Patsy T. Mink: “this obviously is very important to my State. I am afraid that the gentleman from Ohio has mischaracterized it as a…”

“this obviously is very important to my State. I am afraid that the gentleman from Ohio has mischaracterized it as a program that can be replicated by funds otherwise appropriated by the Elementary, Secondary Education Act. What he fails to understand is that throughout the history of this Congress, we have paid special recognition to native Americans. We have special legislation even in this very bill to take care of native Americans. This is all that this title does, with reference to the native Hawaiians. History has not recognized the fact that there are people in Hawaii, when it was a kingdom, that were there and are, therefore, because of annexation, native Americans. We have struggled over the years to be defined within that definition of native Americans because they were the people who were there before Hawaii became a territory and then later a State. The takeover of the Kingdom of Hawaii is a tragedy that even now the people of Hawaii are trying desperately to reconcile. The kingdom was overthrown by military force, by American Marines that landed and caused the overthrow of the kingdom and the imprisonment of the then- queen, Lil'uokalani.”