The Clock Is Ticking As Native Hawaiians Wait For Homeland Inheritance Reform … An effort to allow more part-Hawaiian children and grandchildren of Hawaiian homeowners to inherit the properties has stalled in Washington.
More than four years ago, after two years of interisland discussions, the Hawaii state Legislature took action to fix a 100-year-old problem, but the solution stalled on the federal level, leaving the lives of thousands of Native Hawaiians in limbo.
Now there are reasons for hope as well as new cause for alarm.
Dozens of people submitted testimony in Hawaii in 2017 about the need to amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, first enacted by federal law in 1921, to make it possible for more part-Hawaiian children and grandchildren of homeowners to inherit properties that had been in their families for decades.
Many homestead leaseholders expressed concern that the “blood quantum” standards in the law are too tight and exclude the children of people who have married spouses from other ethnic groups.