In their zeal to defeat a process of federal recognition for Native Hawaiians, opponents of the Akaka bill have once again reached out to their cohorts at the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Six of the eight commissioners reiterated their 2006 opposition to federal recognition in an Aug. 28 letter to Congressional leaders. It is part of an effort to derail the legislation pending in Congress that President Obama has vowed to sign.

In 2006, I was a member of the Hawai'i Advisory Committee to the USCCR. I was in HSAC for more than 15 years. In 2006, when the USCCR reviewed the Akaka bill, it purposely left out input from its HSAC because HSAC had supported the bill. I strongly objected publicly to the 2006 USCCR process of reviewing the Akaka bill, preparing a report and taking a position because its process and outcome was obviously biased, flawed, inaccurate and pre-determined to oppose the bill.

As with any group, it is important to know the lineup of the players and their ties to local anti-federal-recognition groups.

The USCCR letter of Aug. 28, 2009 was signed by four Republicans appointed by former President Bush — Chairman Gerald Reynolds, Vice Chair Abigail Thernstrom, and commissioners Peter Kirsanow and Ashley Taylor Jr.

Joining them are the two commission "independents." Todd Gaziano is a senior fellow on the conservative Heritage Foundation. Gaziano has an anti-Akaka-bill video clip on the Web site of an anti-Native American organization ("Citizens for Equal Rights Alliance"). The other independent, Gail Heriot, testified against the Akaka bill by saying it could lead to granting tribal status to "Chicanos," "Cajuns," "Orthodox Jews in New York" and "Mormons in Utah."

Commissioners Arlan Melendez and Michael Yaki rightly called that "inflammatory scare tactics" in an Aug. 31 response letter. They add: "Such statements, especially in the absence of positive suggestions on how to improve relations between Native Hawaiians and the federal government, just make the process of reconciliation harder. Denial of the distinct history of Native Hawaiians does not heal existing divisions. More should be expected of the Commission on Civil Rights."

That doesn't stop the USCCR and local opponents of the Akaka bill that include litigators and members of the Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i from repeating the same rhetoric that the Akaka bill is "race-based."

But the Akaka bill is not about race. It's about acknowledging that Native Hawaiians, like American Indians and Alaska Natives, are the aboriginal, indigenous native people whose ancestors exercised sovereignty in these lands predating the founding of the colonies and the United States.

Yaki and Melendez make the same point about their fellow commissioners: "In their zeal to condemn racial divisions among Americans, they have not first stopped to listen to the concerns of the Native Hawaiian community, distinguished racial issues from the question of political status, and have acted in a way that leads to further divisions."

Finally, it's important to understand the role of the local advisory group HSAC to the USCCR. The Bush-appointed USCCR ignored the HSAC in 2006 when it supported federal recognition, and then, in 2007, stacked HSAC with anti-Akaka-bill opponents, including two members who are involved in litigation that would be affected by the outcome of the Akaka bill.

Fortunately, that effort fell short when the anti-Akaka-bill members of HSAC were unable to muster enough votes to pass a resolution opposing federal recognition.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs compiled a comprehensive report on this accelerating conservative agenda hostile to indigenous peoples' civil and human rights. It's all part of a larger effort by conservative fundraisers, politicians, think tanks, law centers, advocacy groups and judges to dismantle significant aspects of the civil rights edifice of the 1960s, as documented in the book "Assault on Diversity" by Lee Cokorinos. The report, "Correcting the Records: USCCR and Justice for Native Hawaiians," can be downloaded at www.nativehawaiians.com/?p=62.