HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

147

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING THE BOARD OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO REFRAIN FROM SELLING OR EXCHANGING LANDS IN THE PUBLIC LAND TRUST.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, ceded lands are the former crown and government lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii that were transferred to the United States as part of Hawaii's annexation in 1898 and granted to the State of Hawaii upon statehood in 1959; and

 

     WHEREAS, section 5(f) of the Admission Act requires that the State hold the ceded lands and proceeds and income therefrom in a public trust for several purposes, including the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, the 1993 Congressional Apology Resolution recognized that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii was illegal, the taking of the Kingdom's crown, government, and public lands was without consent or compensation, and the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims over their national lands to the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, in Act 359, Session Laws of Hawaii 1993, the Legislature recognized that the overthrow was illegal, and found that "[i]n 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States through the Newlands Resolution without the consent of or compensation to the indigenous people of Hawaii or their sovereign government"; and

 

     WHEREAS, native Hawaiians have unrelinquished claims to the ceded lands; and

 

     WHEREAS, until the claims of native Hawaiians are resolved, the Board of Land and Natural Resources should not sell or exchange the lands ceded to the United States by the Republic of Hawaii under the joint resolution of annexation, approved on July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 750), or acquired in exchange for the ceded lands and returned to the State of Hawaii by virtue of section 5(b) of the Act of March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 5), and lands retained by the United States under section 5(c) and 5(d) of the Act of March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 5), and later conveyed to the State under section 5(e) or under the Act of December 23, 1964 (77 Stat. 472); now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, that the Board of Land and Natural Resources is requested to refrain from selling or exchanging land in the public land trust, crown lands, government lands, lands identified in section 5 of the Admission Act, and lands held by the Hawaiian Kingdom as of 1893, until the native Hawaiians' unrelinquished claims to said lands are resolved; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Report Title: 

Public Land Trust; Alienation