Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity

Narrating Native Histories

by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui

In the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1921, the U.S. Congress defined “native Hawaiians” as those people “with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778.” This “blood logic” has since become an entrenched part of the legal system in Hawai‘i. Hawaiian Blood is the first comprehensive history and analysis of this federal law that equates Hawaiian cultural identity with a quantifiable amount of blood. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui explains how blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) sovereignty. Within the framework of the 50-percent rule, intermarriage “dilutes” the number of state-recognized Native Hawaiians. Thus, rather than support Native claims to the Hawaiian islands, blood quantum reduces Hawaiians to a racial minority, reinforcing a system of white racial privilege bound to property ownership. Kauanui provides an impassioned assessment of how the arbitrary correlation of ancestry and race imposed by the U.S. government on the indigenous people of Hawai‘i has had far-reaching legal and cultural effects. With the HHCA, the federal government explicitly limited the number of Hawaiians included in land provisions, and it recast Hawaiians’ land claims in terms of colonial welfare rather than collective entitlement. Moreover, the exclusionary logic of blood quantum has profoundly affected cultural definitions of indigeneity by undermining more inclusive Kanaka Maoli notions of kinship and belonging. Kauanui also addresses the ongoing significance of the 50-percent Its criteria underlie recent court decisions that have subverted the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and brought to the fore charged questions about who counts as Hawaiian.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, Politics, Race, The United States Of America, Academic

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Romina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this well researched monograph by J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Hawaiian Blood demonstrates how blood quantum was a tool by U.S. settler colonialism to gain political and economic control over Hawaii. The classification of "half Native" and "full Hawaiian" were categories created by (sugar) landed interests to access control over common lands (also see: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation). Kauanui uses government and civic sources (from Hawaiian organizations to Senate hearings) to unpack how the US takover of Hawaii was justified. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) defined "native Hawaiian" at 50-percent blood quantum, which was contrary to Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole proposal for a 1/32 blood quantum. Hawaiian Blood intervenes in three areas. First, proving "that blood quantum is a colonial project in the service of land alienation and dispossession."(10) Second, Kauanui seeks to evaluate how blood quantum is discussed in Native studies. She notes, "Critiques of tribal uses of blood quantum have been dismissed as antitribal, and defense of blood quantum have been used in the service of gauging cultural authenticity."(10) Third, Kauanui notes that critical race theory "has tended to offer a singular logic in the explaining racial subordination in relation to whites and the construction of whiteness."(10)

Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)
haole (white person or foreigner)

Hawaiian Blood begins by tracing Hawaiian social structure prior to colonization and early engagement with European traders. Kauanui notes that mixed race children were absorbed into Hawaiian society. The intensification of European presence and influence led to the construction of racial categories such as hapa haole (part white, part Hawaiian). But Kauanui explains that many "'full Hawaiians' may actually be 'part Hawaiians'" since Hawaiian identity was "recognized through cultural norms, not biological/racial logics."(57)

The HHCA was described as a rehabilitation plan for Kanaka Maoli through homesteading. The 50-percent blood quantum was meant to limit availability of land (through the myth of the disappearing Hawaiian) and facilitate the leasing of "public lands" to one of the five major sugar plantation corporations. (68,165) The majority of these corporations (Brewer & Company, Ltd., American Factors Ltd., Castle & Cook Ltd., Alexander & Baldwin Ltd.) were descendants of Calvinist missionaries.(69, 154) Kauanui notes that rehabilitation programs were at odds with economic interests, but maintained due to paternalistic colonial views who viewed Hawaiians as a "moral obligation."(80) She explains, "The concept of rehabilitation had been appropriated by the haole elite. The dual claim of U.S. legal and moral responsibility through concentration on the poor conditions of Kanaka Maoli. Hawaiian racial definitions constructed through the racial triangulation of white-Hawaiian-Asian as haole-Native-alien. Through this matrix, notions of rehabilitation were recoded in ways that worked to further dispossess Kanaka Maoli, even while their rehabilitation remained a stated priority of the legislators."(142) The 50-percent blood quantum was used to further exclude Hawaiians, placing a binary between state requirements and Hawaiian conceptions of culture and identity. Kauanui argues, "The welfare discourse of protection and rehabilitation was the means by which racialization of identity occurred--thus counting Hawaiians only in relation to their welfare needs--as the lgoci of 'pitied, but not entitled' because ever more manifest."(168)

Furthermore, rehabilitation was viewed as a "civilizing" project in which individual land ownership was thought to assimilate indigenous people into "white society."(86) The Dawes Act of 1887 was part of a larger project of colonizing native lands across the continent. When the Dawes Act passed, some two billion acres of land were under the control of native tribes and "by 1924...the amount of Indian-owned land [reduced] to 150 million acres."(86) A quote by Theodore Roosevelt highlights hubris colonial sentiments, "The General Allotment [Dawes] Act is a mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal mass. It acts directly upon the family and the individual. Under its provisions some sixty thousand Indians have already become citizens of the United States...The effort should be steadily to make the Indian work like any other man on his own grounds."(87) By exposing the colonial legacies of blood quantum categories and how such theories are tied to economic goals, Kauanui questions scholars, such as John LaValle, who uphold blood quantum as a measurement for tribal inclusion.(89)

Another important development that Kauanui highlights is the affect of Anti-Asian sentiment. Asians (non-Hawaiian) were viewed as hard workers and othered as non-assimilable foreigners.(91,97) Hawaiians were deemed native and viewed (similarly) to native people in continental America. Native blood was described as able to assimilate. This was in contrast to those of African descent whose blood was interpreted as a contagion. This question of who is considered "native" also highlights the constructions of colonial logic.

This book is a MUST read for anyone interested in colonial history, critical race, pacific studies, and american studies.

[Lele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explained the issue of the blood quantum and its history so well you can't help but feel enraged. It's still such an enlightening read and definitely isn't a light one but wow is it insightful. Highly recommend

[Osvaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone coming from a former or current colony. It is a painful reminder of how settler colonialism has been destroying people's lives and cultures since centuries. It gives also hope to the reader by mentioning the current efforts in Hawaii to achieve sovereignty and freedom.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an insightful and informative book on the impact of American colonialism on historical Native Hawaiian identity. A must read to understand how blood quantum has radically alter the way Indigenous peoples are identified by their own people and how non-Indigenous governments and peoples have played a significant role.

[Louis Kunane Hillen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hawaiian Blood reveals the racialization and divisiveness of the blood quantum rule towards the Hawaiian people. A special look is given to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and how the 50% blood rule came to be and how it has affected Hawaiians today.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good arguments, limp prose.

[Brian Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The importance of this book lies in the voice of the indigenous.

[thinker bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book clearly demonstrates how US colonization destroyed Hawaiian culture and how the colonization process differs from the rest of the world through using blood quantum theory.