What does the Fourth of July mean to Native Hawaiians? It’s complicated

Along Palani Road and Ali‘i Drive in Historic Kailua Village, the street lights are adorned with banners displaying America’s red, white and blue flag for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

This year is an extra special national celebration, commemorating the 250th anniversary of colonists declaring independence from Great Britain and its king.

Around the Big Island, celebrations and activities are taking place for the United States Semiquincentennial, including the Kona Fourth of July Parade, a fireworks show over Kailua Bay, Parker Ranch Rodeo & Horse Races in Waimea, a “A Salute to Our Veterans” Hilo Bay 5K Run/Walk/Roll and a “Hilo Bay Blast” fireworks.

And on July 8, a simultaneous reading of the Declaration of Independence across the 50 states, five territories and in various countries around the world also will be held. On that day in 1776, the document was read for the first time publicly after its signing. In Hawaiʻi it will be at 6 p.m.

But for some Native Hawaiians, the Fourth of July is not a day to be celebrated. Instead, it is a painful reminder of the illegal overthrow and ultimate unlawful annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

It is the irony of the holiday. The United States was the result of the American Revolution, in which hundreds of thousands of people fought, and about 25,000 died, for independence from tyranny. But it was the United States that took away the independence of a native people on their own land, including arresting their queen.

In a Starbucks in Kona, blocks away from the flying banners, 71-year-old Earl DeLeon and his wife, 59-year-old Noe Noe Kekaualua, who are both Hawaiian, explained their evolving feelings about the Fourth of July.

DeLeon said he now can not celebrate a holiday that celebrates independence for a country whose leaders oppressed the Hawaiian Kingdom for 133 years.

Those feelings are strong now, but that was not the case when he was young. DeLeon said he used to think the Fourth of July was all about popping firecrackers, then going down to Ala Moana Beach on O‘ahu to watch the grand fireworks show.

He thought he was American. And when growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, his mom used to instruct him not to tell his teachers he was Hawaiian, because it was illegal. He remembers one time using the word “ukulele” in the classroom. His teacher made him eat soap.

After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy by U.S. businessmen and the U.S. military in 1893, Hawaiian language was banned three years later by the U.S.-backed Provisional Government and subsequent territorial administration. So was much of the Hawaiian culture, including the hula dance.

But as DeLeon grew older, he watched the birth of the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1970s, with the reclaiming of performing hula kahiko (ancient hula). At the same time, Hawaiian language, culture, music and political activism also was returning.

Before the renaissance, Hawaiians didn’t know their culture or their history. “We were totally indoctrinated,” DeLeon said. “We didn’t know that there was an illegal annexation of Hawai‘i. We were brainwashed so badly in the schools and taught to be good Americans.”

Kekaualua said Fourth of July holidays for her were spent with family at Hilo One, also known at Bayfront.

“My father would pitch up a tent right on the beach so that we would be able to watch the fireworks,” she said. “Celebrating the actual holiday was not what we were focusing on. It was always a time to gather as a family.”

For Kekaualua, who grew up a decade later than her husband, the Hawaiian Renaissance was already in full swing. She started dancing hula when she was 3 years old. Hawaiian culture was being taught at home, but it was not at the forefront of churches, schools or government buildings.

“It was more prevalent that the narrative was controlled by American concepts,” Kekaualua said.

They both grew up when Hawaiʻi was a new official member of the United States. The islands became the 50th and last state in the union on Aug. 21, 1959, after a long and often challenged path to statehood. At this Fourth of July, Hawaiʻi only will have been a state for 67 years, with many old enough to remember Hawaiʻi before it had the rights that come with statehood.

Hawai‘i County Mayor Kimo Alameda, who is Portuguese and Hawaiian, said like most everyone growing up in Hilo, he also went down to Bayfront with family at around 8 p.m. on the Fourth of July to watch the fireworks. Afterward, they’d go get ice cream.

Growing up in Keaukaha, Alameda said his parents had mixed feelings about the holiday, but nothing was ever vocalized.

“My grandma (father’s side) was pure Hawaiian, and I heard stories of her not being able to speak Hawaiian, forced to speak English,” Alameda said. “So, we grew up knowing this undercurrent of tension. But we never really talked about it.”

Alameda thinks his father, who served in the United States military, didn’t want to be unpatriotic or badmouth America.

As he got older, Alameda, who is proud of his Hawaiian roots, educated himself about the Hawaiian Kingdom, the illegal overthrow and the illegal occupation.

Now, as mayor, Alameda said things are tricky because he’s part of that governmental structure. And he’s proud to be an American.

“I also acknowledge the historical injustices of Native Hawaiians,” Alameda said, adding he hopes the U.S. government can reconcile what it has done. “I don’t know what that looks like, but hopefully Hawaiians can get an equal piece of the pie.”

There has been some acknowledgment of the injustice by the United States. In 1993, on the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the U.S. Congress formally passed an Apology Resolution signed by then-President Bill Clinton.

In preparation of the Semiquincentennial celebration, Hawai‘i Gov. Josh Green signed an executive order in 2023 creating the Hawai‘i America250 Commission, which became active at the beginning of 2024 and selected 74-year-old Peter Young of the Big Island as its chair.

Young is not Hawaiian, but he was born and raised in the islands. He has held many different roles throughout his life, from working in real estate to teaching math in public schools to being managing director for Hawai‘i County to leading the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Young said he understands there are some who look back at the overthrow and still are upset and blame the U.S. government.

“I would encourage them to look at the documents,” Young said.

He is referring to U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Hawaiian Kingdom Declaration of Rights that were approved by King Kamehameha III in 1839.

Young said the Hawaiian Kingdom Declaration of Rights and the ultimate constitution of 1840 changed a strict kingdom to a constitutional monarchy, noting that the document shares similar language to America’s 1776 Declaration of Independence.

“Like the Declaration of Independence makes reference to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Declaration of Rights within the Hawaiian Kingdom speaks of life, limb, liberty, freedom from oppression,” Young said. “I think it’s important that people see the connection that Hawai‘i has to that document because of the Declaration of Rights.”

The overthrow of the Hawai‘i Kingdom

On Jan. 17, 1893, the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown by U.S. businessmen who called themselves the Provisional Government. In December of the same year, U.S. President Grover Cleveland denounced the overthrow as an act of war but declined to assist in restoring Queen Lili‘uokalani’s Hawaiian Kingdom government.

On July 4, 1894, the Provisional Government proclaimed itself a permanent government called the Republic of Hawai‘i. In January 1895, Hawaiian royalist activists, known as the Aloha ‘Āina, mounted an armed three-day rebellion, called the Kaua Kūloko (Civil War) or the Wilcox Uprising. But they were no match for the better armed military forces of the republic. The queen, along with 350 others, were arrested. She was imprisoned in ‘Iolani Palace, and later in her home, Washington Place, and was pressured to officially abdicate to prevent more bloodshed. 

The Kingdom was illegally annexed to the United States on July 7, 1898, via the Newlands Resolution. In a last, unsuccessful attempt to return control of her homeland to native Hawaiians, Queen Lili’uokalani sent a letter of protest to the U.S. House of Representatives.

On Aug. 12, 1898, a ceremony transferring sovereignty took place at ‘Iolani Palace, where the Hawaiian flag was lowered, and the U.S. flag was raised.

Hawaiʻi had little power in the U.S. government as a territory. It had only one, non-voting representative in the House of Representatives. But with its territory status, rich, white plantation owners took advantage, able to import cheap labor and export their products to the mainland with low tariffs, according to historians.

After the lost cause of saving the Hawaiian Kingdom, Native Hawaiians and non-white Hawaiian residents pushed for statehood so they would have the same rights as Americans.

After gaining official status in 1959, the new “Aloha State” saw a boom in growth, including in tourism and development.

“New resorts, new highways and new subdivisions sprouted on virgin shores and sprawled into valleys and cane fields,” according to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs website.

As a result, rural Hawaiians, who were still living in close contact with the land and sea, were served with eviction notices and “No Trespassing” signs as exclusive condominiums and hideaway resorts reached the most remote and untouched corners of the islands, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs states.

“Lands that had languished for years were suddenly targets for speculation and development,” OHA recounts of the history. “Title to kuleana lands was challenged and lost.”

This lit a fire that sparked the Hawaiian Renaissance, where native Hawaiians fought fiercely for their lands and started practicing their culture and language publicly.

DeLeon said his Hawaiian awakening came in the 1970s when he protested the bombing of Kaho‘olawe, an undeveloped island close to Maui. In 1977, he got arrested for trespassing on federal government installation lands.

“Everybody in Hawai‘i, including our families, told us we will never stop the federal government. We will never get the island back,” DeLeon recalled. “Lo and behold, we stopped the federal government. We got the island back.”

DeLeon and Kekaualua have stood for several causes supporting Hawaiian culture. They were among the thousands who went to Mauna Kea in 2019 to protest the development of the Thirty-Meter-Telescope.

Noenoe Silva, a political science professor at the University of Hawai‘i, teaches courses in Hawaiian and Indigenous politics, as well as Hawaiian language. In 1995, she was studying the efforts of the Hui Aloha ‘Āina to oppose the annexation.

In 1996, she went to Washington, D.C., to the National Archives and Records Administration, where she viewed the 1897 Kū‘ē Petitions signed by thousands of Hawaiians and residents of the islands at that time. She requested copies of the pages and shared them during a January 1997 Sovereign Sunday event at ‘Iolani Palace.

“I’m really proud that people part of the lāhui are continuing to put ourselves back into our history and recognizing what happened to us,” Silva said. “I’m proud of us for reclaiming our history.”

Navigating the benefits and consequences of the U.S. actions in Hawaiʻi

Because of the path paved by the Hawaiian Renaissance, Mina Viritua Jr., born and raised in Hilo, attended Hawaiian immersion schools that were started in the 1980s. While growing up, the Fourth of July was typically no more than a family beach day, a common occurrence on any given weekend.

Viritua, 39, joined a fellowship called the Economic Recovery Corps Program that is under the International Economic Development Council, a federal agency that helps accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in distressed communities and regions throughout the United States.

In the program, Viritua works an independent contractor on a project to revitalize Puna, which was impacted not just by the pandemic but also by the 2018 Kīlauea eruption. The work includes diversifying and strengthening the local economy.

Over the past two years of working in the program, Viritua has taken a deep dive into Hawai‘i’s economic development history. He said after the overthrow in 1893, extractive economies took off.

“The first being the sugar plantation and then obviously, the military presence…” Viritua said.

There are 11 to 13 military installations across Hawai‘i to this day, along with lands that are currently unlivable due to the live military training that had taken place.

This includes the Waikōloa Maneuver Area in South Kohala, which was used by the Department of Defense to conduct the live-fire training of 50,000 troops, ensuring military readiness from 1943 to 1945.

Tourism followed and ultimately crippled Hawai‘i by making a once self-reliant nation — which fed and cared for its people through the land and sea — dependent on visitors and their dollars to keep the economy moving, Viritua said.

He said he recognizes that the people who created this problem are long gone, and cannot be held accountable. He also recognizes that he is a taxpayer and is navigating the American system to benefit his family and community.

“I get to do amazing work in my community, along with these nonprofits, along with my family, supporting food security, youth development, agriculture,” he said. “We’re building cooperatives, we’re building markets.”

Hawai‘i can become more sovereign, Viritua said, in the sense that the islands are not dependent on imports. More food is grown here as well as finding more sustainable and renewable energies.

Remembering Hawai‘i’s history

As a cultural practitioner, Kekaualua holds workshops where she teaches Hawaiian protocol to adults and keiki. She and her husband educate people, especially Hawaiian children, about the history of Hawai‘i’s path to statehood.

“If we just sit back and do nothing, then we’re part of the problem and not part of the solution,” Kekaualua said. “If we don’t educate them, they’ll eventually be brainwashed, as well as be suppressed into not knowing (their history).”

Kekaualua and DeLeon encourage people to recognize Nov. 28 as Lā Kūʻokoʻa, Hawai‘i’s Independence Day. On that date in 1843, the Hawaiian Kingdom was the first non-European nation to be recognized by England and France.

The couple started Lā Kūʻokoʻa celebrations in Kona two years ago. And this year, Kekaualua said they will be celebrating on July 31 for Sovereignty Restoration Day, or Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, which was created in 1843 after rogue agents of the British Crown took control of the Hawaiian Government.

Months later, Queen Victoria sent Admiral Richard Thomas to Hawai‘i to remove those aggressors and correct the unwarranted transgression against the Hawaiian people.

That day gave birth to Hawai‘i’s motto that is on the current state seal, proclaimed by King Kamehameha III: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Āina i ka Pono, which means the “Sovereignty of the Hawaiian Nation is Restored by Righteousness.”

Kekahalua and DeLeon are also establishing a new chapter, Ku‘i Aloha ‘Āina, which aims to educate people about Hawai‘i’s history.

Under Alameda’s leadership, the county’s Department of Research and Development is working with Hawaiian practitioners to promote Hawai‘i’s Independence Day in November.

Knowing there’s a resurgence of the holiday, Alameda said there are some county employees who celebrate it.

But Alameda said of the United States has its benefits for Hawaiʻi and its residents.

“I like the freedoms: the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom to gather, to express ourselves in different ways,” Alameda said.

He also likes the unity that’s on display, particularly while watching the Olympic Games.

He also lauded the federal resources that are available, especially during emergencies and recovery from disasters. Hawai‘i County recently received federal aid following the devastating Kona Low storm in March that led to destructive flooding.

His pride as an American doesn’t diminish his love for being Hawaiian, descended from navigators, farmers and fishermen. Alameda feels Hawaiians represent the pure love of Christ because, in the native culture, they took care of their people.

Alameda speaks highly of cultural practitioners, like DeLeon and Kekaualua, as they embrace and advocate for the native culture.

“Sometimes it’s against me, like with the Thirty-Meter Telescope,” said Alameda, who supports the project. “But somebody has to fight on that side, so I respect that. We need them to continually remind the government of the historical oppressions. We need that reminder, because if not, they could very easily repeat it.”