Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities.  NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  For information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

CNHA is a national association of Native Hawaiian organizations. Operating an active Public Policy Center, Grants Training Institute, Community Development Consulting Services, and the Hawaiian Way Fund, we unify our members around solutions that embrace the strength of Native culture and knowledge in meeting community challenges. CNHA coordinates the Annual Native Hawaiian Convention in Honolulu every year to bring practitioners, community and policy makers together around issues important to Hawaiians.

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2006

 

 

CNHA Message – Sleeping Giant or Voting Block?

 

This message is written by Robin Puanani Danner, CNHA President & CEO

 

In the news recently, and included in this issue of Native NewsClips are articles announcing plans by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustees to engage in an OHA Nation and spend $10 million in Hawaiian trust funds.  And, all around us are candidates vying for seats at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, County, State Legislature, and the Congress to represent all of Hawaii’s citizens – at every level of policy making.

 

These next several months, and the result of the Primary Election set for September 23, 2006 and the General Election set for November 7, 2006 – will determine what happens and more importantly “how” things happen that very much impact the Hawaiian community.

 

We are 17% of the eligible voting population in this state. We are the indigenous people of this state.  We have a greater responsibility and obligation to the Hawaiian islands, yes greater, yes, more than the average citizen.  These are the lands of our ancestors birth, these will be the lands of our children, these will be the lands where our identity, our knowledge, our traditions will live or die.  There can be no greater reason to engage in Voting in every election, at every level, then who we are as stewards and the children of Hawaii.  17% of the voting population is a HUGE number, very much a deciding number.  As a community, as individuals, one by one – we must decide whether we are a Sleeping Giant in Hawaii’s policy making or an Active Voting Block.  It is not necessary to vote the same, it is necessary to show that we vote. 

 

No matter the level of your involvement in elections in the past – it is imperative that each of us, registers to vote and cast a vote on the 5 seats that are open on the OHA Board of Trustees, the 1 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 1 seat in the U.S. Senate and the numerous seats in each of our state legislative and county districts.  We are a Giant in Voter Populations – the next step is to transform the energy of that Giant to an Active Voting Block. 

 

If you need information for your community or family on voting or absentee ballots, call the CNHA Policy Center at 808.521.5011 or email at policy@hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

 

 

Convention Week Schedule of Events at a Glance

Hawaii Convention Center – September 25th – 29th, 2006

 

Monday, September 25, 2006

 

 

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

 

 

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

 

 

Thursday, September 28, 2006

 

 

Friday, September 29, 2006

 

 

Registration Forms & Scholarships availabe at www.hawaiiancouncil.org or contact CNHA Event Services at 808.521.5011 or via email at events@hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

The 5th Annual Native Hawaiian Convention is Sponsored by:

 

 

 

 

 

July 17, 2006

 

Low voter turnout haunts isles

 

Wider use of absentee ballots could reverse Hawaii's lousy record in primary elections

 

By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

 

WINNING in politics is simple: Just get more votes than your opponent.

 

In Hawaii finding those voters, in a state with one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation, is what makes a candidate a winner.

 

"I consider turnout to be crucial and that is why I ended every speech two years ago by reminding people to vote," said Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who won office by less than 1,600 votes in 2004.

 

"I knew my supporters were in areas that historically had low turnout, so I made an effort to encourage them to vote," Hannemann said.

 

Increasing voter turnout is not every politician's strategy however. U.S. Rep. Ed Case. running against Sen. Dan Akaka in the Democratic primary, said he is not concerned about either a high or low voter turnout.

 

"I am not particularly worried about turnout. One would assume that a higher voter turnout would favor me, but that is not necessarily true.

 

"The people who supported me in past elections in Manoa were the ones interested in change and it was never because of significantly higher turnout," Case said.

 

Nationally, Hawaii is recognized as a state with low turnout, according to Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at George Mason University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

 

"Hawaii does have one of the lowest turnout rates in presidential elections, I believe because the state is not competitive in the presidential election, receives little attention from the candidates as a consequence, and because most of those in Hawaii know who won the election while the polls are still open," McDonald said.

 

Fiery, competitive races bring voters to the polls, says University of Hawaii political scientist Neal Milnor.

 

"We don't have a lot of elections that are closely fought and highly competitive," Milnor said.

 

And McDonald warns it is difficult to compare one state to another because each has different voting laws and each has different ways of purging the names of voters who have failed to vote in past elections.

 

Hawaii, for instance, had a much more rigorous purging process, but recently changed it to keep persons on the rolls even if they hadn't voted in the last two elections.

 

That increased the base number of voters and effectively lowered Hawaii's voter turnout percentage.

 

McDonald, in a national survey of voters in the 2004 election, took all the state's voting age population, dropped those who were noncitizens or in prison or ineligible to vote and then calculated the voter turnout.

 

Hawaii was still the lowest, with just 48.6 percent of those eligible voting.

 

The national Census Bureau pegged Hawaii's voting turnout in 2004 at 50.8 percent, again the lowest in the nation.

 

In comparison, Hawaii Office of Elections figured turnout as the percentage of registered voters who voted. In that check, Hawaii looked much better with 58.4 percent.

 

"We deal only with the institutional numbers, that is those who actually registered to vote," said Rex Quidilla, a spokesman for the Office of Elections. "The feds use a voting age population, that is anyone who is over 18, but that may not meet all voter qualifications."

 

Voter advocates this year are encouraged by the work done by Denise DeCosta, Honolulu city clerk, who has mailed out absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in Honolulu.

 

Quidilla notes that Hawaii's absentee ballot numbers have steadily increased since the law was changed to permit anyone to vote absentee with a reason.

 

"This is a significant trend away from Election Day voting," Quidilla said.

 

According to state election statistics, 11.5 percent of Hawaii voters took an absentee ballot in the 2000 general election. It was 16.3 percent in 2002 and jumped to 20.7 percent in the 2004 general election.

 

Jean Aoki, legislative chair of the Hawaii League of Women Voters, says she has some concerns about absentee voting because, if someone makes a mistake on their ballot or needs help with voting they don't have the same options they would if they had voted in person on Election Day.

 

DeCosta, however, says the response has been favorable and the absentee ballot plan was supported by the City Council.

 

One of the best ways to get more voters to vote, Milnor says, is for the political parties to run their own get-out-the-vote campaigns.

 

Democratic and Republican party spokesmen say they are already working on that.

 

Also labor unions and other interest groups are pushing voter registration and voter turnout.

 

For instance, Kelly Rosati, executive director of the Family Forum, is working with the Catholic conference on a campaign to increase voter participation with registration drives at churches.

 

"We also survey candidates on a broad range of issues and publish the unedited responses in our voter information guides," Rosati said.

 

In the end, however, politicians don't always care about a high voter turnout.

 

"You want to win office, you don't want a lot of people at the polls unless they are going to vote for you," Milnor said.

 

YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE

 

The state Office of Elections and county clerks can register voters.

 

To register you must be 18, a citizen of the United State and a legal resident of Hawaii.

 

You can register by mail after getting an application from a public library, satellite City Hall, the Hawaiian Telephone directory or the Office of Elections Web site: http;//hawaii.gov/elections.

 

You must register if you have changed your name or your address.

 

The major political parties also sponsor voter registration online at http://www.gophawaii.com/ and www.oahudemocrats.org.

 

QUESTIONS?

 

Office of Elections: 453-8683

City and County of Honolulu: 523-4293

County of Hawaii: (808)961-8277

County of Maui: (808)270-7749

County of Kauai: (808)241-6350

 

IMPORTANT DATES:

 

Aug. 24: Primary Election Voter Registration Deadline

Oct. 9: General Election Voter Registration Deadline

Sept. 16: Primary election applications for absentee ballot must be received by the

City/County Clerk where you reside no later than 4:30 p.m.

Oct. 31: General election absentee applications must be received by the City/County Clerk where you reside no later than 4:30 p.m.

Sept. 23: Primary Election

Nov. 7: General Election

 

VOTER TURNOUT

 

In recent elections, Hawaii primary election turnout has been dramatically slipping. It has gone from a high in 1978 of 74.6 percent to a low of 39.7 two years ago.

 

Here are the figures:

Percentage of registered voters who voted in the primary election:

 

1996 - 51.8%

1998 - 50.0%

2000 - 39.9%

2002 - 41.1%

2004 - 39.7%

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Monday, July 17, 2006

 

OHA going full speed ahead with nation-building effort

 

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' ambitious proposal that could lead to the establishment of a Hawaiian government will require the participation of large numbers of Native Hawaiians in a relatively short period of time.

 

"It's time to move," said OHA Trustee John Waihe'e IV, who supports the "nation-within-a-nation" model of governance.

 

With efforts in Congress to pass the Akaka bill thwarted for now, OHA is throwing its considerable political clout and as much as $10 million into the effort to form an entity that could negotiate with the state, and possibly the federal government, for control of land, money and other assets.

 

The Akaka bill, first proposed by sponsor Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, six years ago, would give Hawaiian federal recognition and self-government rights, but an effort to bring the long-stalled bill to the Senate floor for debate was rejected last month.

 

OHA's proposal is similar but does not seek a go-ahead from Congress as a first step.

 

It is within OHA's authority to take the lead in guiding the establishment of the new government, Waihe'e said. "We have the resources and we're the legally recognized representatives of the Hawaiian people. In that sense, it is our duty."

 

To succeed, the proposal titled Ho'oulu Lahui Aloha (to raise a beloved nation) will require thousands of Native Hawaiians to sign on.

 

OHA administrator Clyde Namu'o acknowledges concerns raised about the fast-paced timeline, which calls for the election of representatives to a new government entity by 2008. But he said it is imperative that the process moves quickly.

 

"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we'll be able to negotiate with the state," Namu'o said.

 

He noted that Gov. Linda Lingle has been supportive of Native Hawaiian causes, including the Akaka bill. If she is re-elected, he said, "We would certainly want to knock on her door at some point in the future about transferring assets from the state over to the government. That's part of what's driving the urgency of this."

 

REGISTRATION PUSH

 

Since June 23, when the Ho'oulu Lahui Aloha plan was approved by trustees, Namu'o and other OHA leaders have met with representatives from nearly a dozen Native Hawaiian groups hoping to enlist support in collecting names for Kau Inoa, the registry of Native Hawaiians that will help form the voting base for the new government.

 

Namu'o said the response is positive.

 

Still, the plan is being assailed both by opponents contending that a separate government would discriminate against non-Hawaiians and critics asserting that Hawai'i should break free from the United States entirely.

 

Roy Benham, a former OHA trustee and president of the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club, said he endorses what the plan offers. And he said his club stands ready to send out volunteers to canoe regattas, Hawaiian music concerts and other places where large concentrations of Hawaiians gather to sign up people for Kau Inoa.

 

Benham said he agrees with the assessment that success for the plan is tied to voter registration and turnout at the polls.

 

To date, about 50,000 have signed up. OHA's goal is to register 118,000, about two-thirds the total number of Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians in the state.

 

"It's a long way to go," Benham said. "That's the one thing the state is going to ask, and the feds will, too. I'm sure when we come in with our entity, the first thing they're going to ask is how many people does this represent?"

 

'IF NOT OHA, THEN WHO?'

 

Some critics question OHA's assertion of authority to lead the way.

 

"They're a state agency, and they're all about politics," said Mel Kalahiki, chairman of the independence group The Living Nation.

 

Namu'o countered that those who question OHA's lead in the process have yet to offer up any viable alternatives. He estimated that the price tag for the entire process, from registration to the election of officers, ranges between $7 million and $10 million. The OHA trustees oversee an annual operating budget of about $28.5 million. The agency's investment portfolio is estimated at $400 million.

 

"If not OHA," Namu'o said, "then who else? Who would have the money to finance such an effort?"

 

But Kalahiki said the OHA plan would likely preclude efforts to create an entity that would be entirely independent of the United States, the ultimate objective of his group.

 

"I feel there is a need to call for another proposal," he said.

 

Namu'o concurred that the proposed model is not geared toward secession from the United States.

 

"This government would always have to exist within the framework of the federal government," he said. If a majority of convention delegates were to push toward an independent nation, Namu'o said, those leaders would have to change the plan.

 

H. William Burgess of the group Aloha for All said his organization continues to oppose any plan that gives benefits for Native Hawaiians only.

 

Like the Akaka bill, the premise of the new plan "is that race and ancestry are valid grounds for the permanent political and social segregation of American citizens," Burgess said.

 

PREVIOUS EFFORTS

 

Nation-building efforts are not a new pursuit for Native Hawaiians.

 

In the early 1990s a movement began that eventually formed a 97-delegate Native Hawaiian Convention known as Aha Hawai'i 'Oiwi. Elected by roughly 9,000 Hawaiian voters, the delegates began meeting in July 1999 with the purpose of establishing a model for a Native Hawaiian government.

 

Poka Laenui, chairman of the convention, said delegates had established committees and set up two models for Native Hawaiian governance — an independent one and one that could be integrated into the U.S. structure.

 

But the convention ran into financial difficulties when both OHA and the Legislature cut funding, and it has not met as a full delegation since August 2004.

 

Laenui said Aha Hawai'i 'Oiwi is not in competition with OHA's Ho'oulu Lahui Aloha effort, but he expressed mixed sentiment about the matter.

 

"OHA was elected for a different purpose, to be a receptacle for certain funds and to assist Hawaiians," he said. "It was our mandate (as the Native Hawaiian Convention) to form the Hawaiian government."

 

Laenui added, however, that he wishes the new OHA effort well.

 

"There's enough room for everyone to try to organize Hawaiians," he said.

 

Namu'o, who participated in the Aha Hawai'i 'Oiwi process, said the work done by the Native Hawaiian Convention was significant and could be incorporated into the work of delegates in the proposed larger-scale convention.

 

Namu'o said he believes many of those now criticizing the process will eventually come on board, even running as delegates.

 

"At this point, let's get on the bandwagon because this train is about to leave the station."

 

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2006

 

Charter schools likely to reject funding formula

 

By Dan Martin
dmartin@starbulletin.com

 

Hawaii's 27 public charter schools are preparing for a first-ever vote on whether to participate in the state's controversial new weighted school funding formula.

 

And a "no" vote looks likely because of uncertainties over the evolving formula.

 

Some charter schools have high percentages of the types of students that draw in more funding under the "weighted student formula," which gives schools more money for certain students, such as those from low-income backgrounds, nonnative English speakers and those that transfer into schools mid-year.

 

But charter school officials say there are too many questions over whether the formula would help or hurt their budgets to adopt it now, especially since state law allows charters to rethink their decision every two years.

 

"We're not going to jump into that. There are too many problems and ambiguities to be worked out right now," said Keola Nakanishi, principal of Halau Ku Mana charter school.

 

Each charter school's governing board must decide its position by Sept. 1. More than two-thirds of the 27 schools -- or at least 19 -- must vote "yes" for the formula to apply to all schools.

 

The formula, aimed at creating more equitable school funding, has been in flux ever since early versions called for harsh budget cuts for some schools.

 

Though it goes into effect in the coming school year, the Legislature and Board of Education have taken steps to mute its impact for the first few years. Meanwhile, the committee that annually adjusts the formula is considering changes that would further soften future versions.

 

Hawaii charter schools, which are free to devise their own curricula and instructional methods and enjoy other freedoms from the Department of Education, have consistently been given less per-pupil funding than traditional public schools.

 

However, they got a slight bump in this year's legislative session, from a previous $5,600 per pupil to just under $7,000.

 

"We're going to go with what's clear and secure and known, at least in this first year," Nakanishi said.

 

The Legislature also gave an additional $660 per pupil in facilities assistance to "start-up" charter schools, many of which have been plagued by a lack of permanent facilities, unlike pre-existing schools that have converted to charter status.

 

Steve Hirakami, principal of the 200-student Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science, said the K-12 charter school's funding "is now probably the best it's ever been," and he worries about the weighted student formula's negative impact on small schools, which describes most charters.

 

"I really don't think we would benefit. No small schools would," he said.

 

One of the major uncertainties is how weighted student formula funding would be disbursed to schools, he said.

 

Currently, charter school funds come straight from the state general fund, bypassing the DOE.

 

Allowing the DOE to apply its formula on charter school funds could prove unpalatable to charter schools, which only recently earned their funding independence, he said.

 

"That would be a step backward," he said.

 

Jim Shon, executive director of the state Charter Schools Administrative Office, said there has been some discussion among charters about devising their own weighted student formula that could be applied to the money they now receive from the general fund.

 

However, the varying degrees of financial and operational stability among charter schools could make it hard for them to agree on the shape of a formula, he said.

 

"My sense is it (voting 'yes') doesn't look like a good idea at this point," Shon said.

 

But he adds: "It's not a fait accompli. It's up to each local school board and they could have a different view."

 

State law requires the vote be held the year before each two-year state budget is decided.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, July 12, 2006

 

45-acre marina may be built in Kona lava field

 

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

 

A developer who plans to carve a 45-acre marina out of a North Kona lava field will also build two miles of road to ease Kailua traffic congestion, and may construct 500 to 1,000 affordable "workforce" housing units, according to newly released details on the proposed project.

 

The additional housing could ease a crunch in West Hawai'i, where rents and housing prices are at sky-high levels. While jobs are plentiful in Kona, workers can't afford to live there, so many drive hours to get to work each day.

 

Spokesmen for the Kona Kai Ola project declined to estimate how much of an investment Atlanta-based Jacoby Development Inc. expects to make in the 530-acre waterfront commercial village planned near the edge of Kailua, Kona.

 

However, the cost of merely excavating the marina near the Honokohau Small Boat Harbor will be enormous. As a condition of the lease, the state is requiring the developer to build an 800-slip marina out of a lava field. Jacoby representative David Tarnas said that would require at least a 12-foot-deep excavation over the entire 45 acres, and the excavation might have to be deeper.

 

The project would be built on 350 acres of state land and about 200 acres of Hawaiian Home Lands near Honokohau. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources selected Jacoby as the developer in 2004, but is not expected to actually sign a lease with Jacoby for the 350 acres until next year.

 

Tarnas said the developer plans to provide a 42-acre shoreline park as part of the project, which would include 1,800 timeshare units and three hotels with a combined total of 670 to 770 hotel rooms. It also would include 52 acres of commercial development along the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway.

 

"We really want this to be a place that can bring what is really Kona out in front, a place where people can enjoy themselves and focus on the character of Kona," he said.

 

OCEAN WATER COOLING

 

Buildings in the project would be cooled by ocean water pumped into a cooling plant near the mauka edge of the development, and water discharged from that cooling process will be used to feed a series of man-made salt water lagoons that would flow back into the marina, Tarnas said.

 

That water circulation will keep the marina cleaner and more clear than an ordinary boat harbor, he said.

 

Big Island County Council Chairman Stacy Higa said the project promises to "put Kona on the map as one of the premier harbor destinations in the world." However, Higa said, county officials will have to study the project carefully when it is submitted for rezoning and other approvals.

 

"I want to support this, but the community benefit has to far outweigh the drawbacks," Higa said. "I think roads and traffic will be an issue."

 

TRAFFIC CONCERNS

 

Long, daily traffic tie-ups in the Kailua area have prompted some residents to call for a moratorium on new development until the state and county can build a network of roads adequate to accommodate more growth.

 

One Kailua resident who is questioning the pace of growth is Doug Parker, who owns a business doing home and commercial property inspections for buyers and sellers. Parker has urged the County Council to hold off on new rezonings until the county has completed a new Kona community development plan.

 

"Once you develop it, there's no turning back," Parker said of the Honokohau project. "I think that it's kind of overwhelming for an infrastructure that can't even handle what we have, or what we have on the books with approved development as it is."

 

Tarnas said the Kona Kai Ola project will help ease area traffic congestion because the developer plans to build a two-mile road from the Kealakehe Parkway at its intersection with Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway across the development site and other private lands to the Kuakini Highway near the old Kona airport. That road would be build before the rest of the project so the public can use it as soon as possible, he said.

 

EMPLOYEE HOUSING

 

The developer also plans to provide shuttle service from the project site to the surrounding areas and back, and is seeking permission to build employee housing on state lands near Kealakehe High School that have been earmarked for affordable housing.

 

Plans also call for a hands-on marine education center for use by area schools, a six-acre site within the development for community gatherings or events, and a man-made wetland habitat for birds that frequent the area.

 

The developer plans to produce a master development plan for the project, plans for the core infrastructure and a draft environmental impact statement by the end of this year, Tarnas said. Construction is tentatively planned to begin in 2008. Completing the entire development would take about a dozen years, he said.

 

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

July 13, 2006

 

Community Canvassing For Native Votes Count Begins

 

Honolulu, HI– The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement’s (CNHA) Policy Center, announces the first in a series of statewide community canvassing initiatives at Papakolea, Kewalo and Kalawahine.  The Native Votes Count campaign, launched in March 2006, is designed to increase voter education and awareness, targeting the Native Hawaiian community to both register and more importantly vote.

 

“We’ve supported over thirty events, distributing thousands of voter education and registration materials to individuals and organizations statewide,” said Rosalee Puaoi, CNHA Coordinator.  “Through partnerships with the Ewa Puuloa Hawaiian Civic Club, Partners In Development, Aha Punana Leo o Kawaihao, Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes Association and other organizations, many in our community will now have their voices heard in November”.

 

Be a part of the 2006 Native Votes Count campaign!   Join CNHA at Papakolea and the neighboring communities on Thursday, July 27 at 5pm.  Volunteers will meet at the Papakolea Community Center located at 2150 Tantalus Drive and distribute voting information and registration packets.  Future community canvassing events will occur in Anahola, Kauai, Kaunakakai, Molokai, and the Leeward Coast of Oahu.

 

For more information about Native Votes Count call us at (808) 521-5011 or visit our website at www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

Through the Policy Center, CNHA serves as an advocate of community development practitioners and provides relevant information, networking opportunities and policy reports to assist in addressing issues and finding solutions for Native communities. The Center’s public policy education initiatives aim to enhance the ability of the Native Hawaiian community to participate in federal legislation initiatives and other public policies that affect community development.

 

CNHA is a statewide and national association of Native Hawaiian organizations. Operating an active Policy Center, Grants Training Institute, Community Development Consulting Services and the Hawaiian Way Fund, we unify our members around solutions that embrace the strength of Native culture and knowledge in meeting community challenges. CNHA coordinates the Annual Native Hawaiian Convention in Honolulu every year to bring practitioners, community and policy makers together around issues important to Hawaiians.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Tuesday, July 18, 2006

 

Hawai'i resident among stranded

 

By Brittany Yap
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

If all goes well, a Big Island woman trapped amid the fighting in Lebanon will be in Cyprus sometime today, finally safe from the Israeli warplanes that have been bombing the country's roads and bridges since last week.

 

"I'm so scared," said Sarah Ahmadia, a 27-year-old biology teacher at Kamehameha Schools who was visiting family. "I just want to go home."

 

Ahmadia is one of an estimated 25,000 U.S. citizens stranded in Lebanon since the fighting began Wednesday. She has been staying at her aunt's house in a tiny mountain town east of Beirut.

 

Ahmadia is still unsure of how she will get to Beirut. The roads are so dangerous that her mother, Phyllis Ahmadia, hopes the United States will send an escort or a helicopter, but no plans were definite yesterday. Near the end of yesterday morning's interview with The Advertiser, Ahmadia, choked with emotion, said the experience has been chilling and asked readers to pray for a safe evacuation.

 

"There are so many civilians getting killed," she said. "I've seen it. The Lebanese citizens have nothing to do with it. I can't believe this is happening."

 

All of her evacuation information has been given to her by her family, which has been dealing with U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka's office. She said she has had trouble contacting the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, and isn't sure if she will be evacuated by plane, helicopter, boat or military personnel. Her father told her to pack no more than 30 pounds of luggage and leave the rest behind.

 

"We've received details from Senator Akaka's office," said her father, Jamil Ahmadia, in a telephone interview from the Big Island. "They gave us instructions on the evacuation."

 

Sarah Ahmadia said her one source of information has been her cell phone, which has remained in service and allowed her to talk to and exchange text messages with her family and friends. She's also getting news from CNN, which interviewed her twice yesterday.

 

The Associated Press reported yesterday that a cruise ship, the Orient Queen, escorted by a U.S. destroyer, was evacuating Americans, joining U.S. military helicopters that have ferried about a score of U.S. citizens to a British base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

 

Ahmadia said her scariest encounter came Friday when Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed a road some 500 yards from the house she was staying in before making it to the mountains. Ahmadia, her aunt from the Mainland and her 12-year-old nephew survived by taking shelter in the basement. The road and bridge bombings, according to reports, are Israeli attempts to restrict Hezbollah's movements.

 

"There was no warning of a plane," Ahmadia said. "Everything exploded around us."

 

At the time of Israel's first strikes on Lebanon, Ahmadia, on a 21-day trip to visit family, was at a beach south of Beirut. She said she saw a fighter jet fly overhead, followed by a thundering in the distance. At that point she wasn't worried, largely because attacks on south Lebanon are rather common.

 

The next morning she learned that Israelis had bombed the airport and the Syrian borders, and that getting home was going to be difficult.

 

"This place went from peace to chaos," she said.

 

USA Today contributed to this report.

 

Reach Brittany Yap at byap@honoluluadvertiser.com

 

 

 

 

July 13, 2006

 

Hawaiian language revival began on Kaua‘i

 

by Cynthia Matsuoka - Special to The Garden Island

 

An important chapter in the story of the revitalization of the Hawaiian language began with a group of concerned individuals seated around a table at a home in Kalaheo.

 

In January 1983, seven individuals gathered at the home of Byron Hokulani Cleeland to solve the problem of the imminent demise of the Hawaiian language. The language was dying as the nearly 2,000 remaining native Hawaiian speakers were dying.

 

“Even with people teaching (the Hawaiian language) in high schools and universities, we weren’t getting speakers,” Cleeland said.

 

They discussed the New Zealand Kohanga Reo system of placing native speakers with little kids in preschool. They decided to replicate that system in Hawai‘i and established ‘Aha Punana Leo as the parent organization.

 

They quickly faced a number of challenges, one being “the strictest preschool regulations in the whole country,” Cleeland said.

 

An 1896 law that established English as the “medium and basis of all instruction in public and private schools” was still in effect, even if Hawaiian and English were declared the two official languages in Hawai‘i in 1978. The law had to be changed in order for a Hawaiian immersion preschool to be recognized.

 

In September 1984 the first Hawaiian immersion preschool opened on ‘Elepaio Road in Kekaha. It was called Punana Leo O Kekaha. The teachers were from Ni‘ihau, the only place where Hawaiian was still the first language in the home.

 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough interest on the Westside and the school closed after two years, Cleeland said. Cleeland spent the next year looking for another site.

 

He found an old plantation house in Puhi, which he renovated with the help of volunteers and in the fall of 1987, the preschool re-opened as Punana Leo O Kaua‘i. It remains today at the same Puhi site.

 

In 1989, Cleeland said he helped look for a public school, which would provide an opportunity for the immersion preschoolers to continue to receive instruction in Hawaiian.

 

Cleeland said research was available to show that if children were taught well in their native language until fourth or fifth grade, the transition to the dominant language would be easy.

 

In addition, being bilingual expanded a child’s world. Children would understand that there was not just one way to look at the world, Cleeland said.

 

Cliff Bailey, principal at Kapa‘a Elementary School at that time, welcomed the idea and promised to find room for the immersion students.

 

While all of this was happening, Cleeland was teaching at Kaua‘i High School. He started teaching there in 1968.

 

His interest in native languages was instilled when he lived among the Tlingit (pronounced Klinkit) Indians in Alaska when he was three years to eight years of age.

 

When he moved to Maui at the start of his high school years, he heard Hawaiian spoken because his father helped with the Kaulamapueo Hawaiian church in Huelo. It piqued his interest, but he didn’t have an opportunity to take courses in the language — until the summer of 1972 when he heard on the radio that an adult education class in Hawaiian was being taught by Hi‘ilei Kanahele, a school teacher from Ni‘ihau. He enrolled in the class, then signed up for the first Hawaiian 101 class offered at Kaua‘i Community College that fall.

 

These were the early years of what was to become known as the “Hawaiian Renaissance,” Cleeland said.

 

Gabriel I taught the KCC class. After substituting for Gabriel I in the class several times, Cleeland was eventually asked to teach it in 1975. Cleeland said there was no one else available to teach the class, so he could be hired despite his meager background in Hawaiian.

 

He quickly picked up credits from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Hilo. He continued to teach Hawaiian classes at KCC for 25 years.

 

Three years after starting to teach at KCC, Cleeland got approval from his principal at Kaua‘i High to offer a Hawaiian language class to high school students. Cleeland discovered that the Hawaiian language textbooks available were not suited for high school students, so he began to develop his own lessons. It bothered him, he said, that although students could translate the exercises, they couldn’t speak the language.

 

It wasn’t until the French language teacher retired and he took over the French language classes that he became familiar with a different teaching strategy. He discovered that there were no translation exercises in the French textbook. He began to develop lessons patterned after the new strategy.

 

“I didn’t realize that it would take me 450 pages ... about five years,” Cleeland said, “but it was motivating to see that, before, after two years students still would not try to speak (in Hawaiian). When I tried these other kinds of lessons, by Christmas they would come up to me and (try to speak in Hawaiian).”

 

With encouragement from others, Cleeland had his textbook, ‘Olelo ‘Oiwi, published in 1994 by ‘Aha Punana Leo, the non-profit organization that runs the Punana Leo schools throughout the state. He said it was reprinted twice. Copies are no longer available, since ‘Aha Punana Leo phased out its publication office.

 

Because of its good reputation and the demand for it, Kamehameha Schools is in the process of reprinting Cleeland’s textbook. Although written for teachers of high school students, Cleeland said his book is used from middle school through adults. He said it is written for people who hate grammar and can even be used independently.

 

In 1987, Hawaiian language professors from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo asked Cleeland to join them in forming a lexicon committee, Komike Hua‘olelo. With the growth of immersion classes, new vocabulary had to be developed for math, science, technology and even sports. The language had been dying for nearly100 years, Cleeland said. New vocabulary had to be added for the language to grow.

 

The result of the meetings was the eventual publication of Mamaka Kaiao, a “compilation of Hawaiian words that have been created, collected and approved by the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee from 1987 through 2000.”

 

Cleeland said all the words are in a databank on his computer. They are looking to publish an updated edition with new words. Cleeland said he is still working on correcting errors in the current edition.

 

After 27 years of teaching at Kaua‘i High School, Cleeland was offered another challenge. In 1993, Ni‘ihau parents asked Kekaha Elementary School to teach Ni‘ihau children in their own language. A summer program that brought children from immersion schools on other islands to stay with Ni‘ihau families made the families realize that, unlike the visitors, more and more of their own children would communicate with them in English, Cleeland said.

 

When the Department of Education entered into an agreement with Kamehameha Schools and offered classes taught in Hawaiian for only kindergarten and grade one, many parents boycotted the school. The Ni‘ihau children returned to the school in 1994, however, when Kekaha Elementary was able to offer classes for children from kindergarten through grade 6 with funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs through ‘Aha Punana Leo for Ni‘ihau teachers. The DOE funded a certificated teacher.

 

Kamehameha Schools was no longer a partner, so the DOE looked within its ranks and found Cleeland to work alongside the Ni‘ihau teachers. Cleeland said people laughed when they heard he was going to teach kindergarten through sixth. He said the bet was he wouldn’t last two years. He proved them wrong.

 

Cleeland started in 1995. By 1998, enrollment had jumped to 40. Their one room was not adequate for 40 students and four teachers, so he and Billi Smith, the principal then, had begun eyeing the armory across the street.

 

After “big political football” involving the likes of Sen. Daniel Inouye and General Edward Richardson, Kekaha Elementary’s Ni‘ihau program moved into the partially renovated armory in the fall of 1998.

 

There were still problems, Cleeland said. As the students advanced in grade levels, they had to be registered with Waimea Canyon School and Waimea High School. The schools were legally responsible for them, but never saw them, as the students were attending classes in the armory.

 

After Act 62 was signed into law on May 27, 1999, creating New Century Public Charter Schools, Cleeland said they began talking about applying. On May 17, 2001, Ke Kula Ni‘ihau O Kekaha Learning Center was approved by the BOE as a public charter school.

 

“We’re doing what we can to perpetuate and strengthen the Ni‘ihau dialect among Ni‘ihau children living on Kaua‘i,” Cleeland said.

 

• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com

 

 

 

 

Jul. 13, 2006

 

Goodyear man saves the Zuni language from extinction

 

Puts it in writing

 

Christine L. Romero

The Arizona Republic

 

The boxes of documents were tucked away when the government found Curtis Cook on the Internet.

 

The papers the Goodyear man had created with the help of seven Zuni elders had not been forgotten but were collecting dust.

 

They held the origins of the written Zuni language. They represented 15 years of Cook's life and work. And now, at last, the Library of Congress wanted them.

 

After Cook finished some graduate linguistic studies in the mid-1960s, he set out to create a Zuni version of the Bible. But he quickly realized the language didn't have a written form. So he turned his attention to a more basic task: creating a Zuni alphabet, setting down in written form the Zuni language.

 

Without Cook's efforts, the Zuni language could have perished as the elders died and young Zunis forgot the tongue. Forgetting the language would have forever cut a tie between the generations of Zunis, who live predominantly in New Mexico and in Arizona east of Flagstaff.

 

"I became concerned that many of their old stories and the richness of their history would be lost to posterity as the elders, who were the storytellers, began to die off," Cook said. The elders were all older than 100 when Cook began his work.

 

The Library of Congress' intention is to preserve the work and eventually make the traditional Zuni stories more widely available.

 

Cook's work has allowed the Zunis to teach their written language to children from kindergarten through high school on the reservation. The Zuni words are even on street signs, which Cook proudly notes are spelled correctly.

 

By the end of this year, The Curtis Cook Collection is expected to be finally inducted into the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center.

 

During his time on the reservation, Cook also approached the Zuni Tribal Council and suggested that some of the tribe's stories should be recorded and preserved. The council agreed and eventually, about 300 reel-to-reel tapes were created with Zuni oral histories, folk tales and religious teachings.

 

The Curtis Cook Collection will include those tapes, transcriptions, learning guides and some Zuni publications.

 

Now at 67, Cook is the associate state director of community outreach for AARP Arizona. Previously, he was director of the National Indian Council on Aging.

 

When Cook talks about his time with the Zuni, known as "a friendly people," his eyes light up and seem to dance with respect and excitement.

 

Cook, also known as the Locust, wears turquoise Native-styled rings on his hands. In telling traditional Zuni stories, he infuses rhythmic Zuni words with English ones. To the English-speaking ear, the Zuni language seems breathy and includes many pauses that translate into meaning.

 

On the reservation, Cook's constant chattering and repetition of Zuni words and phrases earned him the names the Mockingbird and later the Locust among the Zuni Pueblo, now around 10,000 people.

 

Language experts say there likely still are pockets of the world where some languages exist only orally.

 

Cook's intent was to create a Zuni version of the Bible. Other oral traditions have morphed into written languages in a similar missionary fashion, experts say.

 

"Oral tradition keeps certain kinds of intergenerational contacts," said Guha Shankar, folklife specialist with the American Folklife Center. "It keeps memories alive."

 

Without written documentation, the Zuni oral tradition could have been lost, Shankar said.

 

Cook's work piqued the Library of Congress' interest because he collaborated directly with native speakers in the pueblo, Shankar said.

 

"The difficulty with some cultural communities is that as older speakers of the language pass away, the future generations aren't as likely to pick it up," he said.

 

"Then you have some suggesting that the language might not be around for future generations."

 

Cook meticulously made language records, including transcribing traditional stories passed down through the generations. Cook learned these stories from several generations, including the oldest that included a handful of men older than 100 who knew these tales by heart.

 

"I was concerned that all of their history would be lost forever," Cook said.

 

"My belief is when people get their language in writing it launches a whole new era. We take notes so we can remember."

 

Cook used the International Phonetic Alphabet, a commonly accepted series of symbols among linguists, to capture the Zuni language.

 

It took Cook only about six months to learn the language, he said.

 

He admits he's one of those people who is gifted in linguistics. He studied Latin and "ate it up."

 

The Zunis loved to see the language in print, he said. Reading became something of a novelty on the reservation. He taught a young boy to read in Zuni and soon the boy was going from house to house simply reading.

 

"He became a rock star with the Zunis because he could read and the older people couldn't," Cook said.

 

Cook contends that the symbols themselves aren't sacred. What is sacred is the process by which an oral tradition becomes fixed in time with written symbols and how that affects the perception of the world.

 

"It becomes sacred when you start communicating," Cook said. "I think there's something that happens when it moves from the mind to the head to the heart."

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Thursday, July 13, 2006

 

Don't move bones, families say

 

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The unearthing of 11 sets of ancient Hawaiian burial remains could pose a hurdle for a major commercial and residential renovation planned for the Ward Centers complex in Kaka'ako.

 

The O'ahu Island Burial Council yesterday heard from two Native Hawaiian families that want the iwi, or human remains, to stay exactly where they were found on the construction site. But representatives from landowner/developer General Growth Properties Inc. submitted a detailed burial plan to relocate the remains to a different part of the project site. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Rebecca Breyer

 

The $100 million-plus expansion plan for the Ward Village Shops includes a Whole Foods Market, an upscale supermarket, a 17-story rental apartment building, assorted retail shops and a seven-story parking complex. The project would incorporate the existing Pier 1 Imports outlet.

 

The remains were found in March primarily in the 'ewa-makai and diamondhead-makai sections of the nearly 5-acre property. General Growth wants to relocate the iwi to the diamondhead-mauka portion of the site.

 

"We'd like to move them to a safe place," said Dwight Yoshimura, a General Growth senior vice president.

 

But Paulette Kaleikini of the Keaweamahi 'ohana, which has been recognized as cultural descendants of the area by the state Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the iwi should be preserved where they were found.

 

"They were laid to rest by their 'ohana and they should stay there," Kaleikini said. "I think they have time to go back and redesign their structure ... to accommodate our kupuna who were there first."

 

Manuel Kuloloia of Maui, who is also seeking cultural descendant status, said his family would prefer to see the iwi remain undisturbed.

 

The council is charged with making a recommendation to the Historic Preservation Division, which has the final say on the matter.

 

A motion to reject General Growth's burial plan in favor of keeping the remains where they are was defeated in a 5-2 vote, with several council members saying they wanted more information about the case. Members subsequently voted to defer further action until the council's next meeting.

 

The council has 45 days from yesterday's hearing to send a recommendation to Historic Preservation, but General Growth officials said they would agree to a time extension. The developer is barred from working in the burial areas until the matter is settled.

 

After the meeting, Yoshimura declined to say what would happen to construction plans if General Growth is required to leave the remains in place, noting that he wanted to first review that information with burial council members and cultural descendants. He also would not disclose the cost of relocating the iwi.

Graphic courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser

Carolyn Norman, another member of the Keaweamahi family, and Kaleikini both said they don't want to block the development, just ensure that the remains of their ancestors are undisturbed.

 

The remains were found in "flex" and "semi-flex" positions, indicating they are ancient, Kaleikini said.

 

The Keaweamahi family also has been involved in a dispute over iwi found during construction of the Wal-Mart/Sam's Club complex on Ke'eaumoku Street. That issue has not yet been resolved, and the iwi have remained in a trailer on-site since 2004.

 

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

July 17, 2006

 

ALASKA ALMANAC

 

Native land, then and now

 

Anchorage Daily News

 

1924 -- Year that Congress granted citizenship to Native Americans, including Alaska Natives.

 

1935 -- Year that Congress agreed to let Southeast Alaska Natives sue the federal government for compensation because the feds took their land.

 

33 -- Years elapsed before Southeast Alaska Natives won their case.

 

$7.5 million -- Amount the court said the federal government had to pay for taking Southeast Alaska Native lands.

 

500 -- Acreage of land in Alaska owned outright (fee simple) by Alaska Natives in 1968, when Southeast Natives won their land claim case.

 

4 million -- Approximate acreage of the 23 Native reserves existing in Alaska in 1968.

 

44 million -- Acres that will be in Native ownership when the 1971 land claims settlement is fully implemented.

 

$962 million -- Amount the state and federal governments paid as part of the 1971 Native land claims settlement.

 

1 -- Number of Lower 48-style Indian reservations in Alaska today.

 

1% -- Portion of Alaska owned by private, non-Native individuals and firms today.

 

12% -- Portion of Alaska owned by Alaska Natives today. Sources: "Alaska Native Corporations: Sakuuktugut," by Alexandra J. McClanahan, published by CIRI Foundation, 2006; Alaska State Library.

 

 

 

 

Jul. 15, 2006

 

 

Tribes on threshold of tourist boom

 

Scott Craven
The Arizona Republic

A survey that has surprised the state's tourism officials indicates that although Native American casinos draw a fair share of customers, the real travel jackpot is the wealth of tribal culture.

 

As a result, Arizona's Office of Tourism is working with tribes statewide to devise an ad campaign to take advantage of an increased interest in Native American culture.

 

"There is a keen curiosity in what Native American culture is like," said Jacki Mieler, director of media relations and communications for the Tourism Office. "People are willing to take the time to explore. We need to connect with that audience to increase tourism."

 

The survey says that people who visit tribal lands stay longer and spend more on lodging, shopping and entertainment than Arizona visitors in general.

 

The study, the first of its kind, is a clear indication that the time is ripe for a marketing campaign focusing on the Native American experience, Mieler said.

 

Past ads and commercials have touched on Indian culture, but this is the first time tourism officials are working directly with tribes to create a campaign aimed directly at travelers curious about the Navajos, Hopis, Apaches and more.

 

Results could be lucrative for tribes and the state, if the survey is any indication, Mieler said.

 

The average household income of those visiting Native American communities was $102,000, compared with the $72,700 average household income for all of Arizona's domestic overnight visitors.

 

"Native Americans are drawing quality tourists, people willing to spend the time and money to do it right," she said. "It is an educated, wealthy group. We were unaware certain opportunities existed until the study."

 

Contacting 22 tribes

 

Shortly after the Office of Tourism saw study results earlier this year, it contacted the 22 tribes across the state to ask if they were interested in increasing tourism. Most were eager to become involved, Mieler said.

 

Tribes have since been asked to submit information on events, landmarks and cultural sites so the state can help them develop brochures and publicity campaigns.

 

The effort has led one tribe to explore the possibility of building a visitor and cultural center.

 

For years, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation has lured tourists with a casino, hotel and golf course, enhancing the experience with tribal dances and art shows. Shortly after the results of the study were revealed, members started to think about ways that would showcase their culture, said Steve Geiogamah, Fort McDowell's tourism manager.

 

"The casino is not our main draw, though perhaps that's what many people think," Geiogamah said. "People come to understand the culture. The study reaffirms that, so now we're evaluating the possibility of a cultural center."

 

But there is some hesitancy among Native Americans who are unsure that increased tourism should be sought.

 

Adam Teller, whose business depends on visitors, fears the day he may need a bus to accommodate all the tourists wanting to see Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Reservation.

 

The canyon, which is private property and considered sacred, could suffer under too much exposure, said Teller, who runs Antelope House Tours.

 

"A few more visitors would be nice; we could use a little extra business around the canyon," Teller said. The money would be nice, but the canyon would suffer with too many people, he added.

 

There is little traffic along the dusty 17-mile road that loops through the mesas and buttes of Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation on the Arizona-Utah line, but the area's increasing popularity is evident in the parking lot of the visitors center. Dozens of jeeps, vans and flatbeds await tourists eager to take an off-road tour. That concerns guides like Richard Frank.

 

The balance between nature and financial nurture is just about right, said Frank, who works for Simpson's Trailhandler Tours. The area may be able to handle a slight increase, but any more could be a problem because there are only a few hotels within 30 miles of the park.

 

Maralynn Yazzie, however, would love to see more people prowl the dark, narrow aisles of the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado. Yazzie, who has worked at the historical landmark for 18 years, said the post is overlooked by most who tour the Navajo Reservation.

 

"A lot of people who do find us are surprised we have so many arts and crafts to sell," she said. "If more people knew about us, I'm sure we'd get more tourists. A new marketing program would be wonderful."

 

Mieler said the Office of Tourism will be working closely with tribes over the next few months to develop a plan that is sensitive to everyone's needs.

 

Some tribes, for example, are not equipped to handle an increased number of visitors. They live in remote areas with few amenities and little desire to shelter and cater to more tourists.

 

There also are cultural barriers as tribes prefer to keep certain areas and rituals private, and Mieler said those needs will be respected.

 

"One of the challenges we've faced is making sure to understand and respect each tribe's needs," Mieler said.

 

Finding a target audience

 

The plan eventually will result in ads targeting the desired demographics, largely well-heeled travelers from Europe and Japan, Mieler said.

 

Native American culture already lures thousands of people from those areas, but the study indicated a more extensive marketing campaign could reach many more interested in the West.

 

"We don't want to attract every tourist, but the right kind of tourist," Mieler said. "We hope to appeal to those with a healthy curiosity about Native American life, those who will appreciate and respect it."

 

Geiogamah has been encouraged by the Office of Tourism's sensitivity. There are events and traditions on the Fort McDowell Reservation that the tribe would prefer to keep within its own community, and state tourism officials have understood, urging the Yavapai Nation to share only those things everyone agrees should be public.

 

Geiogamah used the Office of Tourism's new 109-page guide to tribal lands as evidence of the pervading sensitivity. Pages 2 and 3 are devoted to proper etiquette while visiting Native American communities.

 

"That tells me a lot about this program," Geiogamah said. "It's very understanding and takes into account the needs of the community. We've been very happy so far."

 

 

 

 

July 16, 2006

 

Economist: Native business transitioning into world market

 

By Margaret Bauman

Alaska Journal of Commerce

 

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto told an Alaska Native leadership conference in Anchorage July 6 that despite major advances in information technology, two thirds of the world's population remains excluded from market economies.

 

"In spite of the overwhelming evidence that capitalism is the best system to produce economic growth, that the market economy does a job that no other system has done, most people in the world are not included," de Soto said in a speech televised live from Lima, Peru.

 

Successful market or global economies are built on trust, liquidity and mobility of assets and organizations that can put all the pieces of enterprise together, said De Soto, president of the Lima-based Institute for Liberty and Democracy. He applauded efforts of Alaska's Native people to join into the market economy.

 

De Soto was one of a number of economists and others - including Alaska's congressional delegation, federal, state and private industry officials and Alaska Native business leaders - who addressed the two-day gathering.

 

AFN co-chairman Tim Towarek, was one of many applauding de Soto's address.

 

"For the short time he had to review the information that we gave him, he really took a grasp of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and what it is doing to protect the culture of Alaska Natives, but yet providing us with a method of taking control of our own society, in some ways through the formation of corporations," he said.

 

"I've always felt we have been very adaptive ever since other cultures have come into Alaska," said Towarek, president and chief executive officer of the Bering Straits Native Corp. "We accommodated the Russians when they came in, the whalers in Barrow. It's been a history of ourselves."

 

Adapting to other cultures while also adhering to the values of the existing culture is key to entry into the market economy, de Soto said.

 

Linking up cultures to the market economy requires a strategy that respects local values, that involves finding out what local people want to do and at what speed, he told the AFN Leadership Forum. "It is a long process ... It began with the Enlightenment, with a series of philosophers from mostly Europe, who believed that all we human beings were part of one civilization, and that civilization had to integrate all these cultures so that each of them could articulate themselves."

 

The amount of trust that characterizes people in a market economy is not due to race, ethnicity or culture, but to the fact that the market economy has created one of the most efficient information systems in the world, he said.

 

"It's my passport that gives me identity, and it's my credit card that says whether I can make a payment or not make a payment," he said. "It is the standardized documents that are brought out by a market economy that bring you in, and that is not substitutable by any other economic system in the world."

 

De Soto said when he arrived in the United States on his last visit, he stopped at a hotel in Washington, D.C., where he has stayed for 20 years. When asked how he would pay, he said he would pay promptly, and the hotel employee said to just show his credit card. "I realized (then) that my American friend had never really trusted me," de Soto said. "What he trusted was my Visa card."

 

The transition into a market economy involves the creation of legal structures to bring identity, property rights and business organizations that are accessible to all people, De Soto said.

 

He cited as an example the American occupation of Japan after World War II, which resulted in the transformation of Japan's legal structures to bring identity, property rights and business organizations that were accessible to all people. In the 1930s and 1940s, a million Japanese families immigrated to Peru and Brazil, both then wealthy countries, while Japan was a nation of feudal structures and little economic units, he said. Japan now has a much more developed economy than either Peru or Brazil.

 

The change to market economy is slow and involves great effort, he said.

 

While China today is recognized for its tremendous economic growth rate, which was about 10 percent last year, that 10 percent growth is taking place in roughly 20 percent of that nation's population, he said.

 

China has 1.3 billion inhabitants, of which no more than 250 million people work within Western-style business organizations or have Western-style property rights, he said. Last year alone, according to the Chinese government, there were more than 85,000 revolts resisting the encroachment of market capitalism, he said.

 

"We Latin Americans, ourselves, began with great admiration for the United States when our independence came from Spain in the 1820s, to try to imitate you. And five times we have tried to create market economies that are homogeneous, that include everybody in Latin America, and five times since 1820, we have actually failed," he said.

 

Unless Latin American countries create the legal structures that allow their citizens entry into the market economy, 90 percent of the citizenry will continue to remain outside its reaches, he said.

 

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.

 

 

 

 

July 12, 2006

 

Akaka Praises Former Big Island Students as Prime Examples of Native Language Schools’ Success

 

Washington, D.C. - Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) stressed the importance of native languages and praised the success of Hawaiian immersion schools during his address today at the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Native Languages Legislative Summit.

Photo courtesy of the office of Senator Daniel K. Akaka

In speaking to the summit’s attendees on Capitol Hill, Senator Akaka recognized language instructors and two graduates of Nawahiokalaniopuu Hawaiian immersion school located at Keaau, Hawaii.   

 

“In my home state of Hawaii, Native Hawaiian immersion schools are achieving great success.  Many students who have graduated from these schools have gone on to succeed in higher education and are leaders in our communities,” stated Senator Akaka.  “Two fine examples are here - Ku`uwehi Hiraishi who recently graduated from Seattle University and Holo Ho`opai who is a senior at Standford University.”

 

Senator Akaka added, “These students are steeped in not only the language, traditions, and knowledge of their ancestors, but are also empowered and equipped with the tools to combat contemporary challenges that confront our communities.”

 

Senator Akaka was introduced by Anuenue School Vice-Principal and NIEA President-Elect, Dr. Verlie Ann Malina-Wright of Honolulu.

 

“It is because of the support of leaders like Senator Akaka, an advocate of native languages, that we are able to get the kind of funding that is necessary to keep language schools alive,” said Malina-Wright.

 

In April, Senator Akaka introduced S. 2674, the Native American Languages Act Amendments Act of 2006, to provide for the support of Native American Language Nests and Survival Schools.  The bill has been referred to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

 

Hiraishi and Ho`opai are joining University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Hawaiian Language Professor Pila Williams and Director Kalena Silva in educating Senators about S. 2674.  Silva said, “Language is the fiber that binds us to our cultural identity and the legislation that Senator Akaka has introduced is vital for the survival of native languages.  We are here to stress the importance of this bill to Congress and get support.”  

 

Senator Akaka, a former educator, is working with his colleagues to favorably report S. 2674 out of committee.

 

 

 

 

Posted: July 14, 2006

 

Taking a stand against meth

 

by: Don Coyhis by: Richard Simonelli / White Bison

 

Reclaiming our communities

 

(Editors' Note: This is the final segment of a three-part series on fighting meth in Indian country, from the Wellbriety Conference held in Denver earlier this year.)

 

Part Three

 

Beverly Watts Davis, now a senior policy adviser for treatment and prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, spoke about how the community took back a neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, from crime, drug dealing, prostitution and gang activities. Ya Basta! the community said. Enough is enough.

 

They organized and began taking the community back. They photographed drug dealers and published their pictures in the neighborhood paper. They got police to walk their beats so that fire, ambulance and other services could come back. They arranged for 150 soldiers of the U.S. Army, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard to demolish 54 vacant houses that were being used for harmful purposes. Finally, once the drugs and crime were gone, they arranged for 700 military and guard personnel to come once a week to be mentors to neighborhood children. Davis says, ''It's about partnerships. It's about being creative with the resources. No one can tell you what you can't do. Only you can tell yourself what you cannot do to take back the community.''

 

Running further with the theme that education is prevention and healing from meth, the Wellbriety Conference was spellbound by the personal survival and recovery story of a former meth addict and suicide attempt survivor. David Parnell, Eastern Cherokee, is a living, walking miracle. He shared a moving, blow-by-blow presentation called ''Facing the Dragon!'' telling how he descended into methamphetamine hell, tried to take his own life and then, through what must be the Creator's gift, lived on to tell his healing story to communities across the nation.

 

In photo after photo, he shows what meth does to a person physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. He shows what it did to him. If a popular recovery story in the before-meth alcohol and drug recovery community was called ''scared straight,'' Parnell's story updates it to meth in a story that could be called ''scared straighter.''

 

His recovery story was an important solution available at the conference. He makes it available to any community on request, as his own livelihood, in order to reach the youth and others who might be tempted to fall into the methamphetamine trap.

 

When asked by Don Coyhis, founder and president of White Bison Inc., what single message he wanted participants to take back to their communities, he said: ''It would be hope that people can recover and that we can overcome this. That's what I hope to be for people, standing up in front and giving this presentation: an example of hope that they can recover and make it through. The second message is that this drug is so deadly that it is going to kill our country if we don't. But hope is the first one. I do it because I love you so much. The Lord gave me my love back.''

 

Many more solutions to the problem of meth in Native communities were presented at the conference. There are the many good words from the Wellbriety Council of Elders and the hard work of the workshops and discovery circles as shared with the entire conference on the last day. These mind maps and what they say tap the innate knowledge of the grass-roots. The people themselves know how to get a handle on the meth problem and they came up with their solutions during the four-day event. These solutions will be presented in upcoming materials. But if we were to ask what single message among the thousands we could take back to our communities, what would it be? It might be this:

 

Indian communities can eliminate meth from their midst. We are not paralyzed. There are solutions. National Congress of American Indians President Joe Garcia spoke in truth and beauty of the solutions when he said:

 

''I encourage everyone to continue to be a part of the solution. Don't give up, but don't forget your Indian way. Say your prayers. Pray for all those in need, pray for all those who are fighting this battle. Pray for your tribal leaders, because they need the help, they need the support. And if we can remain strong, then the dedication and the commitment will be there for the well-being of Indian country.

 

We are a people that have every right to be on this mother earth. We are the ones protecting mother earth. I'll go one step further and say that the Indian people, Indian country, the spirit of Indians, is going to be the solution for this country because they will revert back to those ways. Sometimes it's hard to accept that we are right. But be that as it may, don't falter. Continue, and always ask the Great Spirit for help. Don't forget your way. Don't forget your children. Don't forget your language, your culture, your tradition. It's the one thing we've got over the dominant society and others, which is powerful, so powerful.''

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Monday, July 17, 2006

 

Strykers roll in at Schofield

 

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

 

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, EAST RANGE — A new and decidedly different chapter in Hawai'i Army history sits idling in a football field-sized structure here, being readied to make its mark on the world. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Joaquin Siopack

 

The 19-ton, eight-wheeled Strykers that will remake a big portion of the Army in Hawai'i have started to arrive in batches of 30 to 50 a month, and driver training at East Range is expected to start this week.

 

Nearly 50 Stryker armored vehicles are on the Island. In the tentlike structure on Friday, 135 soldiers were clambering around the inside and outside of 33 of the vehicles, familiarizing themselves with their operation.

 

The rapid-response Stryker brigade of about 3,900 soldiers is designed to be transported to hot spots on new C-17 cargo carrier aircraft based at Hickam Air Force Base. Several other Stryker brigades have seen duty in northern Iraq.

 

For Hawai'i, the $1.5 billion brigade and the arrival of Stryker vehicles after at least five years of planning represent a milestone in one of the biggest Army projects here since World War II. The transformation of Schofield by the Strykers includes more than $700 million in construction projects to support them.

 

The unit is expected to be operational in fall 2007. Sgt. 1st Class Steven Stankovich, 33, one of the soldiers going through familiarization on Friday, is eager to reach that point.

 

"These are great. (I'm) really excited to work on them, excited to see what they do once we get them deployed," said Stankovich, from Pittsburgh, who's with the 5th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment. "I think it's inevitable they'll be going somewhere."

 

Military analyst Dan Goure of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute said the speedy Strykers, which can hit 70 mph on the highway, have tremendous versatility, and if Iraq winds down, could be used as a "rapid backstop" for Iraqi forces.

 

Seven brigades and a fleet of 2,575 Stryker vehicles are being planned.

 

"Frankly, I would not be surprised to see Stryker brigades among the last to leave Iraq," Goure said.

 

VEHICLES NEW TO ISLAND

 

Ron Borne, the 25th Infantry Division's "transformation" director, said the armored vehicles — which cost between $1.3 million and $1.5 million for an infantry version that can carry nine soldiers and two crew members — started to arrive about a month ago from General Dynamics Land Systems.

 

The vehicles are assembled in Canada or the Mainland, transported to Fort Lewis in Washington state, shipped to O'ahu and trucked up to East Range to be outfitted with radios and other equipment, Borne said.

 

Until recently, the 25th Division's only Stryker was a demonstrator medical evacuation vehicle on loan from the Mainland.

 

Borne said even though preparations have been ongoing for months, the vehicles' arrival "is significant because we have enough on Island to start the (operational) training part of transformation for the Stryker brigade."

Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Joaquin Siopack

Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers are about a week and a half into the classroom phase. A driver's course has been set up in the woodsy East Range, and starting this week, soldiers will begin practicing driving the big vehicles.

 

A central part of East Range was picked to keep distractions to a minimum.

 

"Eventually, we'll take them out on some of our normal training roads that they would drive on anyway," Borne said, "and then the final one is they are given a driver's test."

 

The 2nd Brigade at Schofield was bulked up with an extra 1,000 soldiers to create the Stryker unit, which is named after two Medal of Honor recipients, Spc. Robert F. Stryker, who was killed in the Vietnam War, and Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker, killed in World War II.

 

The Army has been working toward a lighter, faster responding force with the seven Stryker medium-weight brigades. The change also involves reorientation of greater firepower to other infantry units to make them more self-contained fighting forces and more expeditionary like the Marines.

 

NOT JUST FOR COMBAT

 

Three Stryker brigades will be at Fort Lewis, Wash., one is in Alaska and other units will be in Pennsylvania and Germany.

 

The Army traditionally included heavy tank forces that took too long to deploy and light infantry forces with Humvees that weren't sufficiently armored.

 

Goure believes that "without question, Stryker has been one of the most successful new programs out of the Army in decades" based on its mobility, speed and flexibility.

 

With transport, ambulance and nuclear-biological-chemical detection capabilities, Strykers also would be useful in a natural disaster or terrorism incident in Hawai'i, he said.

 

In combat, the Stryker's ceramic composite armor, which can stop a 14.5 mm heavy machine-gun round, has done "relatively well," Goure said. "They seem to be able to defeat more IEDs (improvised explosive devices in Iraq) than not."

 

Although soldiers have been killed in Strykers in Iraq, Goure said he knows of a Stryker that flipped one and a half times when a 500-pound roadside bomb went off near it, but "everybody in it got out alive."

 

One complaint was the lack of air conditioning in most models. Schofield officials say by next June, all Hawai'i vehicles will have it.

 

Sgt. George Galovin, a 28-year-old soldier at Fort Lewis, said a Stryker "was pretty much my home" through part of 2004 and 2005 in the Mosul area of Iraq. He is a believer in the vehicles.

 

"I think they are an excellent way to get on and off the battlefield safely — as far as safety goes over there," Galovin said. "I saw a lot of Strykers go down in operations, but they saved a lot of lives in the process."

 

With 5,000 pounds of additional "slat" armor that looks like a bird cage around the side of the Strykers, Galovin said his vehicle repelled five rocket-propelled grenades with no hull penetrations.

 

Just being close to the explosion creates a lot of air compression "so it can even take the air out of your lungs if it happens right next to a hatch," said the Washington state resident.

 

CHALLENGES AHEAD

 

Although work on more than $700 million in construction projects continues for the Strykers — including plans for the creation of 71 miles of private trails on O'ahu and the Big Island to minimize public road use — a lawsuit filed by three Native Hawaiian and environmental groups remains a legal challenge to the project.

 

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin has said the Army violated the National Environmental Policy Act by excluding the public from the Stryker environmental impact review process, and it did not look at locations other than Hawai'i for the fast response brigade as required.

 

Arguments were made in December, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco hasn't ruled on the case, which the Army said was essentially dismissed in U.S. District Court.

 

The Stryker brigade also has been a frequent source of complaint by groups concerned about the increased "militarization" of Hawai'i.

 

Kyle Kajihiro, program director for the American Friends Service Committee and a Stryker opponent, said, "It's very upsetting that they (the Army) would continue to press forward with this project even though they know there has been tremendous opposition and that there are lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the environmental impact statement still pending."

 

Among the bigger projects, Borne said an approximately $32 million Battle Area Complex at Schofield for Stryker maneuver and fire practice is expected to be completed in a couple of years.

 

Another range, Qualification Training Range 1, will be completed in August, and some Stryker training will take place there, Borne said.

 

A Stryker trail will connect Schofield through Helemano to Kahuku using Drum Road, a rutted access road in place since the 1930s. Another trail will lead to Dillingham Airfield.

 

In the meantime, "we can still get on the public roads (with Strykers), just not at high-traffic times," Borne said.

 

Training with the Strykers at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island is expected to start next year. The Army is in negotiations to buy 23,000 acres from Parker Ranch adjoining the 109,000-acre training area for maneuver and blank firing.

 

"We're in negotiations with the owner right now, and that should be wrapped up shortly, we think," Borne said.

 

Driver training on armored vehicles expected to start this week

 

STRYKER FORCE

 

Ten variants of the Stryker armored vehicle will be delivered to Schofield Barracks. The list includes:

 

 

Total: 319 vehicles fielded

 

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

July 15, 2006

 

Inuit Circumpolar Conference finds its roots

 

FOUR DAYS: Russian governor, Greenland's premier attend meeting.

 

By ALEX deMARBAN

Anchorage Daily News

 

More than 1,000 indigenous people from several Arctic countries -- including a Russian governor and Greenland's prime minister -- poured into Barrow this week as the Inuit Circumpolar Conference returned to its birthplace for the first time in nearly 30 years.

 

At the four-day meeting, the group's 72-member general assembly agreed to fend off threats to subsistence whaling, press for indigenous human rights and continue addressing global warming in the Arctic, where many say the effects of climate change are most dramatic.

 

The ICC, which has offices in each member country and meets in a different Arctic community every four years, represents 150,000 Inuit in Greenland, Russia, Canada and Alaska.

 

Planeloads of interpreters, staffers, advisory committees and spectators -- many wearing sealskin coats, fur-ruff parkas and reindeer-hide pullovers -- swelled Barrow's population of 4,200, said local event coordinator Margaret Opie.

 

Every hotel in town was filled and families took the masses into their homes, she said.

 

Delegates met in the high school gymnasium every day in front of crowds packed onto bleachers, participants said. On Thursday, the assembly adopted the Utqiagvik Declaration, named after the Inupiaq word for Barrow.

 

The statement re-establishes ICC's commitment in such areas as lobbying for indigenous hunting, fishing and whaling rights before groups such as the International Whaling Commission, which regulates global whaling, said Duane Smith, a Canadian on the eight-member ICC executive council.

 

Global warming topped the agenda, participants said. The ICC filed a petition late last year accusing the United States of being the primary contributor to global warming. The petition before the investigative branch of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., asks the U.S. government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Hotter temperatures threaten indigenous lifestyles, Smith said. They melt pack ice so storms erode village shorelines and thaw tundra so travel is more difficult for hunters who depend on frozen paths, Smith said.

 

Like Shishmaref and other Western Alaska villages, the ocean is eating away communities in Canada like Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea, he said. Once protected by ice, a cemetery and senior center there must be moved soon, he said.

 

Efforts to prepare for global warming and to reduce its effects will continue, said Dalee Sambo Dorough of Anchorage, who represents the ICC before the United Nations.

 

The Inuits also adopted a declaration encouraging the U.N. to protect and promote indigenous human rights around the globe, she said.

 

Marquee speakers included Chukotka's billionaire governor, Roman Abramovich; Greenland Prime Minister Hans Enoksen; and members of Alaska's congressional delegation, she said.

 

The ICC chairmanship passed from Sheila Watt-Cloutier to Anchorage resident Patricia Cochran, executive director of the Alaska Native Science Commission.

 

Participants unwound by celebrating Inuit diversity. The thundering drumbeat of Native dancing reverberated from the elementary gymnasium every night, participants said.

 

The Alaska dancers were accompanied by Canadian throat singers, a Greenland choir wearing thigh-high sealskin boots, and a stylish Native dance group from the Chukotka region in northeastern Russia, Dorough said.

 

The international gathering ended with a feast supplemented by Inupiat Natives from across Alaska's Arctic who donated caribou, seal, fish strips and other Native foods, Opie said.

 

Everyone "sure got their share of muktuk and fish," she said, laughing. Muktuk is the Eskimo word for whale blubber.

 

The late Inupiat leader Eben Hopson Sr. created the ICC in Barrow in 1977.

 

About 400 participants gathered then, according to www.ebenhopson.com. There were no Chukotka participants because the Cold War restricted travel between the Soviet Union and the United States, Dorough said.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 16, 2006

 

Gathering honors lives of Native warrior women

 

Jodi Rave

The Missoulian

 

Note:  Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers.

 

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Sue Masten and Veronica Homer united with a group of women to fulfill a vision - to celebrate the lives of grandmothers, aunties, sisters, wives and warrior women leaders of today.

 

Masten and Homer, co-presidents of WEWIN, Women Empowering Women of Indian Nations, led a three-day conference last week to honor women working for their communities. The event attracted 160 national and grassroots leaders to the Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa on the Gila River Reservation.

 

Masten and Homer - past presidents of the National Congress of American Indians, the country's largest and oldest advocacy group for tribes - know what it's like to put your heart into a leadership role.

 

It's not always an easy place to be.

 

“We all face the negative energy that comes to sidetrack our work at hand,” said Masten.

 

For those reasons, she and nine others founded WEWIN in 2004. Wilma Mankiller, also a founder, joined the women at the conference. As the first woman to lead the Cherokee Nation, one of the country's largest tribes, Mankiller emerged as a respected national leader.

 

As a keynote speaker, the former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation encouraged women to remain positive. She said participation in tribal ceremonies helped her persevere through the trials and tribulations of leadership.

 

The gathering also attracted leaders like Geri Small, a WEWIN founder and the first woman to lead her Northern Cheyenne Tribe as president. Small encouraged participants to offer support to their women leaders back home.

 

Like Small, many participants have faced challenges at home. Many others were trying to figure out how to overcome them. Most shared an indelible social conscience. The conference gave them a chance to discuss issues facing their communities.

 

Invited speakers addressed topics such as sovereignty, health, methamphetamine use, tribal budgets and personal finance. I was invited to speak on a panel about tribal images in the media.

 

I left inspired by some of the amazing women who arrived to share their wisdom and stories. A Tuesday luncheon proved to be a highlight when organizers honored these six leaders: Mamie Bohay, Kiowa; Juanita Ahtone, Kiowa; Merna Lewis, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community; Alfretta Antone, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community; Leona Kakar, Ak Chin Indian Community; and Homer, a Shasta and Mohave.

 

I sat in awe as each woman was introduced. Each had an incredible list of life achievements.

 

These women have held top leadership positions in their tribes. They've been given keys to cities. They've founded Indian centers and museums. They've fought for civil rights and started health clinics. They've been named elders of the year and women of the year. They've been leaders in the National Congress of American Indians and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

 

I felt heartened about the future of Indian Country because these women represented leaders in Arizona alone. The truth is, amazing Native women can be found in tribal communities across the country.

 

Much of the time, these women are working behind the scenes, working for men, working in environments where their skills often go unrecognized.

 

“But we do it anyway,” said Ahtone, one of the honorees. “And we make you guys look good. We do all the work. You get all the credit.”

 

Yet none of these women has sought glory. Their success in life was driven by the need to improve the lives of others.

 

“I love my community so much,” said Lewis, who was also honored. “I've always tried to be there when they needed something.”

 

I was sitting with a friend as we watched the conference unfold.

 

“Isn't it amazing how much women can shine once you get male egos out of the way?” she asked.

 

I agreed.

 

Next year's conference will likely be scheduled in July. Organizers are expected to announce a location in September. It's not often a gathering takes place where women are encouraged to draw upon traditions and cultural values to create stronger networks, to impact public policy, to spark economic development and encourage and support one another.

 

This is the kind of place where you want to bring a mother or a daughter. WEWIN founders remind all of us how we should uphold dignity and honor in our families, communities and tribes.

 

Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. Reach her at (406) 523-5299 or jodi.rave@lee.net

 

 

 

 

July 16, 2006

 

Hula master

 

Thousands owe Kumu Hula John Lake a cultural debt

 

By Venus Lee
vlee@starbulletin.com

 

"EIA NO LA'AU MA'ANEI," sang a woman sitting on a stage during Halau Mele's weekly practice. "E kali ana i kou ho'i mai."

 

But the people in front of her stopped dancing.

 

Their teacher, John Lake, prodded them: "Come on, guys, you should know this. Huli (turn). Look over your shoulder."

 

A dozen students stood in three lines staring at each other with confused looks. Then a student placed her two fists in front of her chest signaling "Here I am, right here" -- the second verse of the song "Pua Lililehua." Her classmates followed, and it jogged the memory of a second student, and she signaled the motion for the next line: "waiting for your return." Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Star Bulletin: Jamm Aquino

 

Then all three lines resumed the dance.

 

"Without me standing up to teach, they are able to teach each other," Lake said recently as he sat in the back of the classroom exhausted from dancing for an hour-and-a-half.

 

Lake has been teaching every aspect of Hawaiian culture for decades, inspiring future generations to pass on the knowledge.

 

His commitment to teaching the community prompted many of his former students to organize a celebration July 29 at Saint Louis School for the 40th anniversary of the after-school Hawaiian club that he founded, Hui O Na Opio.

 

Keolani Noa, one of the group's alumni who is organizing the event, said at least 300 people were expected, and she hoped the number would increase to 500 people. The celebration features dinner, a slideshow and live entertainment.

 

"There's people coming out of the woodworks for this," said Noa.

 

She said the celebration was for everyone influenced by Lake, not just Hui O Na Opio alumni. "This is especially important because not only is it a reunion, but a chance to see the great man and all of the lives he's touched."

 

Lake, who was diagnosed with throat and nose cancer two years ago, said he is excited about the reunion.

 

"It's the greatest gift a teacher could ask for. To be able to look back at all my students and see what they've accomplished," said Lake.

 

He credits his positive outlook on life and the support of his family, friends and students for his success in battling the disease.

 

Lake said one of his toughest struggles was that the radiation and chemotherapy treatments took away his ability to speak for two months, but that did not stop him from continuing to teach.

 

"I did a lot of writing during that time," he said.

 

In March, doctors removed a tumor from Lake's throat.

 

"So far so good. The doctors are just monitoring it, but they say they don't see anything so far," said Lake. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Star Bulletin: Jamm Aquino

 

Throughout his career, Lake has taught Hawaiian culture and performed many traditional Hawaiian rituals such as blessings and marriages. One of his most prestigious responsibilities is to conduct the annual four days of rituals and ceremonies in August at the Big Island's Puukohoa Heiau, which was built for the Hawaiian war god by King Kamehameha I in 1791 before he united all of the islands.

 

"It is not just an annual tradition, it is our chance to meet, teach and discuss contemporary issues," said Lake, the heiau's high priest.

 

Teaching is more than a job for Lake. He sees it as a way of life and a responsibility.

 

"I'm training the next generation to carry on the Hawaiian culture," said Lake. He has taught more than 2,000 students including kumus and celebrities such as Na Hoku Hanohano Award winners George Helm and Bobby Hall.

 

Lake's former student Patrick Makuakane, who runs a halau in San Francisco, said, "His way of teaching is the epitome of olu olu (graceful, sweet and nurturing). I make sure I teach and approach my students in the same way."

 

Inspired by his love for languages, Lake studied Spanish linguistics at the University of Valencia and continued his educational career by teaching in the San Francisco public school system.

 

In 1962, he became a Spanish and history teacher at Saint Louis School before he developed a Hawaiian studies course that later evolved into its own department.

 

"While I was there, I realized the language and culture was slipping away," Lake said. "I grew up during a time when anything to do with the Hawaiian culture was not tolerated."

 

But, he said, he was shocked when 45 of the school's football players asked him to teach them hula in 1966.

 

"You used to be considered a sissy if you did anything artsy like dance hula. But they really wanted to learn and were willing to come after practice to do it ... It became that you were the big man on campus if you danced hula and played football," Lake said with a thunderous laugh.

 

However, Lake was not fully convinced they were interested in learning the sacred art, so he said, "Fine, if you want to learn, you need to go out and get 45 other girls."

 

Lake rolled his eyes and said, "Me and my big mouth."

 

They returned the next day with dance partners and formed the basis of the after-school Hawaiian club Hui O Na Opio, which eventually attracted more than 2,000 students from Saint Louis, Saint Francis School, Sacred Hearts Academy and Star of the Sea School over the years.

 

"It caught on like wildfire," said Lake, who has taken his students to the neighbor islands, mainland states and neighboring countries such as Canada, Mexico and Tahiti to perform over the years.

 

"Wherever they went, they learned, experienced and shared the Hawaiian culture with others," Lake said. "I got kids to love Hawaiian; to dance and enjoy it regardless of their ethnic background."

 

In 1974, Lake helped make it mandatory to teach Hawaiian history in public schools.

 

One year later, he started Halau Mele, which taught everything about Hawaiian culture including hula, slack-key guitar, steel guitar, choral arranging and chanting.

 

"Some of them (my students) have been with me for more than 23 years," Lake said.

 

In 1993, Lake retired from Saint Louis and planned to move to the Big Island.

 

Lake's former student Ikaika Dutro, currently the Crusaders' Hawaiian Studies department chairman, said, "It's a challenge ... He left some big shoes to fill."

 

But Dutro still has the guidance of Lake since the kumu hula never left the campus. Neighboring Chaminade University pleaded with him to reconsider his decision to retire.

 

Lake said, "They wouldn't let me move. They said, 'We cannot lose your expertise.'"

 

In 1995, Chaminade hired Lake as an adjunct professor in Hawaiian language, religion and oral traditions. Seven years later, the school created a new position for Lake, kumu-in-residence, which means he is responsible for any Hawaiian matters or protocol.

 

"It's one of the most exciting things to pass down tradition," Lake said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Office of Hawaiian Relations Developing Native Hawaiian Organization Notification List

 

Letter from Kaiini Kimo Kaloi, Director for the U.S. Office of Hawaiian Relations

 

Dear Interested Party:

 

My name is Kaiini Kimo Kaloi and I am the Director for the Office of Hawaiian Relations, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior.  The mission of the office is to preserve and promote Hawaii’s natural and historic resources and the Native Hawaiian culture.  We are currently seeking to develop a Native Hawaiian organization notification list to assist Department officials in their efforts to satisfy statutory notification obligations under such laws as the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).  It is also the intent of the Office of Hawaiian Relations to make available to other Federal agency officials a mechanism to assist them with their reasonable and good faith efforts to identify Native Hawaiian organizations that are to be notified or consulted with when required by statute.  The reason I am writing is to introduce the Office of Hawaiian Relations as a resource and ask for your input on the creation of this list.

 

I would like to be up front in stating that the majority of the aspects of a Native Hawaiian Organization notification list are governed by current Federal law and can only be changed by Congress.  For example, NAGPRA and NHPA provide us with the definition of a Native Hawaiian organization in the context of who Federal agencies must consult with under these laws.  That said, there is a narrow area dealing with the composition of the list that the public can provide constructive input on.  The following questions are a sample of this narrow area open for discussion:

 

 

To facilitate the discussion concerning the Native Hawaiian organization list and to provide greater detail regarding the mission of the Office for Hawaiian Relations, I have scheduled four public gatherings.  They are as follows:

 

August 14, 2006        6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.          Hawaii           Pu’uhonua O Honaunau

August 15, 2006        6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.          Hawaii           Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

August 16, 2006        6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.          Maui             Maui Community College Laulima 225

August 17, 2006        6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.          Oahu             UH Manoa Hawaiian Studies Building

 

You or your organization (which includes families) may provide both oral and written input at the public gatherings or comments may be sent to my office (written comments must be received by October 17, 2006 to be considered).  Because of limited resources, a written copy of oral comments is appreciated but not required.  If there are issues you or your organization believe should be raised concerning the list that are outside the stated scope of requested public input, it would be helpful if you contact me prior to the gathering to see if adjustments to the scope can be made.

 

It is important to note that the placement of an organization on the Native Hawaiian organization notification list will not be construed as recognition by the Federal government that the group is a governmental, tribal, or other similar type entity.  Furthermore, the placement of an organization on the list will not confer any substantive or procedural rights, benefits, or privileges enforceable at law or in equity, which are not otherwise available to the organization by law, by any party against the United States, its agencies or instrumentalities, its officers or employees, or any other person.

 

If you are interested in providing input on these or similar questions, or know of another organization that may be willing to provide input, please feel free to contact my office at (202)513-0712 or at U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Hawaiian Relations (OS/PHI), 1849 C St, NW, Mail Stop-3530, Washington, D.C. 20240.  Thank you for your time and consideration.  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Aloha,

Kaiini Kimo Kaloi

Director, Office of Hawaiian Relations

 

 

 

 

Public Comment Period Extension:  Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) – July 28, 2006

 

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has extended until July 28, 2006, the public comment period on the draft “Policy Statement Regarding Treatment of Burial Sites, Human Remains and Funerary Objects.”

 

That draft was published for public comment in the Federal Register on March 14, 2006 (71 FR 13066-13070). That notice is available on the ACHP website at www.achp.gov.

 

The ACHP’s Task Force on Archeology will use the public input it receives to finalize the draft policy before presenting it to the full ACHP membership for consideration and possible adoption.

 

Please address all comments to the Archeology Task Force, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Suite 809, Washington. DC 20004.  Fax (202) 606-8672. Comments may also be submitted by electronic mail to:archeology@achp.gov. Please note that all responses become part of the public record once they are submitted.

 

 

 

 

2006 Elections Present 101 Seats for Voters to Decide

 

WHAT:  Activating Voter Registration in 2006 to weigh in on 101 seats at the federal, state and county levels is on the minds of many in Hawaii today.  The seats that will come before the electorate in the fall of 2006 include the following:

 

 

 

 

For more information and a complete list of 2006 Contests and Incumbents, visit the Hawaii State Office of Elections Website at:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/

 

To register to vote:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/voters/registration.htm

 

 

 

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.

 

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE THIRD CIRCUIT STATE OF HAWAII SUMMONS TO DEFENDANTS GEORGE A. TURNER; his heirs or assigns; and ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiffs Mellon Bank N.A., as Trustee, Stephen B. Ratner and Audrey Ratner, have filed a complaint in the Third Circuit Court, State of Hawaii, Civil No. 06-1-0178, to quiet title to Land Patent Grant 4195, issued to GEORGE A. TURNER, situate at Olaa, Puna, Hawaii, within TMK Nos. (3) 1-8-010-031 & (3) 1-8-011-015. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the courtroom of the Honorable GREG K. NAKAMURA, Judge of the Third Circuit Court, at 75 Aupuni Street, Courtroom 1, Hilo, Hawaii, on August 24, 2006 at 8:00 A.M., or to file an answer or other pleading and serve it before said day upon Plaintiffs' attorney, Philip J. Leas, whose address is Cades Schutte LLP, 1000 Bishop St., Suite 1200, Honolulu, HI 96813. If you fail to do so, judgment by default will be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. DATED: Hilo, Hawaii, June 13, 2006. E. YAMABE CLERK, THIRD CIRCUIT COURT (Hon. Adv.: July 12, 19, 26; Aug. 2, 2006) (489600) Posted on 7/12/2006

 

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Please visit the CNHA family of organizations

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ANA Grant Training Pan Pacific

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Home Ownership Assistance Program (HOAP)

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Full Service Document Digitization

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Supporting 2,000 Years of Good Ideas!

http://hawaiianwayfund.org

 

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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.