Happy Prince Kuhio Day II … yes, it really is a holiday

This is the second of a two-part series honoring the only royal prince to be elected to the U.S. Congress. His story is unique and his accomplishments were significant — his story deserves to be told. We pick up the story after Americans conspire to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, and seek annexation. The above picture shows a feather cloak once worn by Hawaiian kings.

Meanwhile, Queen Liliuokalani and her supporters continued their effort to prevent annexation of the islands by the U.S. A petition drive in 1897 collected 21,269 signatures by Native Hawaiians (more than half the native population at the time), and this was delivered to Congress. The local population was never permitted to vote on whether or not they desired to be part of U.S. Had they been allowed to vote, it is almost certain that they would have rejected that outcome. Ultimately, however, none of that mattered. On July 7, 1898, the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands, making it a territory and extending American citizenship to its inhabitants.

Over the next few years, Kūhiō appeared to come to terms with Hawai’i’s destiny. He briefly joined the Home Rule Party, prior to the territorial election in 1900, but was offended by that party’s hostility toward haoles (primarily Americans). Eventually he was persuaded that he needed to belong to one of the…