1 1 Public Meeting regarding whether the Federal 2 Government should reestablish a 3 government-to-government relationship with 4 the Native Hawaiian community 5 6 7 8 PUBLIC MEETING 9 10 11 12 King Kamehameha III Elementary School 13 611 Front Street 14 Lahaina, Hawaii 96761 15 16 July 7th, 2014 17 6:00 p.m. 18 19 20 21 Moderator: DAWN CHANG 22 23 Recorded and Transcribed by: 24 SANDRA J. GRAN, RPR, CSR 424 25 RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 2 1 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PANELISTS: 2 RHEA SUH, Assistant Secretary for Policy, 3 Management, and Budget, 4 U.S. Department of the Interior 5 6 ESTHER KIA'AINA, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, 7 U.S. Department of the Interior 8 9 JUSTIN SMITH, Assistant Section Chief of Law and 10 Policy, Environment and Natural Resources Division, 11 U.S. Department of Justice 12 13 JENNIFER ROMERO, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, 14 U.S. Department of the Interior 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 3 1 P U B L I C M E E T I N G 2 MS. CHANG: Is there any kupuna who like to speak 3 first? Please feel free to come up to the mic now before I 4 call from the other -- the list. 5 Auntie, Uncle, Auntie, would you like to speak? 6 MS. KAINA: Aloha. 7 AUDIENCE: Aloha. 8 MS. KAINA: My name is Orpha Uihani Kinney Kaina. 9 My momma is from Hana and my father is from Kauai. I'm so 10 pleased to be here and I would like to take the time to say 11 a -- show my appreciation for these people that have come in 12 spite of the [inaudible] that they have to face. 13 First of all, most important, is that I would like 14 to say a'ole to all of those questions that was asked of us 15 and to [inaudible] a little of my feelings and manao. 16 As we were forming the [Hawaiian word], my heart 17 looked forward so anxiously looking into finding ways to come 18 home and go mauka to prepare, to clean up there so we could 19 have our resources back: our opae, our O'opu, our [Hawaiian 20 word]. And to enjoy the beautifully [inaudible] the flowers 21 and to shape our [Hawaiian language spoken], so we could take 22 these things into the classroom to share with our pau hana, so 23 they could feel the essence of how our people and what our 24 people had, so they could have the same lessons that they had. 25 But we were told not touch them, not to take them home. They RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 4 1 take the [Hawaiian language spoken]. 2 A'ole. My momma was here today, she would say, 3 These people so na'aupo. The pohaku has benefits that if you 4 look down when you're down at the beach and you see a pohaku 5 that you feel you wanna take home and -- and use it, then you 6 have that right to do. I am -- I just want to say that. 7 Thank you so much. Thank you. 8 MS. CHANG: Thank you, Auntie. 9 Do I have another kupuna who would like to come up? 10 (Applause.) 11 MS. CHANG: If not, I'm going to the first five 12 names. Dennis O'Shea, Kahu Richard Malele DeLeon -- 13 Jovena, I hope you don't mind, we're gonna -- Okay. 14 Mahalo. 15 Sharon Cornelio and then after Sharon is Alana 16 Kapuni. 17 MR. O'SHEA: My name is Dennis O'Shea. I live here 18 in Lahaina. In fact, the last time I was in this room my son 19 was graduating from fifth grade. 20 The Department of the Interior has asked us five 21 questions. My answer to those questions are no, no, no, no, 22 and no. This is just another feeble attempt to get the Akaku 23 Bill through and declare Hawaiians an Indian tribe. And we 24 know what the Department of the Interior has done to the 25 Indian tribes. Hawaiians are not an Indian tribe. We are a RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 5 1 sovereign kingdom. I'm pau. 2 (Applause.) 3 MS. CHANG: Thank you. 4 I have Richard DeLeon, Sharon Cornelio, and Alana 5 Kapuni. 6 MR. DeLEON: Aloha kakau. 7 AUDIENCE: Aloha. 8 MR. DeLEON: To our panel, mahalo. I know it's hard 9 to face all of us because we're a spiritual people, so when we 10 speak, it comes from the heart and deep within that the 11 [Hawaiian word]. You have broken our Queen's heart, but 12 there's one thing that you never did, was shatter her spirit. 13 And that's what brings us here today so we can finish the good 14 fight, but with aloha. 15 Two scenarios: Russia went to premiers, same thing 16 about sovereignty, Secretary Terry Randall ran over there to 17 assist them. Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait, sovereignty 18 issues, President Bush ran over there to assist them. And yet 19 in his backyard, where are they? [Inaudible.] 20 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Aloha. 21 MR. O'SHEA: Difference, there was violence in those 22 countries, but yet they still went there. Here we have aloha, 23 love, where are they? 24 So a'ole, a'ole, a'ole, a'ole, a'ole. No to all 25 five questions. [Inaudible] on the paperwork. Also, no to RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 6 1 the other nine that's in the shadows. Yes? Because the words 2 that was put forth is a double-edged sword. We learned from 3 the First Nations when you offered them their sovereignty, but 4 it wasn't the supreme sovereignty because now they don't have 5 their natural resources, it has been invaded by all the other 6 countries, fracking, everything else that goes with it. 7 So today our people, we have to understand the 8 language that is used and be careful of how we -- we say it 9 because it can mean one thing. We have the same thing which 10 is the county, but it was always about love. It makes the 11 difference and set aside who we are as people. So mahalo. 12 Mahalo Ke Akua. Blessed to my sister-in-law, [Hawaiian name]. 13 And I'm here to represent 579 of my immediate family under the 14 house of Keakealani and Kanaloa [Hawaiian name]. 15 MS. CHANG: Mahalo. 16 (Applause.) 17 MS. CHANG: I have Sharon Cornelio, Alana Kapuni, 18 and Ke'eaumoku Kapu. 19 MS. CORNELIO: Aloha. My name is Sharon Cornelio. 20 I've been watching you folks for about these past 21 two weeks and it's very, very painful to watch our people come 22 up to the mic and express their feelings, you know, actually 23 pouring out their hearts, pouring out their hearts to fight 24 for what is ours that was illegally taken away from us. I 25 just have to speak for my [Hawaiian word] and the keikis RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 7 1 behind us. [Hawaiian language spoken.] Thank you. 2 (Applause.) 3 MS. CHANG: I now have Alana Kapuni, Ke'eaumoku 4 Kapu, and Kehu Kapaku, and then Blossom. 5 MS. KAPUNI: Yes. My name is Alana Kapuni and I'm 6 from the Upcountry area. And I have seen the Hawaiian culture 7 suffer for many, many years, you know. I have seen them work 8 their whole lives just to get taken advantage of, just to hear 9 more and more lies, replicas of another solution with 10 different words. You guys have a lot of play in your wording, 11 you know, like this word "should" here, everything is should. 12 You only give us five questions, so are you giving us an 13 option? Is it a suggestion that you're giving us? 14 Really, technically, I don't agree with any of 15 these. I really, really don't. I mean, as you said, it's 16 just a framework for the U.S. and these people don't want to 17 be a part of the U.S., they want to be independent, they want 18 to have their own. And we are not Indian, so how are you 19 gonna put us in the same category as the Indian culture when 20 our technique of war is different, our language is different, 21 our daily lives have its differences. They live in teepees, 22 we live in huts. They're on the mainland, we live in the 23 middle of the ocean. 24 My great-grandmother, [Hawaiian name] Kapuni always 25 said that Hawaii will have their day and that day will come RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC. 1001 Bishop Street, #2460, Honolulu, HI 96813 808-524-2090 [email protected] 8 1 soon enough.