This web site seeks to stir lively, and perhaps heated debate in Hawai'i and beyond. In 1998, Thurston Twigg-Smith published his book, Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter?, and then launched this web site. Since then, major events have taken place regarding this issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Office of Hawaiian Affairs from continuing its race-based election process for its trustees. Other court challenges have been filled questioning the legality of the race-based Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

In 2000, Senator Daniel Akaka introduced legislation which would provide “…a process within the framework of Federal law for the Native Hawaiian people to exercise their inherent rights as a distinct aboriginal, indigenous, native community to reorganize a Native Hawaiian governing entity for the purpose of giving expression to their rights as native people to self-determination and self-governance.” The proposed legislation has stirred strong reaction on both sides of the issue.

The seeds that germinated Twigg-Smith’s book were sown when a little boy on Maui tugged on his sleeve and asked Twigg-Smith why his grandfather had stolen Hawaiians' lands. The child's sister added that the culture had been stolen, too.

Twigg-Smith, whose family has lived in Hawai'i for nearly 180 years, is the grandson of Lorrin A. Thurston, a leader of the Hawaiian Revolution of 1893 that led to a democratic government for Hawai'i and eventual statehood.

The exchange with the children shook Twigg-Smith into action. "The sovereignty line is that the haole (foreigners) cheated the Hawaiians, and the kids were talking as though it were a fact," he wrote.

His message tries to clarify the role of Hawai'i's missionaries, business leaders and others during the fateful period that led to the 1893 Revolution. Putting these facts down may prompt future historians to hold objective light to all sides of the history of Hawai'i.

"I am aware that charges will be made that this account is merely an attempt to defend the revolutionary actions of my grandfather, Lorrin A. Thurston. Thurston needs no defending. He was passionate in his belief that the removal of the Monarchy and the achievement of Annexation to the United States were goals that would benefit all of the people of Hawai'i," Twigg-Smith wrote in the foreword.

About Thurston Twigg-Smith