“Want to guarantee nasty conflicts? Take a word with multiple, fuzzy, definitions, force people to strike an agreement on it, attach large amounts of money to it, and then watch them fight about it a year or two later.” ― Michael T. Nygard, Technology leader, Dynamicist, Professional programmer who cares about art, quality, and craft

1. PROCEDURES FOR REESTABLISHING A FORMAL GOVERNMENT-TO-
GOVERNMENT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN COMMUNITY
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of the Interior.
ACTION: Final rule.
SUMMARY: This final rule establishes the Secretary of the Interior’s (Secretary) administrative
process for reestablishing a formal government-to-government relationship with the Native
Hawaiian community to more effectively implement the special political and trust relationship
that Congress established between that community and the United States.
HHCA means the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (Act of July 9, 1921, 42 Stat. 108),
as amended.
HHCA Native Hawaiian means a Native Hawaiian individual who meets the definition of
‘‘native Hawaiian’’ in HHCA sec. 201(a)(7).
As used in the rule, the term ‘‘HHCA Native Hawaiian’’ means a Native Hawaiian individual
who meets the definition of ‘‘native Hawaiian’’ in HHCA sec. 201(a)(7), 42 Stat. 108 (1921),
and thus has at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian ancestry, regardless of whether the individual
resides on Hawaiian home lands, is an HHCA lessee, is on a wait list for an HHCA lease, or
receives any benefits under the HHCA. Satisfying this definition generally requires that
documentation demonstrating eligibility under HHCA sec. 201(a)(7) be available, such as
official Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) records or other State records.
[Emphasis Supplied]
Source: Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 199 / Friday, October 14, 2016 / Rules and Regulations.
pp. 71278 – 71323. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-10-14/pdf/2016-23720.pdf
DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOMELANDS LEGISLATION
Blood Quantum for Successors Bills
 SB 2868 SD1 – Reduce Blood Quantum for Successors (House Companion HB2339)
Synopsis: Lowers to one-thirty-second Hawaiian the blood quantum required by a
homestead lesse’s husband, wife, children, grandchildren, brothers, or sisters in order to
succeed to the lessee’s lease. Requires Congressional approval.
Status: Awaiting hearing to be scheduled by the Senate Ways & Means Committee
(WAM). (2/16/2016) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and
referred to WAM.

2.  HB 2339 – Reduce Blood Quantum for Successors (Senate Companion SB2868)
Synopsis: Lowers to one-thirty-second Hawaiian the blood quantum required by a
homestead lesee’s husband, wife, children, grandchildren, brothers, or sisters in order to
succeed to the lessee’s lease. Requires Congressional approval.
Status: House version of the bill died in committee. (2/3/2016) The House Committee on
Ocean, Marine Resources & Hawaiian Affairs (OMH) recommended the measure be
deferred.
 HB 1931 HD1 – Reduce Blood Quantum for Successors & Transferees
Synopsis: Reduces the minimum Hawaiian blood quantum requirement of certain
successors to lessees of Hawaiian home lands from one-quarter to one thirty-second.
Status: Awaiting hearing to be scheduled by the House Judiciary Committee (JUD).
(2/9/2016) Passed Second Reading as amended in HD1 and referred to JUD.
[Emphasis Supplied]
Source: DHHL. http://dhhl.hawaii.gov/legislation/ Web Accessed: 10/15/2016
______
1 comment in opposition to SB2868 was filed
______
Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies
46-255 Kahuhipa St. Suite 1205
Kane'ohe, HI 96744
Tel/Fax (808) 247-7942
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D. Executive Director
e-mail Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com
Unity, Equality, Aloha for all
To: SENATE COMMITTEE ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS AND
SENATE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY AND LABOR
For hearing Monday, February 08, 2016
Re: SB2868 RELATING TO THE QUALIFICATION OF SUCCESSORS TO
LESSEES UNDER THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT, 1920, AS
AMENDED.
Lowers the required blood quantum to one-thirty second Hawaiian for the lessee's
relatives currently eligible to succeed to a lease with one-thirty second Hawaiian
including a lessee's husband, wife, children, grandchildren, brothers or sisters.

3. TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION
In homage to Archie Bunker, this bill should be given the name "All In The Family." Its
obvious purpose is to allow a family to keep a DHHL lease in the family even after the
original lessee has died, and the spouse and children have died, etc. -- so long as the
successor leaseholder has at least 1/32 Hawaiian native blood and is related to the
original lessee from decades ago by blood or marriage. The only way to pry the lease
away from the family is if the lease expires after the statutory period of 100 years.
Indeed, we are approaching the 100th anniversary of passage of the Hawaiian Homes
Commission Act, so in the next few years we will see leases in Papakolea (the first
homestead) beginning to expire. Therefore we will probably soon see legislation
automatically extending leases for an additional century, to keep them "all in the family."
How often do we hear that there are tens of thousands of racially certified 50% blood
native Hawaiians who have been sitting on the waiting list for decades? Let's give them
a lease instead of guaranteeing the inheritance of a lease by grandchildren, great-
grandchildren, cousins, etc. whose connection with Hawaiian culture and with the 'aina
may be greatly attenuated or virtually imperceptible. The most obvious result of enacting
this bill would be to permanently establish a hereditary elite caste among native
Hawaiians and Native Hawaiians -- families who got a lease early in the history of DHHL
would remain forever an elite group of ali'i while those who placed their names on the
waiting list in later years remain consigned to the lower caste maka'ainana with no hope
of moving up. People with as little as 1/32 Hawaiian native ancestry but who are blood
relatives of existing lessees would have an insurmountable preference over the native
Hawaiians of greater than 50% native ancestry who were the intended beneficiaries of
the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act but now find they have no hope of getting a lease
because they belong to a family from the "wrong side of the tracts."
Many Hawaiians believe that the 50% blood quantum requirement in the Hawaiian
Homes Commission Act is terribly divisive, pitting high-blood natives against low-blood
Natives. It's often said that Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana'ole, Territorial Representative
of Hawaii who sponsored the HHCA, wanted the blood requirement to be set at 1/32,
which in 1920 would have allowed virtually every ethnic Hawaiian to qualify (although I
have not seen actual written evidence to support the legend that he proposed 1/32).
Now that four more generations have occurred, Kuhio's rationale would need to be
updated to say the quantum should be 1/512, to ensure that everyone with a drop of the
magic blood is eligible.
But here's my view. I believe that 1/2 is too high, 1/32 is too high, 1/512 is too high, and
even one drop is too high. The native blood requirement for a homestead lease on
public lands should be zero.

4. During the Republic and early Territorial periods Hawaii had a homesteading law that
allowed any citizen of Hawaii, regardless of race, to select a vacant piece of public land,
live on that land for a period of years while putting it to good use, and thereby acquire
ownership of the land in fee simple. That perfectly fine race-neutral homesteading law
fell by the wayside when the well-intentioned but hopelessly racist HHCA was enacted.
So now we have a huge bureaucracy costing megabucks to administer in order to
ensure that only people of the favored race can establish a homestead on public land;
and that they can only lease the land but are denied the most secure way for a family to
build wealth -- fee-simple ownership of land.
What a shame!
Please defeat this bill.
[Emphasis supplied]
_______
OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS - HAWAIIAN REGISTRY
The OHA Hawaiian Registry Program (HRP) provides registered Hawaiians, worldwide,
with a card verifying their Hawaiian ancestry. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs issues the card
after verifying indigenous Hawaiian ancestry through biological parentage.
No blood quantum is required. [Emphasis Supplied]
Source: OHA. http://www.oha.org/registry
______
THE SENATE S.B. NO. 2868
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016 S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO THE QUALIFICATION OF SUCCESSORS TO LESSEES UNDER THE
HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT, 1920, AS AMENDED.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

5. SECTION 1. Section 209 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, as amended, is
amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
"(a) Upon the death of the lessee, the lessee's interest in the tract or tracts and the
improvements thereon, including growing crops and aquacultural stock (either on the tract or in
any collective contract or program to which the lessee is a party by virtue of the lessee's interest
in the tract or tracts), shall vest in the relatives of the decedent as provided in this
paragraph. From the following relatives of the lessee who are (1) at least [one-quarter] one-
thirty-second Hawaiian, husband, wife, children, grandchildren, brothers, or sisters, or (2) native
Hawaiian, father and mother, widows or widowers of the children, widows or widowers of the
brothers and sisters, or nieces and nephews,--the lessee shall designate the person or persons to
whom the lessee directs the lessee's interest in the tract or tracts to vest upon the lessee's
death. The Hawaiian blood requirements shall not apply to the descendants of those who are not
native Hawaiians but who were entitled to the leased lands under section 3 of the Act of May 16,
1934 (48 Stat. 777, 779), as amended, or under section 3 of the Act of July 9, 1952 (66 Stat. 511,
513).
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval and with the consent of Congress.
[Emphasis Supplied]
Source: Hawaii Legislature.
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2016/bills/SB2868_SD1_.htm
______
CONCLUSION
Is the Department of Interior Final Rule in fact FINAL?
Is the Department of Interior Final Rule consistent with Rice v. Cayetano by establishing a Blood
Quantum as an individual who “has at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian ancestry”?
Is the Department of Interior Final Rule legally compliant with Hawaiian Homes Commission
Act (HHCA) given pending legislation before the Hawaii State Legislature, reducing Blood
Quantum from at least one-quarter (25%) to one-thirty-second (3.125%) ?
Is the Department of Interior Final Rule Final given that legislation pending before the Hawaii
State Legislature when passed and enacted pends Congressional approval?
IS THE DEPARTMENT of INTERIOR FINAL RULE READY for
IMPLEMENTATION?
`A`OLE, NO