Sonny Kaniho: A Profile in Hawaiian Courage 1922–2009

By Robert Lindsey

Sonny Kaniho: A Profile in Hawaiian Courage chronicles Sonnys labor of aloha (love) to bring about change and reform within the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), an institution created by the US Congress in 1920 to return Hawaiians to the aina (land), aina stolen from us when our beloved Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown by a coup instigated by US Minister Stevens and thirteen American businessmen with support from armed marines stationed aboard the USS Boston.

DHHL (past) rather than serve its primary beneficiaries on a burgeoning waiting list for homesteads instead served large, well-financed, politically connected corporations. And Sonny was a victim of that practice. Through his courageous protest, Sonny brought that practice to an end. DHHL (present) is a better institution because of Sonnys efforts.

This is a story about how this quiet, soft-spoken, peaceful, unassuming, gentle Hawaiian brought about the change he desired for the good of thousands. May we always remember Sonny Alohalani Kaniho.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543440157

Robert Lindsey

Robert K. Lindsey, Jr. was raised on Hawaii’s biggest island, Moku O Keawe, in a picturesque cattle town nestled at the foothills (2600’ elevation) of the Kohala Mountain. Sonny Kaniho, a Profile in Hawaiian Courage, is his fourth book (written in play format) about an early activist in the Hawaiian movement (birthed in the 1970’s, blossoming in the 21st century). Robert (aka Bob) and Kathy (wife of fifty years) have three sons and three grandsons. Bob, is currently a Trustee with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (appointed initially in 2007, three times elected since). Being of native Hawaiian ancestry, it is no surprise he has always had an active interest in Na Mea Hawai’I (things Hawaiian). Kathy, through Bob shares that common interest. She is a Kamehameha Schools preschool teacher (a school established for Hawaiians in 1887 by.

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Copyright © 2017 by Robert Lindsey.

ISBN:                   Softcover                         978-1-5434-4014-0

                            eBook                              978-1-5434-4015-7

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Rev. date: 09/22/2017

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CONTENTS

Preface

Author’s Remarks

Sonny Kaniho A Profile in Hawaiian Courage 1922-2009

Alpha

ACT 1 A COMPLEX WEB OF RELATIONSHIPS

Scene 1-February 2, 1974-6:30 a.m.

Robert Lindsey & Charlie Rose in conversation

Scene 2-February 2, 1974-11:15 a.m.

Robert meets Sonny Kaniho-DHHL waiting list is his focus

Scene 3-February 2, 1974-11:57 p.m.

Sonny & Robert ‘break bread’-Sonny asks for kokua [help]

Scene 4—February 2, 1974-Noon

A Strategy Session

Scene 5-February 2, 1974-8:00 p.m.

Charlie Rose questions Robert re Sonny, the man and his intentions

Scene 7-February 3, 1974-7:15 a.m.

Robert phones Sonny-commits to help him

ACT 2 SONNY LAYS OUT HIS PLAN

Scene 1-February 20, 1974-8:00 a.m.

Charlie questions Robert about meeting with Richard Smart [his landlord].

Scene 2-February 20, 1974-8:20 a.m.

Robert meets with Richard

Scene 3-February 3, 1974-9 a.m.

Robert reports meeting results to Charlie

Scene 4-February 3, 1974-5 p.m.

Sonny informs Robert he wants to meet sooner than later

Scene 5-February 5, 1974-5 p.m.

Sonny meets Robert and his family at Pu’u Opelu (Richard’s compound) for dinner

Scene 6-February 1974-6:30 p.m.

High Points of Sonny, Robert & Kathy’s dinner conversation

Scene 7-February 7, 1974-7a.m.

Sonny informs Robert occupation will be on Lands of Pauahi at Pauahi Gate-Kohala Mountain Road-May 18, 1974

Scene 8-February 7, 1974-8:21 a.m.

Sonny & Robert proceed to Pauahi Gate to get lay of the land

Scene 9 February 7, 1974 9:45 a.m.

Sonny & Robert climb Pauahi Gate to recon occupation area

ACT 3 REPERCUSSIONS

Scene 1-March 2, 1974-6 p.m.

Robert & Hannah (his mom) have a heart to heart chat re Sonny

Scene 2-March 4, 1974-5:16 p.m.

Robert has two conversations with two of Richard’s workers (secretary and head housekeeper)

Scene 3-March 7, 1974-7:30 a.m.

Robert cautioned to ‘keep his nose clean’

Scene 4-March 1974-8:30 a.m.

Robert receives phone call-has urgent meeting with Richard

Scene 5-April 1, 1974-4:30 p.m.

Robert, Sonny et al are kicked out of Yoso’s Place

Scene 6-April 5, 1974-5:15 p.m.

Robert runs into Kiyome a month later in the supermarket

Scene 7-April 12, 1974-10:15 a.m.

Sonny meets Charlie Rose for very first time

Scene 8-May 17, 1974-4:48 p.m.

Robert & Charlie leaving work on Aloha Friday

Scene 9-May 17, 1974-6:45 p.m.

The eve before the occupation

ACT 4 THE OCCUPATION

Scene 1-May 18, 1974-10:40 a.m.

The occupation, Sonny et al unhinge Pauahi Gate, claims ‘aina as his, defies DHHL and Richard

Scene 2-May 18, 1974-11:46 a.m.

Joe Tassill-first to be arrested by Officer Elarionoff

Scene 3 May 18, 1974-12:15 p.m.

Sonny et al arrested by Officer Elarionoff

Scene 4-June 4, 1974-10:30 a.m.

Sonny et al appear for arraignment

Scene 5-June 4, 1974-6 p.m.

Sonny et al debrief hearing

Scene 6-June 6, 1974-11:45 a.m.

Robert appeals to Richard Smart to drop trespass charges but is rebuffed

Scene 7-August 18, 1974-10:30 a.m.

Sonny et al appear for trial before Judge Mark Norman Olds

Scene 8-August 18, 1974-4 p.m.

The victory celebration

Scene 9-August 19, 1974-8 a.m.

Sonny and Robert reminisce at Pauahi Gate

ACT 5 REFLECTIONS

Scene 1

Joe Tassill’s reflections

Scene 2

Francis Kauhane’s reflections

Scene 3

Leningrad Elarionoff’s reflections

Scene 4

Chris Yuen’s Reflections

Omega

Dedicated To

Mrs. Tomie Kaniho & Family

THE THIRTEEN OTHERS ARRESTED WITH SONNY ON MAY 18, 1974

THOSE WHO ARE STILL ON THE DHHL WAITING LIST IN 2017

PRINCE JONAH KUHIO KALANIANAOLE

ROBERT GIL JOHNSTON

PAE GALDEIRA

LEININGRAD ELARIONOFF

RENWICK JOE TASSILL

Preface

By

Robert Gil Johnston

John Marshall School of Law (Ret)

This play is a tribute to native Hawaiian activist, Sonny Kaniho, who by example and perseverance was a model for other Native Hawaiians and a mighty contributor to the Native Hawaiian movement. It describes a demonstration conceived, planned and led by Sonny that was one of the early milestones in the movement.

I first met Sonny when he came to a meeting of The Hawaiians, a grassroots organization devoted generally to addressing the status of Native Hawaiians in their homeland and particularly the Hawaiian Homestead Act (the Act). The Hawaiians were a unique organization. Their membership was open to all. Many members were homesteaders or applicants for homestead land under the Act. Many of the applicants were on waiting lists for years before eventually receiving an award of a homestead; others on the list waited in vain for years and died with no homestead award.

Sonny was particularly focused on the waiting list for homestead land in Waimea on the Big Island. The Hawaiian Homes Commission (the Commission) denied such a list existed but Sonny located it in both the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Some applicants on that list waited unsuccessfully for an award for over a decade, while others died waiting. Sonny doggedly pursued the Commission about its failure to make awards to those on the list. He joined with The Hawaiians in their efforts and they, in turn, joined his efforts.

The Hawaiians burst forth on the local political scene in the late 1960’s. They were at first a small group led by Pae Galdeira and others. They visited various Homesteads but their strength seemed to stem from Waimanalo, O’ahu, and Ho’olehua, Moloka’i. They thrived on an oral tradition. They had no membership list, no charter, no by-laws, and kept no minutes. Nevertheless, they communicated well with the members about their activities and meetings. Disputes within the membership were addressed at once while other business was postponed. To me, these sessions seemed a kind of "ho’oponopono." When the dispute was resolved to the group’s satisfaction, they resumed the business at hand. All relevant and civil communications were welcome at the meetings.

The Hawaiians successfully persuaded the legislature to hold a hearing on a Saturday morning in 1972 that was well attended by Native Hawaiians and others to discuss the failings of the Commission in making awards. The hearing was a roaring success. The following Sunday, the Star Bulletin ran a long article on the Commission and its failings; it ran a story each day of that week about a separate homestead. The Hawaiians filed three lawsuits about the lack of a waiting list, the lack of rules under the Administrative Procedure Act, the regular loss of applications—applicants’ files were kept in empty Primo beer cardboard cartons stacked at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), which was then located in a World War II shack on Halekauwila Street—and favoritism in making awards. The Hawaiians immediately became familiar figures in the State Capitol and DHHL offices.

When Sonny first appeared at The Hawaiians meeting he was obviously a paniolo, a Hawaiian cowboy. He wore a weathered cowboy hat, a faded Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He also wore a smile that became his trademark. It was a genuinely welcoming smile that characterized his personality. Sonny immediately circulated among the others present. He established family ties, made friends of everyone and learned where everyone had gone to school. He told the others about being raised on the Parker Ranch, his tour abroad in the military, and his return to Hawai’I to work at Pearl Harbor. Most of all he told the story of the Waimea waiting list and the failure of the Commission to make awards in Waimea.

Sonny was a welcome and respected member of The Hawaiians. In addition to supporting their efforts, he began pursuing his plan to put on a demonstration in Waimea. He settled on visiting the Pauahi lands above Waimea. The lands had once been leased to Parker Ranch, but the leases had expired. The Parker Ranch subsequently obtained two consecutive licenses to occupy the land, but both licenses had expired. Nevertheless, the Parker Ranch continued to occupy the land. It seemed to Sonny that as Native Hawaiians who were beneficiaries of the Act, they could peacefully and legally enter the land.

Furthermore, at the top of the Pauahi lands was a kuleana plot owned by a Native Hawaiian whom Sonny knew. It also seemed that with the owner’s permission, Sonny could peacefully and legally travel over the Homestead land to the kuleana plot. With this in mind, Sonny announced his plan to visit the Pauahi lands. Others expressed an interest in joining him. He warned them that they would undoubtedly be arrested for trespass. He did not disclose the possible defenses because he did not want to disclose them to the Parker Ranch or the Commission. He was deeply concerned about the well-being of those who joined him, but he was unconditionally committed personally to the demonstration regardless of the consequences to himself.

Sonny now took control over the planned demonstration. He was determined it would be peaceful and civil. He was concerned about outsiders joining and disrupting the demonstration. The Hawaiians that joined in with him assured him the demonstration would be peaceful and civil. Sonny succeeded in a peaceful and civil demonstration and subsequent trial. But that is the story to be told here.

Sonny was my client, but moreover, he was a dear friend. He was courageous and fair. He was honest and charming to all but unafraid to speak out when the occasion called for it. I miss him and I cherish his memory. It is most fitting that Bob Lindsey is telling a part of Sonny’s story as Sonny should not be forgotten.

Author’s Remarks

I knew Sonny Kaniho personally. It seems it was just yesterday when he barged into my life at my workplace at the South Kohala Courtroom in Waimea on Hawai’I Island at the junction of Mamalahoa Highway and Lindsey Road. It was a ‘see forever’ Monday morning in February 1974 and he was on a mission. I liked Sonny from the start. He was warm, good hearted, a genuine human being. Forty years later I can still see his huge beaming smile beneath the brim of the hat he wore and hear his laughter bouncing off of the courthouse walls. We became fast friends.

At the time I was a probation officer with the Third Circuit Court, State of Hawai’I. He was a pipe fitter at Pearl Harbor Shipyard and nearing retirement. Sonny exuded pure aloha (love). His middle name in fact is Alohalani (heavenly love). He truly was a kanaka (Hawaiian man) who lived, walked and portrayed aloha. I don’t think he had any enemies to speak of. Next to my wife, Sonny is one of the most genuine and gentle human beings I’ve met in my life. He was ALOHA.

We were members of a newly formed native Hawaiian advocacy group The Hawaiians founded and led by Pae Galdeira an emerging renaissance Hawaiian justice leader from the 1970’s seeking to better conditions for the first peoples of the Hawaiian archipelago. Structurally each Hawaiian island [moku] was divided into districts and each district was captained by a po’o [leader]. I was the po’o at the time for the Kohala District on the Big Island. Galdeira was living with his family on the beach in Waimanalo, Oahu. The Hawaiians primary purpose initially was to provide shelter for homeless Hawaiians like Galdeira and his family. Over time we expanded our reasons for existing. As po’o when any member had an issue, concern or question within my district my kuleana [responsibility] was to help that member resolve his or her issue, trouble shoot his or her concern and find an answer [or answers] to his or her question[s]. If I couldn’t deliver or doubted myself, Pae was just a phone call away.

Sonny was living on Oahu when our paths first crossed but he was a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands [DHHL] applicant for a pastoral lease on Hawai’I Island where I resided. DHHL provided the nexus which brought us together. Sonny from Pearl City, a Honolulu suburb and me from Waimea (a quiet cattle town nestled at the foothills of the Kohala Mountains which would provide the setting for an impending legal showdown in the very courtroom that served as my office for several years). He had been patiently waiting for a DHHL lease for eighteen years and was frustrated with a system fraught (then not now) with inertia and corruption, broken and in dire need of repair. For Sonny DHHL was not fulfilling its fiduciary obligations to its beneficiaries and stakeholders. He vowed to step forward and ‘fix DHHL.’ He wanted my kokua [help]. I was clueless as to how I could help him. My being a so called ‘middle class’ Hawaiian was a liability I thought but Sonny disagreed. He felt I had two useful assets. I understand you can write and talk. That’s how you can help me. You can be my ‘talking chief.’ He had confidence and believed in me. I was just a young punk, twenty four years old, very ‘wet behind the ears’ with water dripping off of my shoulders.

The Hawaiians primary focus and priority was finding land and homes for homeless Hawaiians. My view was narrow. Sonny’s was broad. He saw the connection between The Hawaiians purpose and DHHL’s mandate. The homeless needed land to live on. DHHL had lots of land, land he felt should be awarded to homeless Hawaiians on its waiting list. Getting folks off of DHHL’s waiting list (himself included) and on to the land became his passion, obsession and mission. Through his ‘place holder status’ on DHHL’s waiting list he became a voice for everyone on that list.

When we met that Monday morning almost five decades ago he had a litany of questions, simple-basic-real life questions; Bobby, how long must I wait for a lease? How long must my dad wait for a lease? How much longer must we who are on the waiting list have to wait? Why do we as beneficiaries of this trust have to wait so long for land when DHHL has 200,000 acres on its inventory? I know folks who are homeless, living on the beach who have been waiting for land so why is most of the land which is supposed to be awarded to qualified beneficiaries being leased out to big corporations and businesses? Why? Why? Why? How are we going to deal with this? I need your help. Will you help me?

Listening to Sonny was like listening to my paternal grandpa telling tale after tale after tale. However, there was a difference. His stories were about real people with real issues confronting real challenges. My grandpa’s stories were not. They were tall tales and I was just a naïve grandson whose ‘legs he enjoyed pulling on’ for fun and all at my expense. I listened intently with jaw sunken and ears wide open to story after story. The tales Sonny shared about the waiting list flowed as water moves in a perennial stream pulled by gravity from ma uka [uplands] to ma kai [lowlands] and eventually mixing into our aquifers and the Pacific Ocean. As I’ve mentioned already,Sonny was light years ahead of me. Yes, he had questions but he also had a plan. Though simple it was a daring one. He was going to identify a chunk of decent DHHL pasture land in South Kohala, stock it with cattle and become a rancher without benefit of a DHHL lease. I thought he was joshing but he wasn’t. If DHHL could not and would not take him off its infamous waiting list and put him on the ‘aina (land) he was going to do it himself. Dying on the waiting list as had happened to several applicants was not in Sonny’s preferred future. He named a few of the folks, names I wrote on a piece of paper but never kept. It was a short list, not more than five names, names I’ve tried to recall but with the passing of time and a fading memory am not able to.

To provide you with a little context, DHHL is a native Hawaiian public land trust governed by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 [federal law] which answers to and serves many masters; the U.S. Congress, Federal Department of Interior, the Governor of Hawai’I, the Hawaiian Homes Commission [led by a nine member board appointed by the Governor], the Director of the Department who also Chairs the Commission, it’s native Hawaiian beneficiaries [native Hawaiian lessees having fifty per cent or more blood quantum as embedded in federal law], the State Attorney General, the Hawai’I Legislature and the citizens and taxpayers of Hawai’i.

To facilitate your further understanding of DHHL what follows is an abbreviated overview of its genesis and creation. Hawai’i one hundred years ago was a sovereign nation led by a monarch. It had ninety plus consulates and legations across the globe, held numerous treaties and executive agreements with the U.S. and other countries and was recognized as an equal in the world’s family of nations. Hawai’i was a player on the international diplomatic, political and economic stage. Our last sovereign, Queen Lydia Kamaka’eha Lili’uokalani was illegally overthrown in January 1893 in a coup engineered by thirteen white businessmen aided and assisted by U.S. Minister John L. Stevens and backed by troops from the U.S.S. Boston [an action the U.S. apologized for in 1993 via P.L. 150]. Immediately following Lili’uokalani’s dethronement a provisional government led by Sanford B. Dole stepped in to fill the political void he helped create. The provisional government was replaced by the Republic of Hawai’I in 1895. In 1898 Hawai’i was annexed to the United States by a joint resolution of Congress [Newlands Resolution] without the consent of Hawai’I’s populace thus violating its own certifying protocols for admission into the American union. Twenty-six thousand Hawaiians (a clear majority) signed the Ku’e Petition against annexation. Minister Stevens said well before Queen Lili’uokalani was toppled that the ‘Hawaiian pear was ready for plucking.’ With his coaxing the Hawaiian Nation was plucked by the U.S. Congress to serve America’s strategic military, political and