The governor said she may travel to Washington to lobby for the bill if supporters deem it critical.

With a vote on the Senate floor perhaps just weeks away, both supporters and opponents of the Akaka bill are mobilizing their forces and stepping up their lobbying efforts. Senate Republicans, led by Kyl, have blocked the bill since it was first introduced in 2000, but agreed late last year to allow a vote on the bill by Aug. 7.

Lingle said yesterday she has been getting "some indication" the vote could happen as early as the second or third week of July.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee is composed of GOP Senate leaders and the chairmen of the Senate's standing committees. The committee's role is to formulate and implement policy and help shape the GOP game plan. Kyl has been chairman of the committee since 2002.

The report concludes by saying, "Congress should not be in the business of creating governments for racial groups that are living in an integrated, largely assimilated society."

It was just the latest action Kyl has taken against the Akaka bill. Last week, he inserted into the Congressional Record several documents collectively titled "Hawaii Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand," written by Washington-based attorney Bruce Fein. The goal of that report was "to inform lawmakers and the public about the (b)ill's deficiencies and ramifications," said Fein, who is under contract by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, which opposes the bill.

Haunani Apoliona, chairwoman of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees, echoed Lingle in criticizing Kyl. "As you heard from the governor, he's wrong on the facts," Apoliona said. "In fact, some of it, he just rewrites history."

Apoliona said she remains optimistic about the bill's chances for passage. "This is a time for courageous hearts and strong spirits, and we will forge on," she said.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, the bill's chief sponsor, took to the Senate floor Tuesday to respond to the Fein articles placed in the Congressional Record.

"This bill is a step in the right direction for all people of Hawai'i because it provides a structured process that will allow us to finally resolve many of the long-standing issues resulting from the overthrow," Akaka said. "It is disturbing that opponents to the bill rely so heavily on mischaracterizations of the legislation to advocate their position."

"It greatly saddens me that the opponents to my bill feel the need to rewrite Hawai'i's history, as painful as it is for those of us who have lived it, in order to advocate their position. It is one thing to oppose my bill. It is quite another, however, to trivialize the history of Hawai'i."

Hawai'i senior U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, in a written statement, reiterated that the bill is expected to come before the Senate next month. "At that time, all of the issues surrounding the bill, including Sen. Kyl's claims, will be fully debated," Inouye said.

Politicians have not been the only ones stirring as the vote draws near.

Native Hawaiian groups that support a separate, independent Hawaiian nation will gather tomorrow to see if they can come up with a united front against the Akaka bill, said Skippy Ioane, a leader of the Hilo-based Malama Ka 'Aina Hana Ka 'Aina and King's Landing Village.

Native Hawaiians would be worse off under the Akaka bill than they are now, Ioane said. "By participating with the Department of Interior, we would be participating in our own identity theft by creating an Indian out of a Hawaiian," he said.

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii last week ran a nearly full-page advertisement in The Advertiser that also criticized the bill. Running the same week as Kamehameha Day, the ad stated: "The Akaka bill would divide the people of Hawaii forever and undo the unification which made Kamehameha not only the greatest of the Hawaiian chiefs, but one of the great men of world history."

H. William Burgess, an attorney for a group that has opposed Hawaiian-only entitlements and programs, said he and others who are part of the loose-knit "Aloha for All" have been e-mailing lawmakers to support their position that "all citizens of Hawai'i are entitled to equal protection under the law regardless of their ancestry."

Meanwhile, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement has been holding a series of workshops in the community to educate people about the impact of the Akaka bill.

Jade Danner, information and government affairs manager for the group, said up to $70 million in federal money tied to Native Hawaiian programs, in addition to the jobs and additional dollars they generate, could be lost if the Akaka bill does not pass and litigation seeking to eliminate those programs is successful. A good number of those attending the workshops walk away supporting the bill, Danner said.

Clyde Namu'o, OHA administrator, said the agency is also using its Web page to explain to Native Hawaiians how they can lobby senators about the bill. At least one newspaper advertisement is also planned, he said, for sometime in July.

Namu'o said he believes the Akaka bill now has the necessary 51 votes needed to pass the Senate: all 47 Democrats and the four Republicans who co-sponsored the measure.

The House, which has approved the Akaka bill in previous years, would then have until the end of the 2006 congressional year to move the bill out. Supporters hope, however, that if the Senate approves the bill, a vote can come before the House sometime in the fall to maintain momentum. The Bush administration has not stated a position on the bill.

Advertiser Washington Bureau reporter Dennis Camire contributed to this report. Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 28, 2005

 

Housing cuts condemned

 

by: Mark Fogarty / Today correspondent

 

MINNEAPOLIS - The outgoing president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers has deplored the pending cuts in federal housing funding for American Indians.

Bob Armbruster said at NAMB's annual convention in Minneapolis that he was against a proposed 15 percent cut in funding for Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act block grants for fiscal year 2006.

''There's something wrong with that,'' said Armbruster, who heads Armbruster Mortgage Services Inc. He made his remarks in a joint press conference with the incoming president of NAMB, Jim Nabors, in which cultural diversity was announced as a top priority of the 27,000-member national trade organization.

Armbruster made outreach to minorities one of the priorities of his one-year term. During his presidency, NAMB announced a financial literacy campaign for Hispanics in Texas and attempted an outreach to American Indians on the same topic.

Armbruster has said he will remain involved in that outreach after his NAMB term ends.

The initial FY 2006 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers NAHASDA, calls for $583 million: a $39 million drop from this fiscal year. But since the Indian Community Development Block Grant program has been folded into NAHASDA, the

$68 million ICDBG got in FY 2005 will also be lost, for a net drop of $107 million, or about 15 percent.

According to the National American Indian Housing Council, the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed differing budget legislation, which now must be reconciled. Congress can amend the Bush administration's budget requests, and often does.

NAIHC also reports that prominent members of Congress, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, have protested the slashes in Indian housing funds.

One bright spot for Indian housing in FY 2006 is increased funding requested for the two HUD Native homeownership loan guarantee programs, the HUD 184 and Title VI programs.

A HUD official at the NAMB convention touted the success of the government's Indian mortgage programs. The HUD 184 has recently been expanded beyond reservation borders in states where individual tribes have requested that authority.

 

 

 

 

June 25, 2005

 

Na Makana O Waimanalo in the 2005 Kamehameha Day Parade

 

The 89th Annual King Kamehameha Day Celebration Floral Parade was held on Saturday, June 11, 2005.  The Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes Association(WHHA) Na `Opio Task Force with funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs(OHA) entered a floral float.  The task force received a $15,000 grant from OHA which helped to aid in both the design and construction of a floral float entry.

 

After much discussion and strategic planning the Na Opio decided to name this years floral float  “ Na Makana `O Waimanalo ”, which means Waimanalo taking care of the people and in turn its people taking care of Waimanalo.  After the design and construction of the float at the WHHA Community Center and at a site in downtown Honolulu the Na Opio escorted the float to the parade.  The float encompassed a back drop of beautiful Waimanalo from the majestic Koolau; the hula and kanikapila throughout Waimanalo to Rabbit Island on the shores of Waimanalo.  Following the parade the Na Opio Task Force, WHHA and the Waimanalo community was then able to celebrate not only the accomplishment of being the only community entered float but also in winning the First Place Position for non-commercial entered floats.

 

The many volunteers and members of WHHA the Na opio task force would like to extend their appreciation to OHA’s trustees and grant department.  Many members of the WHHA shared many positive remarks based on the outcome of the parade, which included a quote from:Heidi Ramseyer whom stated “the most significant outcome of this project was making our kupuna proud of us and believe that we will continue the legacy that their past efforts have already established.”  Sam Makua also mentioned, “my family and I send our appreciation for entering a float representing Waimanalo for the Kamehameha Day Parade.  The vision from concept to a working float model provided a rallying point for our community’s involvement from start to finish.  Na Makana O Waimanalo was a source of community pride and certainly a memory that will remain in our mind, spirit, and hearts for a very long time. ”

 

The lessons learned this year will be a motivating factor in other future events and projects that the task force and community decide to take on.  Congratulations to Waimanalo and all that participated.

 

 

 

 

June 27, 2005

 

Farm in Waianae wins hearts and $25,000

 

The nonprofit receives recognition from Yale for its groundbreaking community campaign

 

By Mary Vorsino
mvorsino@starbulletin.com

Kanoe Burgess stood before an impressive panel of renowned entrepreneurs, economists and professors in New Jersey earlier this month, presenting a business plan for the nonprofit Waianae farm managed by youth that she joined three years ago.

Mala 'Ai 'Opio -- also known as MA'O -- has brought the Leeward Coast community together, she told the judges for a competition among nonprofits, administered by Yale University. The group has also broadened residents' knowledge about food and living healthy and brought agricultural learning to area intermediate and high schools, she said.

At the end of her 10-minute speech, Burgess opened the floor to questions.

And one of the most pointed came at the end. "If you weren't at MA'O," a judge asked Burgess, "where would you be?" The 21-year-old, a graduate of Waianae High School who never gave much thought about her future until taking an internship at the farm in 2002, paused for a moment and then said, slowly, "I wouldn't know."

The answer, along with a business plan drawn up by Burgess, MA'O managers Gary and Kukui Maunakea-Forth and others, put the farm in one of the top spots at the Yale School of Management's Third National Business Plan Competition.

After spending a year putting the plan together, and beating out more 400 other nonprofits, MA'O was one of four runners-up that took home a $25,000 grant. Four other organizations won grand prizes of $100,000, which MA'O is shooting for next year. All the winning entrants will get hundreds of hours of technical business planning consultation from Yale professors and leaders of successful nonprofits.

"When we first developed this idea, what most people said is, 'No kid wants to be a farmer these days,'" said Gary Maunakea-Forth, who helped start the farm four years ago. "But we've got kids who are really into it."

This summer, he said, he has brought on interns who will spend 10 months learning both the technical and entrepreneurial sides of farming and get a small stipend and a lot of good food in the process.

The youth also work at the farm's adjoining Aloha Aina Cafe, which sells MA'O's high-end organic food at rock-bottom prices, and take informal classes on leadership and Hawaiian culture.

Since the farm started, he has worked with about 20 interns.

More than 500 Waianae intermediate and high school students, meanwhile, have participated in agricultural classes put on by MA'O. "We want to both create jobs and create new leaders in our community," Maunakea-Forth said, "while pumping some really good food and products into our community."

The farm has become a hot spot in Waianae and its produce a crowd-pleaser at the Kapiolani Community College farmer's market, where students go twice a month to sell fruits and vegetables ranging from dry-land taro to limes and mangoes.

With the Yale grant money, MA'O will plant crops in a 2 1/2-acre field it recently acquired and expand its educational initiatives. Maunakea-Forth also plans to take his entire crew -- interns and all -- out to dinner at Waialae Avenue's Town restaurant, which MA'O supplies with produce.

MA'O -- poised to become the biggest organic farm in the state -- also sells to Kokua Market and at smaller markets in Waianae and Nanakuli.

"We're getting well known," Burgess said with a laugh. "From my first year, I've seen a tremendous growth. ... People want our things."

The biggest growth, though, is in the youth.

Once they start working on the land, Burgess said, "they start eating more healthy; they're more aware of what they're eating and where their food comes from. It gives them a lot of pride."

It also keeps them coming back.

A handful of intermediate school students show up at the farm every day, asking if they can pull weeds for the day in exchange for some fruits and vegetables. Maunakea-Forth always obliges.

 

 

 

 

June 28, 2005

 

Manamko' meet royal pair

Memorial visit added to itinerary

By David V. Crisostomo
Pacific Daily News
dcrisostomo@ guampdn.com

SAIPAN -- Rosa Castro remembers praying every day to the emperor she knew as a young girl. She was raised to respect and honor Japan's emperor as a god.

Yesterday, the 74-year-old Tanapag resident got to see the face of Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, as the imperial couple concluded their historic two-day visit to Saipan. The trip -- the only known visit by a Japanese ruler to an overseas battlefield -- is part of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

"I never thought I would see the emperor or meet him. When I was young, I would also look to Japan and pray to the emperor," said Castro, who was just 7 years old when Japan lost Saipan to American forces in 1944.

Castro was among the dozens of manamko', or elderly, who met with the imperial couple as they made a visit to Saipan's Manamko Center in Tanapag.

Akihito's father, Emperor Hirohito, was regarded as a living god until he was forced to relinquish the status when Japan lost World War II. Japan's emperor has retained a figurehead role.

As the imperial couple visited memorials here and prayed for peace, war survivors recalled Saipan's Japanese period as one mixed with prosperity and horror.

Castro said she will be forever grateful she was educated under the Japanese administration before the war. She also recalls the many Japanese friends she made before the Japanese treatment of locals changed when war broke out.

Japan ruled Saipan from 1914 to 1944. There was relative peace and economic prosperity for most of the Japanese period, said Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands historian Genevieve S. Cabrera. But as war ensued and Japan began losing, Japanese soldiers on Saipan began brutalizing the local population, she said.

As the bloody Battle of Saipan engulfed the island, Castro and her family fled into caves, where they hid for more than two weeks. The family joined more than 40 other people who were hiding in caves. They began fearing that Japanese soldiers, whom they once considered friends and neighbors, would kill them as they began losing control of Saipan.

"The Japanese couldn't trust anyone anymore. They became brutal," Castro said. "They would throw grenades into caves."

A Japanese grenade killed Castro's cousin and her cousin's baby in 1944. Her family fled from the caves and found American soldiers.

"We were afraid of the Americans, too. They were shooting at us, too, from the ships and from planes," Castro said. "But I felt happy to see them because they gave us food and water right away. They made me try my first chewing gum. I didn't know what it was called then."

But Castro said she harbors no hate for the Japanese people.

Susupe resident Jose I. Torres was only 12 when his father was shot by Japanese soldiers after they had his father fetch coconuts from a tree at his ranch.

Despite the tragedy, the 82-year-old Torres said he does not hate the Japanese people.

Torres said he was excited to meet the emperor at the Manamko Center yesterday. As a child, he was taught to respect and revere the emperor.

"I'm happy that the emperor is here. People in Japan don't even see the emperor, so we are very lucky," he said.

The imperial couple kept a tight schedule before they departed back to Japan. They met war veterans on the beach of the Nikko Hotel Saipan yesterday morning.

The emperor and empress visited the Monument of the War Dead in the Mid-Pacific located in the village of Marpi. They also stopped at Banzai Cliff and Suicide Cliff to pay tribute. These sites are where Japanese soldiers and civilians leapt to their deaths in 1944 rather than surrender to U.S. forces.

Korean memorial

The imperial couple made an unscheduled visit to the Korean Peace Memorial in Marpi, where they bowed in silent prayer. The Korean Association of Saipan had asked the imperial couple to pay respects at the memorial to honor the thousands of enslaved Korean laborers who died during the war.

The couple also visited the Marianas Memorial, which honors the Chamorro and Carolinian population who died during the Battle of Saipan. They then went to the American World War II Memorial at the Flag Circle and Court of Honor.

Castro said the imperial visit will help to heal war wounds that still persist.

Akihito, who was 11 at the war's end, became emperor in 1989 and has devoted much of his largely symbolic reign trying to reconcile Japan with its wartime enemies.

Castro said the trauma of war continues for her and so many other war survivors.

A loud noise sometimes triggers memories of bomb explosions. She wakes up late at night because she is startled by memories of the Battle of Saipan and of her life hiding in caves. A tour through any of the war memorials here always leads to tears, she said, but she then finds peace in her heart and forgets about her memories.

"You have to forgive. You have to learn to accept and move on," she said.

 

 

 

 

June 28, 2005

 

Bill for landless Natives back on the table

Legislation would give five communities 23,000 acres of land

 

Juneauempire.com

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is reviving an effort to grant land to five communities that were not included as recipients under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Introduced Friday by Murkowski, R-Alaska, Senate Bill 1306 would enable certain Alaska Natives in Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee Springs and Wrangell to receive the same amount of land given to other tribes under ANCSA - 23,000 acres for each community.

Similar bills attempted by Alaska Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young failed. Opposition has come from environmentalists seeking to preserve the land that would be taken from the Tongass National Forest

"They took the Tongass from us. I think they should give some of it back," said Charles Paddock of the Chilkoots in Haines. Natives in his situation are referred to as "landless."

In the past, a Southeast Alaska Conservation Council representative said the they opposed the bills because it would have allowed land to be taken from national monuments and other forests protected by Congress.

SEACC media coordinator Beth Peluso said previous land given to the for-profit Native corporations have been "clear-cut" for logging, while harming habitats for deer and salmon.

The five communities have lobbied their cause since the act was passed in 1971. They watched other tribes receive land, but not themselves.

"It must have been an oversight," said Paddock, adding that a university study showed that no prejudices factored in the communities not receiving land.

"We feel it is important to give them the compensation that other Alaska Natives received," said the senator's spokesman, Elliot Bundy.

Regional Alaska Native corporation Sealaska would receive title to the subsurface estate of the designated lands.

 

 

 

 

June 27, 2005

 

Aiona remains focused on backstopping Lingle

 

As acting governor, he expresses little interest in the top job

 

By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona recently wrapped up 10 days as Hawaii's acting governor, but the 50-year-old first-time politician says he is not sure he wants to run for governor.

In a 45-minute interview, Aiona discussed his plans and his performance so far.

"Right now, I am focused on what we need to do right now. I have no other plans. I don't think that far ahead. Right now, I am focused on what I am doing here," Aiona said while sitting in his fifth-floor state Capitol office.

The office has been home to three lieutenant governors who became governor. Two others ran unsuccessfully for governor, and the position is considered a natural steppingstone to higher office, but Aiona, a former circuit judge, said he is not sure.

Asked if he would like to be governor, Aiona, a star high school and college athlete, doesn't swing at the pitch.

"I don't give it any thought. If it is like what I am doing now, I guess I would. I just don't give it any thought."

His family, Aiona added, comes first, and he is concerned about the adjustments he has had to make.

"When I became lieutenant governor, it was a big adjustment. I needed to make more public appearances. My life was open to the public. If there is anything I am struggling with, it is trying to find that nice happy medium with my family."

Aiona won his first attempt at elected office when he beat Dalton Tanonaka in the 2002 Republican primary by 8,280 votes and then went on with Lingle to win the general election.

As lieutenant governor, Aiona's main task has been fighting drug abuse. Aiona, the first judge of the Hawaii drug courts, was picked by Lingle to lead the state's crystal methamphetamine anti-drug program.

Aiona held a drug summit and meetings across the state in 2003 and came up with a plan of attack, which was criticized by the Legislature.

"I think he sort of dropped the ball on that one," said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua), who headed up the Legislature's drug task force.

"The most disappointing part was, he was going to study it for a year, and we waited and waited for a plan and then there didn't seem to be anything there, except to cut the programs that we had already funded. They didn't put enough into education or early intervention," Hanabusa said.

Former state Sen. Bob Nakata, now pastor of the Kahaluu Unity Methodist Church and an early organizer of demonstrations against the "ice" epidemic, was also critical.

"I am still waiting to see the results. I was disappointed that the state administration didn't really get very active," Nakata said. "I didn't feel they were as aggressive as they could be."

But he has been encouraged by Aiona's work with children and encouraging them not to use alcohol, tobacco or drugs.

"What I see him doing now is a step in the right direction," Nakata said.

"We need to talk to each other because the whole area of problems -- drugs, mental health and homelessness -- is all related," Nakata added.

University of Hawaii political scientist Neal Milner noted that Aiona's initial interest in the drug war seems to have waned.

"I think the drug issue was a test for him and that he didn't do very well accomplishing it," Milner said.

But Republican Rep. Galen Fox said Aiona's drug policy has been on target.

"He is trying to make sure the money goes to programs that are effective. There is far too little emphasis on productivity and achievement in government," Fox said.

Aiona said the war on drugs is being fought at the same intensity.

"We have not dropped off one bit," he said.

"The Legislature's package was something we wanted to work more closely with. We tried, but it did not hinder our own plans or strategy.

"We have one policy. We need prevention, treatment and law enforcement," Aiona said.

To prove his point, Aiona said he recently attended graduation ceremonies for an anti-drug program at Jarrett Intermediate School that he hopes will be a pilot for drug programs in all the public schools.

"We have said from day one that education and prevention is where we need to be, and we have come through on this," Aiona said.

Observers are looking for signs that Aiona is his own lieutenant governor.

Former Gov. and Lt. Gov. Ben Cayetano says Aiona is affable but appears to be stage-managed by Lingle and her handlers.

"Since Aiona's public statements are done through Lingle's public relations people, I think there is a perception that Aiona is not really his own person and that his actions are carefully scripted by Lingle's office," Cayetano said.

"Aiona hasn't really had the chance to break out and show his independence. Surely, he does not agree with Lingle on everything, does he?" Cayetano asked.

Milner added that lieutenant governors, being second in command, have to decide how independent they can be. "Part of it is how much you want to break out and how good you are at it.

"But it is clear he hasn't broken out. It is also not clear that he has an independent base of support or that he is highly visible in the community in any serious political way," Milner said.

Aiona said he found in discussions with past lieutenant governors that "their experiences were not very nice."

"They said they were isolated and they didn't have much input. They really weren't on their own," Aiona said.

In contrast, Aiona pointed to the regular Monday lunches he has with Lingle as a sign of his inclusion in the administration.

"Our relationship is unbelievable. She has been so inclusive. I feel that we are a team -- two heads for one office," Aiona said.

But, Aiona noted, he recognizes that the governor has the final say.

"It is the governor who makes the decision when it comes to the budget, when it comes to vetoes, when it comes to administrative rules," Aiona said. "I do have an opportunity to engage, but as lieutenant governor you are not the leader. That is just the way it is."

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, June 22, 2005

 

HAWAI'I BRIEFS

Kaho'olawe panel honors Machado

 

Advertiser Staff

WAILUKU, Maui — Colette Machado, the longest-serving member of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission, was honored yesterday at her final commission meeting. Her term expires June 30.

Machado, who also is an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee from Moloka'i, has served on the commission since 1994, first on behalf of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana and then as a representative of OHA.

"As a KIRC commissioner, Colette has given unconditionally of her time, experience and resources to the people of the state of Hawai'i and gone far beyond what is normally expected of a commissioner," said commission member Burt Sakada.

Machado's involvement with the protection and restoration of Kaho'olawe began more than 25 years ago as a member of the original Kaho'olawe activist group, Hui Ala Loa, on Moloka'i.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 28, 2005; A13

 

washingtonpost.com

 

Hard-to-Get Policy Briefings for Congress Are Now Online


Technology Group Opens Access to Research Reports

By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post

It's a bit like Napster -- but for policy wonks.

A Washington research group has created a Web site where the public can read, submit and download the difficult-to-find public policy briefs members of Congress use to get up to speed on issues.

The Center for Democracy and Technology has created an online database of Congressional Research Service reports that anyone with an Internet connection can now tap free of charge.

The often-coveted but elusive reports are produced by CRS, a public policy research arm of Congress. CRS, which boasts hundreds of analysts and a $100 million budget, churns out hundreds of briefs each year on a wide range of topics. It recently issued one, for example, called "U.S. Treatment of Prisoners in Iraq: Selected Legal Issues." Another was titled, "Gasoline Prices: Policies and Proposals." A third was "Immigration: Policy Considerations Related to Guest Worker Programs."

The reports have long been praised as nonpartisan, concise and readable. But they are reserved for members of Congress, committees and their staffs. A member of the public can get one generally only if a lawmaker chooses to release it. There is also at least one company, Penny Hill Press of Damascus, Md., that gathers up reports and then sells them for as much as $20 apiece. LexisNexis announced last week that it will also begin offering the reports through its online service.

The CDT, a technology policy organization, complained that the reports are paid for with taxpayer money and ought to be readily available for free to anyone who wants one.

"Taxpayers pay $100 million a year for this resource, yet they don't have ready access to it," said CDT spokesman David McGuire. "We don't think they should have to pay twice to get their hands on it."

McGuire predicted the Web site, http://www.opencrs.com , will find an audience among academics, reporters, bloggers, librarians, college students and anyone else looking to bone up on an issue.

A spokeswoman for the Library of Congress -- the CRS's parent agency -- said it did not have an opinion of the site. "We suggest that people get them through their congressional offices -- that's the way it's supposed to be done," Jill Brett said. "If [the CDT] can get the reports and put them up, we can't stop them."

The site includes searchable links to more than 3,300 reports -- and thousands of updates of those reports -- that were gathered by the center and five other groups: the National Council on Science and the Environment, the Federation of American Scientists, the library at the University of Maryland's law school, a Web site associated with the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The CDT said it is also trying to work out a deal with the University of North Texas, which has built its own online trove of reports, to make those accessible through the site as well.

The center is also asking the public to help fill out its collection. The group, which said it has a list of briefs produced in recent years, is asking users to request specific reports from their lawmakers and forward copies to the center.

"Take Action!" the Web site says. "Call your members of Congress and request a PDF copy of the following CRS report. Once you receive it, submit it to Open CRS." The group estimated it has collected almost half of the reports the agency has produced in the past five years.

A number of lawmakers have proposed, over the years, opening the CRS's work to the public. A few have also posted the reports on their individual Web sites.

CRS has consistently said it is not designed to serve any sort of public information function. In past years, it has said that could create a number of legal and practical problems, contending, for example, that interest groups and lobbyists would inundate its office with complaints and comments in hopes of influencing what CRS analysts wrote. It has also expressed fears that it could be held liable for what it said in the reports or be sued for copyright infringement.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, June 26, 2005

 

UH plans Native Hawaiian law center

 

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i has been awarded a $600,000 federal grant to establish a Center of Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law that would, for the first time, focus exclusively on Native Hawaiian legal issues as well as community outreach.

The new center will examine laws that affect Native Hawaiian rights as well as legal issues. It also will offer support for law students of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

Law School Dean Aviam Soifer said that the new center is "absolutely crucial" to the mission of the law school, and he praised U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye and the rest of Hawai'i's congressional delegation for helping make funding possible.

When Inouye spoke at the 2004 law school commencement last year, he discussed plans for the center, saying it was his hope that the center will "serve as an important educational resource as Native Hawaiians and the broader community move forward together to achieve a measure of reconciliation for the loss of Native Hawaiian sovereignty, resulting from the unlawful overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1893."

The center will be headed by Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, who has written extensively about Native Hawaiian rights and has taught at the law school as an adjunct professor for many years.

"We have a unique opportunity to examine the laws that affect Native Hawaiians," MacKenzie said, "and to educate our students and the larger community about those laws.

"The center will preserve aspects of law that respect the Hawaiian culture and spirit as part of our responsibility to the Native Hawaiian community and to future generations."

For the past year Soifer and MacKenzie have been working with an advisory board to secure funding for the new center.

 

 

 

 

washingtonpost.com

 

Healers Prescribe Tribal Tradition

 

'White Man's Medicine' Is Secondary to Time-Honored Customs

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 26, 2005; A11

When a chronically depressed 9-year-old girl at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota became so sad that she stopped eating, Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs came up with a treatment plan: not antidepressant drugs, but a spiritual assessment, followed by a healing ceremony at a Lakota purification lodge that represents the womb.

"There is a hole dug in the middle and rocks that are heated," she said. "Because we believe that everything has a spirit, rocks are addressed as grandfather spirits. The water is taken in and poured on the rocks -- the steam that results is the breath of the grandfathers which then purifies and renews us."

Over the next three months, the girl recovered, said Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, who treats emotionally disturbed and suicidal children at a federally funded Native American mental health program called Nagi Kicopi, "Calling the Spirit Back." The healer dismissed those who demand evidence that her techniques work.

"They will say, 'Where's the proof, where's the research base, how can you document this?' -- all the Western aspects of clinical interventions," she said. "We understood from the beginning that we would get those reactions, so our stance is, 'We are Lakota people and these are Lakota children, and we will use the methods that have worked for thousands of years and that's all there is to it.' "

Nagi Kicopi is only one example of a deep divide between mainstream psychiatry's approach to mental disorders and subcultures with very different notions of why people become emotionally disturbed and how they can be cured.

Many Native American patients rebel against the notion that mental illnesses are primarily brain disorders to be treated with drugs, said several experts who work with such patients. Native tribes volunteered for drug studies in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but they saw very little benefit and are now reluctant to participate in such research, said Spero Manson, a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado.

"Native communities feel they have been used as guinea pigs for research purposes to support the agenda of the biomedical world," he said.

They might be willing to volunteer for research again, he added, but it would have to be for science they believe is relevant and that is respectful of native traditions. Some demand that traditional healing techniques be studied alongside drug-based treatments, but pharmaceutical companies, which conduct most drug studies, are not interested.

William Lawson, chairman of psychiatry at Howard University, said the lack of data is troubling because suicide rates are high in some Native American communities: "You would think there would be studies on depression."

Lawson is one of the scientists who has received grants from the National Institutes of Health to increase the participation of minorities as research subjects in clinical trials.

Other clinicians are devising novel ways to bridge the gap between mainstream and traditional approaches. Iron Cloud-Two Dogs's healing program includes a psychotherapist, she said, but the "Western" therapist takes a back seat to traditional healers.

Anthony Dekker, who directs community health care at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center in Arizona, recalled treating one Native American patient who was psychotic. When she refused to take medication -- she called it "the white man's medicine" -- Dekker asked her to consult a traditional healer.

"The medicine man listened to her and said, 'You live in the white man's world and you have a white man's disease and you need to take the white man's medicine,' " said Dekker, in an interview. The woman agreed to take the drugs.

"If I said, 'Don't go to the medicine man, he has never been to medical school' -- that would alienate 90 percent of my patients," Dekker added.

Reconciling the brain disease model of mental disorders with America's increasingly diverse cultural fabric is more than a matter of gaining patient trust.

A host of small studies has shown that psychiatric drugs do not have the same risks and benefits in every ethnic group: Research showed that Caucasians experience twice the side effects of Hispanics from the antidepressants Prozac and Paxil, said Michael Smith, a psychiatrist at the University of California at Los Angeles. And with an earlier class of antidepressants called tricyclics, Hispanics given half the dose had twice the side effects of Caucasians.

Blacks on some anti-psychotic drugs seem more likely than whites to suffer tardive dyskinesia -- repetitive, involuntary movements. Another study found that Asians who got half the dose of an anti-psychotic drug responded better than Caucasians who received the regular dose.

Some patients have avoidable side effects, Smith said, because "standards were developed in Caucasians and were inappropriately extended to other ethnic groups."

Smith and other advocates for "cultural competence" point out that substantial differences also exist among individuals within each ethnic group. Because of the lack of systematic data about variations in drug effectiveness, Smith advises doctors to tailor drug dosages to individuals:

"Most drug companies don't acknowledge the fact that their medications require individualized dosing, because when you say that, it makes it much more difficult for the average doctor to say one dose fits all."

 

 

 

 

Posted: June 27, 2005

 

Senate committee tackles suicide

 

by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

 

WASHINGTON - Suicide is the second leading cause of death among American Indian youth aged 15 - 24, but that is no surprise to anyone who lives on a reservation in the Great Plains.

What is surprising is that solutions to the problem continue to baffle community members and experts alike. Any solution requires the backing of community members, mental health professionals and now Congress.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., held a field hearing in Bismarck recently to take testimony from community members of the Standing Rock Reservation, located in North and South Dakota. He followed that hearing up with one with the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, of which he is a member.

''We all wish we were not attending this hearing to discuss this subject. Suicide has affected entire communities: families of suicide victims and some children who are friends.

''One thing I remember talking to the victims' classmates is that they said 'so-and-so didn't want to die, he wanted some attention to problems he was going through,''' Dorgan said.

During the field hearing, Dorgan said one woman tearfully testified that she had to beg to find a car to give a young person a ride to a clinic. Accessibility to mental health professionals is problematic on many reservations, resources are finite and additional resources don't seem to be set in future budgets or agendas.

''We have some serious issues we are facing. We must redo the Indian Health Improvement Act and hope a piece of that legislation could apply to this.

''We must say to young people that they are not alone: we are here and want to address this issue,'' Dorgan said.

The U.S. Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, M.D., said that strategies to reduce youth suicide are working nationwide, but not on reservations.

In the Great Plains, the suicide rate among teens on reservations is 10 times greater than that of the average national statistics. Every 45 seconds, someone exhibits suicidal behavior; and in Indian country, the resources may not always be available to deal with that person.

Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain said reasons for American Indian youths' higher suicide rate could be historical; the past treatment of the American Indians may lead to despair, which could be the only difference between inner-city suicides and those on reservations. Inner-city youth suffer from hopelessness, poverty and oppression much the same as American Indian youth.

Carmona agreed that there is marginalization and discrimination in Indian country. Today the burden of centuries of problems are surfacing and if they can be identified scientifically and taken to a higher level, programs to combat suicide may lead to success, he said.

Practicing psychologist Dr. Joseph Stone, Blackfeet, said what is seen today is historical trauma or post-colonial stress. The research is new, he said, but it is beginning to occur. ''When there is arousal it can't be regulated; and if a parent is busy surviving, the child has a lack of resilience to suicide and other mental disorders.''

Stone recommended to the committee that it strongly look at designating suicide a top priority of the IHS and establish a national center managed by American Indian professionals: ''Ensure adequate access to professionals, use state and county gatekeepers, and change arrangements with governments and funding for American Indian universities to educate more professionals at double the rate it is now.''

Collaborative efforts by many communities, governments, schools and agencies that have responsibility for mental health care is necessary, he said.

When the health care workers are members of the community, there is no time for them to be counselors; it is time for them to grieve, Walker said.

He said the issue of access to mental health care is of great importance and that IHS should be funded at the requested level.

''The need has to be serviced; it is a treaty obligation and if it is not served, the treaty has to be looked at. Wouldn't it be nice to encourage agencies, housing and law enforcement to begin work on problems for quality care?'' asked Dr. Dale Walker.

He added that many states avoid the issue by asserting that it is a federal problem, not theirs.

''When asked what is the most important thing in life, if the answer is not 'our children' it is wrong - it is about our children. In responding to the needs of the children with the testimony today: we are going to get something done,'' Dorgan said.

''Indian country lives in Third World conditions. These are our first Americans; we must start with building blocks, and the first thing is to reach out to children. We must find out how, in the long term, to save the lives of the children of this country.''

 

 

 

 

Web posted June 26, 2005

Dictionary preserves language of the Haida

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE

 

Scholar John Enrico has compiled the first comprehensive Haida dictionary, the fruit of years of living among the last generation of people who spoke the language regularly at home.

 

About 40 people speak Haida today, not all fluently, Enrico said.

The Haida Dictionary was recently published by Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

At $279, the two-volume, 2,180-page set is not the sort of book you pull off the shelf when you want to know the Haida word for "dog."

 

It's a scholarly work from which academic linguists may further examine the relationship of Haida to other language families, a point of dispute. Educators also can develop teaching materials from it, said Tom Alton, editor at the Alaska Native Language Center.

 

The dictionary defines about 20,000 Haida words, including variations, and it provides examples of usage.

 

Enrico is an excellent linguist because of his commitment and perseverance, said Jeff Leer, a professor of linguistics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

"He became pretty much fluent in Haida," Leer said. "His work is very, very solid and thorough."

 

Enrico, a grant-funded scholar unaffiliated with a university, first moved in 1975 to Masset, British Columbia, one of three Haida villages on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

 

In 1980, he took over the compiling of a Haida dictionary for the Alaska Native Language Center, and worked under its National Endowment for the Humanities grant for several years.

 

Enrico put the project aside for three years, but then received a grant to extend the dictionary to another Haida dialect.

 

Haida is spoken in two major dialects: southern at Skidegate, British Columbia, and northern at Masset, British Columbia, and in a variation in Hydaburg, Kasaan and Ketchikan.

 

The Haida population is estmated to be about 2,200 in Canada and Alaska.

 

What does it take to compile a dictionary?

 

"You need an extremely general knowledge of the language, because the dictionary encompasses all aspects of it," such as sound and sentence structure, Enrico said from his home in central Washington state.

 

"You need the broadest possible background you can get. That's probably why it's taken so long," he said.

 

Enrico first published articles about the Haida language in scholarly journals, on topics such as word order and tenses. His Ph.D. dissertation from the University of California at Berkeley is on the sounds in Masset Haida. The University of Nebraska Press later published Enrico's two-volume work on Haida syntax and a book of Haida songs.

 

The most efficient way to make the dictionary was to collect a lot of texts and stories and then gather the information necessary to understand them, Enrico said.

 

"If you keep at it long enough, you get a fairly complete picture of the language," he said. "One question leads to another."

 

Enrico lived with the family of a Masset elder, Florence Davidson, for about five years when he first moved to British Columbia. Davidson used to take in boarders.

 

After a spell elsewhere, Enrico returned and stayed with her for seven or eight more years.

 

The Davidson family was one of the few remaining households that used Haida regularly, Enrico said. Davidson died in 1993 at age 98.

 

"She was of the oldest generation, and had been taught the language by people who were fully fluent in it," Enrico said.

 

Davidson and her peers learned Haida from people who were born in the middle of the 19th century.

 

"When her generation died away, we lost the last contact with fully fluent speakers," Enrico said.

 

In all, Enrico received information about the Haida language from 44 Native speakers, most of them fluent and of Davidson's generation, he said.

 

There can be very subtle differences in the meaning of words, said UAF linguist Leer, who has compiled dictionaries in Tlingit and Alutiiq. Some words refer to aspects of material culture or social culture. Speakers of a language might have associations with a word that an outsider wouldn't imagine, Leer said.

 

"Too many linguists are looking at a language superficially," Leer said, "not really getting in there and looking at the glorious detail of a language. Without that, you don't get a global understanding of a language.

 

"It's a long process of learning that opens up windows along the way to where you can see very interesting and nuanced connections between facts."

 

Enrico was virtually a member of Davidson's family.

 

"As she was getting older and older, I did a lot of the household work and became a key person in the household," he said.

 

Some Haida people accepted Enrico and believed his academic work has value. But there were always others "who had a rather dimmer view," he said.

 

Enrico's book "is a continuation of a lot of work that was started in the community years ago," said Vincent Jameson, vice president of the board of the for-profit Haida Corp.

 

Jameson's grandmother, Helen Brown Sanderson of Hydaburg, was an educator who worked with University of Alaska linguist Michael Krauss in the early 1970s, before Enrico took over the project.

 

"I look at it as an accumulation of the effort of a lot of elders to pass this information on," Jameson said from Bellingham, Wash.

 

Although few people speak Haida today, others are learning it, such as through courses at the University of Alaska Southeast and Sealaska Heritage Institute, and in the Hydaburg school.

 

Jeane Breinig, a visiting literature scholar at UAS, has learned Haida from her mother in Kasaan and through academic courses.

 

"My mom's one of the last 10 speakers (in Alaska)," she said. "The language is in serious trouble. She could be the last generation if people now don't do something. I certainly have the opportunity and I don't want to miss it."

 

Because there are few fluent speakers and the Haida are scattered around the Northwest, it has become important to have Haida-language instructional materials, such as books and online materials, Breinig said.

 

"The dictionary's just another piece of that that we need to keep going," she said.

 

Sealaska Heritage is using a grant to develop a Haida-language curriculum for kindergartners through second-graders, said Keri Edwards, the institute's language department director.

 

The institute also sponsors a summer language program. And it matches master speakers with apprentices, mostly in Hydaburg, as a way to train a new generation of language teachers.

 

• Eric Fry can be reached at eric.fry@juneauempire.com.

 

 

 

 

June 28, 2005

 

Master carver inspired kokua

 

By Gary Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU » Tahitian Leon "Fafa" Toofa showed Valley Isle residents not only how to build canoes, but also took them into the forest of East Maui to harvest the koa trees for logs.

"He could pretty much free-hand anything with a chain saw," said Charles Noland, a Maui resident who served as an apprentice to Toofa.

Toofa, 67, of Pueu island, died Saturday evening during a fishing trip, after a large wave swept him into the ocean at Makaalae south of Hana Town, police Lt. Michael Kahoohanohano said.

Friends were unable to save him, and his body was retrieved about a half-hour to an hour after police received the call at 5:30 p.m., Kahoohanohano said.

Toofa was among a group of master canoe builders from other Pacific islands to participate in 2000 and 2002 in canoe-building events during the annual International Festival of Canoes in Lahaina.

"It's really sad," said Theo Morrison, executive director of the Lahaina Town Action Committee. "He was a great master carver."

Noland recalled that Toofa, who helped to supervise the harvesting of logs for the festival, was able to finish building a canoe in half a day.

Noland said he became Toofa's apprentice and helped him build three koa canoes for canoe clubs on Maui, harvesting the logs in East Maui in forests where there were only pig trails.

They would bless the trees before harvesting them and then rely upon canoe club members and supporters to haul them out of the forests, he said.

Whenever Toofa had money from building canoes on Maui, he would send it home to his family, Noland said.

"He was very family-oriented," Noland said.

 

 

 

 

June 29, 2005

 

Yakima tribe buys CBA team

 

Billings Gazette

 

TOPPENISH, Wash. (AP) - Citing the potential for economic development, the Yakama Nation has purchased the Yakima Sun Kings of the Continental Basketball Association.

The purchase, announced Thursday, makes the Yakamas just the second American Indian tribe in the nation to own a professional basketball team.

Tribal officials made the announcement amid the faint dings and whistles of slot machines one floor below at their Legends Casino, a business venture that has proven largely successful for the tribe .

"This is another opportunity for us to begin to expand our economic base, an opportunity to promote the Yakama Nation and its enterprises," said Tribal Council Secretary Davis Washines.

Last year, the tribe purchased a former juice plant to bottle apple juice. Other business ventures include the casino and a sawmill.

The Connecticut-based Mohegan tribe purchased the WNBA's Orlando Miracle in January 2003, moved the team to Connecticut and renamed it the Sun.

 

 

 

 

June 23, 2005

 

National Powwow to Bring Thousands to Washington, D.C.

 

National Museum of the American Indian

 

Sure to attract an enthusiastic Native and non-Native audience, the National Powwow will take place this August 12, 13, and 14 at the MCI Center in downtown Washington, D.C. More than 800 dancers representing Native nations from across the United States and Canada are expected to participate in the second powwow, sponsored by the National Museum of the American Indian. As with most powwows held today, this dynamic event will feature dancing, singing and drumming competitions. Native foods and Native arts and crafts will be sold at the MCI Center during the powwow. "The National Powwow is another opportunity for you to see and learn about the rich diversity and vibrancy of Native cultures today," said Rick West, founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian.

 

For more information and to order National Powwow tickets, visit:

http://www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/subpage.
cfm?subpage=dc&second=visitor&third=poww

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Native Hawaiian Conference

http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/Conference

 

 

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

Please visit the CNHA family of organizations

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

ANA Grant Training Pan Pacific

http://anapacific.org

 

Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP)

http://dhhlhoap.org

 

Full Service Document Digitization

http://hhtech.net

 

Supporting 1,000 Years of Good Ideas!

http://hawaiianwayfund.org

 

 

Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement

33 South King Street, Suite 513

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Phone: 808.521.5011 Fax: 808.521.4111

 

To Unsubscribe

Please click this link:  http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/unsubscribe_eresources062305.htm

 

 

To Subscribe

Please click this link: http://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/signupdatabasehj030104.htm

 

Please do not respond to this email as responses will go into an unmonitored mailbox.

In recognizing that ka olelo makuahine o Hawaii nei was an oral language and that there were varying dialects among the islands, CNHA has adopted a policy of excluding diacritical markings in our publications.

This project is an initiative under the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education. Education through Cultural & Historical Organizations, also known as ECHO, provides educational enrichment to Native and non-Native children and lifelong learners.