20 U.S.C. § 7512 — Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Native Hawaiians are a distinct and unique indigenous people with a historical continuity to the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian archipelago, whose society was organized as a nation and internationally recognized as a nation by the United States, Britain, France, and Japan, as evidenced by treaties governing friendship, commerce, and navigation. (2) At the time of the arrival of the first nonindigenous people in Hawaii in 1778, the Native Hawaiian people lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient subsistence social system based on a communal land tenure system with a sophisticated language, culture, and religion. (3) A unified monarchal government of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1810 under Kamehameha I, the first King of Hawaii. (4) From 1826 until 1893, the United States recognized the sovereignty and independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which was established in 1810 under Kamehameha I, extended full and complete diplomatic recognition to the Kingdom of Hawaii, and entered into treaties and conventions with the Kingdom of Hawaii to govern friendship, commerce and navigation in 1826, 1842, 1849, 1875, and 1887. (5) In 1893, the sovereign, independent, internationally recognized, and indigenous government of Hawaii, the Kingdom of Hawaii, was overthrown by a small group of non-Hawaiians, including United States citizens, who were assisted in their efforts by the United States Minister, a United States naval representative, and armed naval forces of the United States. Because of the participation of United States agents and citizens in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, in 1993 the United States apologized to Native Hawaiians for the overthrow and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination through Public Law 103–150 (107 Stat. 1510). (6) In 1898, the joint resolution entitled “Joint Resolution to provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States”, approved July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 750), ceded absolute title of all lands held by the Republic of Hawaii, including the government and crown lands of the former Kingdom of Hawaii, to the United States, but mandated that revenue generated from the lands be used “solely for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for educational and other public purposes”. (7) By 1919, the Native Hawaiian population had declined from an estimated 1,000,000 in 1778 to an alarming 22,600, and in recognition of this severe decline, Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108), which designated approximately 200,000 acres of ceded public lands for homesteading by Native Hawaiians. (8) Through the enactment of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, Congress affirmed the special relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiians, which was described by then Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, who said: “One thing that impressed me . . . was the fact that the natives of the island who are our wards, I should say, and for whom in a sense we are trustees, are falling off rapidly in numbers and many of them are in poverty.”. (9) In 1938, Congress again acknowledged the unique status of the Hawaiian people by including in the Act of June 20, 1938 (52 Stat. 781, chapter 530; [16 U.S.C. 391b](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title16-section391b&num=0&edition=prelim), 391b–1, 392b, 392c, 396, 396a), a provision to lease lands within the National Parks extension to Native Hawaiians and to permit fishing in the area “only by native Hawaiian residents of said area or of adjacent villages and by visitors under their guidance.”. (10) Under the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union”, approved March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4), the United States transferred responsibility for the administration of the Hawaiian Home Lands to the State of Hawaii but reaffirmed the trust relationship between the United States and the Hawaiian people by retaining the exclusive power to enforce the trust, including the power to approve land exchanges and amendments to such Act affecting the rights of beneficiaries under such Act. (11) In 1959, under the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union”, the United States also ceded to the State of Hawaii title to the public lands formerly held by the United States, but mandated that such lands be held by the State “in public trust” and reaffirmed the special relationship that existed between the United States and the Hawaiian people by retaining the legal responsibility to enforce the public trust responsibility of the State of Hawaii for the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians, as defined in section 201(a) of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920. (12) The United States has recognized and reaffirmed that— (A) Native Hawaiians have a cultural, historic, and land-based link to the indigenous people who exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands, and that group has never relinquished its claims to sovereignty or its sovereign lands; (B) Congress does not extend services to Native Hawaiians because of their race, but because of their unique status as the indigenous people of a once sovereign nation as to whom the United States has established a trust relationship; (C) Congress has also delegated broad authority to administer a portion of the Federal trust responsibility to the State of Hawaii; (D) the political status of Native Hawaiians is comparable to that of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and (E) the aboriginal, indigenous people of the United States have— (i) a continuing right to autonomy in their internal affairs; and (ii) an ongoing right of self-determination and self-governance that has never been extinguished. (13) The political relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people has been recognized and reaffirmed by the United States, as evidenced by the inclusion of Native Hawaiians in— (A) the Native American Programs Act of 1974 ([42 U.S.C. 2991](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section2991&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.); (B) the American Indian Religious Freedom Act ([42 U.S.C. 1996](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section1996&num=0&edition=prelim)[, 1996a]); (C) the National Museum of the American Indian Act ([20 U.S.C. 80q](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title20-section80q&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.); (D) the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ([25 U.S.C. 3001](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title25-section3001&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.); (E) division A of subtitle III of title 54; (F) the Native American Languages Act ([25 U.S.C. 2901](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title25-section2901&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.); (G) the American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Culture and Art Development Act ([20 U.S.C. 4401](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title20-section4401&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.); (H) the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act; and (I) the Older Americans Act of 1965 ([42 U.S.C. 3001](https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section3001&num=0&edition=prelim) et seq.).