News Release
Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations
Sovereign Council for Hawaiian Homestead Association (SCHHA) leaders traveled to Washington DC the week of December 5th to attend the annual policy conference of the Native CDFI Network (NCN). Founded in 2008, NCN is a national coalition of nonprofit loan funds, each dedicated to their respective Native peoples.
“Every year it’s an impactful experience to engage with our counterparts in Indian Country policy advocacy,” said Rolina Faagai, vice chair of the nonprofit Hawaiian Lending & Investments (HLI). “We are able to bring the often common and sometimes unique issues facing access to finance on Hawaiian Home Lands directly to federal law makers and agency officials.”
Sovereign Council for Hawaiian Homestead Association chairperson, Robin Danner serves as the national Native CDFI Network policy chair on the NCN board of directors. “It’s important that we join Indian leaders in this work of community development financial institutions (CDFI), to bring capital to reservations and in our case, Hawaiian Home Lands,” Danner said. “Native governed and Native led CDFIs are good investments for the country, and definitely back home in Hawaii, for the entire state economy.”
One of the favorite speakers on the first day of the NCN agenda was Mohegan Tribal Chief Marilynn Malerba, appointed in September 2022 by President Biden to the post of United States Treasurer. She is the first Native American to ever hold the position.
“Chief Malerba and now, U.S. Treasurer, her remarks were inspiring on so many levels,” said Iwalani McBrayer, Chair of the Sovereign Council for Hawaiian Homestead Association initiative, the Homestead Community Development Corporation (HCDC) founded in 2009 to build homes and create jobs. “She said tribal and native peoples are not mere stakeholders, that we are not race based, we must not be treated as such. I cannot wait to see her signature as the United States Treasurer, a Tribal chief, on every dollar bill issued by the federal government! She was my favorite speaker.”
Chief Malerba is the 18th Chief of the Mohegan people, the first female to be installed to the life time appointment of Tribal Chief by the Elders Council under its government constitution. In the late 20th century, the tribe reorganized and filed a federal land claims suit, to regain land that the state of Connecticut had illegally sold. The Mohegan tribe is federally recognized with its home lands located in Connecticut on the Thames River.
“The U.S. Treasury Department also created the first ever, Office of Tribal and Native Affairs, within the agency,” Sovereign Council for Hawaiian Homestead Association Chair Danner remarked. “We supported Indian Country on this vital office to ensure the Treasury Department has a permanent office to improve relations with all three Indigenous peoples.”
For information on Homestead Policy Priorities, contact policy@hawaiianhomesteads.org.
About Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations and Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands
Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations (SCHHA) and Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands (AHHL) are the two largest and most representative policy voices on issues impacting trust lands as defined under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 (HHCA). SCHHA founded in 1987, and AHHL founded in 2008 represent the interests of nearly 10,000 trust land lessees and 28,000 on the waitlist. Each are registered as federally defined homestead associations under 43 CFR Part 47/48 with the Department of Interior.
