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Originally published in the LA Times on March 2, 2005 [here]

From Associated Press

March 2, 2005

WASHINGTON — Gov. Linda Lingle and other Hawaii leaders won a promise Tuesday of prompt Senate action on legislation to give native Hawaiians the same rights of self-government enjoyed by American Indians and native Alaskans.

"This bill is vital to the survival of the native Hawaiian people, it is vital to providing parity in federal policy for all native peoples in America, and it is vital to the continued character of the state of Hawaii," the Republican governor said in testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

The committee's chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said the panel would vote next week on the bill, sponsored by Hawaii's two senators, giving some impetus to a measure that had stalled in the last three sessions of Congress.

The legislation would formally recognize the country's 400,000 native Hawaiians as an indigenous people and set up a process under which a native Hawaiian governing entity could negotiate with federal and state governments over land, resources and other assets.

Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii), sponsor of a companion bill in the House with Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), called it "the most vital single piece of legislation" for Hawaii since statehood in 1959.

Self-determination for native Hawaiians has become a more prominent issue since Congress in 1993 passed the "Apology Resolution" in which the United States acknowledged wrongdoing in the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893 and recognized the inherent sovereignty of the indigenous islanders over their land.

Democrat Daniel K. Akaka, a native Hawaiian, co-authored the Senate legislation with his Hawaii colleague Daniel K. Inouye, also a Democrat.