What Sovereignty Means Now

The Hawaiian sovereignty movement is not one movement. It is a family of arguments, with real disagreements about means, legitimacy, and what an acceptable outcome would look like. On the question of what was done to Hawaii in eighteen ninety-three, there is broad agreement. On the question of what should be done about it now, there is not.

At one end of the spectrum are those who argue for full independence: that the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegally overthrown, that annexation was invalid, that Hawaii is still legally a sovereign nation under military occupation, and that the correct remedy is independence and the return of the ceded lands. This position is held by groups such as the Hawaiian Kingdom Government and draws on the legal arguments that the joint resolution of Congress cannot override the requirements of international law.

In the middle are those who seek federal recognition comparable to that given American Indian tribes, a government-to-government relationship with the United States that would recognize Native Hawaiians as a distinct indigenous people with collective rights to land, resources, and self-governance. This was the goal of the Akaka Bill, which Congress debated but never passed between two thousand and twenty twelve. It remains a legislative possibility.

At the more incremental end are those working within the current state and federal structure to restore ceded land revenues, increase funding for Native Hawaiian programs through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and strengthen cultural and educational institutions.

What almost everyone in this conversation agrees on is that the question is not settled. The one hundred third Congress said so explicitly in nineteen ninety-three, when it passed the Apology Resolution acknowledging that the United States had acted unlawfully. The acknowledgment created no remedy. The conversation it opened has not ended. Every road in Hawaii runs through land whose legal and moral status remains, for a substantial portion of the people who live here, genuinely unresolved.