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Native Hawaiians (in Hawaiian, kanaka ‘oiwi or kanaka māoli) are the indigenous Polynesian peoples of the Hawaiian Islands who trace their ancestry back to antiquity before the arrival of British explorer Captain James Cook in 1778. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 476,000 people who identified themselves as being native Hawaiian, part native Hawaiian and mixed native Hawaiian. Most native Hawaiians are residents of the United States in California, the State of Hawaii, Nevada and Washington. Two-thirds live in the State of Hawaii while the other one-third is split among mainland states. Almost half of the mainland share of the population is in California.

1 Native Hawaiian Subgroups

Identifying and classifying native Hawaiian subgroups has become a delicate issue among native Hawaiians. Different government agencies have different methods of classifying native Hawaiians. [1]. However, it is widely accepted that such classifications are necessary to facilitate laws, trusts and wills governing native Hawaiian programs. For example, programs administered by the Hawai‘i State Department of Hawaiian Homelands are legally bound by trusts to provide services only to Hawaiians claiming over 50% ancestry dating back to antiquity.

According to the Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 10-2, Hawaiians are defined as:

any descendant of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands which exercised sovereignty and subsisted in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and which peoples thereafter have continued to reside in Hawaii.

Within this definition, Hawaiians are sub-classified into two major groups: native Hawaiians consist of the population who claim over 50% ancestry dating back to antiquity. Also, there are part Hawaiians who claim less than 50% of ancestry dating back to antiquity.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also differentiates between:

In general usage, however, this distinction is often ignored, with both capitalizations being used to describe the native Hawaiian population as a whole regardless of bloodline.

2 Population

At the time of Captain Cook's arrival, native Hawaiians numbered over 800,000. Over the span of the first century after first contact, native Hawaiians declined in population by 80%, dying from diseases introduced to the islands. Native Hawaiians did not have immunity to influenza, measles, and whooping cough, among others. From 1890Events January 2 Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the U. White House. January 25 The United Mine Workers of America is founded. January 25 Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days. March 1 Leon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest to 19201920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. January 9 Britain announces it will build 100,000 homes for war veterans. January 10 Leagu, native Hawaiians held a steady number of only 40,000. A short period of population growth occurred before the 1930s and then glided into a steady decline through the present day.

An Office of Hawaiian Affairs survey in 1984This page is about the year 1984. For other uses of 1984, see 1984 (disambiguation). 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday (link shows calendar). Events January January 1 Brunei becomes a fully independent state January 1 AT&T is broken up into 22 indepe reported that 61% of Native Hawaiians had less than 50% native Hawaiian blood. That same report indicated that only 8,244 pure blood native Hawaiians existed out of the 208,476 total native Hawaiians surveyed.



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