[nativestudies-l] Some say Obama born in an independent Hawaii, not the USA

[jkauanui at wesleyan.edu]

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/13/ln/hawaii803130344.html/?print=on

The Honolulu Advertiser
Thursday, March 13, 2008


Obama not born in U.S., say some

By Mark Niesse
Associated Press

Some Native Hawaiians think Hawai'i-born Barack
Obama can't be president of the United States
because he was born in an independent sovereign
nation: the Kingdom of Hawai'i.

A few independence advocates claim that Hawai'i
legally remains a country today, making Obama and
hundreds of thousands of others born in the
Islands over the past 50 years not "natural-born"
citizens or eligible to be president.

Their claim won't go far, though: Obama was born
in Honolulu in 1961, two years after statehood.

"Obama was born in the Hawaiian kingdom," said
Leon Siu, a Native Hawaiian and musician who
brought up the issue in a column he wrote on a
news Web site. "Not only was the overthrow of the
Hawaiian kingdom illegal, it was admitted to be
illegal by the United States."

Siu was referring to the "apology resolution"
passed by Congress in 1993 acknowledging
wrongdoing in the overthrow of the Hawaiian
monarchy 100 years before and recognizing the
inherent sovereignty of the indigenous Islanders
over their land.

John McCain has faced more questions than Obama
over whether he meets the legal requirement to
qualify for the nation's highest office because
he was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936.

Both McCain and Obama appear to qualify for the
presidency because they were born in United
States lands, said University of Hawai'i
constitutional law professor Jon Van Dyke.

"It would be unlikely that any court would take
seriously an argument that Senator Obama was not
a natural-born citizen," Van Dyke said. "For the
moment, Hawai'i is a state ... and the people of
Hawai'i taken as a whole seem not to be seeking
secession, as a few people are."

Even those who believe in Hawai'i's inherent
sovereignty don't deny that the world recognizes
it as part of the United States, allowing their
argument no effect on the presidential election.

People who consider themselves part of a Hawaiian
nation don't need to get involved in U.S.
politics anyway, said Jonathan Osorio at the
University of Hawai'i's Center for Hawaiian
Studies.

"We don't have to get involved in it because it's
the Americans' problem," Osorio said. "Why should
we care if this is an election that is for the
United States and not Hawaiian nationals?"

Obama supports a proposal pending in the Senate
that would formally recognize Native Hawaiians as
an indigenous people, but he's definitely a U.S.
citizen eligible to become president, said
campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gilson.

"The constitutionality of being Hawaiian-born and
being a citizen is pretty clear," she said.

Siu maintains that Obama's actions in the Senate
show he takes the citizenship issue seriously.

Obama is co-sponsoring a bill meant to clarify
McCain's eligibility by defining a "natural-born
citizen" as anyone born to any U.S. citizen while
serving in the active or reserve components of
the U.S. armed forces.

If questions arise about Obama's citizenship, he
could count on similar accommodations from his
fellow senators, said Siu, who has revoked his
U.S. citizenship.

"The fact that he may be trying to cover some
bases here means there's at least some
seriousness to the allegations that we're an
independent nation," Siu said. "I don't think
it's going to affect the election at all, though."

� COPYRIGHT 2008 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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