US federal recognition of Native Hawaiians

Federal recognition of Native Hawaiians refers to proposals for the federal government of the United States to give legal recognition to Native Hawaiians (Hawaiian: kānaka maoli), providing them with some form of indigenous sovereignty within a framework similar to that afforded to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands. Since American involvement in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, federal statutes have been enacted to address conditions of Native Hawaiians, with some feeling these should be formalized in the same manner as other indigenous populations in the United States. However, some controversy surrounds the proposal for formal recognition – many Native Hawaiian political organizations believe recognition might interfere with Hawaii's claims to independence as a constitutional monarchy through international law.

The ancestors of Native Hawaiians may have arrived in the Hawaiian Islands around 350 CE, from other areas of Polynesia. By the time Captain Cook arrived, Hawaii had a well established culture with populations estimated to be between 400,000 and 900,000 people. In the first one hundred years of contact with western civilization, due to war and sickness, the Hawaiian population dropped by ninety percent with only 53,900 people in 1876. American missionaries would arrive in 1820 and assume great power and influence. While the United States formally recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii, American influence in Hawaii, with assistance from the US Navy, took over the islands. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown beginning January 17, 1893 with a coup d'état orchestrated by mostly Americans within the kingdom's legislature and assisted by the United States military. While there was much opposition and many attempts to restore the kingdom, it became a territory of the US in 1898, without any input from Native Hawaiians. Hawaii became a US state on March 18, 1959 following a referendum in which at least 93% of voters approved of statehood.

...
Wikipedia