Overview of the 1896 English-Only Law in Hawaiʻi

In 1896, following the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 by a group of American businessmen and missionaries with U.S. military support, the newly established Republic of Hawaiʻi enacted Act 57, a draconian law that mandated English as the sole medium of instruction in all public and private schools across the islands. This legislation explicitly prohibited the use of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian language) as the primary language for teaching any subjects, allowing it only to be studied as a foreign language elective, much like Latin or French in other contexts. The law was part of a broader campaign of cultural assimilation and suppression orchestrated by the haole (foreign, primarily white American) elite who sought to erase Native Hawaiian identity to facilitate annexation by the United States, which occurred in 1898.

This type of language suppression policy is a hallmark of cultural genocide, a term used to describe the deliberate destruction of a group's cultural heritage, often as a precursor or companion to physical genocide. Historically, such laws have been weaponized by colonial powers to dismantle indigenous societies by severing the transmission of knowledge, traditions, and worldviews embedded in native languages. For instance, in the United States and Canada, Native American and First Nations children were forcibly removed to residential boarding schools where speaking indigenous languages was strictly forbidden, with punishments including beatings and isolation policies explicitly aimed at "killing the Indian to save the man." Similarly, in Australia during the era of the Stolen Generations (1910–1970), Aboriginal children were abducted and placed in institutions where their languages were banned, leading to the extinction of dozens of indigenous tongues as part of a systematic effort to assimilate and erase Aboriginal culture. In modern contexts, China's policies in Xinjiang and Tibet involve suppressing Uyghur and Tibetan languages in education, replacing them with Mandarin to erode ethnic identities and facilitate state control, actions described by human rights groups as cultural genocide. These examples illustrate how language bans are not mere educational reforms but tools of domination, often justified under the guise of "progress" or "unity," but in reality, they pave the way for the obliteration of entire cultural ecosystems.

Impact on Native Hawaiians

The enforcement of Act 57 had devastating, intergenerational effects on Native Hawaiians, transforming schools into sites of linguistic and cultural violence. Children caught speaking ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, even during recess or in casual conversations, faced severe corporal punishments designed to instill shame and fear. Elders and survivors recount harrowing stories: students were slapped across the face, struck with rulers or switches, forced to stand in corners for hours, or had their mouths washed out with lye soap or bitter substances to "cleanse" them of their native tongue. In some cases, teachers employed public humiliation tactics, such as making children wear signs labeling them as "dumb" or "savage" for using Hawaiian words, further embedding a sense of inferiority.

The demographic toll was catastrophic. Prior to the law, Hawaiian was a vibrant language spoken by nearly 40,000 fluent individuals, with high literacy rates fostered by the Kingdom's own education system. However, within just two generations, the number of fluent speakers plummeted as parents, traumatized by their own experiences, stopped teaching the language to their children to spare them similar suffering. By the 1980 U.S. Census, fewer than 50 children under the age of 18 were reported as native Hawaiian speakers, pushing the language to the brink of extinction. This collapse disrupted family bonds, as grandparents and elders could no longer fully communicate cultural stories, genealogies, or spiritual practices to younger generations, leading to a profound loss of collective memory and identity.

These impacts mirror those in other genocidal contexts. For example, in Turkey's suppression of the Kurdish language throughout the 20th century, Kurds were forbidden from using their language in schools or media, resulting in arrests, torture, and the forced assimilation of millions, which human rights organizations link to broader ethnic cleansing efforts. In Guatemala during the civil war (1960–1996), the military targeted Maya languages as part of a genocide that killed over 200,000 indigenous people, banning their use to break community resistance and erase cultural resilience.

Why It Matters: The Link to Genocide and Lasting Legacy

The 1896 law was not an isolated policy but a calculated act of cultural genocide, which erodes a people's soul by targeting the very medium through which their history, values, and worldview are expressed and preserved. Language is the cornerstone of culture; suppressing it severs the ties that bind communities, making them vulnerable to further exploitation, displacement, or even physical annihilation. As defined in early drafts of the UN Genocide Convention, cultural genocide includes prohibiting a group's language, recognizing that such acts can destroy a nation's essence without mass killings. Although the final 1948 convention focused on physical and biological destruction, scholars and activists argue that language suppression qualifies as genocide because it intentionally inflicts conditions leading to a group's cultural death, often escalating to broader atrocities. For instance, in Nazi-occupied Europe, the suppression of Yiddish and other Jewish languages was part of the Holocaust's cultural prelude, dehumanizing victims before physical extermination. Similarly, colonial powers used language bans to justify land theft and resource extraction by portraying indigenous peoples as "uncivilized," paving the way for violent conquests.

In Hawaiʻi, this law nearly eradicated ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and, by extension, Hawaiian sovereignty and identity, contributing to ongoing issues like health disparities, economic marginalization, and land dispossession among Native Hawaiians. The Hawaiian Renaissance movement of the 1970s emerged as a direct resistance, advocating for language revitalization through protests, legal challenges, and the establishment of Pūnana Leo immersion preschools in 1984, which grew into full K-12 immersion schools. Today, institutions like Kamehameha Schools actively support ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi programs, including teacher training and curriculum development, as a form of reparative justice to heal the wounds of this historic injustice. Yet, the fight continues, as only about 2,000 native speakers remain, underscoring how such "evil" laws tools of genocide inflict enduring harm that requires generations to mend.

Understanding this history is crucial in a global context where language suppression persists, from Russia's policies in Ukraine to Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya, reminding us that protecting linguistic rights is essential to preventing cultural erasure and fostering true equity.

Sources

• Hawaiʻi Session Laws (1896), Act 57.
• Noenoe Silva, Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism (2004).
• Hawaiʻi State Archives, language education records.
• Additional references drawn from historical analyses and human rights reports on cultural genocide.