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OCR Page 1 of 12DANIEL K. AKAKA
MEMBER:
HAWAII
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND
NATURAL RESOURCES
WASHINGTON OFFICE:
720 HART SENATE OFFICE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
BUILDING
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
WASHINGTON. DC 20510
United States Senate
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
TELEPHONE: (202) 224-6361
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-1103
HONOLULU OFFICE:
3104 PRINCE JONAH KUHIO
KALANIANAOLE FEDERAL BUILDING
P.O. Box 50144
September 8, 1997
HONOLULU, HI 96850
Call
TELEPHONE: (808) 522-8970
Ms. Katherine K. Wallman
Chief Statistician
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
NEOB, Room 10201
725 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20503
Dear Ms. Wallman:
We are writing to express our deepest concerns regarding
several recommendations your office has received from the
Interagency Committee for the Review of the Racial and Ethnic
Standards (Federal Register, July 9, 1997) as they pertain to
Native Hawaiians.
As you are aware, we have long sought to reclassify Native
Hawaiians in the same category as American Indians and Alaskan
Natives under Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Statistical
Policy Directive No. 15. They are currently in the Asian or
Pacific Islander category. We are requesting that OMB officials
carefully consider our comments given that no Federal agency has
the expertise necessary to promote and safeguard the political or
civil rights of Native Hawaiians.
As you may have learned from your visit to Hawaii in 1994
during the course of OMB hearings on this issue, the plight of
Native Hawaiians is quite unique and has yet to be fully
recognized by most Americans. The failure of the Federal
government to resolve the political status of Native Hawaiians
should not hinder statisticians and policymakers in reclassifying
them under the American Indian or Alaskan Native category.
We believe that this is an opportune time for the United States,
and OMB in particular, to take a leadership position in promoting
public awareness of U.S. indigenous peoples. It is fitting
considering that we are currently commemorating the United
Nations Decade on the World's Indigenous Peoples and
that Congress in 1993 unanimously adopted S. Con. Res. 44, a
concurrent resolution fully supporting the establishment of such
a decade and urging that the United States should cooperate with
the United Nations in its efforts to raise the level of public
interest in and consciousness of the problems of indigenous
peoples. Last year, Federal officials from the U.S. Departments
of State, Justice and Interior also met with Pacific indigenous
peoples in Hawaii to consult on the U.N. Draft Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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