H.R. 4904 (rh) To express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians, and for other purposes. [Reported in House] ...

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                                                       Calendar No. 893
106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4904


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

           September 27 (legislative day, September 22), 2000

                                Revised

            October 2 (legislative day, September 22), 2000

                 Read twice and placed on the calendar


_______________________________________________________________________


                                 AN ACT


 
To express the policy of the United States regarding the United States 
   relationship with Native Hawaiians, to provide a process for the 
 reorganization of a Native Hawaiian government and the recognition by 
  the United States of the Native Hawaiian government, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Constitution vests Congress with the authority to 
        address the conditions of the indigenous, native people of the 
        United States.
            (2) Native Hawaiians, the native people of the Hawaiian 
        archipelago which is now part of the United States, are 
        indigenous, native people of the United States.
            (3) The United States has a special trust relationship to 
        promote the welfare of the native people of the United States, 
        including Native Hawaiians.
            (4) Under the treaty making power of the United States, 
        Congress exercised its constitutional authority to confirm a 
        treaty between the United States and the government that 
        represented the Hawaiian people, and from 1826 until 1893, the 
        United States recognized the independence of the Kingdom of 
        Hawaii, extended full diplomatic recognition to the Hawaiian 
        government, and entered into treaties and conventions with the 
        Hawaiian monarchs to govern commerce and navigation in 1826, 
        1842, 1849, 1875, and 1887.
            (5) Pursuant to the provisions of the Hawaiian Homes 
        Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42), the United 
        States set aside 203,500 acres of land in the Federal territory 
        that later became the State of Hawaii to address the conditions 
        of Native Hawaiians.
            (6) By setting aside 203,500 acres of land for Native 
        Hawaiian homesteads and farms, the Act assists the Native 
        Hawaiian community in maintaining distinct native settlements 
        throughout the State of Hawaii.
            (7) Approximately 6,800 Native Hawaiian lessees and their 
        family members reside on Hawaiian Home Lands and approximately 
        18,000 Native Hawaiians who are eligible to reside on the Home 
        Lands are on a waiting list to receive assignments of land.
            (8) In 1959, as part of the compact admitting Hawaii into 
        the United States, Congress established the Ceded Lands Trust 
        for five purposes, one of which is the betterment of the 
        conditions of Native Hawaiians. Such trust consists of 
        approximately 1,800,000 acres of land, submerged lands, and the 
        revenues derived from such lands, the assets of which have 
        never been completely inventoried or segregated.
            (9) Throughout the years, Native Hawaiians have repeatedly 
        sought access to the Ceded Lands Trust and its resources and 
        revenues in order to establish and maintain native settlements 
        and distinct native communities throughout the State.
            (10) The Hawaiian Home Lands and the Ceded Lands provide an 
        important foundation for the ability of the Native Hawaiian 
        community to maintain the practice of Native Hawaiian culture, 
        language, and traditions, and for the survival of the Native 
        Hawaiian people.
            (11) Native Hawaiians have maintained other distinctly 
        native areas in Hawaii.
            (12) On November 23, 1993, Public Law 103-150 (107 Stat. 
        1510) (commonly known as the Apology Resolution) was enacted 
        into law, extending an apology on behalf of the United States 
        to the Native people of Hawaii for the United States role in 
        the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
            (13) The Apology Resolution acknowledges that the overthrow 
        of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation 
        of agents and citizens of the United States and further 
        acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly 
        relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a 
        people over their national lands to the United States, either 
        through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.
            (14) The Apology Resolution expresses the commitment of 
        Congress and the President to acknowledge the ramifications of 
        the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and to support 
        reconciliation efforts between the United States and Native 
        Hawaiians; and to have Congress and the President, through the 
        President's designated officials, consult with Native Hawaiians 
        on the reconciliation process as called for under the Apology 
        Resolution.
            (15) Despite the overthrow of the Hawaiian government, 
        Native Hawaiians have continued to maintain their separate 
        identity as a distinct native community through the formation 
        of cultural, social, and political institutions, and to give 
        expression to their rights as native people to self-
        determination and self-governance as evidenced through their 
        participation in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
            (16) Native Hawaiians also maintain a distinct Native 
        Hawaiian community through the provision of governmental 
        services to Native Hawaiians, including the provision of health 
        care services, educational programs, employment and training 
        programs, children's services, conservation programs, fish and 
        wildlife protection, agricultural programs, native language 
        immersion programs and native language immersion schools from 
        kindergarten through high school, as well as college and 
        master's degree programs in native language immersion 
        instruction, and traditional justice programs, and by 
        continuing their efforts to enhance Native Hawaiian self-
        determination and local control.
            (17) Native Hawaiians are actively engaged in Native 
        Hawaiian cultural practices, traditional agricultural methods, 
        fishing and subsistence practices, maintenance of cultural use 
        areas and sacred sites, protection of burial sites, and the 
        exercise of their traditional rights to gather medicinal plants 
        and herbs, and food sources.
            (18) The Native Hawaiian people wish to preserve, develop, 
        and transmit to future Native Hawaiian generations their 
        ancestral lands and Native Hawaiian political and cultural 
        identity in accordance with their traditions, beliefs, customs 
        and practices, language, and social and political institutions, 
        and to achieve greater self-determination over their own 
        affairs.
            (19) This Act provides for a process within the framework 
        of Federal law for the Native Hawaiian people to exercise their 
        inherent rights as a distinct aboriginal, indigenous, native 
        community to reorganize a Native Hawaiian government for the 
        purpose of giving expression to their rights as native people 
        to self-determination and self-governance.
            (20) The United States has declared that--
                    (A) the United States has a special responsibility 
                for the welfare of the native peoples of the United 
                States, including Native Hawaiians;
                    (B) Congress has identified Native Hawaiians as a 
                distinct indigenous group within the scope of its 
                Indian affairs power, and has enacted dozens of 
                statutes on their behalf pursuant to its recognized 
                trust responsibility; and
                    (C) Congress has also delegated broad authority to 
                administer a portion of the Federal trust 
                responsibility to the State of Hawaii.
            (21) The United States has recognized and reaffirmed the 
        special trust relationship with the Native Hawaiian people 
        through--
                    (A) the enactment of the Act entitled ``An Act to 
                provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into 
                the Union'', approved March 18, 1959 (Public Law 86-3; 
                73 Stat. 4) by--
                            (i) ceding to the State of Hawaii title to 
                        the public lands formerly held by the United 
                        States, and mandating that those lands be held 
                        in public trust for five purposes, one of which 
                        is for the betterment of the conditions of 
                        Native Hawaiians; and
                            (ii) transferring the United States 
                        responsibility for the administration of the 
                        Hawaiian Home Lands to the State of Hawaii, but 
                        retaining the authority to enforce the trust, 
                        including the exclusive right of the United 
                        States to consent to any actions affecting the 
                        lands which comprise the corpus of the trust 
                        and any amendments to the Hawaiian Homes 
                        Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42) 
                        that are enacted by the legislature of the 
                        State of Hawaii affecting the beneficiaries 
                        under the Act.
            (22) The United States continually has recognized and 
        reaffirmed that--
                    (A) Native Hawaiians have a cultural, historic, and 
                land-based link to the aboriginal, native people who 
                exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands;
                    (B) Native Hawaiians have never relinquished their 
                claims to sovereignty or their sovereign lands;
                    (C) the United States extends services to Native 
                Hawaiians because of their unique status as the 
                aboriginal, native people of a once sovereign nation 
                with whom the United States has a political and legal 
                relationship; and
                    (D) the special trust relationship of American 
                Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians to the 
                United States arises out of their status as aboriginal, 
                indigenous, native people of the United States.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Aboriginal, indigenous, native people.--The term 
        ``aboriginal, indigenous, native people'' means those people 
        whom Congress has recognized as the original inhabitants of the 
        lands and who exercised sovereignty prior to European contact 
        in the areas that later became part of the United States.
            (2) Adult members.--The term ``adult members'' means those 
        Native Hawaiians who have attained the age of 18 at the time 
        the Secretary publishes the final roll, as provided in section 
        7(a)(3) of this Act.
            (3) Apology resolution.--The term ``Apology Resolution'' 
        means Public Law 103-150 (107 Stat. 1510), a joint resolution 
        offering an apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United 
        States for the participation of agents of the United States in 
        the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
            (4) Ceded lands.--The term ``ceded lands'' means those 
        lands which were ceded to the United States by the Republic of 
        Hawaii under the Joint Resolution to provide for annexing the 
        Hawaiian Islands to the United States of July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 
        750), and which were later transferred to the State of Hawaii 
        in the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the admission of 
        the State of Hawaii into the Union'' approved March 18, 1959 
        (Public Law 86-3; 73 Stat. 4).
            (5) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the 
        commission established in section 7 of this Act to certify that 
        the adult members of the Native Hawaiian community contained on 
        the roll developed under that section meet the definition of 
        Native Hawaiian, as defined in paragraph (7)(A).
            (6) Indigenous, native people.--The term ``indigenous, 
        native people'' means the lineal descendants of the aboriginal, 
        indigenous, native people of the United States.
            (7) Native hawaiian.--
                    (A) Prior to the recognition by the United States 
                of a Native Hawaiian government under the authority of 
                section 7(d)(2) of this Act, the term ``Native 
                Hawaiian'' means the indigenous, native people of 
                Hawaii who are the lineal descendants of the 
                aboriginal, indigenous, native people who resided in 
                the islands that now comprise the State of Hawaii on or 
                before January 1, 1893, and who occupied and exercised 
                sovereignty in the Hawaiian archipelago, including the 
                area that now constitutes the State of Hawaii, and 
                includes all Native Hawaiians who were eligible in 1921 
                for the programs authorized by the Hawaiian Homes 
                Commission Act (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42) and their 
                lineal descendants.
                    (B) Following the recognition by the United States 
                of the Native Hawaiian government under section 7(d)(2) 
                of this Act, the term ``Native Hawaiian'' shall have 
                the meaning given to such term in the organic governing 
                documents of the Native Hawaiian government.
            (8) Native hawaiian government.--The term ``Native Hawaiian 
        government'' means the citizens of the government of the Native 
        Hawaiian people that is recognized by the United States under 
        the authority of section 7(d)(2) of this Act.
            (9) Native hawaiian interim governing council.--The term 
        ``Native Hawaiian Interim Governing Council'' means the interim 
        governing council that is organized under section 7(c) of this 
        Act.
            (10) Roll.--The term ``roll'' means the roll that is 
        developed under the authority of section 7(a) of this Act.
            (11) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.
            (12) Task force.--The term ``Task Force'' means the Native 
        Hawaiian Interagency Task Force established under the authority 
        of section 6 of this Act.

SEC. 3. UNITED STATES POLICY AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Policy.--The United States reaffirms that--
            (1) Native Hawaiians are a unique and distinct aboriginal, 
        indigenous, native people, with whom the United States has a 
        political and legal relationship;
            (2) the United States has a special trust relationship to 
        promote the welfare of Native Hawaiians;
            (3) Congress possesses the authority under the Constitution 
        to enact legislation to address the conditions of Native 
        Hawaiians and has exercised this authority through the 
        enactment of--
                    (A) the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 
                Stat. 108, chapter 42);
                    (B) the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the 
                admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union'', 
                approved March 18, 1959 (Public Law 86-3; 73 Stat. 4); 
                and
                    (C) more than 150 other Federal laws addressing the 
                conditions of Native Hawaiians;
            (4) Native Hawaiians have--
                    (A) an inherent right to autonomy in their internal 
                affairs;
                    (B) an inherent right of self-determination and 
                self-governance;

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