Raúl Grijalva: “H.R. 3332 would provide for the establishment of a memorial within the boundaries of the Kalaupapa National Historic…”

“H.R. 3332 would provide for the establishment of a memorial within the boundaries of the Kalaupapa National Historic Park on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. It will serve as a remembrance of thousands of Hansen's disease patients who were forcibly separated from family and friends and interned at this site. Beginning in 1866, when the Hawaii Islands were still an independent kingdom, and continuing through 1969, residents of the islands who were infected with Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy, were isolated from the rest of society at the settlement. In all, 8,000 Hansen's patients were forcibly relocated to the settlement where they struggled to create new lives. The majority succumbed to the disease while living there. Today, less than 20 percent of the graves and headstones of these former patients can be found in the peninsula. The remaining 80 percent are forgotten on the landscape. A nonprofit organization made up of family and friends of former patients will be responsible for funding and constructing the memorial which will contain the names of all 8,000 patients who were forced to call this settlement their home.”