“Main thing, you Hawaiian”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Blood Quantum Criteria for the Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation Act

Abstract

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1920 established blood quantum as a legal requirement for access to homestead lands. Although framed as a rehabilitative policy, scholars have argued that blood quantum functions as a settler colonial mechanism to occupy and lay claim to Indigenous lands by eliminating Indigenous grouphood. Despite ongoing policy debates surrounding the Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation Act (HHLPA), limited empirical research has examined how blood quantum requirements shape succession, housing stability, and cultural continuity among Kānaka communities. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design grounded in Indigenous methodologies, this study examined the socioeconomic and cultural impacts of blood quantum requirements among Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries on Kauaʻi. The study employed quantitative surveys followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed substantial projected succession failure and uncertainty. Under the current 25% blood quantum requirement for successors there is a potential loss of approximately half of all leases within two generations. Interview participants overwhelmingly supported lowering the blood quantum requirement, describing blood quantum as inconsistent with Kānaka understandings of identity and belonging. Kūpuna emphasized moʻokūʻauhau, values, and relationships embodied in practices as foundational to Hawaiian identity rather than racial fractions imposed through colonial governance. Findings further demonstrate that Hawaiian Home Lands function not solely as housing infrastructure, but as cultural infrastructure sustaining intergenerational relationships, cultural practice, and community continuity. This study contributes empirical evidence to ongoing HHLPA policy reform discussions and broader scholarship regarding blood quantum, Indigenous identity, and Native Hawaiian self-determination.