Hawaiian Sovereignty 101
The growing fight for native independence
This month, on January 17th, will be the 126th anniversary of the overthrow of Hawaiʻi’s Queen Liliʻuoukalani and the Kingdom of Hawaii. The vast majority of people were never taught in school how and why exactly Hawaiʻi became a state of the U.S. As a Hawaiian myself, I was lucky to be educated on the topic, enough to gain the knowledge for myself through the insights and thoughts of other Hawaiians and native activists. The issue of the annexation of Hawaii is an unfortunate topic. A topic that is constantly buried to mask and cover the illegality of the event. However, despite the efforts to remove this from Americas history, the issue of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii continues to resurface each year as this time comes around.
One seldom known fact is that at the time of the 1893 overthrow, the Hawaiian Kingdom was an internationally recognized sovereign nation. The aliʻi (chiefs, rulers) had been very strategic, building good relations with some of the biggest international players at the time. France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, and many other great countries had acknowledged this small sovereign archipelago. Even The United States themselves had recognized Hawaii as a monarchy that entered into bilateral treaties of trade and friendship with other countries in 1826. However, the U.S. saw the potential for Hawaiʻi to help expand their military and agricultural sectors, and was therefore hell-bent on seizing control over Hawaiʻi and undoing the Hawaiian Kingdom.
In 1887 U.S. powers forced the king of Hawaii at the time, King Kalākaua to sign the Bayonet Constitution, which was a tool used to begin stripping the monarchy of its power and transfer it to U.S. forces. Later in 1887 was the Reciprocity Treaty, which was a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Hawaiʻi. Note: historically, “free-trade” with the U.S. is synonymous with unhindered exploitation by the U.S.
One often overlooked detail of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1887 is that it set an expiration date of 1894 for the U.S.’s exclusive use of Pearl Harbor. Keen to maintain and expand its military presence in and agricultural exploitation of Hawaiʻi, the U.S. sought to overthrow Queen Liliʻuokalani. On January 16, 1893, the USS Boston landed soldiers and stationed them around ʻIolani Palace and Aliʻiōlani Hale. They left Queen Liliʻuokalani with no option.
The very next day, “a committee of thirteen haole [foreigners, especially white people] read a proclamation claiming that monarchy in the Hawaiian Islands had been abrogated and that they were the provisional government of the islands” (Beamer, 2014, p193).
President Grover Cleveland recognized the illegality of the overthrow, withdrawing the consideration of annexing Hawaiʻi and calling for the reinstallation of Queen Liliʻuokalani. However, he did very little to actually make this happen. By the next U.S. presidency, the power of the ‘provisional government’ was largely secured, in 1897 even naming itself to the “Republic of Hawaiʻi”.
I can’t stress enough that even at the time of the overthrow this was all internationally regarded as illegal activity.
A facet of the overthrow that is tender in Hawaiian history is the role of Sanford Dole, who today is known for his Dole Food Company. Dole was the President of the Republic of Hawaiʻi (the illegitimate, illegal government), then later the governor, after Hawaiʻi was annexed as a territory. Dole was adamant about exploiting Hawaiʻi:
“The importance of immigration of American farmers as settlers of agricultural lands here is so great to the political and social future of these islands, that everything should be done to encourage it and make it successful.”
Dole also put in work repealing the land laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom via the Land Act of 1895, and was an incredibly strong proponent of “the cultivation of a white Anglo-Saxon population” in Hawaiʻi. The Dole company was built on imperialism and white supremacy.
In 1896, three years after the official annexation, education using the Hawaiian language in public and private schools was outlawed as a result of a U.S. policy that hoped to outlaw the use of “American Indian” languages in education. Teachers were told that the use of Hawaiian in the classroom would result in immediate termination, and children were punished harshly for speaking Hawaiian at school. Even at the Kamehameha Schools — a school specifically founded for the education of native Hawaiians — letters between the students that boarded there and their parents were opened so that the Hawaiian words could be censored out of them.
In the following years, Native Hawaiians were colonized and had to learn to live with their homeland being lost to the largest superpower in the world. This loss was accompanied by an endless influx of tourists and immigrants from other states and foreign countries. Additionally, Pearl Harbor was bombed during World War II because America used (and continues to use) Hawai’i for its Pacific fleet.
The history following the overthrow is about as you’d expect — one of constant struggle to heal from & resist against a false government and exploitation.
Since then, the fight for Hawaiian sovereignty has been looking brighter. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed Public Law 103–150 — an apology to the Hawaiian people for overthrowing their government and stealing their land 100 years earlier. The apology acknowledges the illegality of the U.S. government’s military-backed regime change of ‘’the sovereign Hawaii nation’’ in 1893 and its support for the illegally created ‘’provisional government’’ in violation of treaties and international law. But despite this national apology, nothing has changed in terms of sovereignty in the islands.
Native Hawaiians Tried to Fight Back
After the overthrow, Native Hawaiians tried to fight back peacefully, through the U.S. legal system. They requested an official investigation by the Cleveland administration. Hawai’i became a U.S. protectorate at the same time that an investigation was being done by U.S. President Grover Cleveland at the written request of Queen Lili’uokalani. Cleveland and his administration concluded that the overthrow had been illegal (“a grievous wrong has been done”) and turned the issue over to Congress where it languished while the “straw government” in Hawai’i, who now had Sanford Dole as its President, continued to gain a stronger hold over the islands.
On top of this, they launched a massive petition to stop the formal annexation of Hawai’i to the U.S. They thought that if Congress realized that Native Hawaiians did not want to be part of the U.S., they would restore independence to Hawai’i. Public meetings were held on the five major islands, and of the known population of 39,000 Native Hawaiians, 21,269 signed the petition. This is an incredible majority since many of the remaining number were children.
Native Hawaiians even took this matter all the way to Washington D.C. Queen Lili’uokalani traveled to Washington D.C. to present her protest and the petition to Congress. At the time, a trip of this distance took months by sea and land. Sadly, Queen Lili’uokalani’s voyage proved to be a fruitless one. Congress had not acted on President Cleveland’s request, and a new Congress had come in with the administration of President William McKinley. By that time, the Spanish American War was brewing, and the U.S. didn’t want to give up Hawai’i’s prime location in the Pacific.
In spite of efforts of the Native Hawaiians and their queen, Hawai’i was illegally annexed as a U.S. territory in 1898, along with 1.2 million acres of Hawaiian crown lands that had belonged to the monarchy and to the nation of Hawai’i. No compensation was paid to anyone.
A nation’s independence and culture was taken.
Looking back on it today from a mainlanders perspective, Hawaii has benefited greatly from its annexation. Consider what the United States has done. They have created military facilities and brought jobs. Also, they have given the natives american citizenship. This comes with all the benefits of being a full American citizen, which is widely considered the most wealth country in the world. In the world today, the annexation of Hawaii was inevitable. However, that doesn't make this doing any less wrong.
It was wrong for the U.S. to take Hawaii because Hawaii was already a literate country with a developed government that was functioning well. The Hawaiian people did not need the United States to come into their nation and “educate” them or help them in any way. They were literate, had their own language, had their own government, had their own culture. America took over the Hawaiian Kingdom for its strategic military opportunities and for economic prosperity. The U.S. Came to Hawaii and wiped out their culture, spread diseases that the natives had no immunity to, and took their independence away from them. Once Hawaii was annexed to the U.S., their culture was crushed. Hula dancing (a way of honoring their chiefs, gods, and land) was outlawed, books in the Hawaiian language were burned, and the unique flora and fauna was destroyed to build hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that worked to increase tourism. The view on Hawaiian culture was also changed because of the annexation. Most people today see it as an island paradise filled with exotic sights and entertainment, looking past the rich history and real native culture. It was not the U.S.’s place to take over and it was unfair that they did. They almost eliminated a culture and a people so rich in knowledge.
The foreign minister of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, Leon Kaulahao Siu, fosters an interview that has been presented on many platforms throughout Hawaii. He spends much of his time lobbying at the United Nations and at international missions in Europe. His biggest challenge is persuading diplomats that the Kingdom of Hawaii exists. When they ask if Hawaii is not part of the United States, Mr. Siu hands them a pamphlet called, “The Basis for the Restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom.”
“The Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands is actually an existing, sovereign, independent country,” the pamphlet asserts. “The United States never lawfully acquired the Hawaiian Islands. The so-called ‘State of Hawaii’ is a fictional entity fabricated by the United States in order to make its presence in the Hawaiian Islands appear to be legitimate.”
The foreign minister insists that all of this was illegal. He has a good case. Nations, however, usually follow international law only when it suits them. The prospect that the United States would allow Hawaii to resume its place as an independent nation seems far-fetched. Nonetheless, when you really these islands for yourself, it is clear that while Hawaii is in the United States, it is not of the United States.
A few dedicated activists like Siu are working for Hawaiian independence. What Hawaiians call the “sovereignty movement,” however, has various faces. Many of its supporters would like something short of independence — a form of autonomy, still undefined, that would give Hawaii more self-government than other states have.
Hawaiian culture thrives today. But there is no sovereignty in the near future.
Native Hawaiian culture is enjoying a renaissance. Cities and towns have passed ordinances stipulating that most streets should bear Hawaiian names. Clubs have sprung up to promote traditions ranging from hula dancing to navigation with double-hulled canoes. The University of Hawaii has opened a center for the study of native Hawaiian law. Courses in the Hawaiian language, which not long ago seemed on the brink of disappearing, have become steadily more popular. Some elementary schools offer instruction in Hawaiian only — a far cry from days when schoolchildren were required to speak English and punished if they did not.
Hawaii is heavily militarized, with nearly twenty bases including the Pacific Missile Range. All American military activity in the Pacific — where tensions seem certain to rise in the coming years — is directed from a base in Oahu. Given increasing tensions in the Pacific, and especially other countries assertive naval ambitions, the United States would hardly be willing to let Hawaii go. An independent Hawaii might be able to remain neutral, but could just as easily be pulled into another country’s sphere of influence. Hawaii is as intimately tied to the United States militarily as it is politically and economically.
Even without political independence, sovereignty activists can achieve much. They already have. Their movement both reflects and encourages the revival of cultural and historical consciousness. People took notice last year when Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred dismissively to Hawaii as “an island in the Pacific.” He was recognizing that Hawaii is a Polynesian archipelago, thousands of miles from North America. Congress should do the same. Hawaii’s unique history, including our evidently illegal annexation, qualifies it for some form of special status within the United States.