In 1893, the United States of America overthrew Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii as they annexed their 50th state into the union. With this overthrow, the US stole the land away from the Native Hawaiians unrightfully and illegally. In order to make amends for their mistakes, the US, under the presidency of Bill Clinton, issued an "Apology Resolution" one century after the fact. This document admitted that the US wrongfully took the land away from the Native Hawaiians.
However, even with this official public apology, there is much controversy still lingering. While this "law" was passed through Senate and Congress, nothing has really been done to make things right. Even until this very day, Hawaiians have only gained back a small fraction of their land. While there are designated areas devoted to Native Hawaiians, these places are extremely small, run down, and unsanitary.
Click Here to see excerpts of the Apology Resolution of 1993
or
Click Here to find out more about the Native Hawaiian's unrest about the "apology"
Note: Kau Inoa is an effort by Native Hawaiians to strengthen their culture and gain back the rights they previously had taken away.
Why should the US give Hawaii back their land in the first place? They overthrew Hawaii and rightfully won over the land. Although this may seem cruel and unethical, the fact of the matter is the US won over Hawaii and can rule over the land however they want. One can make the same argument about Israel and Palestine; the Israelis won the battle for Israel over Palestine and thus should have control over the land, but the Palestinians refuse to budge.
ReplyDeleteIt is a repeated pattern in history that stronger countries overtake governments in weaker countries. It's not right, but I don't the U.S. government is going to give any land back to the Hawaiins or the Native Americans.
ReplyDeleteThere is no real reason for us to hand over land back to the people we originally took it from. Is that not why we over took Hawaii in the first place? Throughout the course of history, countries are over thrown, but why would anyone even think about just giving back the land they had fought for?
ReplyDeleteit's kind of too late to return the land...i think you could've added more information, rather than just providing us with links to take a further look on our own.
ReplyDelete