WL: "Native Hawaiian Historical & Cultural Perspectives on Environmental Justice" (Reading Response)

This article is personal to me because I was born and raised on the island of Maui. I am not a Native Hawaiian, but I support and understand the arguments of Mililani Trask. Native Hawaiians have every right to self-govern, to maintain their nations, pass laws, etc. because they the indigenous peoples of Hawaii and they welcomed America. When the first settlers came to Hawaii, the Natives believed they were gods, but they took advantage of the Hawaiians' aloha and hospitality and used the Hawaiian people and land to satisfy their greed because they are not white. When Hawaii became a state they did not have the same rights as the other states. They were also hesitant to establish Hawaii as a state because whites were the minority. Why did that matter? 

They already had control over the Hawaiians, they already had control over the immigrants they deceived to work on their plantations. That is why my family moved to Hawaii. My grandfather moved from the Philippines and worked on the plantations. These white settlers and businessmen belittled people of color, and this discrimination still goes on today. Toxic wastes are dumped and stored on Hawaiian homesteads, Native American Reservations, and black communities. Why is it the colored once again pushed aside? There is no consideration, no compassion. This continues to happen all throughout history. I do not understand why the U.S. Government cannot see how they are affecting the indigenous peoples of the world, in Okinawa, Japan, North America, South America, Hawaii, Pakistan, Iraq, Africa. People continue to suffer. 

Coming home from my first year of college was very shocking because so much had changed while I was gone. As time goes on Maui, my home, becomes more and more crowded and busy. More land developed for cookie-cutter homes. Wider roads to accommodate traffic. More pollution to destroy the beauty and culture of Hawaii. People who did not grow up in Hawaii and visit or move to the islands do not understand how precious the islands are. They see beaches, luaus, sunsets, and tropical forests, not the richness of culture, not its history. There are more tactics to attract tourists, so much that it seems like these superficial motives are overriding what Hawaii is really about. These people do not care and pollute and ravage the land for buildings/homes, they destroy its spirit; the essence of Hawaii.