Hawaiian Blood is the most timely book I have read this year. As of early 2009, the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. federal government are poised to address issues directly relevant to questions of Hawaiian identity and sovereignty. The so-called Akaka bill and the "ceded lands" dispute currently before the Supreme Court are the latest manifestations of a protracted struggle over Hawaiian identities, rights, and autonomy. Kauanui's eloquent book provides an invaluable historical analysis of this history, with particular attention to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921. Exploring the background of the law, Kauanui illustrates the politically-fraught and often chilling ways Hawaiian identities were reduced to an arbitrary calculus of blood quantum. Kauanui argues convincingly that the legislative process and the blood politics it engendered were principally fueled by non-native real estate interests. The subsequent history of blood quantification in the service of land dispossession has had lasting and compounding relevance in a variety of consequential and frequently detrimental ways for Native Hawaiians. Indeed, one cannot adequately understand the range and diversity of political issues and sovereignty movements in contemporary Hawai`i without studying the fractured and fracturing history of colonization and the legal machinery through which Hawaiian land and political autonomy were usurped. Kauanui is a clear and analytically-focused guide through this complex terrain. Beyond her keen historical work, which entails careful readings of legislative histories, Kauanui pushes readers to re-imagine the past and future of Hawaiian identity. In a persuasive argument against the exclusivistic consequences of blood quantification, Kauanui trains attention upon the quintessential cultural means of reckoning identity in Hawai`i, a capacious and rich tradition of genealogy. While never politically shrill, Kauanui encourages this mode of identification, which simultaneously stands outside of legal code and stands up for tradition. This astute and immensely relevant book will be of interest to scholars in a number of fields, including Hawaiian studies, American Indian studies, indigenous studies, anthropology, and legal studies. Furthermore, because it is a model of clarity and precision, Hawaiian Blood could be used profitably in undergraduate courses.

Greg Johnson
Department of Religious Studies
University of Colorado

This book raises a lot of important issues the average American is not aware of... like the blood quantum set up by people not native Hawaiian, and the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kindgom by the US government/marines and the forced annexation in 1898. Native Hawaiians are genuine, lovely people, and American presence is destroying their land.