The Story of Hawaiian Home Lands on the Big Island
The Hawaiian Prince
The story of the Hawaiian Home Lands begins with the story of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole. Born on the island of Kaui in 1871, he was an heir to the last ruling chief of Kauai. Following the death of his father in 1880 and his mother in 1884 he was adopted by Queen Kapiolani, his aunt. This made him a prince according to the tradition of “hanai” a commonly used form of adoption in Hawaii. Prince Kuhio, as he is more commonly known, was educated at the private Royal School and at Punahou in Honolulu before going to study for four years at a private boarding school in California and the Royal Agricultural College in England. While completing his studies in 1893, news arrived that the Hawaiian monarchy had been overthrown. Kuhio returned to Hawaii and participated in a failed rebellion resulting in his serving a year as a political prisoner of the new provisional government.
After his release he married and traveled for several years through Europe and Africa. When he returned to Hawaii, he entered politics and became Hawaii’s first territorial representative to the United States Congress.
An Act of Congress to Save the Hawaiian Race
It was as a politician that Kuhio pleaded the case for the Hawaiian people. By the early 1900s the number of Hawaiians had plummeted to less than 24,000. Western diseases like smallpox and measles had decimated their numbers from an estimated 250,000 to 800,000 before the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778. Returning Hawaiians to the land where they could grow their traditional crops, argued Kuhio, was the best way to rehabilitate and save the Hawaiian race. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921 set aside 200,000 acres of former crown land to be distributed to native Hawaiians for homesteads. Although Kuhio supported legislation to return land to native Hawaiians, the act, as passed by congress, contained several controversial elements that he opposed
A Matter of Blood
The definition of “native Hawaiian” for the purposes of receiving a homestead is an individual who can prove at least 50% Hawaiian blood. This blood quantum has not changed since the act was passed in 1921 and was far higher than the minimum 1/32 Hawaiian blood quantum argued for by Kuhio.
Hawaiian Home Lands are Leasehold
Hawaiian Home Lands are not deeded but leased for 99 years at $1 per year with the option of renewing the lease for a further 100 years. Kuhio criticized this arrangement because it created a perpetual government bureaucracy to oversee Hawaiian Homestead leases. Much of the land set aside was considered marginal as land already leased to sugar plantations or held in forest reserves was specifically excluded. Today, much of the trust land is still deemed uninhabitable due to lack of infrastructure. Only 30,000 acres has so far been converted to homesteads. As of 2014 the waiting list for Hawaiian Home Land homesteads on the Big Island alone was more than 14,000 people. The wait for homesteads has stretched to several decades long with many on the list dying before ever realizing their dream.
Why Hawaiian Homesteads Are Being Offered for Sale
With thousands of individuals on the waiting list and leases that run for up to 199 years it would seem impossible that Hawaiian Home Lands could be offered for sale, but they are. Although the practice of selling Hawaiian Home Lands is controversial, the language in the original act of congress allows the transfer of a lease to another qualified Hawaiian with the approval of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL).
Hawaiian Home Land Buyers Must be at Least 50% Hawaiian
The pool of qualified lessees that are at least 50% Hawaiian and financially able to assume any outstanding debt on the may not be large but in some areas eager buyers are lining up. With buyers willing to pay to skip the waiting list, current lessees may also be feeling pressure to sell. While the act allows the lease to pass to certain family members that are only one-quarter Hawaiian (husband, wife, brother, sister, children and grandchildren), the options for keeping the homestead in the family tend to diminish with each successive generation.
The DHHL may frown on the practice but they risk having to compensate the mixed race heirs for the value of the improvements should the lease be relinquished upon death of the lessee. By approving the sale the department still meets its mandate to provide home lands to Hawaiians while having more money available to develop infrastructure for expanding the available number of homesteads.
Hawaiian Home Lands on the Big Island
Of the roughly 200,000 acres designated as Hawaiian Home Lands, more than half of those acres are on the Big Island. Some of the largest areas include Kamaoa-Puueo in the Kau district around South Point with 11,000 acres, Puukapu and Kawaihae in the South Kohala district with 12,000 and 10,000 acres respectively and 53,000 acres of Humuula Mauka in North Hilo. While this may sound like a lot of land, areas like Humuula, which accounts for one-quarter of all Hawaiian Home Lands is virtually 100% lava waste. With only sparse pockets of fourth class grazing land and no access to drinking water, developing areas like Humuula for homesteading has not yet been feasible.
Success of Hawaiian Homestead Farmers
Perhaps finally realizing the dream of Prince Kuhio of reconnecting his people with the land, there are a growing number of successful Hawaiian run family farms. In 1992 a small group of five Hawaiian homestead families started the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market. Held every Saturday, the market in Waimea has been joined by other active Hawaiian homestead associations in Panaewa and Makuu near Hilo, who now operate their own markets as well.
Bishop Estate and Kamehameha Schools
For those new to Hawaii, the Bishop Estate and its beneficiary, Kamehameha Schools may not be familiar. For residents of Hawaii, particularly those that count the Bishop Estate as their landlord, the history of the trust and the lands that it controls is well known. If you are just getting to know your way around the Big Island here are 7 basics that you need to know about the Bishop Estate and Kamehameha Schools.
If you are just getting to know your way around the Big Island and are considering a Big Island Real Estate purchase, that may have a leasehold, here are 7 basics that you need to know about the Bishop Estate and Kamehameha Schools.
1. Princess Bernice Pauahi Paki
Born into Hawaiian royalty as the granddaughter of the former ruling chief of Maui, Bernice Pauahi Paki was adopted at birth by Princess Kinau. From birth it had been planned that she would marry her adopted brother Prince Lot Kapuaiwa, the future King Kamehameha V. In
In 1850 she married Honolulu businessman Charles Reed Bishop against the wishes of her family. The couple had no children of their own.
2. The Inheritance
Bernice Pauahi Bishop lived at a time when the native Hawaiian population was in sharp decline due to western illnesses like the mumps and whooping cough.
Lands held by the chiefs were quickly concentrated in the hands of a few surviving royals, including Bishop. On his deathbed King Kamehameha V twice offered Bishop the throne and twice she refused. Without an heir, the royal lineage that reached back to the creation of the Kingdom had ended.
The house of Kalakaua ascended to the throne while much of the land holdings of the Kamehameha dynasty were left in the hands of one woman.
3. Creation of the Bishop Estate
At the time of her death in 1884, Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the largest private landowner in Hawaii with approximately 9% of the total land area of the state. Her husband, who had established the first chartered bank in Hawaii, helped her craft a will that established a trust to manage what is now the $9-billion Bishop Estate. Five trustees were given the responsibility of managing the estate.
4. Creation of Kamehameha Schools
In her will she included instructions that up to half of her estate go towards building two schools, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as the Kamehameha Schools. The remainder of the estate was to be managed to provide for the ongoing operation of the schools.
Charles Bishop was one of the first five trustees and was instrumental in beginning the work of the trust. He oversaw the construction of the first school and even after he moved to San Francisco following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893, he remained active in the estate and the school. Bishop himself made sizable donations of his own toward the school and the Bishop museum.
5. Foundations of the Hawaiians Only Admissions Policy
It was Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s intention to help her people by providing for the education of poor Hawaiian children. To accomplish this, her will included the following language:
“to devote a portion of each year’s income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood”
This passage has been interpreted and used to maintain a Hawaiians only admissions policy at the school. While there are very strict academic requirements for admission to Kamehameha Schools, current policy also requires student applicants prove at least one of their pre-1959 ancestors was Hawaiian.
6. Exceptions and Challenges to the Hawaiians Only Admissions Rule
While non-Hawaiians have been accepted to Kamehameha in the past during periods of low enrollment in the 1930s and as a faculty incentive that was phased out in 1962, since that time only in extremely rare circumstances has there been exceptions to the rule.
Some exceptions have been in response to lawsuits while some have come after exhausting the pool of qualified Hawaiian applicants according to the school’s admissions policy. In these cases, school trustees have faced criticism from alumni and Hawaiian activists over allowing non-Hawaiian students.
To explain their position, the school distributed an informational brochure to alumni, students, and parents after a non-Hawaiian student was admitted to Kamehameha’s Maui campus in 2003. In explaining their actions, the school included an excerpt from a 1901 letter from Charles Bishop to Trustee S.M. Damon in response to a request for clarification of the intent of the will.
" ... the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood applies only to education of orphans and other in indigent circumstances ...”
7. Trustee Compensation and the IRS
In the late 1990s the Bishop Estate came under scrutiny by the IRS and Hawaii State Attorney General. At the time, trustees were receiving incentives for income received from the sale of estate land as part of their compensation.
The additional payments resulted in each trustee being paid nearly $1-million per year to manage the assets of a “non-profit” trust. As part of a settlement in 2002 the estate paid $72-million in back taxes, penalties and interest. The existing trustees either resigned voluntarily or were removed and the management organization of the trust was changed to be more accountable. Following the settlement the Bishop Estate was allowed to keep its non-profit status.
The Future
The Bishop Estate and Kamehameha Schools continue to be a major player in real estate development on the Big Island and across the State of Hawaii. In recent years they have expanded to clean energy development, commercial real estate projects and promoting agricultural use of its land in the state.
The admissions policy of the school was last challenged in 2003 and received a positive albeit narrow 8-7 victory from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
After the decision, attorneys in the case appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before the Supreme Court made a determination whether to hear the case, the school reached a $7-million settlement with the plaintiffs.
Following the settlement a new group of non-Hawaiian students stepped forward to challenge the policy but in 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. This decision effectively ended the legal challenges to the school’s admissions policy.
