FACT SHEET: President Biden Recognizes Fuller Story of Pacific Islands Heritage
Today, President Biden is taking action to recognize the cultural heritage of the Indigenous Peoples and communities of the Pacific Islands by renaming the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument as the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, and becoming the first President to formally honor the Hui Panalāʻau, Native Hawaiians sent to secure United States territorial claim to the islands in the run up to World War II. This action builds on President Biden’s historic record of delivering for Indigenous communities across the country.
In March 2023, the President issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce to collaborate with Indigenous cultural leaders to inform renaming of the existing Pacific Remote Islands National Monument to honor the area’s heritage, ancestral pathways, and stopping points for Pacific Island voyagers, and to inform posthumous recognition for the Hui Panalāʻau.
Today’s action supports President Biden’s commitment to telling a fuller story of our Nation’s history and builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to advance opportunity, including for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities.
Renaming of the Marine National Monument
The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument encompasses approximately 490,000 square miles of open ocean, coral reef, and island habitats in the Pacific Ocean and includes seven National Wildlife Refuges associated with Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Atoll. The national monument is home to one of the largest collections of tropical islands, coral reef, seamounts, and deep sea protected areas on the planet, and provides large migration and foraging ranges for sea turtles, marine mammals, whales, sharks, and manta rays.
At President Biden’s direction, the Udall Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), led an 18-month collaborative renaming process to engage Indigenous Peoples and other Pacific Island communities on developing a recommendation for a new name for the Marine National Monument. This included participating in the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, where the Administration convened sessions with the Pacific Island delegations, cultural practitioners, voyagers, language experts, and the broader Pacific Island community to seek comment and input on a new name.
The renaming of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument reaffirms the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to recognize and acknowledge the tradition of voyaging and other cultural and ancestral connections to the monument area and the historic and scientific objects it contains as core to Pacific Island communities’ heritage. The name also honors the many people, cultures, languages, and resources that have existed in the region for thousands of years and will continue to thrive in the future.
President George W. Bush first established this marine national monument in 2009, and President Barack Obama designated a marine national monument expansion area in 2014. Today’s action applies the new name to the existing monument, without altering its boundaries or any applicable requirements.
Recognition for the Hui Panalāʻau
From 1935 to 1942, the United States government sent 135 mainly Native Hawaiian men – known collectively as the Hui Panalāʻau – to live for six weeks to several months at a time on the uninhabited Pacific equatorial islands of Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Enderbury, and Canton to claim the islands for the United States. Today, President Biden issued a Presidential Message officially recognizing for the first time their contributions to the United States.
Beginning in 1935, the United States government recruited young Hawaiian students and recent graduates of the Kamehameha School for Boys to serve a colonization mission to the uninhabited islands. Although military interests justified occupation of the islands, the Hui Panalāʻau members were not informed of the true nature of the project. The men recorded weather conditions, cultivated plants, maintained a daily log, recorded the types of fish that they caught, observed bird life, and collected specimens for the Bishop Museum on O’ahu, and also endured personal sacrifice and hardship living on the islands. Several Hui Panalāʻau members died on the islands, including in an attack by the Empire of Japan the day after the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration acknowledges the accomplishments and sacrifices of the members of the Hui Panalā‘au, and extends to them and their families the deep appreciation of the people of the United States. The United States also extends condolences to the families of Carl Kahalewai, Joseph Keliihananui, and Richard Whaley for the loss of their loved ones in the service of the United States. The previously unsung contributions and sacrifices of these young men and their loved ones must be recognized as a part of the history of our Nation and of their beloved home, Hawai‘i.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) conducted a thorough review of records relevant to the Equatorial Pacific colonization program and was able to verify a participant roster that reflects, to the very best of their ability, a list of 135 individuals involved in this United States Government project. NARA corroborated this list with individual employment records. The records are from the Office of the Territories: Central Classified Files Relating to the Equatorial Islands, and this series consists of 15 containers which are fully digitized and available in the National Archives Catalog.
Today, the United States honors their memory for their service and sacrifices for our Nation:
Ahia, Charles; Ahia, Henry; Akaka, Lewellyn; Akana, Albert; Akana, Bernard; Akana, George; Akana, Theodore; Anahu, William; Anakalea, Joseph; Au, Charles; Aune, Edward; Awana, Theodore; Beatty, Rupert; Bederman, Thos. W.; Bell, Kenneth; Blake, Hartwell; Boyd, Andrew; Braun, Charles; Braun, Clarence; Bruhn, James Ferdinand; Burke, Eugene; Burke, Walter; Bush, Harry; Calley, Chas. D., Jr.; Carroll, James; Chang, Herbert; Ching, Archie; Ching, Lawrence; Cockett, Frank; Cockett, Herbert; Collins, Austin; Cowden, Lawrence; Coyle, James W.; Duff, Leonard; Dyen, Samuel; Faufata, Folina; Feigenbaum, Ralph; Fialkowaski, Henry; Graf, Wyman; Haili, Jacob; Hall, Bernard H.; Harbottle, Isaac; Harris, Arthur; Hartwell, David Kawila; Henderson, Waldron; Hooper, Herbert; Hutchinson, William; Jacobson, Victor; Jensen, Hans P.; Jensen, Karl Emil; Kaahea, Henry; Kahalewai, Carl; Kahalewai, Samuel; Kahanu, George; Kahapea, Alexander; Kahapea, William; Kaina, Wm.; Kalama, David H.; Kalama, Samuel; Kalama, Solomon; Kamakaiwi, James C., Jr.; Kaninau, Charles; Kauahikaua, Archie; Kaulu, Albert Kelii; Keliihananui, Jos. K.; Kepoo, Joseph; Kilbey, John Gibson; Kim, Bak Sung; Kim, Harold; Kim, Joseph; Kim, Victor; King, Kenneth Lum; Kinney, James; Knell, Henry Crockett; Lawler, Vernon; Lee, Francis; Lee, Frederick; Lee, Henry Kong; Leong, Ah Kin; Lieson, Robert W.; Lum, Harold Chin; Lum, Kam; Lum, Paul Yat; Lum, Yau Fai; MacKellar, Ian; Mahikoa, Henry; Makua, Blue; Markham, Wm. S.; Mattson, Elvin K.; McCorriston, Edward M.; Medeiros, Henry; Newton, Edmond; Ohumukini, Henry; Opiopio, Killarney; Paoa, Melvin; Paquette, Maurice; Pea, Aki Kini Levi; Pea, Wm. Kane; Pease, James K.; Phillips, Manley Woodrow; Phillips, Paul Gordon; Piianai, Abraham; Pires, Manuel; Rahe, Bernard; Renken, Ernest Kalane; Riley, James Jos.; Roberts, John; Roberts, Oliver K.; Robinson, Alexander; Ruddle, Francis; Smith, Henry M.; Sproat, Manuel; Stein, Charles; Stillman, Francis; Stillman, Geo. C.L.; Suares, Louis; Summers, Carl; Surber, George; Tavares, William; Theiss, Harry; Toomey, Daniel; Toomey, John Kauwe; Toomey, William; Victor, Gabriel; Waiwaiole, Luther; West, George; Whaley, Richard; Wilhelm, Frederick; Williamson, Elmer; Wilson, Ralph; Wong, Alexander; Wood, Joshua; Yomes, William; Young, Edward; and Zagara, Dominic P.
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