DANIEL AKAKA SWORN INTO OFFICE–FIRST NATIVE HAWAIIAN U.S. SENATOR
Born in Honolulu on September 11, 1924, Akaka, after attending the Kamehameha School for Boys, entered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. serving from 1943 to 1947. After World War II, Akaka earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Hawaii Manoa in 1952 and taught high school from 1953 to 1960. Akaka was first elected to Congress in 1976 to represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. In 1990, he became the first and only U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian descent when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, serving Hawaii until he retired in 2013. Akaka may be best known for his unsuccessful pursuit of legislation, known as the Akaka Bill, which was designed “to provide a process for the reorganization of the single Native Hawaiian governing entity and the reaffirmation of the special political and legal relationship between the United States and that Native Hawaiian governing entity.” The measure died in 2010. Senator Akaka died in Honolulu on April 6, 2018.
Source: Nick Grube, “Former US Senator Daniel Akaka Dead at 93,” Civil Beat, 4/6/2018. Retrieved 3/11/2020, https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/04/former-u-s-sen-daniel-akaka-dead-at-93/ Photo: U.S. Congress, 2008. Public Domain.
Indigenous America Calendar 