August 30, 2010
August 23, 2010
Fake Statehood Day – Waikiki
How did Hawaii become part of the United States? It didn’t! Remembering the truth of our history.
August 20, 2010 Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands
“Mahalo to the 20+ folks who showed up to support this action. We had good fun. Talked to a lot of tourists. The Americans weren’t too happy, but everybody else was really supportive. The live cam was up and running and the message was clear. We must be hanging with a lot of comedians, because everybody was funny. Mahalo, Mahalo!”
— Lynette Cruz
Most people in Hawaii and throughout the United States and the world believe Hawaii is the 50th state. But all of us were taught a history that was revised for the benefit of thieves.
Today is the day the state of Hawaii celebrates itself. In 1959 Hawaii was admitted into the union of the United States as the 50th state. But what was the history behind that momentous occasion? We invite you to join us on a journey of discovery and rediscovery by briefly examining Hawaii’s history and relationship to the United States.
In 1893, Hawaii, an independent country recognized by treaty by the U.S. and over 20 other countries, was taken by force by U.S. military troops acting in support of an elite, white oligarchy seeking to overthrow the constitutional government and sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Immediately this group sought annexation to the U.S. A Treaty of Annexation was required for a legal merging with the U.S. because of Hawaii’s independent status. A treaty was submitted by the newly formed Republic of Hawaii, but failed and, as a result, the U.S. Congress opted to take Hawaii in 1898 with a municipal law called the Newlands Resolution, internal to the U.S. This resolution gave Americans a justification for taking Hawaii to use as a military outpost in their war against Spain in the Philippines, even though that action was illegal under both the U.S. Constitution and international law.
After 1898, American schools in and outside of Hawaii began to teach a revision of history relating to ‘annexation’ as both ‘legal’ and a ‘natural’ consequence of economics. Annexation would be good for business. Hawai, the military outpost, ensured military expansion from Pearl Harbor throughout Hawaii for future actions, including deflecting unfriendly activities away from the continental U.S.
Many settlers came to live in Hawaii between 1900 and 1950. They began to promote a vision of ‘statehood’ as benefiting the average, primarily Asian, citizenry of the territory of Hawaii, offering them opportunities to become first-class citizens of the U.S. It was a concept that appealed to those who had come here to work on plantations but who labored under a system of unequal rights and poverty in their home countries.
Immigrants wanted equal treatment under American law and, in Hawaii, statehood provided them that access. In the meantime, the history of theft that left most of the native people of these islands landless went unnoticed by the majority of new immigrants.
In 1959, Congress granted ‘statehood’ to Hawaii the territory, and the State of Hawaii was born. Amid numerous noisy celebrations, Hawaii’s mixed heritage population prepared themselves for an era of economic prosperity, and those who remembered the illegality and injustice of the theft more than 60 years earlier, slowly died off. The real history of Hawaii was forgotten.
Today, we remember. Due to academic excellence, commitment to truth, and broad-based research into Hawaii’s true history by scholars and researchers, more and more data are being recovered, written up, printed, and published; used as the bases of court challenges; introduced at the United Nations; and promoted in film, television and radio, both locally and abroad. It is our time to remind others that we remember and that we are still here. Hawaii is not the 50th state of the U.S.
Today, we call upon people of conscience to know and understand our history and to assist us with correcting the injuries of the past.
How you can help:
1) Google Hawaiian sovereignty and learn about Hawaii’s history and relationship with the United States
2) Share information with others
3) Join a Hawaiian sovereignty group or a Hawaiian Civic Club wherever you live and learn about Hawaiian history and culture
4) Join a discussion list on Hawaiian issues
About Ka Lei Maile Ali`i Hawaiian Civic Club and Hawaiian Independence Action Alliance, the sponsors of this project
Ka Lei Maile Ali`i (KLMA) Hawaiian Civic Club was formed in 2003. The club’s mission is to honor the life and work of Queen Lili`uokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch. The club’s work relies heavily on educational and cultural programs, particularly the dissemination of information about the Queen and about the people who supported her efforts and her person during and after the overthrow, including in the present time.
The Hawaiian Independence Action Alliance (HIAA) was formed in December 2008 to call attention to Hawaii’s continued independence, to push for de-occupation of Hawai`i, and to oppose federal recognition by the United States.
For more information about this effort, email: palolo@hawaii.rr.com
Source material at:
www.hawaiiankingdom.org
August 1, 2010
La Ho’iho’i Ea – Sovereignty Restoration Day
Honoring Our Ancestors Who Signed the Petitions Protesting Annexation of Hawaii to the United States
July 31, 2010 · Thomas Square
Photos: Dora Johnson / Pono Kealoha / Nathan Leo
Click here for more pictures of the event by Vivian Wong.
Approximately 1500 signs were displayed on July 31, 2010 to honor those men and women who, in 1897, following the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, signed their names to a petition opposing the annexation of Hawai’i to the United States.
Hawaiian nationals throughout the Hawaiian Kingdom supported their Queen and country by signing the great petition against annexation in 1897. The petition was sent on to Washington DC later that year. As a result, a second treaty of annexation before the U.S. Congress failed to pass. The first attempt was withdrawn by President Grover Cleveland. Without a treaty, how did Hawaii become part of the United States?
Queen Lili’uokalani was in Washington D.C. at the time, advocating against passage of the Treaty of Annexation submitted by representatives of the Republic of Hawai’i. She called for the citizenry of Hawai’i to make their voices heard via petition, and they responded nearly unanimously. These petitions were then presented to the U.S. Senate in 1897 when the issue of the annexation of Hawai’i to the U.S. came to the floor. Because of opposition voiced by the people, the treaty, in its second attempt, failed.
There was no Treaty of Annexation. Instead, several U.S. Congressmen drafted a municipal law titled “The Newlands Resolution” purporting to take possession of Hawai’i, an action contrary to the U.S. Constitution and to International Law. The rest is the history all of us in Hawai’i have been taught: we were ‘annexed’ to the U.S. but there is no Treaty of Annexation to document that action.
Two petitions were circulated during that time by two political action groups—Hui Kalai`āina, in support of the royalty, and Hui Aloha `Āina (both men’s and women’s branches), in opposition to annexation. The citizenry numbered approximately 40,000 at the time, and the two petitions together included more than 39,000 signatures, a huge testament to the desire of Hawaiians to maintain and support their Queen and country.
Overwhelmingly, our kūpuna did not want to be Americans. Their opposition was captured in these petition signatures and today we honor them for taking a clear and strong position.
The petitions were retrieved from the U.S. National Archives in Washington DC and brought back to Hawaii by Dr. Noenoe Silva in 1997. They were first presented to the public on January 17, 1998 during the Sovereign Sunday event at `Iolani Palace grounds.Subsequently, Dr. Silva took the petitions throughout ka pae `āina to introduce them to their descendants, and there begins our tale of how these name signs come to be here today.
We honor our kupuna today because of their (successful) protest in 1897 and because their signatures and voices remind us of our history of political and legal independence.
About the sponsors of this project.
Ka Lei Maile Ali`i (KLMA) Hawaiian Civic Club was formed in 2003. The club’s mission is to honor the life and work of Queen Lili`uokalani, Hawaii’s last reigning monarch. The club’s work relies heavily on educational and cultural programs, particularly the dissemination of information about the Queen and about the people who supported her efforts and her person during and after the overthrow, including in the present time.
The Hawaiian Independence Action Alliance (HIAA) was formed in December 2008 to call attention to Hawaii’s continued independence, to push for de-occupation of Hawai`i, and to oppose federal recognition by the United States.
About the project: Ku`e Name Signs
In 2009, KLMA introduced to the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs a resolution to have the document in the hand of the McKinley Statue recast to remove the words “Treaty of Annexation”. The resolution passed unopposed. In 2010, on American President’s Day, KLMA and HIAA co-sponsored the first display of the ku`e name signs (a total of 600) at McKinley High School in downtown Honolulu, with names laid out immediately around the McKinley statue in the circular area that the school refers to as “sacred ground” (but sacred for school-related reasons).
For the Kamehameha Day Celebration on June 12, 2010, the groups sponsored the display at `Iolani Palace grounds, this time laying out approximately 1100 individual name signs. Hundreds of passers-by came to view the signs, to ask questions, to create new signs with their own kupuna names and, in the process, honoring their ku`e and their memory. In participating with us, visitors learned about the petitions and about a history of Hawai`i that had been erased for over a hundred years.
The July 31, 2010 display is the third in a series. Future displays are planned for September 5, 2010 at `Iolani Palace and on November 28 (La Ku`oko`a – Hawaiian Independence Day) and December 30 (Memorial Day in the Hawaiian Kingdom), 2010.
Want to kokua? Palolo@hawaii.rr.com, (808) 284-3460