It is really something to read the recent letters to the editor that express anti-Hawaiian sentiments in response to Alani Apio's Feb. 25 commentary. Apio's piece was excellent and to the point.

The facts on the status of native Hawaiians are not made up. We do occupy the top of all the social ills of Hawai`i, yet we make up only 20 percent of Hawai`i's entire population.

The attitudes and ideas expressed in the letters could be construed as racist and bigoted.

Are these people determined to rewrite Hawai`i's history over the last several hundred years? Don't they know that our ancestors knew of Hawai`i's existence before they came here on their first migration? The gods who created these Islands named the islands, mountains, valleys and ocean channels. Can't they comprehend the fact that our ancestors "allowed" their ancestors to come here and to enjoy what we have here, not destroy it?

It is lucky the first missionaries did not have their attitude because they would have been the first to be sacrificed. Instead, the missionaries came with the promise of spiritual fulfillment, and in return the Hawaiians were systematically "removed" from their land by Western laws.

These same Western laws (the U.S. Constitution) is being used against us today, to take away the birthright to these Islands and our indigenous rights that were handed down from our kupuna.

We as native people will not take this lightly. History will inevitably prove me right.

Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell
Pukalani, Maui

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Ho`iho`i Mai

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