Daniel Inouye: “I rise at this moment to join Senator Akaka speaking in support of the measure before us this day. This bill, which is…”

“I rise at this moment to join Senator Akaka speaking in support of the measure before us this day. This bill, which is long overdue, finally will have a chance for fair consideration by this body. I hope this bill will finally begin the process of extending a Federal policy of self-governance to Native Hawaiians and will repair the injustices of the past. As I sat here listening to the speeches, I must candidly say that I was a bit disappointed that some of my friends who oppose this measure have mischaracterized the history of my State. Hawaii's history, as recounted by Senator Akaka, is well-documented. After Captain James Cook arrived in Hawaii, other foreigners came to the islands, often as laborers. Over the ensuing years, like other Native people who carried no immunities to the diseases that accompanied the waves of immigrants to their shores, the Native Hawaiian population was reduced from estimates as high as several hundred thousand people at the time of first recorded western contact to a little over forty thousand. An 1854 smallpox epidemic, for instance, took the lives of 6,000 people--almost 10 percent of the population at that time. Along with the decimating diseases, the social and economic conditions of the Native Hawaiians deteriorated as well. The influence of non-Native Hawaiians continued to grow. On January 17, 1893, the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegally overthrown with the assistance of the United States.…”