Building And Perpetuating Economic And Cultural Sovereignty Through A Native Hawaiian Corporation










The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is a good starting point for analyzing the mission of Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

The ANC (Alaska Native Corporations) has proven how indigenous people and their culture can thrive through a modern corporate organizational structure tasked with overseeing their commonly held land and financial interest.

As a private corporations they can restrict their base of shareholders and keep voting rights within that base.

They can work with other native corporations to develop economic and strategic partnerships.

They can pursue goals and  interest according to shareholders instructions and develop their assets as needed to achieve those goals.

Their assets rightful belong to them and are preserved for theirs and their decedents economic self- interest.


 Map Showing Doyon Corporation Lands

Map Showing Hawaiian Homelands


Those of Native Hawaiian ancestry can and should control the assets that belong to them via a Native Hawaiian Corporation.

Those of Native Hawaiians ancestry are stymied when it comes to the full benefit of the assets they can use to enrich themselves and the Hawaiian culture in-spite of the fact that they are beneficiaries of a sizable inheritance:

  • Department of Hawaiian Homeland control some 300 square miles out of 10,390 square miles in the entire state.
  • The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has some 600,000,000 dollars in assets.

While combined they would become a major economic force in Hawaii, as separate entities they can never achieve the promise of both enriching and preserving the Hawaiian culture and in turn bringing greater prosperity to the state at large. Both these assets are controlled by the State of Hawaii and their operation as government functions fails to meet the either the financial obligations or the cultural preservation role they could play as a combined Native Hawaiian Corporation


  • 80,000 square feet of prime Hawaiian Homelands real estate at 820 Isenberg Street in Honolulu has sat idle for decades neither producing housing or income for native Hawaiians
  • The Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees are “elected” based on name recognition not on their resume of being experienced in operating and growing assets in either a public or private setting.

Compare this sorry state of affairs to the prosperity the Native Alaskan Corporations have achieved which can be credited to:

  1. They are controlled by the beneficiaries as shareholders and can choose corporate governance based on proven ability.
  2. They produce jobs and wealth by a varied portfolio using their combined assets.
  3. They directly support cultural preservation and are engaging tribal membranes to interact in their own best interest.
  4. Their success is supportive to the general prosperity of all Alaskans.

Establishing a Native Hawaiian Corporation to achieve similar goals for native Hawaiians can be done by using the same federal process which has clear precedent with the ANC (Alaska Native Corporations) and is doable given a popular base of support.

No elected or appointed state official can match the attention and concern the actual shareholders of a NHC (Native Hawaiian Corporation) would have towards overseeing the assets now controlled by the Department of Hawaiian Homelands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

In the end the question must be asked; “What culture (indigenous or otherwise) can survive and thrive without a common economic self-interest”.

The frustration native Hawaiians experience can be directly attributed to having NO control over the assets which rightly belong to them.  To the hurt of native Hawaiians both the territorial and state government have effectively kept native Hawaiians away from economic power for over a hundred years.

Turning this around and putting native Hawaiians into the enviable position of negotiated among themselves the best methods to use their assets to perpetuate and prosper the Hawaiian culture would be the fulfillment of why their benefactors left such assets in the first place!

Securing Economic Sovereignty through a Native Hawaiian Corporation works to adjudicate previous injustice.  It helps those of Hawaiian ancestry build and perpetuate a vibrant Hawaiian culture.   It is a solution that would be of lasting benefit for all people of the state of Hawaii.


For those of native Hawaiian ancestry like all indigenous people there has been a loss of cultural cohesion with the advent of western contact.   Hawaiian culture for centuries had a close connection with those who worked the land and seas and their leaders.   This familial link was broken by the transition from a subsistence-cooperative economy to a market driven western style economy beginning in the early 19th century.

Today native Hawaiians are either tennant on a state controlled land base (the Department of Hawaiian Homelands) or essentially powerless observers of an entity whose leaders are chosen by the population at large (the Office of Hawaiian Affairs).

The reader of this can ask themselves:  “Which is closer to the original Hawaiian way?”

A state controlled tenant-occupant system and a bureaucracy elected by the public at large?

Or, a Native Hawaiian Corporation controlled by native Hawaiians, using a western organizational concept instituted by a federally recognized charter, which promotes Hawaiians planning and working together for the benefit of all?

It is just to put these assets under direct Hawaiian control as they are, in fact, an inheritance not just state sponsored welfare programs.  The benefit for Native Hawaiians administrating and controlling their own assets, in common as shareholders, compared to the administration of a government bureaucracy is unquestionable when it comes to accountability and for achieving the greatest financial and cultural benefit for those of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

Below are links to Native Alaskan Corporations.   

Visit and see how Native Alaskans are empowered to run their own affairs and build Economic Sovereignty to preserve their culture and serve their people.

Click on any picture to link to NAC websites.