Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station. The recovery of Hawaiian self-determination is not only an issue for Hawaii, but for America.
Villagers paddle outrigger canoes and grow taro and other traditional staples.
An increasing number speak Hawaiian, a language discouraged in schools during pre-statehood days, and some locals even agitate for an independent Hawaiian nation. It's a defiant symbol of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a heated subject in Waimanalo's neighborhoods. Six years earlier a few hundred residents established a protest community in the foothills. They vowed to immerse themselves in traditional Hawaiian culture and to fight for nationhood, however improbable the odds. He showed me the reclusive camp of small homes ringed around a grassy commons.