I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 665
To express the policy of the United States regarding the United States 
relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the 
recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing 
entity, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 11, 2003
Mr. ABERCROMBIE (for himself and Mr. CASE) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To express the policy of the United States regarding the 
United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and 
to provide a process for the recognition by the United 
States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity, and 
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The Constitution vests Congress with the 
authority to address the conditions of the indige-
nous, native people of the United States.
(2) Native Hawaiians, the native people of the 
Hawaiian archipelago which is now part of the 
United States, are indigenous, native people of the 
United States. 
(3) The United States has a special trust rela-
tionship to promote the welfare of the native people 
of the United States, including Native Hawaiians. 
(4) Under the treaty making power of the 
United States, Congress exercised its constitutional 
authority to confirm a treaty between the United 
States and the government that represented the Ha-
waiian people, and from 1826 until 1893, the United 
States recognized the independence of the Kingdom 
of Hawaii, extended full diplomatic recognition to 
the Hawaiian Government, and entered into treaties 
and conventions with the Hawaiian monarchs to gov-
ern commerce and navigation in 1826, 1842, 1849, 
1875, and 1887. 
(5) Pursuant to the provisions of the Hawaiian 
Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108, chap-
ter 42), the United States set aside 203,500 acres 
of land in the Federal territory that later became 
the State of Hawaii to address the conditions of Na-
tive Hawaiians.
(6) By setting aside 203,500 acres of land for 
Native Hawaiian homesteads and farms, the Act as-
sists the Native Hawaiian community in maintaining 
distinct native settlements throughout the State of 
Hawaii. 
(7) Approximately 6,800 Native Hawaiian les-
sees and their family members reside on Hawaiian 
Home Lands and approximately 18,000 Native Ha-
waiians who are eligible to reside on the Home 
Lands are on a waiting list to receive assignments 
of land. 
(8) In 1959, as part of the compact admitting 
Hawaii into the United States, Congress established 
the Ceded Lands Trust for 5 purposes, 1 of which 
is the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawai-
ians. Such trust consists of approximately 1,800,000 
acres of land, submerged lands, and the revenues de-
rived from such lands, the assets of which have 
never been completely inventoried or segregated. 
(9) Throughout the years, Native Hawaiians 
have repeatedly sought access to the Ceded Lands 
Trust and its resources and revenues in order to es-
tablish and maintain native settlements and distinct 
native communities throughout the State.
(10) The Hawaiian Home Lands and the Ceded 
Lands provide an important foundation for the abil-
ity of the Native Hawaiian community to maintain 
the practice of Native Hawaiian culture, language, 
and traditions, and for the survival of the Native 
Hawaiian people. 
(11) Native Hawaiians have maintained other 
distinctly native areas in Hawaii. 
(12) On November 23, 1993, Public Law 103–
150 (107 Stat. 1510) (commonly known as the Apol-
ogy Resolution) was enacted into law, extending an 
apology on behalf of the United States to the Native 
people of Hawaii for the United States role in the 
overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. 
(13) The Apology Resolution acknowledges that 
the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred 
with the active participation of agents and citizens 
of the United States and further acknowledges that 
the Native Hawaiian people never directly relin-
quished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as 
a people over their national lands to the United 
States, either through their monarchy or through a 
plebiscite or referendum.
(14) The Apology Resolution expresses the com-
mitment of Congress and the President to acknowl-
edge the ramifications of the overthrow of the King-
dom of Hawaii and to support reconciliation efforts 
between the United States and Native Hawaiians; 
and to have Congress and the President, through the 
President’s designated officials, consult with Native 
Hawaiians on the reconciliation process as called for 
under the Apology Resolution. 
(15) Despite the overthrow of the Hawaiian 
Government, Native Hawaiians have continued to 
maintain their separate identity as a distinct native 
community through the formation of cultural, social, 
and political institutions, and to give expression to 
their rights as native people to self-determination 
and self-governance as evidenced through their par-
ticipation in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. 
(16) Native Hawaiians also give expression to 
their rights as native people to self-determination 
and self-governance through the provision of govern-
mental services to Native Hawaiians, including the 
provision of health care services, educational pro-
grams, employment and training programs, chil-
dren’s services, conservation programs, fish and 
wildlife protection, agricultural programs, native lan-
guage immersion programs and native language im-
mersion schools from kindergarten through high
school, as well as college and master’s degree pro-
grams in native language immersion instruction, and 
traditional justice programs, and by continuing their 
efforts to enhance Native Hawaiian self-determina-
tion and local control. 
(17) Native Hawaiians are actively engaged in 
Native Hawaiian cultural practices, traditional agri-
cultural methods, fishing and subsistence practices, 
maintenance of cultural use areas and sacred sites, 
protection of burial sites, and the exercise of their 
traditional rights to gather medicinal plants and 
herbs, and food sources. 
(18) The Native Hawaiian people wish to pre-
serve, develop, and transmit to future Native Hawai-
ian generations their ancestral lands and Native Ha-
waiian political and cultural identity in accordance 
with their traditions, beliefs, customs and practices, 
language, and social and political institutions, and to 
achieve greater self-determination over their own af-
fairs. 
(19) This Act provides for a process within the 
framework of Federal law for the Native Hawaiian 
people to exercise their inherent rights as a distinct 
aboriginal, indigenous, native community to reorga-
nize a Native Hawaiian governing entity for the pur-
pose of giving expression to their rights as native 
people to self-determination and self-governance. 
(20) The United States has declared that—
(A) the United States has a special respon-
sibility for the welfare of the native peoples of 
the United States, including Native Hawaiians; 
(B) Congress has identified Native Hawai-
ians as a distinct indigenous group within the 
scope of its Indian affairs power, and has en-
acted dozens of statutes on their behalf pursu-
ant to its recognized trust responsibility; and 
(C) Congress has also delegated broad au-
thority to administer a portion of the Federal 
trust responsibility to the State of Hawaii. 
(21) The United States has recognized and re-
affirmed the special trust relationship with the Na-
tive Hawaiian people through the enactment of the 
Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the admission of 
the State of Hawaii into the Union’’, approved 
March 18, 1959 (Public Law 86–3; 73 Stat. 4) by—
(A) ceding to the State of Hawaii title to 
the public lands formerly held by the United 
States, and mandating that those lands be held 
in public trust for 5 purposes, one of which is
for the betterment of the conditions of Native 
Hawaiians; and 
(B) transferring the United States respon-
sibility for the administration of the Hawaiian 
Home Lands to the State of Hawaii, but retain-
ing the authority to enforce the trust, including 
the exclusive right of the United States to con-
sent to any actions affecting the lands which 
comprise the corpus of the trust and any 
amendments to the Hawaiian Homes Commis-
sion Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42) that 
are enacted by the legislature of the State of 
Hawaii affecting the beneficiaries under the 
Act. 
(22) The United States continually has recog-
nized and reaffirmed that—
(A) Native Hawaiians have a cultural, his-
toric, and land-based link to the aboriginal, na-
tive people who exercised sovereignty over the 
Hawaiian Islands; 
(B) Native Hawaiians have never relin-
quished their claims to sovereignty or their sov-
ereign lands; 
(C) the United States extends services to 
Native Hawaiians because of their unique sta-
tus as the aboriginal, native people of a once 
sovereign nation with whom the United States 
has a political and legal relationship; and 
(D) the special trust relationship of Amer-
ican Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Ha-
waiians to the United States arises out of their 
status as aboriginal, indigenous, native people 
of the United States. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ABORIGINAL, INDIGENOUS, NATIVE
PEO-
PLE.—The term ‘‘aboriginal, indigenous, native peo-
ple’’ means those people whom Congress has recog-
nized as the original inhabitants of the lands and 
who exercised sovereignty prior to European contact 
in the areas that later became part of the United 
States. 
(2) APOLOGY RESOLUTION.—The term ‘‘Apol-
ogy Resolution’’ means Public Law 103–150 (107 
Stat. 1510), a joint resolution extending an apology 
to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States 
for the participation of agents of the United States
in the January 17, 1893, overthrow of the Kingdom 
of Hawaii.
(3) CEDED LANDS.—The term ‘‘ceded lands’’ 
means those lands which were ceded to the United 
States by the Republic of Hawaii under the Joint 
Resolution to provide for annexing the Hawaiian Is-
lands to the United States of July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. 
750), and which were later transferred to the State 
of Hawaii in the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for 
the admission of the State of Hawaii into the 
Union’’ approved March 18, 1959 (Public Law 86–
3; 73 Stat. 4). 
(4) INDIGENOUS, NATIVE PEOPLE.—The term 
‘‘indigenous, native people’’ means the lineal de-
scendants of the aboriginal, indigenous, native peo-
ple of the United States. 
(5) INTERAGENCY COORDINATING GROUP.—The 
term ‘‘Interagency Coordinating Group’’ means the 
Native Hawaiian Interagency Coordinating Group 
established under section 5. 
(6) NATIVE HAWAIIAN.—
(A) Prior to the recognition by the United 
States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity, 
the term ‘‘Native Hawaiian’’ means the indige-
nous, native people of Hawaii who are the di-
rect lineal descendants of the aboriginal, indige-
nous, native people who resided in the islands
that now comprise the State of Hawaii on or 
before January 1, 1893, and who occupied and 
exercised sovereignty in the Hawaiian archi-
pelago, including the area that now constitutes 
the State of Hawaii, and includes all Native 
Hawaiians who were eligible in 1921 for the 
programs authorized by the Hawaiian Homes 
Commission Act (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42) and 
their lineal descendants. 
(B) Following the recognition by the 
United States of the Native Hawaiian gov-
erning entity, the term ‘‘Native Hawaiian’’ shall 
have the meaning given to such term in the or-
ganic governing documents of the Native Ha-
waiian governing entity. 
(7) NATIVE HAWAIIAN GOVERNING ENTITY.—
The term ‘‘Native Hawaiian governing entity’’ 
means the governing entity organized by the Native 
Hawaiian people. 
(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of the Interior. 
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES POLICY AND PURPOSE. 
(a) POLICY.—The United States reaffirms that—
(1) Native Hawaiians are a unique and distinct, 
indigenous, native people, with whom the United 
States has a political and legal relationship; 
(2) the United States has a special trust rela-
tionship to promote the welfare of Native Hawaiians; 
(3) Congress possesses the authority under the 
Constitution to enact legislation to address the con-
ditions of Native Hawaiians and has exercised this 
authority through the enactment of—
(A) the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 
1920 (42 Stat. 108, chapter 42); 
(B) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for 
the admission of the State of Hawaii into the 
Union’’, approved March 18, 1959 (Public Law 
86–3; 73 Stat. 4); and 
(C) more than 150 other Federal laws ad-
dressing the conditions of Native Hawaiians; 
(4) Native Hawaiians have—
(A) an inherent right to autonomy in their 
internal affairs; 
(B) an inherent right of self-determination 
and self-governance; and 
(C) the right to reorganize a Native Ha-
waiian governing entity; and