This winter, members of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, a list of registered Native Hawaiian voters, will vote for sovereignty from the United States. To many, this may sound like a radical vote, but it really isn't that unusual. Most tribal groups in the United States have tribal sovereignty.
The U.S. government currently recognizes 562 native tribes. These sovereign tribes have the ability to govern themselves, yet they maintain a close relationship with the U.S. government. It is currently unclear as to whether the Native Hawaiians desire to have a U.S. dependent sovereign nation like those that have become standard for tribes in the continental US or if they want to break away entirely from both the United States and the state of Hawai'i.
The goals of the vote are just as unclear to Native Hawaiians. The entire existence of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission and their move for sovereignty is a hotly debated topic among all Hawaiians. There are many different opinions in the state about how to define a Native Hawaiian and how Native Hawaiians should view the history of Hawai'i's relations with the United States.
Hawai'i, like the rest of America, was settled by white settlers. These settlers arrived on the islands to find a very structured society, with a monarch and legislature. The large amount of settlers washed through Native Hawaiian society with a political movement that took voting rights away from Native Hawaiians and Asians and granted the right to vote to white non-citizens. This movement ended up giving the Hawaiian legislature more power than the monarch, allowing the non-native settlers to control the government.
Eventually, the standing king died and his sister Queen Liliuokalani took the throne. Queen Liliuokalani saw that the Native people of Hawai'i were being neglected by their own government, and attempted to return power back to the monarch as well as the Native Hawaiian people. White business men saw the Queen as a direct threat to their control of the islands and started the Committee of Safety. The main concerns of the Committee of Safety were to overthrow the Queen and to have the United States annex Hawai'i. On January 16, 1893, the Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown, and by 1898 Hawai'i had been annexed.
This grim history has left some Native Hawaiians wanting to be as disconnected from the United States as possible. Others just want their tribal sovereignty, while others still want nothing to do with an independence movement and have even joined efforts to sue the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission for allegedly adding their name to the voter roll without their consent. Some non-native Hawaiians have joined them in their lawsuit because they feel like the vote is racially discriminatory, since only registered Native Hawaiians can vote. Last month, Judge Seabright decided that the vote is not unconstitutional and will be allowed.
Now that Judge Seabright has determined the vote legitimate and constitutional, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission will continue to construct a list of Native Hawaiian voters, and this winter, anyone on that list who wishes to participate will be taking part in the historical vote. The rest of us will just have to wait and see how it turns out.
