Queen Liliʻuokalani, c. 1891, Wikipedia
The treaty was the work of the Missionary Society that had tormented the islanders for generations. The Queen wrote that the treaty was “an act of wrong toward the native and part-native native people of Hawaiʻi” by then greatly reduced by diseases imported from the mainland. She declared the treaty “the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown, and, finally, an act of gross injustice to me.”
After the U.S. landed a small contingent of sailors, the Queen foresaw what was to come and announced, “I yield my authority to the forces of the U.S. to avoid bloodshed.”
But what she called “the greedy and deceitful policy” that had dethroned her also affected the islands drastically. It took one ton of sugar to produce one pound of refined sugar, depleting the islands’ limited water; cutting down forests to supply wood for refining created a barren landscape, desiccated and prone to fire. Yet no news story I’ve read or heard mentions the Queen or the results of her deposing.
The last sugar refinery closed in Hawaii a few years ago, but during the course of the reign of the sugar plantations, Hawaii’s native mixed agriculture that, along with fishing, provided for the islanders was replaced by sugar and pineapple plantations owned by foreigners. Hawaii now imports all its fruits and vegetables.
The dreadful fires in Maui is not the islands’ only tragedy.
[Note: a very special thanks to James Ozyvort Maland who points out in the comments below that in 1993 the U.S. Congress officially acknowledged the overthrow of the Kingdom and apologized with the passing of Public Law 103-150. Mr. Maland quotes from Wikipedia which offers quite a comprehensive summary. —Sallie]
A footnote to your piece, pasted from Wikipedia:
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Public Law 103-150, informally known as the Apology Resolution, is a Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress adopted in 1993 that “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum” (U.S. Public Law 103-150 (107 Stat. 1510)). // [End paste]
Thank you very much for pointing this out, I have added a link to the Wikipedia article as well as a link to the public law itself above. —Sallie
“Men ruin things.” This was a comment by the character Marilyn in the Northern Exposure TV series.
Beautiful column Sallie. I am glad you were able to overcome the email trouble and get back to writing. Looking forward to reading your upcoming book about a former captive of the Shawnee. My great-great (several greats) Grandfather was captured by the Delaware Indians when he was serving under George Washington. There are very few books/accounts out there about his capture. I have a couple, but they have a few understandable “gaps” which leaves the reader to speculate and fill themselves.
Heartbreaking and so wrong, what the “dominators” religious and secular did to the islands. Yet another destructive achievement the world over in this patriarchal period. Yes, heartbreaking, too, this last disaster on Maui. I do know about the last woman chief and her futile efforts to keep the islands for islanders because I fell in love with things Hawaiian when, many years ago, I took classes in hula and Tahitian from a young African-American woman who’d gone to Oahu to take a degree in Island Studies and to become a kuma hula. She came back to the U.S. and set her halau up in Oakland, Calif, where she taught, welcoming every sort of person. I know many mainlanders and people living elsewhere in the world share the sadness of the losses past and present which islanders have gone through.