The U.S. government plans to return a significant portion of territory intended for housing up to 400 Native Hawaiian families, the Department of the Interior announced Monday.
The DOI released a statement detailing the initiative as an attempt to mend historical trespasses against the Indigenous population in Hawaii, which became the 50th state in 1959.
Deputy Secretary Don Graves said the program would grant 80 acres of “surplus” land to Hawaiian natives in Ewa Beach, located where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was once located.
“With this overdue transfer, this parcel of land will soon be called home for hundreds of Native Hawaiians,” Graves said.
The lands have the “potential to provide homesteads for 200 to 400 Native Hawaiian families” and are being “transferred to the state of Hawaii’s Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for inclusion in the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust,” the DOI release said.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland called the move an “important step” in the nation’s commitment to resolving the Hawaiian Home Lands Recovery Act settlement.
The Hawaiian Homes Commission was formed following the signing of a bill by President Warren Harding in 1921.
According to the bill, those who have “at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood” are eligible for the federal housing program.
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Haaland said the Native Hawaiian community on the island has waited more than two decades “for the federal government to address a $16.9 million credit owed by the United States to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust.”
