Kauai reminds me of the decades I spent living on an Indian reservation. Tribal politics remind me a lot of the politics on Kauai. The most powerful Indian families competed to control the tribal senate and thus tribal government and the monies that said government controlled. We are talking sizable amounts of other peoples money. Once in control of the government as we have seen on Kauai there are many ways to siphon money and perks.
On the reservation I lived on one family has controlled the tribal government for most of the last 50 years. They have maintained that control by patronage, payola and when that has not worked with violence. I can tell you that a frozen turkey around the holidays (and elections) for some households was all it took to secure votes. This family has parlayed their control of their tribe to become one of the wealthiest families in the State in which they reside.
There is very little accountability on reservations. The Feds mainly look the other way and the Indian Civil RIghts act actually permits things that would be illegal off the reservation. By the way I can't imagine that if it comes into creation that the Akaka tribe would behave any differently.
Here on Kauai it seems we have a similar situation. He or she who controls Kauai government, or a part thereof, gets to enrich themselves and their clan at the general taxpayer's expense. You know the way they always have. To date the citizen voters have been complicit in this by voting the same folks or their cronies back into office. That needs to change.
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