1/ Who’s Hawaiian and who isn’t? A thread that argues colonial blood quantum laws, like that which regulates Hawaiian Homestead Lands, is white supremacy in action—purposely legislating Hawaiians out of existence. Congress passed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act in 1920.

2/ Native Hawaiians at the time were quite literally endangered. Within a century after Captain Cook first landed, the Native Hawaiian population had been decimated, dropping down to about 40,000. The legislation was a reaction to the large numbers of Hawaiians forced off

3/ their lands when white businessmen overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom and illegally annexed the islands to the United States. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act created a 200,000-acre land trust to serve as neighborhoods, farms, and ranches for those who could prove at least 50

4/ percent Hawaiian ancestry. Mind you, these lands ALWAYS belonged to Hawaiians to begin with. To believe this was some gracious act of charity on the part of the US is an error. It would be like you telling me I can live in the garage of a house you stole from me. At the

5/ time, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole, who represented Hawai’i as a delegate to Congress attempted to get the blood quantum lowered. Why? Because quite literally the number of full blooded Hawaiians stood at an estimated 20,000. He knew the reality—that native Hawaiians

6/ would continue to inter-marry in the very diverse Islands, which was inhabited by British, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipinos, and numerous other ethnicities. He knew that in due time, full-blooded Hawaiians would dwindle. (And he was right. Currently, it is estimated

7/ that less than 9,000 full-blooded Hawaiians are living today.)So this new law gave Hawaiians with 50% blood quantum lands they could live on and farm. But there was a catch. To be able to pass your land on to your children and grandchildren, they had to be 25%. If not, your

8/ lands were returned to the state of Hawai’i to be redistributed to those who could prove higher blood quantum. As you can see, this one law created a system of belonging based purely on math. If you’re 50%, you’re Hawaiian, according to the haole, colonial US government. If

9/ you’re 49% or less, you’re not Hawaiian. Except, this wasn’t how Hawaiians themselves measured belonging. Hawai’i’s ali’i—the royal and chiefly families—famously married foreign arrivals on our shores. Queen Lili’uokalani herself married a haole businessman John Owen Dominis

10/ . Princess Ka’iulani’s father was a haole, Archibald Cleghorn. Princess Kawānanakoa also had a haole father, James Campbell. The instances of Hawaiians marrying outside of their ethnicity are endless. And here’s why that’s important: the concept of race among Hawaiians was

11/ a foreign idea. Instead, Hawaiians saw belonging as related less to your physical characteristics or place of origin, and more to your language and familial ties and kinship. This idea linking language and kinship is deeply embedded within many Polynesian and Pacific

12/ cultures. The concept of "race" as we know it today did not exist in the Hawaiian world view 200 years ago. If kānaka, especially our ali’i, were worried about having Hapa—or half or part Hawaiian—children, they wouldn’t have so freely married interracially. Our people had

13/ very few racial hang ups. Similar to Hawaiians, Native American tribes did not use blood quantum laws until the government introduced the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, instead determining tribal status on the basis of kinship, lineage and family ties. And here is where

14/ I get to my thesis. “Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure ‘Indian-ness’ through a construct of race. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations.” —Elizabeth Rule, a

15/ doctoral candidate at Brown University who specializes in Native American studies, and also a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Rule further points out that blood quantum laws have helped create racism among tribal members. Hmm, why does this sound familiar? Because among

16/ Hawaiians there is disagreement over who is truly Native Hawaiian. Some align themselves with the Homestead Lands requirement (along with Kamehameha School’s quantum, which is a whole other hot mess of a thread) that to be sufficiently Hawaiian you must be 50%. Others are

17/ far more generous. Dr. Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa, professor, scholar and activist, is on record consistently saying that Hawaiians of any blood quantum are Hawaiian. As you can see, the haole project to racialize Hawaiians among even themselves was successful. Hawaiian by

18/ blood quantum pits Hawaiians against each other. Finally, Among the Native Hawaiians today, 36% identify as two races and 26% identify as three races; only a third – 33% – identify as only Native Hawaiians. These numbers tell us that Native Hawaiians tend to marry someone

19/ of a different racial background. Considering that many of us live in diaspora on the Continent, we are far less likely to marry and have children with another Native Hawaiian. Which means, as years go by, fewer and fewer Hawaiians will qualify as 50%. If blood quantum

20/ continues to be the measurement for true Hawaiian-ness politically, then eventually our people will go extinct. And that’s the point of blood quantum, isn’t it? Blood quantum requirements become a way to legislate Hawaiians out of existence. It is genocide. -pau-