02-23-2018, 05:34 AM
The Hawaiians were not trying to stop development or show anti-business sentiment. They wanted to take ownership of Coco Palms, to live on it.
Europeans/white men how ever you want to characterize them separated native Hawaiian from huge tracts of land in the 1800s. They either commandeered it or sometimes coerced Hawaiians into selling it. (Forcing land sale to pay taxes was a favorite practice.) Same with virtually every American Indian tribe's land.
Some property owners who bought land in Hawaii from the 1930s - 1960s purchased land whose original acquisition was suspect. Was the Coco Palms such a property? I don't know.
The Hawaiians are far too little too late to engage in any broad land recovery missions. And they are failing to act on Hawaiian Homelands.
But if Hawaiians are able to identify a property with suspect title history, their attempts at recovery have a stronger moral justification than attempting to block projects on Mauna Kea, IMO.
Europeans/white men how ever you want to characterize them separated native Hawaiian from huge tracts of land in the 1800s. They either commandeered it or sometimes coerced Hawaiians into selling it. (Forcing land sale to pay taxes was a favorite practice.) Same with virtually every American Indian tribe's land.
Some property owners who bought land in Hawaii from the 1930s - 1960s purchased land whose original acquisition was suspect. Was the Coco Palms such a property? I don't know.
The Hawaiians are far too little too late to engage in any broad land recovery missions. And they are failing to act on Hawaiian Homelands.
But if Hawaiians are able to identify a property with suspect title history, their attempts at recovery have a stronger moral justification than attempting to block projects on Mauna Kea, IMO.