Native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians (in Hawaiian, kanaka ‘oiwi or kanaka māoli) are the indigenous Polynesian peoples of the Hawaiian Islands who trace their ancestry back to antiquity before the arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook in 1778. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 476,000 people who identified themselves as being native Hawaiian, part native Hawaiian and mixed native Hawaiian. Most native Hawaiians are residents of the United States in California, the State of Hawaii, Nevada and Washington. Two-thirds live in the State of Hawaii while the other one-third is split among mainland states. Almost half of the mainland share of the population is in California.

Native Hawaiian subgroups

Identifying and classifying native Hawaiian subgroups has become a delicate issue among native Hawaiians. Different government agencies have different methods of classifying native Hawaiians. http://www.oha.org/databook/databook1996_1998/appendix.98.html. However, it is widely accepted that such classifications are necessary to facilitate laws, trusts and wills governing native Hawaiian programs. For example, programs administered by the Hawai‘i State Department of Hawaiian Homelands are legally bound by trusts to provide services only to Hawaiians claiming over 50% ancestry dating back to antiquity.

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According to the Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 10-2, Hawaiians are defined as:

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:any descendant of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands which exercised sovereignty and subsisted in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and which peoples thereafter have continued to reside in Hawaii.

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Within this definition, Hawaiians are sub-classified into two major groups: native Hawaiians consist of the population who claim over 50% ancestry dating back to antiquity. Also, there are part Hawaiians who claim less than 50% of ancestry dating back to antiquity.

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The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also differentiates between:

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• "Native Hawaiian" (capitalized, referring to any person of Hawaiian ancestry regardless of blood quantum) and
• "native Hawaiian" (uncapitalized, referring to a Hawaiian with at least 50% blood quantum).http://www.oha.org/databook/databook1996_1998/appendix.98.html

In general usage, however, this distinction is often ignored, with both capitalizations being used to describe the native Hawaiian population as a whole regardless of bloodline.

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