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Book review: Aran Alton Ardaiz, "Hawaii -- The Fake State (A Manifesto and Expose of a Nation in Captivity)"
Well-documented historical narrative contradicts the book's main claims
By Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D. , 6/29/2009 6:37:19 AM

Following is a highly condensed book review of "Hawaii -- The Fake State (A Manifesto and Expose of a Nation in Captivity)" by Aran Alton Ardaiz published in 2008 by the "Truth of God Ministry" which the title page says is in "Hawaii Nei" or, "Manoa Station, Island of Oahu, Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, U.S.P.Z. Exempt." The book's cover displays the archipelago of eight major Hawaiian islands where each island is colored as a piece of the U.S. flag, and above them all is a piece of barbed wire.

The book is filled with absurdities which require considerable time to describe and refute. To spare readers of this essay, most of the absurdities, and analysis of the activities of the author's sovereignty group, are discussed in detail on a webpage at http://tinyurl.com/lhc3zv

The book's author, Aran Ardaiz, is Attorney General of his small sovereignty group Ke Aupuni O Hawaii Nei which claims to be the government of a reinstated Hawaiian Kingdom. But this is a different group from numerous competing reinstated governments including those headed by Henry Noa, Bumpy Kanahele, and Akahi Nui (who claimed to be King and took over Iolani Palace last year but couldn't find the throne!). Leon Siu is Foreign Minister of this government, and is founder of a weird ethnocentric Christian ministry which incorporates pagan elements of the old Hawaiian religion and which claims that God bestowed special favor on native Hawaiians centuries before Captain Cook got here. Some leaders of the group have been imprisoned for criminal activity related to tax evasion which they use as a political weapon, most notably kupuna council members John Pilipo Souza and Richard Basuel (R.B. Tax Preparation scandal).

Besides the usual sovereignty claims regarding illegal overthrow of the monarchy, illegal annexation, and illegal statehood vote, this book also addresses numerous widely scattered topics that seem popular among conspiracy theorists who wear tinfoil hats to prevent the Martians from reading their minds. A few of those topics are: a courtroom where the U.S. flag has a gold fringe is actually a ship at sea under the authority of the judge acting as ship's captain and issuing military orders (rulings) based on admiralty law; when the government uses ALL CAPITAL LETTERS to print your name, it is stealing your identity as a natural human being and converting you into a servant-citizen corporate entity liable for the U.S. national debt; denial of national sovereignty for Hawaii is genocide against Hawaiian nationals; etc.

This book is surprisingly weak in its presentation of arguments about the alleged illegality of the revolution of 1893, the creation of the Republic of Hawaii, annexation to the United States, and Statehood vote of 1959. Other sovereignty activists have written lengthy, well-reasoned, and heavily documented (although mistaken) essays on those topics. But Aran Ardaiz devotes very little space to them; mostly in pages 1-13 plus a few scattered pages elsewhere. He's too preoccupied praising God and exploring tinfoil hat issues. I will make a rebuttal on some of the substantive topics even though his presentation of them is so vague and undocumented that rebutting them is like trying to poke holes in shadows created by a flickering candle.

Let's take topics in chronological order rather than in the scattershot order found in the "Fake State" book. After summarizing the book's main historical claims, I'm going to provide a historical narrative rebutting them, and then a list of webpages which support all the main points.

For the complete, detailed book review, please go to http://tinyurl.com/lhc3zv

Ardaiz says or implies the U.S. military staged an armed invasion of Hawaii in January 1893, overthrew the monarchy, and established a puppet regime (the Provisional Government) which immediately requested annexation to the U.S. The Queen surrendered only temporarily and only to the U.S., and on condition that the U.S. mediate the dispute and reinstate her. But the U.S. dropped the ball and maintained the puppet regime. The Republic of Hawaii, Territory of Hawaii, and State of Hawaii are merely different names for that same puppet regime. The revolution that overthrew the monarchy was illegal (1893), annexation was illegal (1898), and the statehood vote was illegal (1959). Therefore Hawaii is a fake state, under the jackboot of American imperialism. U.S. law applies in Hawaii only de facto, enforced by America's illegal occupation; but the laws of the Kingdom remain the rightful laws of Hawaii today.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF THE MAIN EVENTS LEADING TO STATEHOOD (1849 TO 1959), PLUS RECENT "CEDED LANDS" DECISION

Here's the truth about what really happened.

In 1887 a group of 1500 armed men, sick and tired of the corruption and instability of King Kalakaua's government, forced Kalakaua to sign a new Constitution severely restricting his powers. That revolution took place with zero U.S. involvement.

In 1889 Kalakaua's sister Liliuokalani, having returned from England, hated the fact that Kalakaua had signed the new Constitution. With the help of Robert Wilcox, she plotted against her brother in hopes of taking over the government and restoring monarchial powers; but the plot failed. As the plot unfolded Robert Wilcox attacked the Palace, resulting in 7 men killed and many injured. The roof of the Palace Bungalow was blown open by dynamite bombs. U.S. Marines came ashore to restore order and continued patrolling the streets for a week before returning to their ship. During later remodeling the Bungalow was razed, and the eight-foot-high walls around the Palace were lowered to their present height to allow events on each side of the wall to be visible to people on the other side.

In 1891 Kalakaua went to California for medical treatment and died there. Thus Liliuokalani became Queen in 1891. She immediately started political agitation to get support for overthrowing the 1887 Constitution (which she had sworn to uphold in her oath of office). In mid-January 1893 there was a crowd of 500 natives on the grounds of Iolani Palace expecting the Queen to announce a new Constitution. The Queen spoke to them from the balcony, saying she had a new Constitution but some difficulties had arisen and they should go home (the cabinet ministers she herself had recently appointed absolutely refused to give their approval, as the law required). The natives were very restless.

Meanwhile, there was a mass meeting of most of the 1500 men from the 1887 revolution. The meeting was in the Armory a couple blocks from the Palace (the Armory no longer exists), and many of the men were carrying guns. Now that the Queen was trying to overthrow that 1887 Constitution and proclaim a new Constitution giving herself nearly dictatorial powers, these men were openly planning a revolution to replace the monarchy with a republic. Nearly all of these men had white skin (although the largest ethnic group were Portuguese which other Europeans and Americans regarded as not quite white). Seven of the thirteen members of the Committee of Safety, leading the revolution, were native-born subjects of the Kingdom, and several other leaders were European or American nationals. All were long-time residents of Hawaii and had voting rights.

Tensions were running high. Honolulu residents of European and American ancestry were afraid for their lives, homes, and businesses, because some radical natives had threatened to use arson and rioting as political weapons if there was an attempt to overthrow the monarchy. The only ship in the harbor which had weapons on board was an American ship, the U.S.S. Boston. European and American residents, and some European diplomats, pleaded with the U.S. diplomat (Minister Stevens) to call sailors ashore to protect lives and property. And so 162 armed sailors came ashore as peacekeepers. They were under strict orders to remain neutral. They were never actually used, except for some who were sent to guard the U.S. consulate. They did not point their weapons at anyone, did not take over any buildings, stayed off the Palace's and government building's grounds, did not patrol the streets, and remained in barracks in a building down a sidestreet a couple blocks from the Palace. A few days later some began returning to their ship in the harbor, and a few weeks later the last of them had left. All these facts are contained in sworn testimony in the Morgan Report (below). There were no U.S. military forces on Hawaiian soil after April 1 and throughout the remaining four years of Grover Cleveland's Presidency.

This was certainly not an armed invasion as happened when Germany invaded Poland, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, or China invaded Tibet. It was more like what happened in Liberia a couple years ago, or in Haiti a few years before that, when the U.S. sent troops ashore as peacekeepers for a few weeks during a period of civil war or anticipated violence where American lives and property were at risk.

The local revolutionaries sent men and guns to the government building (Aliiolani Hale, where the Kamehameha statue is). When they took over the building they discovered and seized guns and ammunition that the royalists had previously stored there in anticipation of fighting the revolutionaries. They read a proclamation declaring that the monarchy was finished, and then took over the police station, royal guard barracks, treasury, etc. The Queen decided not to fight. She wrote a letter surrendering temporarily, under protest, claiming she was surrendering to the U.S. on account of superior U.S. firepower, and claiming she was surrendering only until such time as the U.S. government would examine what had happened and restore her to power. However, she knew very well that it was the local revolutionaries who had defeated her, and she correctly ordered her letter of protest and surrender to be delivered to Provisional Government President Sanford B. Dole. (She delivered her surrender to Dole because she knew the revolutionaries might otherwise order an attack, and she did not deliver any surrender to U.S. Minister Stevens because she knew he was neutral and would never attack her.) By claiming to surrender to the U.S., she hoped her friend, incoming President Grover Cleveland, would undo the revolution.

From January 17 to 19 every consul of all the nations that had consulates in Honolulu delivered a letter to President Dole granting diplomatic recognition de facto. That means those consuls agreed that the Provisional Government had taken power, and those nations would now do business with the PG rather than with the ex-queen. De facto recognition is all a consul is empowered to grant. Also, de facto is the only level of recognition given to a self-described temporary provisional government. The PG immediately drafted a treaty of annexation and sent it on the next ship headed to America. Since the PG was hoping to be annexed promptly, it felt no need to establish a permanent republic, and no need to seek full-fledged recognition de jure.

The revolutionary Provisional Government was not a U.S. puppet regime. In fact, incoming President Grover Cleveland (a Democrat) was a personal friend of the ex-queen. When he came into office in March he immediately withdrew from the Senate the treaty of Annexation proposed by the Provisional Government and sent to the Senate by outgoing President Harrison (a Republican). Cleveland began a ten month aggressive effort to destabilize the Provisional Government and put Liliuokalani back on the throne. On day number 6 of his Presidency he hastily sent a political hack (James Blount) to Honolulu, without Senate confirmation, naming him "Minister Plenipotentiary With Paramount Powers."

Blount stayed for several months in the royalist hotel next to the Palace (later rebuilt as the Hemmeter building, now the state art museum), and held secret meetings with royalist leaders, taking notes on their stories about what happened in January. Later he wrote a one-sided report to President Cleveland, which Cleveland kept secret for several months. Meanwhile other U.S. diplomats tried to persuade Liliuokalani to give up her threat to chop off the heads of the revolutionaries, in return for the diplomats' help in putting her back on the throne. Late in December the top U.S. diplomat in Honolulu, having failed to destabilize the provisional Government, wrote a letter to Hawaii President Sanford B. Dole ordering him to step down and restore the monarchy; but Dole refused and told him to stop interfering in Hawaii's internal affairs.

Having failed to overthrow the Provisional Government and restore the Queen, President Cleveland then made the Blount Report public and sent a message to Congress based on it, asking Congress to decide what to do next. He probably hoped to get Congress to authorize military force to restore his friend Liliuokalani to the throne.

During January and February, 1894, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, under the chairmanship of Democrat John T. Morgan, held hearings on what had happened a year previously. They took testimony under oath (unlike Blount's informal conversations), with severe cross-examination (Blount had been the sole interviewer), and open to the public (Blount's interviews were private). The testimony about what happened and exactly when, was given by military officers and men of several ranks who had been on the U.S.S. Boston in Honolulu, plus Minister Stevens and Minister Blount, plus some men who had served in high positions in the Kingdom government (such as William De Witt Alexander, native-born subject of the Kingdom, born on Kauai in 1833, appointed surveyor-general of the Kingdom by Kamehameha V, and President of Oahu College). The committee published an 808 page report on February 26, 2004 including transcripts of all the testimony, exhibits, and a 35-page summary of its conclusions. This Morgan report concluded that the U.S. was not to blame for the revolution and had not given any help to the revolutionaries. Not long after that the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that the U.S. (i.e., President Cleveland) should stop interfering in Hawaii's internal affairs.

Realizing that Cleveland would block Hawaii's annexation for the remaining three years of his Presidency, and now assured by the Senate resolution that the U.S. would stop trying to overthrow the Provisional Government, the temporary PG decided to create a permanent Republic. There were several reasons for doing this, including greater stability and job security for government employees (most of whom had held their same jobs under the monarchy); and a hope for full-fledged international recognition. They convened a Constitutional Convention (which included at least five delegates with native Hawaiian surnames) and held elections for a legislature and President (the Speaker of the House was full-blooded native Hawaiian John Kaulukou). In a political gesture showing its continuing wish for annexation, the date of July 4, 1894 was chosen to officially establish the Republic of Hawaii by publication of its Constitution.

President Dole spoke with the local consuls of foreign nations, giving them copies of the Constitution and asking them to notify their home governments about the creation of the Republic of Hawaii and requesting full diplomatic recognition. During the following six months President Dole received those letters. The archives of the State of Hawaii has the original letters addressed to President Dole personally signed by kings, queens, emperors, and presidents of at least 20 nations on 4 continents, written in 11 languages, formally granting full diplomatic recognition de jure to the Republic as the rightful government of the nation of Hawaii. Among the signers were Queen Victoria of England, two Princes of China on behalf of the Emperor, the Tsar of Russia, the King and Queen of Spain; the President of France, the President of Brazil, and yes, even President Grover Cleveland. A couple years later the Emperor of Japan personally signed a letter to President Dole raising the Japanese consulate to the status of Legation -- a status never enjoyed by the Kingdom.

Thus the Republic of Hawaii was internationally recognized as a full-fledged member of the family of nations, replacing the previously recognized but now defunct monarchy. Full recognition acknowledged that the revolution of 1893 had been legitimate and that the government of the Republic was now the rightful owner of the public lands. The public lands in 1893 included both the government and the crown lands from the mahele of 1838. That's because a law passed in 1865 and signed by Lot Kamehameha V made the crown lands also the property of the government with revenues to be used to support the monarch in his capacity of head of the government; and now that the monarch had been replaced by a President, there was no longer a distinction between crown and government lands.

Full recognition gave the Republic the right under international law to speak on behalf of the nation, and to offer a treaty of annexation to the United States, including the ceding of the public lands. In return for giving the sovereignty and public lands of Hawaii to the U.S., the U.S. agreed to assume (i.e., pay off) the national debt of Hawaii (most of which had been accumulated during the Kingdom including construction of Iolani Palace and Kalakaua's trip around the world). The amount of money the U.S. paid was larger than the actual market value of all the public lands; so in effect the U.S. purchased the public lands. However, President Dole drove a very hard bargain, and the terms of annexation specified that Hawaii's public lands were not to be kept as part of the national lands of the U.S. but rather were to be held in trust, with all income to be used to benefit the residents of the Hawaiian islands for education and other public purposes.

The idea of Statehood for Hawaii goes all the way back to 1849; and from 1903 to 1959 it was pursued continuously by the Territorial Legislature and Governors, and the Delegate to Congress.

In 1849 King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III prepared a provisional deed to cede the Kingdom of Hawai'i to the United States, and gave it to the United States Commissioner, but it was never implemented. In 1854 the King drafted a treaty of annexation to the United States, which the King and the U.S. Commissioner in Hawaii agreed upon, but the King died before he could sign it.

The elected Territorial Legislature in 1903, with more than 70% of its members being Native Hawaiian, unanimously passed a joint resolution to ask Congress for an enabling act to convene a Constitutional Convention to create a Constitution for a proposed State of Hawaii (Session Laws of Hawaii, 1903, p.377 has the text of the resolution)

The Hawaii LRB (Legislative Reference Bureau) has confirmed the accuracy of these facts: In 1919, Hawaii's elected Territorial Delegate Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, undisputed heir to the throne if the Kingdom of Hawaii had continued, introduced into Congress the first bill for Hawaii Statehood. On November 5, 1940 the Hawaii general election ballot included the question "Do you favor Statehood for Hawai'i?" and the vote was 46,174 "yes" and 22,438 "No" (67% in the affirmative). In 1949 a special election was held to elect delegates to a Constitutional Convention to draft a Constitution for a proposed State of Hawaii, which draft Constitution was then approved by a special session of the Territorial Legislature on July 15, 1950 and was approved in the general election of November 7, 1950 by a vote of 82,788 "Yes" and 27,109 "No" (75% in the affirmative). U.S. Senate Report 886 of January 27, 1954, associated with a bill for Statehood, indicated that 33 bills for Statehood had been introduced by Hawai'i's Territorial delegates between 1919 and 1954.

In February 1954 a petition demanding "Statehood Now!" was signed by 120,000 people in two weeks, and sent to the U.S. Senate, after a sendoff ceremony at Iolani Palace that featured the Royal Hawaiian Band, the Hawaiian Civic Clubs, hula, kahili, chants, and torch-bearers.

In 1959 Congress passed the Statehood Act and President Eisenhower signed it. When a plebiscite was held, 94.3% of Hawaii voters said yes to statehood. President Eisenhower then proclaimed that, because Congress had passed the Statehood Act and Hawaii's people had ratified their acceptance of it, Hawaii was now a state fully equal to the other states. The Statehood Act of 1959 returned the public lands of Hawaii to the new State of Hawaii in fee simple absolute, except for military bases and national parks.

Recently the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii misinterpreted the 1993 apology resolution as saying that ethnic Hawaiians have an unresolved race-based communal claim to the public lands and therefore no public lands can be sold until a settlement has been reached with them. However, the U.S. Supreme Court over-ruled the Hawaii Supreme Court, making clear that the apology resolution does not in any way change the ownership of Hawaii's public lands, and reaffirming the Statehood Act as giving the public lands to the State of Hawaii in fee simple absolute without racial restrictions.

All the main points in this narrative are fully documented in webpages with links provided below.

Aran Ardaiz' "Fake State" book relies on the Blount Report and does not discuss the Morgan Report. He never mentions the letters of recognition de facto of the Provisional Government delivered to President Dole on January 18 and 19, 1893 by the local consuls of all the nations having consulates in Honolulu. He never mentions the letters of full-fledged recognition de jure of the Republic of Hawaii, from July through December 1994, personally signed by kings, queens, emperors, and presidents of at least 20 nations on 4 continents in 11 languages -- photos of those letters were placed on the internet in April 2008 and the webpage containing them was announced in several newspapers.

Ardaiz provides a list of the treaties between the Kingdom and other nations (page 262), but at the bottom he makes the following false statement: "Therefore the Hawaiian Kingdom Nation by evidence of the Treaties shown above was and still is a nation among nations ..."

But no. When a nation has a revolution, its treaties with other nations generally remain in place but are now administered by the new government, unless the new government fails to get recognized or decides to abrogate the treaties. No nations ever refused to recognize the Republic of Hawaii; and we have the documents showing that at least 20 nations fully recognized the Republic de jure. There is no evidence that either the Republic or other nations abrogated any treaty on account of the revolution. Indeed, the Republic sent diplomats to numerous other countries, especially to negotiate agreements on trade and immigration (most notably with regard to plantation laborers from China, Japan, and Portugal). The Republic and U.S. worked together to carry forward an agreement made between the Kingdom and the U.S. regarding an intercontinental telegraph cable soon to be constructed.

The Republic continued as an independent nation for four years, until annexation in 1898. At that time the Treaty of Annexation offered by the Republic included the provision that the treaties between the Republic and other nations would continue unless abrogated or changed by the U.S.; and the identical language about treaties was included in the joint resolution whereby the U.S. accepted the offer of annexation. Once again, no nation filed objection to annexation with either the Republic or the U.S.; and by continuing their diplomatic recognition of the U.S. and their consulates in Honolulu (now under U.S. sovereignty) they thereby acknowledged that the Republic's treaties and foreign policy now belonged to the U.S.

Readers wishing to explore these issues in depth should visit the following webpages, listed in approximately the order they occur in the historical narrative above.

REFERENCES, IN APPROXIMATELY THE ORDER CITED IN THE NARRATIVE

Was the 1893 revolution illegal? Was it a theft of a nation owned by ethnic Hawaiians and stolen by non-ethic-Hawaiians? http://tinyurl.com/72xeb

Thurston Twigg-Smith, "HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY: DO THE FACTS MATTER?" (Honolulu, HI: Goodale Publishing, 1998). This book focuses on the revolution of 1893 that overthrew the monarchy, and the annexation of Hawaii to the United States (1898). But other topics are also covered. The entire book can be downloaded free of charge here http://tinyurl.com/6osxwp

THE MORGAN REPORT -- OFFICIAL U.S. SENATE REPORT OF 1894 REGARDING THE 1893 REVOLUTION THAT OVERTHREW THE HAWAIIAN MONARCHY. 808 PAGES of historical documents and testimony under oath in open hearings under cross-examination. Please visit http://morganreport.org

In 1889 Liliuokalani tried to overthrow her brother King Kalakaua to seize the throne for herself and get rid of the Constitution of 1887. Robert Wilcox attacked the Palace resulting in 7 men dead, numerous injured, and the roof blown off the Palace Bungalow. U.S. Marines came ashore for a week to restore order. http://tinyurl.com/kvfdc

Recognition de facto of the Provisional Government -- full text of all letters from local consuls in Honolulu, January 17-19, 1893; taken from the Morgan Report. http://tinyurl.com/9f4vh4

Grover Cleveland's activities regarding Hawaii, March 1893 through December 1894: Overthrow, Cleveland Sends Blount, Demand to Dole for Queen's Reinstatement, Referral to Congress, The Morgan Report, Senate Resolution closes the door, Cleveland's Second Annual Message, Rewriting History http://tinyurl.com/9hg45

Letter of December 19, 1893 from United States to President Dole, Demanding That Liliuokalani Be Restored to the Throne http://tinyurl.com/6zlct

Hawai'i President Sanford B. Dole, Letter of December 23, 1893 Refusing United States Demand to Restore Ex-Queen Lili'uokalani to the Throne http://tinyurl.com/8y6jo

Republic of Hawaii -- The full text of the Constitution, and information about the Constitutional Convention that produced it, are available at: http://tinyurl.com/262svm

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAWAII -- Emperors, Kings, Queens, Princes, and Presidents of at least 19 foreign nations personally signed formal letters of diplomatic recognition de jure, received by the Republic of Hawaii between July 1894 and January 1895. Those letters are available in the state Archives. Photographs of them have been placed on a webpage at http://tinyurl.com/4wtwdz Historical significance and implications for statehood, Akaka bill, and ceded lands; are explained at http://tinyurl.com/2pxqgz along with a detailed example of the Hawaiian sovereignty lie that such letters do not exist.

Was the 1898 annexation illegal? http://tinyurl.com/4e5bw

Lili'uokalani v. United States, 45 Ct Cl. 418, 1910. In 1909 ex-queen Lili'uokalani filed a lawsuit against the United States demanding payment for the lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii which had been ceded to the United States at the time of annexation. The court ruled against her in 1910. Her claim is interesting partly because she did not challenge the legitimacy of the revolution or annexation; and indeed the court's ruling specifically included the full text of the treaty of annexation offered by the Republic of Hawaii and accepted in a joint resolution by the U.S. Congress. Her claim is also interesting because she never asserted that the ceded lands belonged communally to ethnic Hawaiians; rather she claimed the lands belonged to her personally. This webpage includes full text of Liliuokalani's complaint, full text of the court's ruling (including full text of the treaty and joint resolution of annexation), and analysis of the market value of the ceded lands. http://tinyurl.com/56czl

Attorney Paul M. Sullivan's detailed review of Jon Van Dyke's book "Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawaii?" published in the University of Hawaii Law Review, Fall 2008. http://tinyurl.com/chbkpx

The ceded lands case: U.S. Supreme Court rules in 2009 that the 1993 apology resolution does not in any way change the ownership of Hawaii's public lands, and reaffirms that the Statehood Act returned the public lands to the State of Hawaii in fee simple absolute without racial restrictions. Webpage includes full text of Judge Sabrina McKenna's trial court ruling, Hawaii Supreme Court ruling, all principal briefs and amicus briefs by both sides to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court oral argument transcripts, and U.S. Supreme Court final ruling; plus news reports and commentaries. http://tinyurl.com/49sx9j

In 1854 King Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III drafted a treaty of annexation to the United States, which the King and the U.S. Commissioner in Hawaii agreed upon, but the King died before he could sign it. Full text of the 1854 proposed treaty of annexation can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/6fn8ze

Hawai'i's Great Statehood Petition of February 1954 had 120,000 signatures gathered in 2 weeks on a petition for statehood for Hawai'i. A huge roll of newsprint was unrolled for a block in downtown Honolulu for people to sign the petition. Two weeks later a sendoff celebration was held at "Iolani Palace including chants, hula, kahili, and torch bearers before sending the 250 pound petition to Congress. Quotes are provided from 1954 newspaper articles, and photo captions, describing the events of those two weeks. Information is provided about what has happened to the petition and where it is stored today. The contents of one signature page are provided including 32 names and addresses. http://tinyurl.com/68ygp

STATEHOOD VOTE OF 1959: There were 132,773 votes "yes" and 7971 votes "no" for an astonishing 94.3% "yes" vote. For those who like to say ethnic Hawaiians were opposed to Statehood: Do the math. If 20% of the voters were ethnic Hawaiians, that would mean there were 28,149 votes cast by ethnic Hawaiians = 20% out of the total 140,744. Supposing ALL the 7971 "no" votes had been cast by ethnic Hawaiians; then there were still 20,178 "yes" votes from ethnic Hawaiians, representing 72% of the 28,149 ethnic Hawaiian votes. The vote count was also broken down by individual representative district. The district with the highest percentage of ethnic Hawaiians -- sparsely-populated Moloka'i -- had 1904 "yes" and 75 "no" for a 96.2% "yes" vote -- the highest percentage among all the 17 districts. A 3-page pdf file (unfortunately 5.4 Megabytes!) shows the statistics as certified by Hawaii Chief Elections Officer Dwayne Yoshina in his letter dated January 7, 2000: http://tinyurl.com/2rbx79

'''Dr. Conklin's book "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State" is in the library or can be viewed and ordered at http://tinyurl.com/2a9fqa'''

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