The Kingdom of Hawaii

A US Army lieutenant, a Hawaiian, named Nainoa Hoe was killed by a sniper in Iraq a couple days ago. His company was out trying to encourage voter participation.
“A surfer and swimmer, Hoe was so proud of his Hawaiian heritage. ‘You could say he was a nationalist,’ (a member of his unit) said. Hoe's father, Allen, is a Vietnam veteran, and Hoe carried an American flag that his father had carried. His younger brother, Nakoa, is about to be deployed to Iraq as a member of 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry. Hoe was proud of his family's military history but joked that Hawaii had been better off without the mainland. "He would say, 'We don't have to be a state; we were fine without you, just fine.’ "
Yesterday as we drove out towards Kaena Pt. we passed an encampment of “The Kingdom of Hawaii.” Perhaps twenty-five people were camped in a narrow stretch of land between the highway and the chain link fence of Dillingham Field. They weren’t doing anything. Just squatting. Their collection of cars and pickup trucks were backed up against the fence; tarps were stretched for protection from the rain. There were kids and dogs and chickens milling about looking bored.
There are several groups in Hawaii who make the  argument that the US Government has no legal right to the islands and that Hawaii should be returned to native Hawaiians. Not reported by the Washington Post, the late Lt. Hoe’s Vietnam veteran father Allen Hoe is the... 1st Associate Justice for the Acting Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom . This is a parallel government set up by an organization called The Hawaiian Kingdom. There is also an activist group called Hawaiian Independence as well as other groups promoting the historical illegality of the US takeover of Hawaii in 1893.
In 1993, in commemoration of the takeover, Hawaii’s Senator Inoue was able to pass an apology bill which declared in part, “...that the Congress...on the 100th anniversary of the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893, acknowledges the historical significance of this event which resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people...” The State of Hawaii has an Office of Hawaiian Affairs and sponsors a Hawaiian Coalition which is looking for a way to form a Native  Hawaiian governing body. And there is a federal bill rolling around the halls of Congress that would create some sort of entity for the Native Hawaiian people. So, the squatters and the 1st Acting Associate Justice of the Hawaiian Kingdom aren’t exactly cranks.
They seem to have a strong legal basis for their claims.
In all probability, however, Hawaii will not become a kingdom again. The disparate independence groups often have conflicting agendas. The USA isn’t going to turn the islands over to the natives.
So, in the meantime, while they work for some sort of independent status, the separatists and kingdomists work in the islands or on the mainland, serve in the army and get killed trying to talk Iraqis into voting. It’s a strange little undercurrent that causes a slight rip in the fabric of Hawaiian politics and society.