20 U.S.C. § 7512 : US Code - Section 7512: Findings

Search 20 U.S.C. § 7512 : US Code - Section 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, 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
et seq.);
(B) the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C.
1996[, 1996a]);
(C) the National Museum of the American Indian Act (20 U.S.C.
80q et seq.);
(D) the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act (25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.);
(E) the National Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470 et
seq.);
(F) the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 2901 et
seq.);
(G) the American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian
Culture and Art Development Act (20 U.S.C. 4401 et seq.);
(H) the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2801 et
seq.); and
(I) the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.).
(14) In 1981, Congress instructed the Office of Education to
submit to Congress a comprehensive report on Native Hawaiian
education. The report, entitled the "Native Hawaiian Educational
Assessment Project", was released in 1983 and documented that
Native Hawaiians scored below parity with regard to national
norms on standardized achievement tests, were disproportionately
represented in many negative social and physical statistics
indicative of special educational needs, and had educational
needs that were related to their unique cultural situation, such
as different learning styles and low self-image.
(15) In recognition of the educational needs of Native
Hawaiians, in 1988, Congress enacted title IV of the Augustus F.
Hawkins-Robert T. Stafford Elementary and Secondary School
Improvement Amendments of 1988 (102 Stat. 130) to authorize and
develop supplemental educational programs to address the unique
conditions of Native Hawaiians.
(16) In 1993, the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate released a
10-year update of findings of the Native Hawaiian Educational
Assessment Project, which found that despite the successes of the
programs established under title IV of the Augustus F. Hawkins-
Robert T. Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement
Amendments of 1988, many of the same educational needs still
existed for Native Hawaiians. Subsequent reports by the
Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate and other organizations have
generally confirmed those findings. For example -
(A) educational risk factors continue to start even before
birth for many Native Hawaiian children, including -
(i) late or no prenatal care;
(ii) high rates of births by Native Hawaiian women who are
unmarried; and
(iii) high rates of births to teenage parents;
(B) Native Hawaiian students continue to begin their school
experience lagging behind other students in terms of readiness
factors such as vocabulary test scores;
(C) Native Hawaiian students continue to score below national
norms on standardized education achievement tests at all grade
levels;
(D) both public and private schools continue to show a
pattern of lower percentages of Native Hawaiian students in the
uppermost achievement levels and in gifted and talented
programs;
(E) Native Hawaiian students continue to be overrepresented
among students qualifying for special education programs
provided to students with learning disabilities, mild mental
retardation, emotional impairment, and other such disabilities;
(F) Native Hawaiians continue to be underrepresented in
institutions of higher education and among adults who have
completed four or more years of college;
(G) Native Hawaiians continue to be disproportionately
represented in many negative social and physical statistics
indicative of special educational needs, as demonstrated by the
fact that -
(i) Native Hawaiian students are more likely to be retained
in grade level and to be excessively absent in secondary
school;
(ii) Native Hawaiian students have the highest rates of
drug and alcohol use in the State of Hawaii; and
(iii) Native Hawaiian children continue to be
disproportionately victimized by child abuse and neglect; and
(H) Native Hawaiians now comprise over 23 percent of the
students served by the State of Hawaii Department of Education,
and there are and will continue to be geographically rural,
isolated areas with a high Native Hawaiian population density.
(17) In the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress,
Hawaiian fourth-graders ranked 39th among groups of students from
39 States in reading. Given that Hawaiian students rank among the
lowest groups of students nationally in reading, and that Native
Hawaiian students rank the lowest among Hawaiian students in
reading, it is imperative that greater focus be placed on
beginning reading and early education and literacy in Hawaii.
(18) The findings described in paragraphs (16) and (17) are
inconsistent with the high rates of literacy and integration of
traditional culture and Western education historically achieved
by Native Hawaiians through a Hawaiian language-based public
school system established in 1840 by Kamehameha III.
(19) Following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893,
Hawaiian medium schools were banned. After annexation, throughout
the territorial and statehood period of Hawaii, and until 1986,
use of the Hawaiian language as an instructional medium in
education in public schools was declared unlawful. The
declaration caused incalculable harm to a culture that placed a
very high value on the power of language, as exemplified in the
traditional saying: "I ka "olelo no ke ola; I ka "olelo no ka
make. In the language rests life; In the language rests death.".
(20) Despite the consequences of over 100 years of
nonindigenous influence, the Native Hawaiian people are
determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future
generations their ancestral territory and their cultural identity
in accordance with their own spiritual and traditional beliefs,
customs, practices, language, and social institutions.
(21) The State of Hawaii, in the constitution and statutes of
the State of Hawaii -
(A) reaffirms and protects the unique right of the Native
Hawaiian people to practice and perpetuate their culture and
religious customs, beliefs, practices, and language;
(B) recognizes the traditional language of the Native
Hawaiian people as an official language of the State of Hawaii,
which may be used as the language of instruction for all
subjects and grades in the public school system; and
(C) promotes the study of the Hawaiian culture, language, and
history by providing a Hawaiian education program and using
community expertise as a suitable and essential means to
further the program.