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Attorney H. Bruss Keppeler, President of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, walks Roth through the legal and historical case for Hawaiian sovereignty in July 1993, the centennial year of the overthrow. Keppeler argues that the 1893 deposition of Queen Liliʻuokalani was accomplished with direct US military assistance—a finding confirmed by the US's own Blount investigation and communicated to President Cleveland. He adds that the 1898 annexation relied on a simple congressional majority rather than the two-thirds Senate vote required for a treaty, leaving Hawaii's legal status as US territory in doubt. Keppeler outlines three competing sovereignty visions: a nation-within-a-nation model based on Native American tribal recognition (Ka Lahui Hawaii's approach, which would open federal programs currently blocked as racial preferences), an island-by-island arrangement, and complete separation. He argues that the nation-within-a-nation approach would not disturb private land ownership and would allow Hawaiians to retain US citizenship while gaining access to federal resources. Keppeler, who chairs the state Sovereignty Advisory Council, expects a Hawaiian constitutional convention to move forward if voters approve the question in an upcoming referendum.
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
