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.

 

 

August 3, 2005

 

 

August 2, 2005

 

Senator Akaka Responds to Decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

 

Honolulu, HI -- Following today's ruling on John Doe v. Kamehameha Schools, Senator Daniel K. Akaka made the following statement:

 

"I am proud to recognize my alma mater, Kamehameha Schools. In its halls and classrooms we learned to think critically and excel in all the ordinary disciplines that a school ought to provide. Our studies were also informed by the values of our ancestors and imbued with a sense of duty toward this land of ours and all of its people.

 

Today's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit fills me with a great sadness because there are those among us who will misinterpret the words of the court as a rejection of my alma mater, and the values it stands for. As in Rice v. Cayetano, the court has remained silent on the political and legal relationship between Native Hawaiians and our federal government.

 

Right now, I am hard at work together with the other members of Hawaii's delegation, to answer the silence of the court with an act of congress. When we pass S. 147, the court will soon have its answer, and our Native Hawaiians will be able to reclaim their place in history."

 

 

 

 

August 02, 2005 - 02:26 PM

 

Kamehameha Schools to Appeal Court Ruling Eliminating Admission Preference

 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down 117-year-old policy

The Board of Trustees of the Kamehameha Schools today vowed to pursue all avenues to defend the schools’ policy of offering admissions preference to Hawaiian applicants, after a three-judge appeals panel struck down the 117-year-old practice. In a 2-1 decision issued today, the judges overturned a ruling issued in Honolulu in November 2003 by U.S. District Judge Alan Kay upholding the policy as legally justified.

“This fight is far from over,” declared Board of Trustees Chair Diane Plotts. “This case raises unique questions of unsettled law, and we believe the panel’s ruling is wrong. Two judges ruled against our policy, but the Chief Judge of the panel dissented. There are 28 judges on the 9th Circuit Court, and there is a very good chance a different panel will agree with Judge Susan Graber and support our right to offer preference to Native Hawaiians. For that reason, we will immediately request a hearing before a full panel of the 9th Circuit Court.

“Our current admissions and our current students will not be immediately affected by today’s ruling. If our petition for rehearing before the Ninth Circuit is unsuccessful, we will appeal to the U.S. Supreme court, and ask the court to order an extended stay of the ruling until the appeal process is completed,” said CEO Dee Jay Mailer.

In its ruling, the panel acknowledged that Kamehameha Schools’ policy serves a remedial purpose, but Judges Jay Bybee and Robert Beezer opined that the policy is not justified because it effectively excludes all non-Hawaiians.

In her dissent, Judge Graber wrote that the many statutes enacted by Congress to provide exclusive remedial preferences for Native Hawaiians demonstrate that “Congress clearly meant to allow the private education of native Hawaiian children at the Kamehameha Schools.”

“Losing our policy would be a serious setback for us, because it would take away the most direct route we have to provide educational resources to restore and rebuild the Hawaiian people. It is our kuleana as trustees to protect our policy and we are absolutely committed to that,” said Plotts.

“It is also our kuleana to fulfill our educational mission,” added Mailer. “As we fight in the courts, we will continue to educate Hawaiian students through our campus programs. We will continue to extend our reach to our Hawaiian communities, as mandated by our Strategic Plan. We will examine and evaluate how every educational initiative fits with our mission, to make sure that we are serving as many Hawaiian children as we possibly can. And we will continue to work toward the goals established in our Strategic Plan, to foster understanding and widespread practice of all things Hawaiian in order to further strengthen the Hawaiian culture.”

Today’s order does not specifically address the admission of John Doe. That question will be remanded to the U.S. District Court here in Honolulu.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, August 3, 2005

 

Akaka bill backers, foes weigh ruling

 

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

 

A federal appeals court decision rejecting the race-based admissions policy at Kamehameha Schools could threaten other Native Hawaiian programs and place greater urgency on a Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill now before Congress.

 

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco concentrated mostly on whether Kamehameha's preference for Hawaiian students was part of a valid affirmative action plan to remedy historic socioeconomic and educational difficulties within the Hawaiian community. The court ruled the policy is illegal under a 1866 federal law that was aimed at ending racial discrimination against blacks in the South and was later amended in the modern civil-rights era.

 

The court sidestepped defining the exact nature of the relationship between Native Hawaiians and the federal government, which was also left open by the Supreme Court in 2000 when it ruled in Rice v. Cayetano that barring non-Hawaiians from voting for trustees for the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs was unconstitutional.

 

The appeals court found that Congress has recognized Native Hawaiians in several federal programs — including grants to Kamehameha for a demonstration program to support Native Hawaiians who attend college — but had not given Kamehameha "blanket approval for private race discrimination."

 

The ruling was being closely examined yesterday by both supporters and opponents of Native Hawaiian recognition.

 

A bill that would formally recognize Native Hawaiians as an indigenous people with the right to form their own government could come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate in September, more than five years after it was introduced in the wake of Rice v. Cayetano.

 

Some Native Hawaiians hope the bill might protect the $70 million in federal money for Hawaiian programs that could come under legal assault given the decisions in the Rice and Kamehameha cases. A legal challenge against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, filed by Earl Arakaki, is pending before the appeals court. U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway threw out the case last year because it might interfere with the debate in Congress on the bill.

 

AKAKA'S REACTION

 

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, who attended Kamehameha and is the bill's main sponsor, said he was saddened by yesterday's ruling.

 

"In its halls and classrooms we learned to think critically and excel in all the ordinary disciplines that a school ought to provide," Akaka said in a statement. "Our studies were also informed by the values of our ancestors and imbued with a sense of duty toward this land of ours and all of its people.

 

"Today's decision ... fills me with a great sadness because there are those among us who will misinterpret the words of the court as a rejection of my alma mater, and the values it stands for."

 

Akaka said his bill would "answer the silence of the court with an act of Congress. When we pass (the bill), the court will soon have its answer, and our Native Hawaiians will be able to reclaim their place in history."

 

But H. William Burgess, an attorney who is opposed to the Akaka bill, said the ruling could hurt the bill's chances. Burgess said: "The message it sends to the Senate and Congress is 'You're going through the trouble of creating this whole new government to protect what?' Racial discrimination."

 

INOUYE'S HOPES

 

U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, said Native Hawaiians are descendants of a sovereign nation and equal to American Indians and Alaska Natives, who have been recognized by the federal government. He also suggested that the Akaka bill would provide Hawaiians with some legal protection.

 

"When we are successful, Native Hawaiians will be postured to reclaim their ancient dignity and forge a destiny for themselves in partnership with our state and our nation," Inouye said in a statement.

 

State Attorney General Mark Bennett said the Akaka bill could help protect Native Hawaiian programs and cause the Kamehameha case to be viewed in a different way by the higher court. He also said Congress could choose to exempt Native Hawaiians from the civil rights law.

 

"I think that you might have this looked at in a different perspective if you have the Akaka bill," Bennett said.

 

Republicans in the Senate have blocked the Akaka bill for the past five years, primarily claiming it would create a government that excludes people on the basis of their race.

 

The appeals court ruled yesterday that even if Congress were to exempt Native Hawaiians from civil rights law, Kamehameha's admissions policy could not be exclusively racial and at the same time covered under a special relationship with the government similar to Indian tribes. The Supreme Court has ruled, in a case involving hiring practices at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, that hiring preferences for Indians were legal because they were based on their tribal affiliation and were political, not racial, in nature.

 

In a footnote related to the dissent, the appeals court also warned that constitutional problems could be raised against other Native Hawaiian programs if the grants to Kamehameha were seen as the federal government authorizing exclusive racial preferences.

 

"My suspicion is that this case won't help them at all," said Paul Sullivan, a Honolulu attorney who has been critical of the Akaka bill. The ruling, he said, sends a "very cautionary message to Congress about passing bills that give rights to people based solely on race."

 

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, July 31, 2005

 

Akaka bill: Legislation will help Native Hawaiians to move forward

 

By Jade Danner

Hawai'i's history has left many wounds on the Native Hawaiian people.

There is no doubt these wounds exist; they are evidenced in our short life expectancy, high incidences of diabetes and heart disease, high poverty rates, homelessness and over-representation in a host of social-ill indicators.

Three distinct and vastly different schools of thought are being forwarded about what to do: (1) unmake history, (2) rewrite history or (3) recognize and move forward together.

The first school, proponents of independence, seek to turn back the clock to a time before the wounds were inflicted. They yearn for a utopia that does not, and may never, exist. The second school seeks to deny these wounds exist at all. They declare "there should be no recognition for Native Hawaiians." For them, it is easy to distort Hawai'i's history; they do not suffer under its boot. The truth is, you cannot unmake the wound. There are only two options: let it fester or heal it. Queen Lili'uokalani knew this best. In 1917, she said, "I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage."

For generations, the local people of Hawai'i, whether of Hawaiian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino or other ancestry, have lived in harmony because we acknowledge the wounds, and recognize there is no equality without mutual respect and justice.

That is the aloha spirit that prevails among us. That is what the opposition groups threaten to destroy for all of Hawai'i — our very way of life in these Islands.

The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, commonly known as the Akaka bill, advances the best idea — one rooted in Hawai'i's history and the need for Native Hawaiian autonomy to sustain a culture that only exists here. The bill neither denies the wounding history, nor attempts to turn back time. Unlike its opponents' positions, it takes nothing from others. Instead, it works to create an opportunity for a brighter future for all of Hawai'i by acknowledging the wounds, providing a space to heal them, and a process to move beyond them.

What the Akaka bill does is simple. It provides a process for Native Hawaiians to organize themselves. It extends to Native Hawaiians the best federal policy on its native peoples since the formation of this great nation, one with a proven track record of healing and empowerment.

And finally, it engages everyone in determining the how, when and where of Native Hawaiian autonomy in the negotiations of the powers and assets of the Native Hawaiian government.

We applaud the leadership of Sen. Daniel Akaka and our congressional delegation, Gov. Linda Lingle and her administration, the Hawai'i Legislature and other community leaders, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian alike, in advancing the Akaka bill.

We thank them for their courage to stand for what's right and what's possible. They are honoring the wisdom of Queen Lili'uokalani, who said, "The world cannot stand still. We must either advance or recede. Let us advance together."

The Akaka bill is not utopia, but we don't live there. We live in the space between our ideals and our present condition — a place where we strive for a better future by implementing programs, services and solutions to address our adverse conditions and to perpetuate and share the knowledge and traditions of our ancestors.

That is why the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and so many others support passage of the Akaka bill. Together, we can find a way to heal.

Jade Danner is information and government-affairs manager for the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

 

Gov prioritizes informational campaign on bill

 

By Alexandre Da Silva
Associated Press

Gov. Linda Lingle plans to spend August educating Hawaii citizens on the benefits of the native Hawaiian recognition bill, which might secure its first debate and vote in the U.S. Senate next month, she said yesterday.

An action that could force discussion on the so-called Akaka Bill is scheduled to be taken by the Senate on Sept. 6, leaving backers and opponents of the bill a little more than a month to garner support for their positions.

Sixty senators must approve a cloture motion to force 30 hours of debate on the bill followed by an immediate vote.

The bill would also need to pass the House and be signed by the president to become law.

Until then, Lingle, who has lobbied for its passage in Washington, D.C., said she would make it a priority to explain the bill's importance to the state in every upcoming public appearance she makes.

"People don't really understand that much about it," Lingle said, calling the 60 votes needed a "high threshold."

"They sort of hear that headlined and really haven't had the time to understand it or be informed about it," Lingle said. "It doesn't give them one new acre; it doesn't give them one more dollar. It will help us to defend our existing programs which were being challenged and ... give Hawaiians final authority and responsibility over their own lands and resources."

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, has been pushing for a floor vote on the bill for the past two weeks after nearly six years of trying to get it to the Senate floor. It would grant native Hawaiians the same rights of self-government enjoyed by American Indians and native Alaskans.

But a number of native Hawaiian groups have challenged the bill, saying it is an attempt to legitimize the United States' overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom on Jan. 17, 1893.

Ikaika Hussey, a political science graduate student with the Hui Pu coalition, a native Hawaiian group that opposes the bill, said those who understand what is at stake want self-determination, not to be treated as an American Indian tribe.

"Hawaii deserves a full decolonization process under international law," said Hussey. "We've been fighting this for 112 years. It's a very long war ... and we are committed to it. We know that our ancestors fought this same fight."

The group outlined their concerns about the bill on Sunday during an annual event to remember a five-month occupation of the islands by British military forces on July 31, 1843.

Lingle blamed the bill's opponents for misinforming the public with false assumptions of what the bill would do, such as create a separate government or open the door to legal gambling in Hawaii.

Akaka will be in the islands during the month-long congressional summer recess but will take no vacation from pushing the bill, said his spokeswoman, Donalyn Dela Cruz.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Saturday, July 30, 2005

 

Senate acts to move Akaka bill

 

By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., started a procedure yesterday that could eventually force a debate and floor vote on the Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill in September.

The next step in the process, known as cloture, will occur on Sept. 6, when the first vote will be held on a petition to bring the bill to the floor for debate. To be successful, 60 senators will have to vote in favor of the cloture motion.

That would start 30 hours of debate before a final vote on the bill itself, which would create a process for Native Hawaiians to form their own government. Fifty-one senators would have to support the bill in order for it to pass.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, for whom the bill is named as its lead sponsor, took to the Senate floor immediately after the cloture motion was filed yesterday, urging support for the petition.

"After five years, the people of Hawai'i deserve to have this issue considered by the Senate," Akaka said. "If you oppose the bill, then vote against it, but give us the opportunity to debate the merits of the bill."

The Akaka bill was originally scheduled for debate and vote last week, but as many as six Republican senators put holds on the legislation, objecting for various reasons including the possibility it could allow Native Hawaiians to eventually become involved with gambling.

"While I was disappointed that floor action did not occur on the bill this month, progress is obviously being made on its consideration," said Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, a co-sponsor. "I look forward to the robust and open discussions that will occur during the consideration of this legislation."

In addition to Frist, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the chief opponent of the bill, was among the 17 senators who signed the cloture petition to bring the bill to the floor. They and other Republican leaders had made a commitment last year to schedule a debate on a vote by Aug. 7, but were blocked by the objections.

The bill's supporters may already be near the 60-vote requirement to bring it to the floor. They expect all 44 Democrats to vote for debate along with the Senate's one independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont.

The measure also has five Republican co-sponsors — Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also has said he would vote for the bill.

In addition to Frist and Kyl, other Republicans signing the petition were Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Charles Grassley of Iowa.

That could mean there already are 56 votes in favor of forcing the bill to the floor on Sept. 6.

Haunani Apoliona, chairwoman of the board of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said she remains optimistic the bill will pass. "The important thing to remember is that the bill is very much alive and the votes are there to pass this historic legislation when the Senate next meets," she said in a prepared release.

While OHA trustees had hoped a vote would be held last week, "we're prepared to come back in September for a final vote," Apoliona said.

Advertiser Staff Writer Gordon Pang contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

 

UH officials say Hawaiian waivers will continue

 

By Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.com

Tuition waivers and reduced tuition for some native Hawaiians at the University of Hawaii will continue, pending an appeal of yesterday's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, university officials said.

John Goemans, one of the lawyers who sued Kamehameha Schools, believes yesterday's decision and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Rice vs. Cayetano will eventually lead to the elimination of all federal and state programs for native Hawaiians.

In 2002, Goemans filed a civil rights complaint against the university over native Hawaiian tuition waivers.

But Mamo Kim, special adviser to the chancellor on Hawaiian affairs, said the tuition waivers and reduced tuition are based on financial need. She said native Hawaiian students would have received the waivers regardless of their race.

Kim also believes trust agreements prior to statehood affirm the policy of granting tuition waivers to native Hawaiians.

Constitutional law expert Jon Van Dyke agrees.

"The University of Hawaii is on ceded lands claimed by the native Hawaiian people. The University of Hawaii and state of Hawaii generally have always felt there's an obligation to recognize and respond to the claims of native Hawaiians," Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke said native Hawaiians are underrepresented at the university and tuition waivers and other programs are a constitutional way to increase native Hawaiian enrollment.

About 100 students receive tuition waivers through the Kua'ana program for native Hawaiian students. UH also grants resident tuition for native Hawaiians who live out of state. Other programs, some of them federally funded, aim to increase retention of native Hawaiians and other students from underrepresented ethnic groups.

Amy Agbayani, the director of the UH Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, said the university has three programs aimed at underrepresented groups at the university -- the College Opportunities program, the law school pre-admission program and the Imi Ho'ola program at the medical school. Each serves about 10 to 20 students. However, she said, all the programs have multiple criteria, including financial need, and fall under affirmative action guidelines upheld by the Supreme Court in its University of Michigan decision.

Goemans' complaint over native Hawaiian tuition waivers prompted a federal Department of Education investigation into the Kua'ana program.

Federal investigators visited UH-Manoa on the same day federal Judge Alan Kay upheld Kamehameha's admissions policy.

Last week, a U.S. Department of Education spokesman said the investigation had been closed because of the pending court cases on native Hawaiians.

The department could not be reached yesterday to see if yesterday's decision will prompt the agency to reopen its investigation.

Goemans said he believes yesterday's decision reaffirms that native Hawaiian is a racial classification and that any program that gives preference to native Hawaiians is "presumptively unconstitutional."

However, Van Dyke and Agbayani believe the U.S. Department of Education is unlikely to act until the court rules on Arakaki v. Lingle, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

 

 

 

 

IN DEPTH: BIG ISLAND

 

From the July 29, 2005 print edition

 

East Hawaii basks in economic sunshine

 

Phil Hayworth

PBN Contributor

 

When Elizabeth Lonokapu graduates from high school next year, she, along with 143 peers, will be the first to graduate from the Kamehameha School's Big Island campus.

Lonokapu wants to be a doctor -- a pediatrician, to be exact -- and a professional soccer player to boot.

 

"And don't forget: a mother!" chimed her friend, Carissima Naki, a junior at Kamehameha.

 

That ambitious future is possible, thanks to what is arguably one of the country's finest college-prep programs.

 

Completed in 2002, the 312-acre, 1,120-student Kamehameha campus lies eight miles south of Hilo near the small town of Keaau. It boasts a swimming pool, a classroom ratio of 24 to 1, elementary, middle and high schools housed in 22 new buildings brimming with the latest technology, and a sports program destined to produce countless champions under the direction of former University of Hawaii head football coach Bob Wagner.

 

When Lonokapu and her class, bathed in lei and accolades, mount the dais next spring, it will be another illustration of what some see as the best-ever Big Island boom.

 

"What a gift for Hawaii's people!" said Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, who calls the $225 million campus the best thing to happen to East Hawaii's 30,000 ethnic Hawaiians "outside of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920."

 

Burst of economic sunshine

 

It has been a long time coming, Kim said.

 

"You have to understand the history," he said. "The east side had been dying for approximately 30 years, ever since the sugar mills closed. People were getting desperate. Property values stayed stagnant. In fact, values were often less than what was paid. Inventory was up, but sales were zero."

 

By the late 1990s, Kim said, things were looking grim and Big Island government contemplated building a large state prison to boost the economy. So, when plans for the campus were finalized in 2000, it was a burst of sunshine across an otherwise dreary economic landscape. The confluence of Kamehameha and the University of Hawaii at Hilo made East Hawaii a bona fide educational hub. Plans for world-class astronomy, pharmacy and language programs at UH-Hilo were finalized and cooperative programs between the university and Kamehameha Schools bloomed. Suddenly, hundreds of millions of dollars were flowing into the economy.

 

Then came the baby boomers -- land-hungry migrants pushed (and priced) out of Oahu, Maui and California, searching for their piece of paradise. Between 2000 and 2005, many of them landed in Puna.

 

Back in 2000, the median sales price for vacant land in Puna was a little over $7,000. By 2004, the median price, where half of all sales prices are higher and half are lower, had doubled. By early 2005, it was $32,500, according to Multiple Listing Service statistics. After rising 49 percent in one year, the median home price in Puna today is considered an "affordable" $240,000.

 

Today, unemployment hovers around 3 percent, people are spending money on everything from furniture to new houses, locals are upgrading, newcomers are building fresh on land devoid of county water and roads, and anything not nailed down is up for sale. There's even talk of a 60-room Holiday Inn Express coming to Keaau, according to Mark McGuffie, the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board's executive director.

 

Creative financing

 

To finance it all, mortgage companies sometimes employ creative means, said Hugh Willocks, president of the Hawaii Island Contractors' Association.

 

"Young people are qualifying for more than they can afford," he said.

 

The downside, he says, is that, should the Big Island's present boom turn to bust, high-paying construction jobs would dry up and some of those hefty mortgages could go unpaid.

 

But talk of a bust is heresy in these heady times, especially anywhere near Hilo's newly built Home Depot, where newcomers and locals talk joists, trusses and flooring. Many are do-it-yourselfers by necessity because skilled, licensed builders have been siphoned off by projects in West Hawaii.

 

Of the 48,000 one-acre lots created in Puna in the 1950s and 1960s, 40,000 are still vacant, said Chris Yuen, county planning director. Most have minimal infrastructure. On the Big Island, that means the ironic duo of water catchment and solar power are needed to civilize the vast acreages of ohia and scrub sprouting from the area's geologically recent lava fields.

 

Still, hearty buyers, undaunted by the relative austerity, keep coming. Approximately 9,500 people have moved into Puna so far this decade, contributing to Hawaii's overall population growth of 29,000 per decade. At that rate, there will be 206,000 people on the Big Island in 2020 -- and many of them will live in Puna.

 

For every boom, a bust

 

Amid all the bustle, there's a growing sense that too many of East Hawaii's less affluent or less skilled will be left behind.

 

"To every boom, there is a downside -- a bust, if you will," Kim said. "We're already seeing it in terms of property price inflation. We're seeing a housing crisis because 50 percent of our households are below 80 percent of the national median income. People are having a tough time affording a place to live, not just to own."

 

The answer?

 

"We must get the help of the private sector -- they're my only hope," Kim said. "It can't be resolved through housing projects or Section 8 subsidies but through zoning, building permits, Hawaiian Homes, highway design. We can't make this a playground for just the rich."

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 1, 2005

Indianz.Com. In Print.
URL: http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/009587.asp

 

Native-owned businesses generate billions

 

Native businesses took in $26.4 billion in 2002, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

American Indians and Alaska Natives own more than 206,000 businesses across the country, the U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday. This was up from the 197,300 firms that were operating in 1997, according to the report.

 

Most of the Native businesses were located in California, Oklahoma, Texas, New York and Florida. New Mexico, Arizona, North Carolina, Washington and Michigan rounded out the top 10 with Alaska coming in at 11.

 

In terms of revenue, Native firms in California took in $4.4 billion in 2002, the most of any state. With $3.2 billion in revenue, Texas came in second while Oklahoma ranked third with $2.5 billion generated by Native businesses.

 

By percentage, Native-owned businesses in Alaska accounted for about 8 percent of all firms in the state. In both Oklahoma and New Mexico, they accounted for about 5 percent of the firms.

 

For the report, "Preliminary Estimates of Business Ownership by Gender, Hispanic or Latino Origin, and Race: 2002," the Census Bureau did not include businesses owned by tribes or Alaska Native corporations. This dropped Alaska, with its wealth of billion-dollar Native corporations, from the top 10 rankings.

 

It also resulted in lower figures overall for Indian- and Native-owned businesses. Based on the 1997 data, which included certain Alaska Native corporations, Indian businesses took in $34.3 billion.

 

Despite the change, officials said the report indicated a growth in Indian-owned businesses. More specific data on Native businesses will be released in the coming year.

 

"We also believe the number of businesses owned by American Indians and Alaska Natives is also growing," Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon said as the figures were announced.

 

If tribal entities or Native corporation entities had been included, the figures would show significant growth. Indian casinos took in $19 billion last year alone, a 15.3 percent increase. Some of the top Alaska Native corporations report nearly $1 billion in revenues.

 

Other data indicates the increasing economic power in Indian Country. Native Americans will control $63 billion of the U.S. economic market by 2008, according to a 2003 report from the Selig Center for Economic Growth.

 

The preliminary Census Bureau report showed that Native entrepreneurs are involved in a wide variety of industries including construction, retail trade, professional services, health care, and other services. Receipts were highest in retail trade and construction, the report said.

 

Native men continue to own most of the businesses. In 2002, Native men owned 58 percent of all Native businesses while Native women owned 39 percent. The remaining 3 percent were equally male-female owned.

]

Despite the growth in economic opportunities, American Indians and Alaska Natives still trail the rest of the nation when it comes to economics. Nearly a third of Native people live in poverty, based on Census Bureau data. Native children are more likely to live in poverty than any other racial or ethnic group, a 2004 report stated.

 

 

 

 

July 28, 2005

 

War horrors recalled

 

Erin Morrison

 

Leader-Post

 

"The Forgotten War" was remembered Wednesday, as veterans gathered to mark the 52nd anniversary of the day the guns fell silent in Korea.

 

By the time the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed on July 27, 1953, more than 200 Saskatchewan soldiers were among the 26,000 Canadians that served in Korea, and the 516 Canadians that died there.

 

Veterans gathered at the cenotaph in Victoria Park to commemorate the anniversary. Ten uniformed men, in green jackets and berets, prayed together, sang together, and called out together: "We will remember them."

 

At the same time, the First Nations Korea War Veterans Association began a three-day remembrance, beginning Tuesday. Called a reunion, a gathering and a celebration, the event was the first official annual gathering of Saskatchewan's First Nations Korean War veterans.

 

"I was there ... when the war ended we were out on the frontlines and all of a sudden we were told to stop firing, and that was it. We just stopped firing," said veteran Tony Cote. "Everybody started yelling, screaming and everything like that because we didn't have to face the enemy any longer."

 

Cote's unit pulled back and dug in, and waited -- and then brought home with them horrific memories that only other veterans can understand.

 

"The children, as we drove through their villages ... the little shacks and what not ... and them begging for food and begging for anything we could give them," said Cote, who recalls throwing bits of his rations into the hands of starving children.

 

Another soldier, blocks away, attending the memorial at the cenotaph, recounts nearly an identical memory.

 

Jim Wasnik tries to remember the good times, but he said he is haunted by the streets of Seoul.

 

"There was nothing at all. There were little kids on the street, begging for chocolate bars and stuff like that. They were hungry and living in a little tin lean-to, and you walked right by them and tried to give them anything to eat, but you didn't know when you were going to eat again."

 

Wasnik was awarded a Presidential Citation for his time in Korea -- a very rare honour for someone who is not American.

 

His Canadian unit was key in holding a tenuous position for the allies. Supplies needed to be air-dropped in because it was so dangerous on the ground, and the unit was riddled by deaths.

 

"You know exactly what he felt like, you know exactly what his feelings are, and it's not easy," said Cote of his fraternity with soldiers like Wasnik, but the fraternity ended when they arrived back in Canada.

 

"There never has been any recognition for aboriginal or First Nations veterans. There never has been. We were treated with outright discrimination ... When we were in the service fighting on the frontlines with our white buddies, brothers, we did everything with them," said Cote.

 

"Some of us got wounded some of us got killed, some of us died in prisoner of war camps. It was only after we came home we started being treated differently."

 

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is now trying to make some amends for the "mistakes" they have made in past treatment of First Nations veterans, said Victor Scarlett, an aboriginal outreach officer for VAC.

 

A new Veterans Charter will take effect in April 2006 that is more inclusive, and provides better financial benefits for First Nations soldiers serving today.

 

A First Nations Package was also introduced in June 2002 for on-reserve veterans, and so far has provided compensation for about 1,200 veterans.

 

 

 

 

Posted: July 25, 2005

 

South Dakota ordered to rewrite redistricting law

 

by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today

 

PIERRE, S.D. - A panel of three federal judges ruled that South Dakota again was in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the decision will almost ensure that American Indian voters on the Yankton Reservation will have a say in drawing new voter district boundaries.

A unanimous decision by the judges issued an injunction against the state of South Dakota, saying it must comply with the federal Voting Rights Act and submit the new law for review by the Department of Justice.

The judges stated that there was an appearance of a rushed attempt to circumvent federal law.

American Indian voters filed a complaint in federal court asking that district lines be dissolved and new boundaries with nondiscriminatory districts be created. The complaint also called for a special election. A ruling has not been issued on that case.

The plaintiffs argued that past redistricting by the county has prevented American Indian-preferred candidates from gaining a seat on the county commission or other elected offices. American Indians make up one-third of the population of the county.

In response to the federal lawsuit, Charles Mix County asked the state Legislature to change the redistricting procedures and allow the county to redraw the lines in time periods other than two years after a national census.

Against objections from members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, where Charles Mix County is located, the law was passed and signed by the governor. A few days later the county submitted a redistricting plan. That plan was never sent to the Justice Department for review, as is required by a consent agreement between the state and the federal government.

The state argued that the agreement did not include Charles Mix County, only Shannon and Todd counties, and that therefore no review was necessary. The judges stated that the new law affected all counties in the state, including the counties of Shannon and Todd, which were included in a 2002 consent decree that requires pre-clearance for any legislation affecting voting.

The South Dakota must now submit the new law to the Department of Justice for approval.

The state has not yet decided if it should appeal the ruling. It may go directly to the Supreme Court, according to Larry Long, state attorney general. Bryan Sells, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said it is highly unlikely the high court would take the case; it has refused such requests in the past.

If the law is allowed to stand as written, American Indians will not have a say in how redistricting will take place, Sells said. ''This ruling demonstrates the essential role played by the Voting Rights Act and the federal courts in protecting the right to vote for Native Americans in South Dakota.

''While we are pleased at the relief granted in this case, we also are saddened that it has once again taken the intervention of the federal courts to ensure that state officials follow the law,'' Sells said.

According to Article 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Shannon and Todd counties contain a minority population and, therefore, all changes in voting regulations that affect those two counties must be submitted to the Department of Justice for approval.

The new law, H.R. 1265, affects both counties and changes the practice or standard for redistricting county commission districts.

The opinion, written by Judge Karen Schreier, said the state avoided pre-clearing more than 700 voting changes for decades. ''The citizens of Shannon and Todd counties were subjected to continuing violations of the VRA,'' the opinion stated.

The state also violated the pre-clearance requirement in 2001 with its redistricting plan. The state was found in violation of the Voting Rights Act in Boneshirt v. Nelson.

The defendant, the Charles Mix County Commission, argued that residents of the county are harmed because they would be unable to redistrict in response to the pending federal litigation. In that litigation, the defendants assert that the boundaries were drawn based on a rational policy to respect township and city boundaries.

Evelyn Blackmoon, lead plaintiff, claims there has never been an American Indian that has served in an elected office in Charles Mix County. Redistricting according to the ACLU guidelines would benefit American Indian voters, plaintiffs claim.

''We have been without a voice on the commission for too long. This is an effort to change that,'' Blackmoon said.

In a related case

The state of South Dakota was found in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because of redistricting violations. Legislative District 27, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, was declared a packed district. That would allow for only a potential of three American Indian legislators in the state Legislature.

The ACLU filed litigation on behalf of a group of American Indian voters in an attempt to redraw lines for two districts so that a majority of American Indians could have the potential of electing preferred candidates.

The state, by federal court order, was required to submit a plan to the court or be subjected to redrawn district lines by the court.

Attorney General Larry Long said the state would not submit the plan and would await the court decision, then file for an appeal. Long said that the legislators do not consider their actions racist and that the lines created a district that would have a large majority of American Indian voters; a violation of the Voting Rights Act, according to the federal court.

Long also said that based on a history of voter turnout, two new districts with a slight majority of American Indian voters could mean there would be no representation from American Indians in the Legislature or in county offices.

In the past two election cycles, a major Get Out The Vote campaign in Indian country has met with positive results.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, July 31, 2005

 

Hawaiian healing gains acceptance

 

By RON STATON
Associated Press

WAI'ANAE — It was Tuesday and the volleyball player at Punahou School had a painful sprained finger, but she wanted to play that Friday.

Alapai Kahuena received a call and went from her home on the Leeward Coast to Ala Moana Park to look at the girl, the granddaughter of a friend.

Kahuena, a practitioner of Native Hawaiian healing, pounded leaves of ha'uoi, a plant also known as verbena, and mixed it with Hawaiian salt. After massaging the girl's arm, she placed the mixture on the finger, wrapped it in gauze, and told the girl to leave it on for three days. "Her mother later told me the pain went away and the girl was able to play on Friday," Kahuena said.

A growing number of Hawai'i residents are turning to traditional healing practices as an alternative or a supplement to visiting a regular doctor.

Traditional healing practices also are being combined with standard medicine in state-supported health care programs for Native Hawaiians, although there is a shortage of Hawaiian healers. The University of Hawai'i also has a new department that recognizes and studies Hawaiian medicine.

"People are not happy with Western medical treatment and are seeking alternatives," said Babette Galang, complementary health officer for Papa Ola Lokahi, a nonprofit group set up to improve the health and well-being of Native Hawaiians.

Traditional healing goes on in a variety of settings around the islands — in clinics and community health centers as well as private homes and public parks.

Kahuena frequently uses an herb called 'olena, a ginger family plant also known as turmeric, to treat several ailments. It's anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, she said.

Kahuena said she tries all herbs before prescribing them, and is using 'olena herself for treatment of diabetes and heart problems. She hopes eventually to be free of her Western medicines.

Both Kahuena and Galang emphasize the spiritual element of traditional healing.

"Ke Akua (God) is the foundation," Kahuena said. "Pule (prayer) is a big part in healing. I'm not a healer. He's the healer; I'm the helper."

Galang quotes the late Henry Auwae, a po'okela, or master, of la'au lapa'au, or herbal medicine, as saying that healing is "80 percent spiritual and 20 percent la'au."

La'au lapa'au is one of three forms of native healing, along with lomilomi, which uses forms of massage, and ho'oponopono, which means "to make right" and is a form of dispute resolution in which problems are talked out.

Kahuena trained with Auwae for eight years, and her clients are mostly relatives and friends. She doesn't advertise and, like Auwae, does not charge for her services.

Auwae taught the practices that were taught to him, as a gift to be shared and never charged for these services, said Kekuni Blaisdell.

"He felt it would interfere with the healing process," said Blaisdell. "But the younger generation wants to pursue this as a career."

Blaisdell first learned of the herbal forms of native healing while a student at Kamehameha Schools. He had learned about lomilomi from his grandmother.

Blaisdell went on to become a doctor trained in Western medicine and is retired from the University of Hawai'i's medical school.

A Hawaiian health study by the nonprofit group Alu Like and the University of Hawai'i led to a report, E Ola Mau (to live on), that became the basis for the Native Hawaiian Health Improvement Act of 1988.

The act provided healthcare facilities for Hawaiians. Papa Ola Lokahi, which serves as a Native Hawaiian health board, was established to develop the infrastructure to address concerns raised in the study.

By 1991, the healthcare systems were in place on all islands, encompassing both Western and traditional healing. Papa Ola coordinates and oversees five Native Hawaiian healthcare systems.

Traditional healers are exempt from state licensing, but their qualifications are reviewed by kupuna councils affiliated with the healthcare systems, and in turn reviewed by the Papa Ola Lokahi board, said Hardy Spoehr, executive director of Papa Ola Lokahi.

The University of Hawai'i's medical school recently created its Department of Native Hawaiian Health, which is committed to improving the health and wellness of Native Hawaiians while embracing traditional Hawaiian values and practices.

Learn more: Native Hawaiian Healthcare: www.nativehawaiianhealth.net/index.cfm

University of Hawai'i Department of Native Hawaiian Health: www.dnhh.hawaii.edu/Home.asp ?tabHome

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 30, 2005

 

CLEMENT 'TIGER' ESPERE / 1946-2005

 

Canoe builder embodied many facets of Hawaiian culture

 

By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

Clement "Tiger" Espere, a Renaissance man of Hawaiian culture who helped build and launch the first historic Hokule'a voyaging canoe, was a friend to anyone in need.

"He was trained to be a healer, and his healing work was for anyone in need," said his wife, Karen Espere. "He was a person who loved everybody. It didn't matter if you were rich or poor or what culture you were from. He was there for anybody and everybody.

"He just ran out of time," she said.

"Tiger" Espere of Waimea Valley died at age 58 of cancer July 21 at the Queen's Medical Center.

A talented surfer by the age of 10, he was nicknamed "Tiger" by the older Waikiki beachboys because he was so aggressive in the water, said his daughter, Kaiolohia Tolentino of the Big Island.

Karen Espere, an environmental engineer for the Navy, said her husband grew up in Waimea Valley with his grandparents, where he learned how to dive and fish. His grandfather was the last Hawaiian caretaker of the iwi, or ancestral remains, in Waimea Valley, she said. Tiger Espere was trained to take over his work before the city and the National Audubon Society assumed management of Waimea Falls Park, she added.

"An amazing man," Tiger Espere wore many other hats too, she said, including Parker Ranch paniolo from the mid-1980s to '90s; a skilled craftsman who worked on the Hokule'a canoe in 1975; one of the first lifeguards at Waimea Bay; and a freelance writer on Hawaiian culture.

As Hokule'a crew members and canoe builders under the Polynesian Voyaging Society, the couple met in 1995. They lived in Japan from 1997 to 2000 to fulfill a mission given him by "Tahiti elders," she said.

They went to verify the ancestral connection between Japan's pre-Buddhist settlers and native Hawaiians. The Esperes obtained physical evidence of similarities between the two cultures and established the Japan-Hawaiian Voyaging Society. "It was incredible," Karen Espere said.

From 1996 until he died, her husband was a freelance writer for many Japanese publications, she added.

According to his sister, Shirley Diaz of Ewa Beach, Tiger Espere was the oldest brother and assumed the spiritual leadership of his close-knit extended family when their mother died 19 years ago.

Her fondest memory of him was the time spent once a year with about 32 men and boys of the family, teaching them to camp, fish, hunt and gather so they would "know how to survive without stores." He taught them to "love the land and to respect everything," and to learn about their culture, Diaz said.

A sunrise memorial service will be held at 6 a.m. today at Waimea Bay, followed by lunch at Kaiaka Beach park at noon. His ashes will be scattered Thursday at Puukohola-Kawaihae on the Big Island. Funeral arrangements are being made by Mililani Memorial Park & Mortuary.

 

 

 

 

Saturday, July 30, 2005

 

Museum qualifies group to receive artifacts

 

There are now 14 groups recognized as claimants

 

Associated Press

The Bishop Museum's board of directors has recognized Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa as a native Hawaiian organization with rights to claim ancient Hawaiian artifacts known as the Forbes Collection.

The action, announced Thursday, brings to 14 the number of native Hawaiian organizations recognized as culturally affiliated claimants of the objects, the museum said.

Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa's application for recognition was based on cultural affiliation and provided supporting information on kinship and geographic association with the objects, the museum said.

The organization was founded by Abigail Kawananakoa, a wealthy heiress and descendent of King Kalakaua.

The 83 artifacts were first collected in 1905 from Kawaihae Cave on the Big Island.

The items were labeled as being on loan when the museum handed them over to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei in 2000. They were never returned, and Hui Malama has said they have been reburied in the cave.

In other action, the museum said the board was unable to determine which of three competing claims for a cowrie shell found on Molokai was the most appropriate.

The museum acknowledged in December that it was not the rightful owner of the cowrie under the terms of the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Hui Malama, Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa and the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts each based its claim on the assertion of kinship or geographic association with Molokai, the museum said.

None of the three demonstrated that any of its members are descendants of the person whose remains are thought to have been associated with the cowrie, it said.

Under the terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the museum said it will retain the cowrie until the three agree upon its disposition or the dispute is otherwise resolved.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, July 29, 2005

 

Burial-law faction loses ally

 

By Dennis Camire
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Supporters of a change in federal law that would expand the claims of American Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian groups to ancient burial remains and cultural artifacts have found an unlikely foe: the Bush administration.

The Interior Department, which had supported the idea in another court case, reversed its position yesterday, saying it did not support the change, which awaits action by the full Senate.

The change in the law that protects native gravesites would allow indigenous groups to claim ancient artifacts even if the materials have no connection to any tribal group still in existence.

"In the situation where remains are not significantly related to any existing tribe, people or culture, they should be available for appropriate scientific analysis," said Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department. "The proposed legislation would shift away from this balance."

Hoffman said the agency believes the law should protect the sensibilities of current tribes while balancing the need to learn about past cultures and customs.

The agency's new position gave pause to the chairman and to the top Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which conducted a hearing on the issue.

"They (Interior Department) were clearly in favor," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the committee chairman. "I don't think it was adequately explained why they shifted position."

McCain and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the committee's top Democrat, said they don't know what is next for the proposed change to the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Fifteen years ago the law established the rights of descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to Native American human remains, funerary and sacred objects and artifacts of cultural patrimony.

The change would add two words — "or was" — to the definition of the term Native American, redefining it to be "of, or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture that is or was indigenous to the United States." It effectively means most ancient skeletons and artifacts would be classified as Native American.

The proposed legislative change stems from a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year allowing scientists to study the more than 9,000-year-old skeletal remains known as Kennewick Man. Four tribes claimed the remains, found on the banks of the Columbia River outside of Kennewick, Wash.

The Interior Department decided at the time in the tribes' favor because the remains predated the arrival of Europeans to the United States. But federal courts rejected the claim, saying the remains must have a significant relationship to a presently existing tribe or culture.

Van Horn Diamond, representing his family — the Van Horn Diamond Ohana — at the hearing, said the change was needed to protect Native Hawaiians' rights to be involved in decisions relating to remains and artifacts.

"What if we find a circumstance like this (Kennewick Man) now?" he said. "Our oral tradition only takes us so far (in being able to place a claim)."

Still, some scientists and others argue that the change could potentially block future historical and anthropological study of the continent's earliest inhabitants and where they came from.

Paula A. Barran, an attorney from Portland, Ore., representing a group of scientists, teachers, students and others, told the committee that the proposed change would expand the law far beyond the boundaries of what is reasonable.

"You will have removed from the national patrimony ancient cultures and heritages that should be a source of pride for all Americans," she said. "Such actions will impoverish future generations and seriously harm education in this country."

Paul Bender, a law professor at Arizona State University College of Law, backs the change. He said a principal purpose of the law is to recognize the Indians' right to participate in decisions relating to remains and artifacts.

"These decisions have enormous and religious importance to Indian people," he said.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Friday, July 29, 2005

 

Museum keeping artifact in interim

 

Advertiser Staff

The Bishop Museum has decided to keep a funerary object sought by three competing Hawaiian organizations until the groups settle on the disposition of the artifact, a cowrie shell that the museum acquired after it was unearthed near Mo'omomi, Moloka'i.

Also yesterday, the museum's directors decided to recognize another group as a claimant on the objects that were reburied at Forbes Cave in a controversial Big Island case.

In each case, the board followed the recommendations of a nine-member museum board collections committee.

The claims in both cases fall under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, widely known as NAGPRA, which established a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain cultural items to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.

"I think it's a fair treatment of the whole business, the back and forth of the arguments of the NAGPRA issues," said Isabella Abbot, co-chairwoman of the collections committee.

In deciding to retain the Moloka'i cowrie shell, the museum board said it could not be determined which of the claims of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa or the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts were most appropriate. In a press release, the board said none of the claimants presented evidence showing any of its members are descendants of the person whose remains are thought to have been associated with the cowrie shell.

The Big Island case involves 83 sets of objects from the Kawaihae caves complex, also known as Forbes Cave. Controversy erupted among Native Hawaiian groups in 2000 when Hui Malama took the artifacts on loan from the museum and buried them in the caves.

The recognition of Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa — a group incorporated last year by Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa — gives the organization standing in the ongoing dispute over the objects, including the right to take the matter to court.

Thirteen other groups, including Hui Malama, also have been recognized as culturally affiliated claimants to the objects.

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 1, 2005

 

Researchers try to preserve Indian languages

 

Lawrence Journal-World

 

Robert Rankin’s unintended quest to salvage a near-extinct language began with a watermelon feed, a faux pas and the Lord’s Prayer.

 

“I had no idea things would turn out as they did,” said Rankin, a retired Kansas University linguistics professor.

 

Rankin, 66, has spent the past 31 years documenting the language of the Kansa or Kaw Indians, who were forced to move from Kansas to Oklahoma in the 1870s.

 

While searching for the last of the tribe’s native-tongue speakers, Rankin was invited to meet Maude McCauley Rowe, one of three surviving speakers, at a family watermelon feed in tiny Shidler, Okla., in the summer of 1974.

 

Rowe, then in her 70s, agreed to share what she knew. But when Rankin asked her to recite one of the tribe’s stories, she declined.

 

“She explained that in the Plains Indian culture, they don’t tell stories in the summer. They tell them in the winter,” Rankin said.

 

Rowe, instead, recited the Lord’s Prayer. That night, Rankin transcribed the recording, using a special phonetic alphabet.

 

“When we met the next afternoon, I said I had some questions about some of the words in the Lord’s Prayer,” Rankin said. “When I opened my notebook and started reading what I’d transcribed, her mouth dropped open, her eyes got big and she said — exclaimed, actually — ‘How did you do that?’ She couldn’t believe it.”

 

Rowe had grown up believing her tribe’s language could not be written and, after her death, was sure to disappear.

 

“She was astonished,” Rankin said, “and I was astonished that she was astonished.”

 

Rowe asked for a photocopy of Rankin’s transcription.

 

“After that, when I was in (Kaw) people’s homes in northeast Oklahoma I would see framed copies of the Lord’s Prayer hanging on the wall — they were photocopies of her photocopy!” Rankin said.

 

Over the next three years, Rankin compiled between 50 and 60 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Rowe translating words and phrases, sharing legends and telling stories. Rowe died in 1978.

 

Rankin made similar recordings with Kaw elders Walter Kekahbah and Ralph Pepper, the other two surviving Kaw speakers. Pepper died in 1982, Kekahbah in 1983.

 

“All the speakers of the language are gone now,” Rankin said. “All that remain are the tapes.”

 

The tapes’ contents, he said, are now on 55 compact discs.

 

Audio dictionary

 

With the help of a one-year, $40,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rankin is hustling to finish his Kaw dictionary and grammar manual.

 

“I have about 4,500 entries in the dictionary now,” Rankin said. “I have another 1,000 to 1,500 to get to.”

 

The process includes adding audio clips of Rowe, Kekahbah, Pepper or himself pronouncing each word to a computerized data base. Eventually, students will be able to click on a word and hear its pronunciation.

 

Also, Rankin is adding words and information found in the papers of James Owen Dorsey, a missionary who visited the Kaw in the late 1880s and made notes on the tribe’s language.

 

“Unfortunately, he caught yellow fever and died in 1896,” Rankin said.

 

Dorsey’s unfinished manuscripts were later found in several boxes in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

 

“After he died, there was no one to complete his work,” Rankin said. “It was neglected, basically.”

 

The Kaw language is similar to English in that it uses prefixes and suffixes but dissimilar in that they have little in common with their English counterparts.

 

“For example,” Rankin said, “there’s a word for removing bark from a tree and there are probably 10 prefixes that mean by fire, by hand or by foot, by pulling or pushing, by striking…”

 

Also, the Kaw language does not include past, present or future tenses. Instead, it uses what linguists call positional verbs: sit, stand, lie.

 

“Instead of saying ‘I am hungry,’ in Kaw it’s ‘I am hungry and I am sitting down,’” said Kaw Nation Language Director Justin McBride.

 

McBride, too, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. His task is to develop and make available teaching materials based on Rankin’s dictionary and grammar guide.

 

“To learn Kaw as a second language is tricky,” said the 30-year-old McBride, who has a linguistics degree from the University of Oklahoma.

 

As a language, Kaw is both literal and figurative.

 

“The word for flower means pretty grass,” McBride said. “For poison ivy, it’s bad grass.”

 

The word for movie, he said, means “moving face writing.”

 

Reviving the tongue

 

McBride is hopeful that the Kaw will someday be able to reclaim their language.

 

“I have two young students — they’re 10 and 9 — who are doing really well,” he said. “They definitely have the potential for becoming conversational in their youth. Whether they will or not, I don’t know.”

 

Rankin isn’t quite as optimistic. “I don’t expect (the language) to be brought back from the dead or that all Kaws will become fluent speakers,” he said. “But I do think it will be used in things like prayers and invocations, or meetings and powwows, which are important.”

 

Those events are important because they define Kaw culture.

 

“Language carries culture and cultures contain unique world views,” said Dan Wildcat, chairman of the American Indian Studies program at Haskell Indian Nations University. “Both are important and both should be preserved.”

 

At Haskell, Andy Girty, 72, teaches Cherokee language classes.

 

“Your native language identifies you. It connects you to your culture,” Girty said.

 

The Cherokee language is not as endangered as Kaw. Studies have found that several thousand Cherokee still speak their native tongue.

 

“That’s good because for many years only the Cherokee elders spoke the language,” Girty said. “But today in parts of northeast Oklahoma, they’re teaching Cherokee in elementary school.”

 

But across North America, hundreds of tribes have lost their languages.

 

“When Columbus arrived, there were about 500 native languages in North America,” Rankin said. “Today, there are fewer than 200.”

 

The same is true, he said, in Australia, Africa, the South Pacific, Siberia and parts of Central and South America.

 

It’s a trend, Rankin said, that is proving difficult to reverse.

 

“Once a language is gone, you can’t get it back,” he said.

 

 

 

 

Article published Jul 30, 2005

$30M for loan program

Agreement to allow more Land Trust homes to be built

By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno

Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com

 

Possibly hundreds more families who hold Chamorro Land Trust leases will be able to apply for loans to build homes under a memorandum of understanding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development agency and the Guam Housing Corp. will be signing.

 

For years, Chamorro Land Trust residential lease holders have been unable to obtain bank financing to build homes. While they have a 99-year lease, they don't own title to the land, making bank financing difficult.

 

A door to possible home ownership opened up recently when the Guam Housing Corp. began extending the scope of its home loan program to qualified lease owners of Land Trust residential lots. The local government-run housing corporation serves as a home lender of last resort to island residents whose credit worthiness fails to meet commercial lending criteria.

 

But while the housing corporation has opened up its loan program to Land Trust recipients, it had a limited pool of money -- currently around $3.2 million available -- to finance about 60 home building projects.

 

With the memorandum of understanding, hundreds of Land Trust homes -- or up to $30 million worth of home construction activity infused into the economy -- are possible if the maximum potential of the housing corporation and USDA Rural Development's future partnership is realized, said Joseph Diego, the federal agency's area director on Guam.

 

The agreement is being worked out and could be finalized around September, Diego said.

 

In general, the agreement will allow the federal agency to finance 80 cents for every dollar that the housing corporation is able to lend to a Land Trust residential lease holder who wants to build a house, said Diego and the housing corporation.

 

"It helps stimulate the economy," said Mary Guerrero, loan administrator with the housing corporation.

 

Diego said the federal agency already is a partner in other non-Land Trust home ownership programs with banks and the housing corporation. But the Land Trust program will have more benefits to the local economy because it involves construction of homes, rather than purchases of existing structures, which are mostly the case with the other programs.

 

Home construction by the hundreds can help create jobs, boost purchases of construction materials and mean more tax collection for the government.

 

Promise

 

What the federal agency needs in the agreement is a promise from the local government to pay the Rural Development agency in the event a Land Trust home owner's home would have to be foreclosed because of nonpayment.

The federal agency cannot take possession of a home on Land Trust land because the homeowner only has a lease on the property.

 

Diego said the federal agency has worked out similar agreements with Guam neighbor islands such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where nonindigenous residents could only hold leases, rather than own land.

 

Dozens of Land Trust residential lease holders have shown interest.

 

On Thursday, some of them showed up at a meeting with the housing corporation and the Chamorro Land Trust Commission to talk about the mechanics of the home ownership program.

 

Pilot program

 

Guerrero said a pilot program would start on Land Trust property on Carnation Road, Mangilao, that has been subdivided into residential parcels.

 

The area was chosen, Guerrero said, because it is close to power and water lines, making the task of home building easier.

 

Thousands of island residents have applied for leases of Land Trust property.

 

The Chamorro Land Trust applies to people who became American citizens in 1950 as a result of the Organic Act of Guam, and it gives them the opportunity to lease land from the Chamorro Land Trust Commission at $1 per year for 99 years.

 

As of April, the commission has approved more than 1,200 residential land leases.

 

 

 

 

Posted: August 02, 2005

 

Opal Creek program connects students and ecosystem

 

by: Jean Johnson / Indian Country Today

 

PORTLAND, Ore. - Jawbone Flats is the place: a degraded mining site three miles down the trail into the heart of the 35,000-acre Opal Creek Wilderness area where a world-class stand of old-growth Douglas fir and Western hemlock forest graces the earth. Chemawa Indian School students, under the direction of Dennis Martinez, Tohono O'odham, an expert in tribal fire ecology on the Pacific Northwest ecosystem, ventured in twice in 2005 - once last fall to plant red alder trees, and again this spring to check on how the new tree people were doing.

Part of the goal of the indigenous leadership program sponsored by Portland's Ecotrust is ''connecting with indigenous leaders in the region and on-the-ground projects,'' explained Craig Jacobson, president of Native programs. ''Of all the people I know in the broader region who would know about how to restore forests to their prior condition - providing for indigenous basketry material, traditional medicines, healthy biodiversity, forest structure, age composition,'' said Jacobson, ''Dennis is the one.''

So while part of the goal of the restoration project was to connect tribal youths with Jacobson calls ''a magical place,'' the larger reasoning was to give students a chance to work with a committed indigenous environmental leader like Martinez.

Ecotrust partnered with the National Forest Foundation, which provided most of the funding. Chemawa Indian School sent two science teachers along on the weekends; and the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, a grassroots group dedicated to ensuring the future of this choice space fringing the Willamette Valley, worked with planners in coordinating the work.

''The soil at the abandoned mining site was mostly fill and not in good shape. Twenty-three students planted between 150 and 175 red alder in just absolute solid rock,'' Jacobson said. ''It took teams of two students upwards of a half hour per tree to get them into the ground, basically busting through a rock substrate. And when we came back in the spring, we found every single one of them were alive which, in the drought we had last winter, is pretty amazing.''

Jacobson credited the success to Martinez's exceedingly careful approach. ''He laid out a white drawing board and went through the steps in planting a tree the right way: size of the hole, slope of the land, the way to loosen the root ball, the first soil in the bottom of the hole, filling around the edges. He also had the students gather two types of soil and leaf litters from the forest where healthy red alders were growing,'' Jacobson detailed. ''And it completely paid off because every single one of the trees survived.''

Poet, creative writer and director of Ecotrust's indigenous leadership program, Elizabeth Woody, Warm Springs/Navajo, was also on board for the excursions to help students make connections between the activity and the literary world. ''Oftentimes, beginning writers don't realize their experiences are worth writing about, so we worked in teams of two students each. Half the group put blindfolds on and their partners led them to one of the red alders, allowing them to taste, touch, and generally sense their tree in non-visual ways.

''After returning to their starting place, they took their blindfolds off and traced their way back to their trees, relying on how the ground was under their feet, air currents, sounds and so on. At the end, I have them write about the experience - how they felt about their tree.''

Woody continued: ''It's important that they become aware of another living being besides themselves or their friends. The tree becomes a collaborator in the environment, and they begin to feel connected to it. Then they are not the ones imposing, but instead are participating. The tree is no longer some abstract thing, but instead becomes what it truly is: a living being with whom we share this place.''

Where Woody and Jacobson will take Ecotrust's indigenous leadership program from Opal Creek is not certain. ''We will be working on a similar project this fall, although we haven't picked the site yet,'' said Jacobson. ''It might be a wetland or more forest restoration elsewhere. One thing we'd enjoy is finding a location within tribal lands - the Grand Ronde, Siletz or Warm Springs, since they are all relatively close to Portland. Then again, we might do some work with Chemawa Indian School on their land and perhaps get involved with some GIS mapping as part of their science curriculum.''

Whatever they decide, Ecotrust's goal of helping support indigenous leaders throughout the Northwest - the region referred to as ''Salmon Nation'' - will move forward slowly but surely. In the process, traditional knowledge and wisdom will infuse on-the-ground projects such as the one at Opal Creek that restored some of the displaced tree people. In so doing, a long-overdue indigenous perspective will increasingly inform Salmon Nation's discussion, debate and action.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, July 31, 2005

 

Fish, hope flourish off Kaho'olawe

 

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

A marine reserve around Kaho'olawe is feeding bottomfish into the surrounding waters of Maui County, showing the value of modern-day Hawaiian fishing restrictions, or kapu.

A new study prepared by the University of Hawai'i's Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory and Oceanic Institute tracked the movements of the prized pink snapper, or 'opakapaka, from reserve waters, where the fish were fitted with radio tags, into open fishing zones outside the reserve.

Previous studies had shown that bottomfish were more abundant inside the reserve than out.

"When the population grows to the point that fish begin leaving reserve waters to feed in surrounding areas, it indicates the reserve is helping to restore the marine ecosystem inside and outside of the reserve boundary," said Sol Kaho'ohalahala, executive director of the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission, which manages the island and its marine protected area.

The protected waters around Kaho'olawe are well-suited for providing a boost to the Maui County fisheries and prove the value of no-fishing zones in protecting fish stocks and neighboring fisheries, said Chris Kelley, marine biologist with the Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory.

"The Kaho'olawe Island reserve is probably one of the best bottomfish reservoirs in the main Hawaiian Islands," Kelley said.

Researchers are finding increasing evidence for the benefits of no-fishing zones. Five years after setting aside 37 percent of the Big Island's Kona coast in a series of reserves, a survey found there are more fish being caught in the remaining areas than were being collected in the entire coastline before.

"Collectors are collecting more fish and making more money. Dive companies say they are seeing more fish. Everybody's happy," said Rick Gaffney, a representative of recreational fishers and a new member of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

"The Kaho'olawe study merely supports the results of other studies that show the value of marine protected areas," Gaffney said.

The Kaho'olawe reserve has two zones. Entry without a permit is prohibited in Zone A, from the island's shore to water 180 feet deep. Zone B goes from that point to two miles from Kaho'olawe's shore, and here bottomfishing is prohibited and trolling is allowed two weekends a month.

Oceanic Institute biological oceanographer David Ziemann said for the study, a research crew caught 'opakapaka in the reserve and performed minor surgery, implanting a radio transmitter into each animal's abdomen. The fish were anesthetized before the operation and their incisions were closed with a single stitch. They were kept in a tub of water until they recovered from the anesthesia and could be released.

Researchers deployed underwater listening sites outside the reserve, which tracked those fish that swam into the free-fishing zone. They were tracked for two months. Eighteen fish were fitted with acoustic tags, and the listening devices eventually heard 12 of them.

The results showed that fish swam out of the reserve waters, and some also swam back in.

"Overall we can say that at least 25 percent of the tagged 'opakapaka population were in the open fishing area with sufficient frequency that they could be collected by fishermen," Ziemann said.

The animals appeared to employ a typical day-night feeding pattern, moving into waters roughly 600 feet deep by day and coming upslope to shelves 350 to 400 feet deep at night.

"One of the purposes of the reserve is to replenish the depleted resources outside the reserve, and from what this initial survey has shown, it is working. The reserve is doing its job, and the waters of Kaho'olawe are an oasis inside a desert," said Dean Tokishi, an ocean resources specialist with the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission.

Kaho'ohalahala said the reserve staff is thrilled with the results, although the protection of fish stocks are only one justification for the marine reserve.

"The submerged lands and waters surrounding Kaho'olawe also contain unknown quantities of unexploded ordnance that present a public health and safety hazard," he said.

There is little dispute that bottomfish resources in the main Hawaiian Islands are depleted. The average 'opakapaka caught in the main Hawaiian Islands is just 4 pounds, according to data from the National Marine Fisheries Service, while the species in the less heavily fished Northwestern Hawaiian Islands averages 10 pounds.

Kelley said that while other tagging studies suggest the mature bottomfish may roam far and wide within the Hawaiian archipelago, the fishery could benefit from additional closed zones.

"My personal feeling is that there should be a reserve for every bank," he said. Kaho'olawe takes care of Maui County, but he believes there should be a significant reserve for the Big Island, for O'ahu, for Kaua'i, and for Ni'ihau and Ka'ula Rock.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an effort to increase the usefulness of this service to our subscribers, CNHA is now including a section for Quiet Title Notices at the end of each NewsClips.

 

 

CIVIL NO. 05-1-0199(3) 92-0786(1) IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND CIRCUIT STATE OF HAWAII TO: KANUI; MARAEA WAIKOLOA; JOBE L.K. WAIKOLOA; NUA WAIKOLOA aka NUA WAIKOLOA BURNS; PAUL WAIKOLOA BURNS; HELEN WAIKOLOA; RUBY KILOHANA MORSE; MARIA C. MORSE KELIINOI; THOMAS I. MULVIHILL; DAVID KUPAU; JOBE LONOIKAMAKAHIKI WAIKOLOA; MATHIAS WAIKOLOA; EMMA WAIKOLOA; BERNARD WAIKOLOA; JACOB KAUAUKIU WAIKOLOA; JAMES KAUAKANILEHUA WAIKOLOA, WAIKOLOA aka M.W. WAIKOLOA aka NIHOE WAIKOLOA; HELEN IOPA aka HELEN TILTON aka HELEN IOPA PARKER; LEANDER TILTON; MARIA A. TILTON; THOMAS TILTON; HELEN PARKER aka HELEN KAPIOLANI PARKER HAYSELDON; CLEMENT PARKER; GEORGE PARKER; ENIA PARKER VESTA PARKER; ELLEN MAE PARKER; EVA NITTA PARKER; ELLEN LANA LEI PARKER; JULIA KAUAKEA WAIKOLOA aka Mrs. D. KUPAU; THEORDORE DAVID KUPAU; VIOLET KUULEI KUPAU; ALPHONSE HENRY KUPAU; ROSE KUPAU; MAHOE JOHN WAIKOLOA; AGNES WAIKOLOA; DOES 1 through 100, and all other persons or corporations unknown claiming any right, title estate, lien or interest in the real property described in Plaintiff's Complaint adverse to Plaintiff's ownership and TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiff GERALD GROSSMAN claims fee simple ownership, together with others, to: All of Land Commission Award 5507, Apana 1 to Kanui, Royal Patent 3343, at Kahape, Uaoa, Hamakualoa, Maui, Hawaii, Tax Key 2-8-04-7(2). YOU ARE HEREBY FURTHER NOTIFIED that Plaintiff GERALD GROSSMAN has filed a Complaint to Quiet Title in the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, requesting that title to the above-described real property be determined quieted as to any and all adverse claims not presented and/or adjudicated in this action. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the courtroom of the Honorable Joseph E. Cardoza, Judge of the above-entitled Court, Hoapili Hale, 2145 Main Street, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, on Wednesday, the 24th day of August, 2005, at 8:30 a.m., or to file an answer or other pleading and serve it before said day upon Plaintiffs' counsel, TOM C. LEUTENEKER, Carlsmith Ball LLP, 2200 Main Street, Suite 400, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, 96793, to show cause, if any you have, why the prayer of said Complaint should not be granted. Unless you file an answer before the time aforesaid or appear at the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, County of Maui, State of Hawaii, at the time and place aforesaid, your default will be recorded, and said Complaint will be taken as confessed and a judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. DATED: Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, June 29, 2005. C. CASIL CLERK OF THE ABOVE ENTITLED COURT CARLSMITH BALL LLP TOM C. LEUTENEKER 721-0 2200 Main Street, Suite 400 Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii 96793 Telephone No. 808.242.4535 Fax No. 808.244-4974 Attorney for Plaintiff (Hon. Adv.: July 6, 13, 20, 27, 2005) (A-121460) Posted on 7/6/2005

 

 

 

 

SUMMONS CIVIL NO. 05-1-0178(3) IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND CIRCUIT STATE OF HAWAII TO: HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KULA (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAIWI; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAMEHAME (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF WILLIAM RINGER; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF WILLIAM RINGER, JR.; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF MELE KAHEWAHEWANUI (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF MARY SYLVA, aka MARY KEANU; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KEALOHA (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAHOOKANO (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAMAHA (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAPULE; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALAUAO (w), aka KALAOAO (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF PAELE; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALAWAIA KAUWAI (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF TERUBBABEL KAAUWAI (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KA-PAHI (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KEONIANA (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAUWAHINE, aka KAMAHINE (w) or KAWAHINE (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KEKUHINE (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF MAOMAO; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF J. LANI (k), aka JOHN LANI; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KANOHOHAOLE, aka KANOHOHAOLE AINA (w); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF MANUELA LANI (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAELEMAKULE LANI; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAHOLOKAI MAOMAO; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALIULA KALANITHOOKAHA; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KEALA MAOMAO; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALIULA (k) aka KALIIULA (k) and LIIULA (k); HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KAALOA, aka S. KAALOA; HEIRS OR ASSIGNS OF KALOPA; DOES 1 through 100, and all other persons or corporations unknown claiming any right, title, estate, lien or interest in the real property described in Plaintiff's Complaint adverse to Plaintiff's ownership and TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiff HALE MUA PROPERTIES, a Hawaii limited liability company, claims fee simple ownership of all of the following real property: (a) LCA 3432 to Kula, 3.530 acres, more or less; (b) LCA 2426 to Kaiwi, 55/100 acres, more or less; (c) LCA 2447 to Kaawa, 1-58/100 acres, more or less; (d) LCA 2572 to Naheana, 16/100 acres, more or less; (e) LCA 3275-T to Kahookano, 6.80 acres; (f) LCA 3275-U to Kaiolani; (g) LCA 3327 to Naialaolao, 2.360 acres, more or less; (h) LCA 3374 to Paele, 1-74/100 acres, more or less; (i) LCA 3436 to Kapahi, 13-7/100 acres, more or less; (j) LCA 3437 to Kaliiula, 6.700 acres, more or less; (k) LCA 3441 to Kapaula, 8.600 acres, more or less; (l) LCA 3444 to Kalopa, 1-40/100 acres, more or less; all of which real property is located in Wailuku or Waiehu, Maui, Hawaii and all of which parcels are portions of Tax Map Key 3-3-02-1(2) YOU ARE HEREBY FURTHER NOTIFIED that Plaintiff HALE MUA PROPERTIES, a Hawaii limited liability company, has filed a Complaint to Quiet Title in the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, requesting that title to the above-described real property be determined quieted as to any and all adverse claims not presented and/or adjudicated in this action. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the courtroom of the Honorable Joseph E. Cardoza, Judge of the above-entitled Court, Hoapili Hale, 2145 Main Street, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, on Wednesday, the 14th day of September, 2005, at 8:30 a.m., or to file an answer or other pleading and serve it before said day upon Plaintiff's counsel, TOM C. LEUTENEKER, Carlsmith Ball LLP, 2200 Main Street, Suite 400, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, 96793, to show cause, if any you have, why the prayer of said Complaint should not be granted. Unless you file an answer before the time aforesaid or appear at the Second Circuit Court, Wailuku, County of Maui, State of Hawaii, at the time and place aforesaid, your default will be recorded, and said Complaint will be taken as confessed and a judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. Dated: Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, July 25, 2005. C. CASIL CLERK OF THE ABOVE ENTITLED COURT CARLSMITH BALL LLP TOM C. LEUTENEKER 721-0 2200 Main Street, Suite 400 Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii 96793 Telephone No. (808) 242-4535 Attorney for Plaintiff HALE MUA PROPERTIES, a Hawaii limited liability company (Hon. Adv.: July 28; Aug. 4, 11, 18, 2005) (193456) Posted on 7/28/2005

 

 

 

 

 

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.