User:JereKrischel/Work in progress

Apology Resolution Draft

Arguments for

The Apology resolution derives mainly from the Blount Report, which was compiled shortly after the overthrow of the hawaiian monarchy (spring 1893). Blount found strongly in the favor of the queen and her supporters, and his report was an official criticism of the U.S. role in the overthrow.

Daviana MacGregor, a professor in the University of Hawai'i Department of Ethnic Studies was credited with having written the resolution.

Arguments against

Although the Blount Report, upon which the Apology Resolution was based, was an offical report of the U.S. government, it was followed by the Morgan Report in January 1894, which after public hearings and testimony under oath found the Blount Report to be mistaken on many of the facts reported. Some of the criticisms of the Blount Report included the fact that it was done in secrecy, with no opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses and no witnesses placed under oath. Opponents of the Apology Resolution point to this official repudiation of the Blount Report as sufficient reason to repudiate any conclusions based on it.

Some non-ancestry-based nationalist Hawaiian groups accuse Senators Akaka and Inouye of being accomplices of the U.S. in a long-term anti-Hawaiian strategy. These groups argue that the Apology Resolution is a swindle because it baselessly conflates the Hawaiian Kingdom's internationally recognised sovereignty as a nation-state with concepts like indigenous and Native Hawaiian people. They reason that citizenship in the Kingdom was not defined by ancestry; that an entire country was the victim of the conspirators' misdeeds, not merely certain individuals or groups; and that all loyal Hawaiian nationals were deprived of their right to self-determination, not just "Native" Hawaiians. They point out that it was the U.S. Congress that introduced blood quota requirements in the first place, in the Hawaiian Homelands Commission Act of 1921, over the opposition of their ancestors.

There has also been criticism of the 1993 Apology Bill for it's use in buttressing the Akaka Bill. The Apology Bill of '93 was passed with only one hour of debate on the Senate floor with only five senators participating, three opposed (Slade Gorton, Hank Brown, John C. Danforth) and two in favor (Akaka and Inouye). It passed the house on November 15 in less time with no debate and no objections. Senator Inouye, wrapping up the debate, said:

"As to the matter of the status of Native Hawaiians, as my colleague from Washington knows, from the time of statehood we have been in this debate. Are Native Hawaiians Native Americans? This resolution has nothing to do with that."--Senator Inouye

The reliance upon the text of the Apology Resolution as justification for the Akaka Bill has been seen by some as contradicting Inouye's statements on the matter in 1993.

Bruce Fein has outlined many counterarguments challenging the historical accuracy and completeness of the assertions made by the Apology Bill in this PDF file (592 KB): Hawaii Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand