Hawaiian Sovereignty Issues

SUBHEAD: The three articles cited below illustrate real problems facing the future of Hawaiian sovereignty.  

By Juan Wilson on 17 September 2011 for Island Breath - 
  (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2011/09/hawaiian-sovereignty-issues.html)

 
Image above: A Pan Am 1930's ad with fanciful mythical Waikiki view of Diamond Head to appeal to Americans to fly to an exotic foreign land. There wasn't much left of Hawaii after they arrived. From airline travel poster sale on Ebay.

Yesterday the United Kingdoms Guardian newspaper published three disparate articles about people of very different cultures having difficulty expressing their own cultures and achieving their own sovereignty. In the first case -

Amish Jailed on Principle Since 2008 a conservative wing of the Amish religion has been involved with defying the authority of the "Englishers" to control their lives. They perceive their culture as separate from the United State and its local governing bodies. They run their own schools. Live off the power, water, food grid of the dominant society. They live in a truly cooperative community largely within the constraints of 19th century technology. They have their own style and sense of decorum that they do not want it violated. Now they are beginning to act with civil disobedience to rules that infringe on their culture. In the second case -

Cherokee seek blood quantum The 1866 Cherokee Nation constitution allowed all residents of their territory to become free citizens. That included whites, as well as indigenous Cherokees. The large and well-off Cherokee nation was primarily in the agricultural Southeast. As most Southerners with land, the Cherokee had many African slaves. In 1866 they were allowed to be Cherokee citizens and were called Cherokee Freedmen. Many blacks and Cherokee intermarried in the decades that followed. Now the Cherokees want to eject the Freedmen unless they can prove a blood quantum of native Cherokee. To compound the problem the US Federal Government is stepping in to fight this as a civil rights issue (while hypocritically recognizing other native Americans by their blood heritage). It seems everybody has this one wrong. And lastly -  

Palestinians ignore US on UN statehood The United States has been pretending to be a fair broker between the Palestinian desires for a nation and the ever expanding Israeli foreign occupancy. With the US on the case, things haven't exactly worked out. The Palestinians are fed up with waiting for justice. They want sovereignty now. They intend to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council to get status as a member nation. The US may be forced to veto the vote in the Security Council. Behind the scenes the US is twisting the arms of the temporary UNSC members to vote against the Palestinians so that American hands will be clean. If that happens the Palestinians are ready to go to the UN General Assembly where they can likely get an enhanced Observer Nation status. To me the lessons of these stories for Hawaiians are:

• With clear perspective know your culture well enough to see where it is separate from the dominant occupying authority. If necessary act with civil disobedience to maintain the principles and integrity of your culture.
• Don't reduce your nationhood to ethnicity. Embrace those that wish to share your culture and nation. Don't trust the United States to act in the interest of either even in the best of cases.
• Move on without the United States. Appeal to the world. You don't need the US to achieve freedom and sovereignty. Waiting for America to make an acceptable deal with your enemies is likely never to happen.