CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE INDIGENOUS DESTINIES: NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN CROSSROADS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in History By Shirley E. Buchanan May2011 Copyright 2011 Shirley E. Buchanan 11 The thesis of Shirley E. Buchanan is approved: Date Dr. Josh Sides Date Thomas W. Devine, Ph.D., Chair Date Califomia State University, Northridge l1l Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance of the California State University, Northridge History Department. I would like to especially acknowledge Dr. Thomas W. Devine, Dr. Patricia Juarez-Dappe, Dr. Josh Sides, Dr. Richard Horowitz, Dr. Michael Ward, Dr. FrankL. Vatai, Dr. Charles Macune, and Dr. Christopher Magra. I owe my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Thomas W. Devine, for his inspired teaching, his continual encouragement, and his steadfast guidance. He gave me the courage and tools to articulate a dream. I would also like to thank Hedy Carpenter, Associate Director of Graduate Programs, and the Graduate Studies Department at CSUN for introducing me to the programs which would ultimately support the travel and research required to produce this work. Special thanks are due to the Association of Retired Faculty at CSUN who supported and funded my thesis project. I extend my appreciation, as well, to the Associated Graduate Students of History at CSUN who shared all the trials and tribulations of graduate study and inspired me with their enthusiasm. Lastly, I would like to thank my 'ohana, especially my sisters, Renee Bock and Michelle Davison, for their unwavering confidence and support. Most of all, I am eternally grateful to my husband, Lawrence B. Buchanan. I dedicate this thesis to him and thank him for devotedly traversing this journey with me and loving me into the world. IV Table of Contents Copyright page 11 Signature page 111 Acknowledgement IV Abstract Vl Introduction 1 Part I Onward Christian Soldiers 6 Pmt II Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono: The sovereignty of the land has been continued because it is just 39 Partin "Our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence" 78 Epilogue 115 Bibliography 124 Appendix 144 v ABSTRACT INDIGENOUS DESTINIES: NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN CROSSROADS BY Shirley E. Buchanan Master of Arts in History The historical record shows that the expansion of the United States and the fulfillment of an American national paradigm hinged on the interactions and negotiations that were cultivated with native people. From these negotiations emerged many ofthe principles and precedents that became central to both American domestic and international policy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This study attempts to illuminate the decisive impact both Native Americans and Native Hawaiians had on nineteenth century American policies. It will demonstrate how American Indian policies and Hawaiian governmental legislation affected both each other and indigenous destinies in the United States. The research explores the development of federal Indian policy in the United States against the backdrop of the concurrent transformation of the Hawaiian Islands in the nineteenth century. From the initial efforts of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), to the precedent-setting legislation of the early republic, American relations with native people centered around the goals of "Christian civilization." The ABCFM's missions, working simultaneously among the Cherokee and the Hawaiians, directly linked American assimilation efforts operating within these Vl nations. Moreover, as the ABCFM influenced native governments and culture, so too, did indigenous leaders shape American federal policies as they alternately resisted or accommodated Western objectives. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the extraordinary transfiguration of the Native Hawaiian government and land tenure system prompted American legislators to adjust and adapt their approach to "civilizing" Native Americans in the United States. Vll INTRODUCTION The history of native people in America and their profound influence on the development of the United States has yet to be fully incorporated into mainstream nan·atives. Though investigative trends of the late twentieth century such as the "New Indian History" have attempted to chronicle the broad, diverse, and complicated expanse of native life in America, mainstream historical scholarship has tended to relegate, marginalize, and compartmentalize the role that indigenous people have played in the development of the United States. 1 However, the historical record shows that the expansion of the U.S. and the fulfillment of an American national paradigm hinged on the interactions and negotiations that were cultivated with native people. From these negotiations emerged many of the principles and precedents that became central to both American domestic and international policy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Moreover, native people interacted with and learned from the experiences of other indigenous nations as they encountered American imperialist ambitions. The histories of these people, their triumphs and defeats, their agency and victimization, their contributions and legacy, have remained subsumed in the American narrative because their story is ultimately one of dispossession sanctioned by a federal policy acutely at odds with the foundational principles legitimizing the emergence of America. Nonetheless, it is a history that demands examination, for the inherent conflicts and contradictions of indigenous policy remain unresolved and contested even today. 1 Daniel K. Richter, "Whose Indian History?" William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 50.2 (April, 1993), 380. 1 This study attempts to rectify past omissions and illuminate the decisive impact both Native Americans and Native Hawaiians had on nineteenth century American policies. It will demonstrate how American Indian policies and Hawaiian governmental legislation affected both each other and indigenous destinies in the United States. Although previous scholars have examined individual indigenous groups in isolation, rarely have they investigated the relationships and connections between these peoples. Indeed, prior studies have analyzed American Indian policies and Native Hawaiian legislation as separate and distinct entities, however, these policies developed in response to one another. The same issues and concerns that shaped American Indian policy in the states influenced Hawaiian strategies. Thus, long before the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in the late nineteenth century, the destiny ofNative Hawaiians had become intrinsically entwined with the fate ofNative Americans on the mainland. The study explores the development of federal Indian policy in the United States against the backdrop of the concurrent transformation of the Hawaiian Islands in the nineteenth century. From the initial efforts of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), to the precedent-setting legislation of the early republic, American relations with native people centered around the goals of "Christian civilization." The ABCFM's missions, working simultaneously among the Cherokee and the Hawaiians, directly linked American assimilation efforts operating within these nations. Moreover, as the ABCFM influenced native governments and culture, so too, did indigenous leaders shape American federal policies as they alternately resisted or accommodated Western objectives. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the extraordinary transfiguration of the Native Hawaiian government and land tenure system 2 prompted American legislators to adjust and adapt their approach to "civilizing" Native Americans in the U.S. Because this study covers a broad scope of indigenous relations in the United States, it is important to insert a note about terminology. When referring to the native people of the Hawaiian Islands, I have adopted the terminology of Jon M. Van Dyke, Professor of Law at the WilliamS. Richardson School of Law, University ofHawai'i at Manoa: The term "Native Hawaiian" is used ... to refer to all persons descended from the Polynesians who lived in the Hawaiian Islands when Captain James Cook arrived in 1778. Native Hawaiians frequently use other terms to refer to themselves, such as "ka po'e Hawai'i," "Kanaka Maoli," "Kanaka," "Hawai'i Maoli," or simply "Hawaiian." The first federal statute establishing a program for Native Hawaiians, the Hawaiian Home Commission Act, 1920 ... defmes "native Hawaiian" as a person with 50 percent or more Hawaiian blood, but all federal statutes since 1970 define "Native Hawaiian" as a person with any Hawaiian ancestry? In like manner, I use the term "Native American" to refer to all persons descended from the indigenous people who inhabited the Americas prior to contact, or those who identify themselves as such, or as American Indians, or those who identify themselves within a federally recognized tribal affiliation. When speaking to federal policies, legislation, or judicial decisions which have impacted all native people on the mainland, I have used the general term "Native American," or "Indian." In cases where particular nations are identified, I have used the indigenous name as noted in the historical record, 2 Jon M. Van Dyke, Who Owns The Crown Lands ofHawai'i? (Honolulu: University ofHawai'i Press, 2008), 1, footnote 1. For information