{"id":5114,"date":"2021-05-21T17:03:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/?p=5114"},"modified":"2021-05-21T17:03:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:03:43","slug":"united-church-of-christ-native-hawaiians-seek-synod-support-for-sovereignty-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/united-church-of-christ-native-hawaiians-seek-synod-support-for-sovereignty-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"United Church of Christ: Native Hawaiians seek Synod support for sovereignty steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Native Hawaiians seek Synod support for sovereignty steps<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by\u00a0Hans Holznagel<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0published on May 17, 2021<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The 2021 General Synod<\/a> of the United Church of Christ, meeting July 11-18, will consider 11 resolutions and several bylaw changes. This is one in a series of articles about them. Readers can view an initial summary here<\/a> and find full texts at the Synod website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a>, war may not be the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\u00a0Native Hawaiians in the United Church of Christ are asking people to think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are calling attention to an earlier military action, from 1893. They say it created what amounts to a state of war that never ended \u2014 and needs to end now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They argue that, because the United States took Hawaii by military overthrow, the U.S. and the state government of Hawaii should be seen as occupying forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They make their case in a proposed resolution<\/a> that calls for an end to \u201c128 years of war\u201d between the U.S. and the Hawaiian Kingdom. It will require a two-thirds vote of Synod delegates to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its sponsor is the\u00a0Association of Hawaiian Evangelical Churches<\/a>\u00a0of the UCC. The AHEC consists of\u00a031 historically Native Hawaiian congregations<\/a>\u00a0from across the\u00a0Hawaii Conference<\/a>. Some 80 percent of them were founded before 1893.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawaiian Kingdom still exists<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution\u2019s key points are that the\u00a0Hawaiian Kingdom<\/a>\u00a0never ceased to exist, even after its overthrow \u2014 and that there\u2019s unfinished business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It says the U.S., under President Grover Cleveland, negotiated with the Hawaiian Queen Lili\u2018uokalani<\/a> \u2014 soon after deposing her \u2014 to restore her government to power. Cleveland himself, in an 1893 address to Congress<\/a>, called the overthrow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

an act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress. ... A substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair.<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
But the Native Hawaiian government has never returned to power \u2014 even though Cleveland, by a still-valid executive order, called for it to be restored, the resolution says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peace treaty sought<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnder international law, the action needed is a signed treaty of peace between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Kingdom government,\u201d said Kalaniakea Wilson. He belongs to\u00a0Kalapana Maunakea First Hawaiian Congregational Church<\/a>\u00a0in Nanawale, founded in 1823. He will speak to the resolution for AHEC when a committee of Synod delegates reviews it in July. Such a treaty, Wilson said, would be \u201csimilar to the agreement of restoration\u201d between Cleveland and Queen Lili\u2019uokalani\u00a0that was \u201cnot implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resolution also notes that the UCC<\/a> and the U.S. Congress<\/a> apologized in 1993 for their predecessors\u2019 roles in the overthrow. National and Conference bodies in the UCC followed up by paying millions of dollars in reparations<\/a>, in money and property, to Native Hawaiians.https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CF6CaLAMh98?feature=oembed\u201cExposing the American Occupation\u201d is part of the subtitle of this 2019 documentary featuring today\u2019s leaders of the Hawaiian Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Wilson said these have not ended the decades of human costs paid by Native Hawaiians ever since the hostile takeover of their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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