History You Didn’t Learn: The “Annexation” of Hawaiʻi
I remember sitting in my AP US History class my junior year of high school with anger boiling inside of me. We were studying that unit about US imperialism. We read US imperialist propaganda from American textbooks from whitewashed points of view about the events of “American Exceptionalism” that occurred in the 1900s in the Philippines, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, and yes, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
I remember feeling uncomfortable and a little queasy about the straight-up lies that we were being fed. The way the textbook just glossed over the details and the actual facts of the events that lead to the “annexation” of the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawai’i. We were told that the road to annexation was paved by the Christian missionaries that came to our islands. They came to spread the “good news” and like much of the Christian discourse on the continent, they came to tame the “wild savages.”
This topic is incredibly important to me and it is close to my heart. He Kānaka ʻŌiwi au. I am Kānaka ʻŌiwi. I am living as a settler in ancestral homelands that are not my own and there is not a day that goes by when I do not yearn to be on my ʻāina, walking the land that my kūpuna walked.
Basking in the glory of the mana of my people and within the salty embrace of Kanaloa. I am living in diaspora but am on the journey of rediscovering myself and my people. This conversation about the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement is something that I believe in. It is something that I can feel deep within the depth of my soul. It is my dream to see my Kingdom be sovereign within my lifetime. I can only hope for the day when my descendents know the history of our lāhui and are in the embrace of our ʻāina.
But, in order to know where we will go and what is happening in the movement now, it is important to understand the backstory of what ACTUALLY happened in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi that led to the illegal and CURRENT military occupation of my ancestral homelands by the United States.
Trouble in “Paradise”
In 1846 under the rule of Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli), US President Tyler and his Secretary of State officially recognized the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi as a sovereign and independent nation. However, before this happened the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was already recognized by and had trade and economic agreements with many international powers, including Britain, France, Japan, and Germany.
The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi had representatives and consulates in many parts of the world. On the US continent during this time, the sugar industry was hitting a wall because of the events surrounding enslavement. So with sugar being one of the Kingdomʻs biggest exports, sugar mongols came rushing to the islands to create their fortunes.
Soon white American businessmen became plantation owners and pressured the United States to advocate for their fair treatment and representation in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Of course this pressure paid off, because all the American government cares about is money and power. While this was good for the non-Native-white-descendents-of-colonizers-who-are-actual-colonizers-themselves during the 1850s, the Kānaka were at a loss.
The US import tariff on sugar from the Kingdom was much higher than the import tariffs that the Kingdom was charging the US. Kamehameha III saw this and wanted to lower the tariffs being paid to the US, stay competitive on other international markets while still being able to maintain the sovereignty of the Kingdom. In 1854, Kamehameha III drafted a treaty of reciprocity with the United States but it died in the Senate.
When King David Kalākaua took the throne in 1874, he was eager in his nationalism and wanted to preserve the sovereignty of the Kingdom. However, that all changed on July 6, 1887 when King Kalākaua was forced to sign what is now called, the Bayonet Constitution. This so-called constitution was brought to the Kingʻs attention by a group calling themselves the Hawaiian League. This name is misleading, however, because it was not made up of Hawaiians, but rather white business owners, the majority of whom were descendants of the white missionaries.
The Bayonet Constitution basically gave non-Natives living in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi more voting powers and the ability to purchase and own land. The Hawaiian League wanted to neutralize the powers of Natives in order to seize control of the government for their own economic gain. This constitution proposed the election of people and cabinet members, rather than by appointment by the King.
This seems good, right? Democracy and all those other great amerikkkan lies. It actually made things harder for Kānaka because the only people eligible to run for office were people that owned property. Surely the people who owned property were not the rightful stewards and people of the ʻāina, but rather the white business owners, the descendents of colonizing missionaries.
Fearful of what signing this document was to mean for his people and his ʻāina, Kalākaua was hesitant to sign the document. However, word spread that the Hawaiian League was planning on assassinating King Kalākaua if he did not sign the constitution. Kalākaua “had every assurance, short of actual demonstration that the conspirators were ripe for revolution, and had taken measures to have him assassinated if he resisted.” The tricky thing is though, this constitution was never actually submitted to the Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom. So technically, this constitution never became the official law of the land.
On January 29, 1891, Liliʻuokalani, was sworn in as the Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi after the passing of her brother, King David Kalākaua. Queen Liliʻuokalaniʻs goal was to maintain the constitution of the Kingdom and to protect her people and her ʻāina.
Remember how the Bayonet Constitution was never actually ratified or passed into the Legislative Assembly? Yeah, that becomes super important because Queen Liliʻuokalani knew that and then proclaimed that the constitution bestowed upon the Kingdom by Kamehameha V in 1864 was still the law of the Land. But by then, it was too late. The non-Native white businessmen had corrupted the Legislative and Judicial branches. The elected nobles had allegiances not to the Kānaka Maoli, the Native people, but to foreign interests (interests outside of the Kingdom).
1893.
In the days leading up the overthrow, Queen Liliʻuokalani was pushing a new constitution for the Kingdom, a constitution that would restore power to the Hawaiian monarchy and the Kānaka Maoli, after those powers had been forcibly taken with the signing of the Bayonet Constitution. Of course the non-Native-white-descendents-of-colonizers-who- are-actual-colonizers-themselves didnʻt like this.
Calling themselves the “Committee of Safety,” 13 different non-Native-white-descendents-of-colonizers-who-are-actual-colonizers-themselves came together and moved to imprison our Queen, overthrow the monarchy, and forcibly annex Hawaiʻi into the United States. I can only imagine how tense things were in the Kingdom in the days leading up to January 17, 1893.
The day before, the Marshal of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, Charles Wilson learned about the planned coup by the Committee of Safety and put warrants out for the members of the Committee of Safety. However, the Committee of Safety was in cahoots with the US Minister assigned to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. By then, the US Minister, John L. Stevens had called the US Marines on the basis that US lives had the potential of being harmed in an armed conflict in a foreign country. Again, wild how the US acknowledges that they are in a foreign country.
Soon, US troops were landing on the shores and literally storming the beaches. Wilson along with 496 others were kept on hand to protect our Queen, in case insurrection was to occur. The forces of the Kingdom were gaining forces and the tensions were rising between the enemies of the Kingdom and the Kingdom.
In order to avoid the bloodshed of her people, Queen Liliʻuokalani yielded her throne and her power, not to the Provisional Government of Hawaii which was established by the Committee of Safety, but to the US government, in hopes that the “legitimate” US government would do the right thing and restore her because they would see the illegitimate takeover of the Kingdom. We all know how well the US does at doing the right thing… they donʻt.
On January 17, 1893 the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was turned into a de facto government with pro-annexation leader Sanford Dole (yes, like Dole that has come to be associated with pineapple. Ew.) as their leader. By the 19th, there were already pro-annexation representatives in Washington DC pushing for the annexation of the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi into the United States.
KŪʻĒ
In the months between the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the election of Grover Cleveland as the president of the United States, the pro-annexationists of the Republic of Hawaiʻi were working tirelessly to get a treaty of annexation passed by the US Senate. That all came to halt when President Cleveland found out about the succession of events that occurred in the islands which led to the desire for annexation, leading him to pull the treaty out of discussion.
It is even said that he vowed never to have that treaty come up again during his presidency. Once the Cleveland presidency was over, President William McKinely signed a treaty of annexation with representatives from the self-appointed Provisional Government of Hawaii for annexation into the United States.
Hearing about this, Queen Liliʻuokalani submitted a letter to President McKinely outlining the illegality of this new treaty of annexation. In this letter, Queen Liliʻuokalani also urged the US Senate not to go through with the ratification of this treaty. Inspired by the power of their Queen, Kānaka from all over the islands worked tirelessly to resist the annexation of their Kingdom and fortify the words of their Queen to the US Senate. Kānaka were convinced that a mass refusal by the people would convince the US government that Hawaiians did not want annexation.
Driven with aloha for their land and people, Kānaka launched a full-scale petition drive that lasted for two months. People traveled from island to island, from ma uka to ma kai in search of all Kānaka to join the cause in opposition of the treaty of annexation. The petitions were disseminated in both English and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (The Hawaiian Language). The Hui Aloha ʻĀina, or Hawaiian Patriotic League was a game-changer in the dissemination of these petitions, known as the Kūʻē petitions. The Hui Aloha ʻĀina was created with two main goals: support the Queen and oppose the annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
By November 1897, there were over 38,000 signatures of Kānaka that opposed annexation. At that time, there was believed to be about 40,000 Kānaka Maoli living in the islands.
In other words, over 95% of Kānaka came out saying that they opposed annexation by the United States by signing the Kūʻē petitions.
It is said that all living Kānaka ʻŌiwi should be able to find at least one of their kūpunaʻs signatures on those petitions.
“Annexation” & the Murder of a Kingdom
When the US Senate came back to vote on the ratification of the treaty of annexation later that year, they were met with powerful opposition from the Queen and her people. The Hawaiians showed up and said “ʻAʻole” (no). We did not (AND STILL DO NOT WANT) to be annexed into the United States.
Surprisingly, the US Senate listened. The treaty of annexation did not reach the ⅔ majority vote needed in order for the treaty to be ratified. But that didnʻt stop the pro-annexationists. Politicians along with their non-Native-white-descendents-of-colonizers-who-are-actual-colonizers-themselves buddies in the Provisional Government of Hawaii put together a simpler joint-resolution, bypassing the requirements of annexation as outlined in the constitution of the United States of America, in order to annex Hawaiʻi into the US.
In July of 1898, Joint Resolution 55, or the Newlands Resolution, was introduced to both parts of Congress with hopes to authorize the annexation of Hawaii. This joint resolution was eventually passed and signed by President McKinley.
The problem with this? A joint resolution is not a treaty. A joint resolution is a congressional act, much like a bill. Joint resolutions only need a ⅔ majority vote for both the House and the Senate and do not need to be presented to the president for approval. That being said, both joint resolutions and bills only apply to territories within the countryʻs jurisdiction.
The signing and acceptance of the joint resolution to annex the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi into the United States of America is a sham under the assumption that Hawaiʻi was a US territory at the time. When in actuality, the illegally occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi only became The Territory of Hawaii, as part of the United States on April 30, 1900 when the Hawaiian Organic Act was enacted.
This act officially established the Territory of Hawaii and provided a constitution and government for the territory. The disgusting Sandford B. Dole was the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii. That Hawaiian Organic Act then laid the groundwork for official “statehood,” which came on August 21, 1959.
Current Day
The movement for sovereignty in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi is still alive and strong. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the sovereignty movement because a lot of Kānaka are divided on what exactly sovereignty for Kānaka means, what it looks like, and what is the best way for sovereignty to be achieved.
Right now with President Bidenʻs appointment of Deb Haaland, of the Laguna Pueblo, as the Secretary of the Interior, people (a lot of them not Kānaka) believe that Haaland will finally grant Native Hawaiian federal recognition, thus giving them federal and state benefits. The Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior which is responsible for the management and conservation of so-called federal lands and natural resources including the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey, the National Parks Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Some think that with an Indigenous woman as the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it will be easier for Kānaka Maoli to achieve sovereignty via the route of federal recognition. Federal recognition by the United States government allows Native communities to be recognized and become eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Federal recognition also means that Native communities function as nations within a nation and are able to have control of their own lands. Or what little ancestral lands they have left after the genocide of their people and the theft of their lands.
Some Kānaka support federal recognition because they believe that federal recognition will be the best path to gain control of ancestral homelands and bring Kānaka back to their ʻāina. However, a lot of other Kānaka strongly oppose federal recognition and actually call it federal wreckognition. Why would we want recognition from our oppressors? This conversation is long and complicated. It is fascinating and emotional. And even myself as a young Kānaka still in the process of reconnecting with culture and ʻāina, I donʻt know the “answer” about achieving sovereignty. All I know is that I yearn for it. I dream of the day when sovereignty will reign in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. I will be basking in the glory of the mana of my people, within the salty embrace of Kanaloa, and walking the ʻāina of my Kūpuna.
Written by Ariel Watanabe
