On July 6, 1887, an American militia forced Hawaiian King David Kalakaua to sign, at gunpoint, the Bayonet Constitution, giving American businessmen firm control over the Hawaiian government and leaving the Native population without a voice. The thing that’s interesting about this is that there is currently a controversial bill being presented by Hawaiian senator Daniel Akaka which would recognize the the nation’s 400,000 Native Hawaiians in the same way that it recognizes American Indians and Alaska natives. Some citizens of Hawaii see the bill as divisive, and many Native Hawaiians oppose the bill because they (and this is admirable, though impractical) think that since the land was seized illegally, it still belongs to them and should be reverted to an independant nation, not a state.
