U.S.A.
April 16, 2018
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Daniel Akaka, first Native Hawaiian in congress, dies at 93
GRACIOUS STATESMAN. Senator Daniel
Akaka, the first Native Hawaiian to serve in the senate,
leaves the senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washing-
ton after delivering his farewell speech, in this Decem-
ber 12, 2012 file photo. The former senator, the
humble and gracious statesman who served in Wash-
ington with aloha for more than three decades, died
April 5, 2018 at the age of 93. (AP Photo/J. Scott
Applewhite, File)
By Caleb Jones
The Associated Press
H
ONOLULU — Former senator
Daniel Kahikina Akaka, the first
Native Hawaiian elected to
congress who served for more than three
decades, has died. He was 93 years old.
Akaka died in Honolulu after being
hospitalized for several months, said Jon
Yoshimura,
the
senator’s
former
communications director.
The Democrat served 14 years in the
U.S. House before he was appointed to
replace senator Spark Matsunaga, who
died of cancer in spring 1990. Akaka won
the election that fall for the rest of
Matsunaga’s term, and voters sent him
back for consecutive terms until 2012,
when he chose not to seek re-election.
His legislative style was described as
low-key, a characterization he embraced.
“I have a Hawaiian style of dealing with
my colleagues,” he said.
Akaka developed a reputation as a
congenial legislator who made many
friends while making few waves in
pressing the interests of the 50th state.
“Senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka
embodied the aloha spirit,” senator Mazie
Hirono of Hawai‘i said in a statement. “He
dedicated his life to serving the people of
Hawai‘i as an educator, and in the U.S.
Army, state government, the U.S. House,
and the U.S. Senate. In congress, senator
Akaka’s care, empathy, and collegiality
served as an example for us all.”
In 1996, Akaka sponsored federal
legislation that ultimately resulted in
Medals of Honor — the Army’s highest
honor for bravery — for 22 Asian-
American soldiers who fought during
World War II. Those soldiers included the
late senator Daniel Inouye, who was
severely wounded in Italy while serving
with the famed Japanese-American 442nd
Regimental Combat Team.
Akaka
once
said
his
main
accomplishment in congress was obtaining
federal funds for Hawai‘i for education,
energy, and Native Hawaiian programs.
In the 2006 general election, the
then-82-year-old senator stressed the
value of his senate seniority and his
opposition to the war in Iraq. Akaka went
on to become chairman of the senate
Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
He expanded his harsh criticism of the
George W. Bush administration, getting
involved in a number of issues with a more
aggressive congressional staff. A World
War II veteran, Akaka often stressed the
hidden damage of war, including mental
illness among veterans.
“As we work to meet the needs of all
returning service members,” Akaka said,
“we must pay close attention to the full
range of war wounds, from eye trauma and
damage to service members’ hearing, to
(post-traumatic stress disorder) and
depression, to burn injuries.”
He introduced several measures to
improve services to veterans, help aging
Filipino vets who fought for America in
World War II, and end contactor waste and
fraud in Iraq.
But Akaka gained the most attention for
his fight to pass legislation that carried his
name.
The Hawaiian Recognition Bill, known
widely as the Akaka Bill, was intended to
give Native Hawaiians the same
recognition as Native Americans and
Alaska Natives.
Opponents called it unconstitutional
favoritism toward one race even though it
had broad bipartisan support in Hawai‘i, a
state where no ethnic group makes up the
majority of residents. Even some Native
Hawaiians expressed doubts, arguing it
would give the federal government too
much immunity from their claims
regarding land or other issues.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi
remembered Akaka as a strong advocate
A spiritual western in Chloe Zhao’s The Rider
By Lindsey Bahr
AP Film Writer
C
inema might have a worthy successor to early
Terrence Malick in Chloe Zhao, whose second
feature, The Rider, is a spiritual and poetic
journey into the fading world of the Lakota cowboy,
starring the real people who inspired her film.
As in her first, the beautiful Songs My Brothers Taught
Me, which was also set on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, Zhao transports us to the badlands of South
Dakota to tell the story of a rodeo cowboy who must give up
his dream after suffering a devastating brain trauma
during competition.
Brady Jandreau, a Lakota cowboy and member of the
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, plays a fictionalized version of
himself, Brady Blackburn, in the film. Jandreau was
actually thrown from a horse which then stomped on his
head during a rodeo in 2016. He was in a coma for three
days and now has a metal plate in his head and lingering
effects from the trauma.
In The Rider, we meet Brady soon after the incident, as
he’s taking the staples out of his own skull and adjusting,
poorly, to a new life of caution, away from the energy and
excitement and danger of the rodeo, which he had staked
his identity on. Brady lives in a mobile home with his dad,
Wayne (played by his real life father Tim Jandreau), who
gambles and drinks too much but has a good heart, and
teenage sister Lilly (also his real sister), who has
Asperger’s Syndrome.
Brady seems somewhat in denial and his friends don’t
seem to understand the gravity of the situation either.
“By NFL standards I should be dead,” Brady explains
one night out by the campfire, drinking with his buddies.
But they respond to him like his injury is temporary, like
he just needs to brush it off and power through the pain,
“like a cowboy,” one says.
Brady is clearly lost in this new reality. He understands
more than most what life looks like after injury, often
visiting his friend Lane (Lane Scott), a once daredevil who
is in rehab and can no longer walk or speak after his rodeo
accident.
Zhao clearly has a deep affection for her subjects who
SPIRITUAL WESTERN. This image shows Brady Jandreau in a
scene from The Rider, Chloe Zhao’s spiritual and poetic journey into the
fading world of the Lakota cowboy. The film stars the real people who in-
spired her film. (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
have so graciously let her into their lives, and, with almost
documentary rigor, expose some of the difficult truths of
life with disability. But there is also an abundance of grace
and beauty within the hardships too.
Her use of non-actors is often a plus, but it has its limits
too. Brady, while a deeply compelling and empathetic
presence who from certain angles looks like a distant
cousin to Chris Pratt, can appear a little blank at times
when the camera just lingers on him in close-up. He’s
strongest, and most natural in his normal routine,
training horses or interacting with Lane or Lilly.
Its examination of the cowboy masculinity that leads
Brady and his peers to seek a life of thrills and danger only
scratches the surface, but you’ll be surprised at how
intoxicating and enveloping it is, right down to the
on-the-nose metaphors. The Rider is a story of death and
rebirth and cements Zhao as one of the most promising
and humane filmmakers to come on the scene in some
time. Like Sean Baker, she takes her camera to parts of
the country that many of us rarely see and even more
rarely take the time to consider. Zhao and The Rider are
the real deal.
The Rider, a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R
by the Motion Picture Association of America for
“language and drug use.” Running time: 103 minutes.
Three stars out of four.
MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17
requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
for all Native people.
“Daniel Akaka was a clarion voice for the
rights and needs of Native peoples,
ensuring that our commitment to Tribal
nations and Native Hawaiians was never
forgotten,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Akaka’s first foray into elective politics
was an unsuccessful primary race for
lieutenant governor in 1974. He
eventually became a special assistant to
then-governor George Ariyoshi.
Two years later, Akaka easily won
election in Hawai‘i’s 2nd Congressional
District — encompassing rural Oahu and
the islands of Hawaii, Kauai, Maui,
Molokai, and Niihau — and was re-elected
six more times with at least 86 percent of
the vote.
Born in 1924, Akaka grew up in a
devoutly Christian home in Honolulu. He
was the youngest of eight children of a
Native
Hawaiian
mother
and
a
Hawaiian-Chinese father.
After serving in the Army Corps of
Engineers during World War II, Akaka
earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees
in education at the University of Hawai‘i.
He was a public school teacher, principal,
and program specialist for 18 years before
becoming director of the Hawai‘i Office of
Economic Opportunity in 1971.
Akaka is survived by his wife, Mary
Mildred “Millie” Chong, four sons, a
daughter, and many grandchildren and
great-grandchildren.
Associated Press writers Sophia
Yan in Honolulu and Becky Bohrer in
Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
Zoo announces pregnancy of
critically endangered orangutan
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Zoo has
announced that one of its critically endangered Bornean
orangutans is pregnant. The zoo in Norfolk said on its
website that 18-year-old Dara is expected to have a baby
this summer.
Virginia Zoo executive director Greg Bockheim said the
zoo is playing a vital role in the species’ future.
The animals are native to the island of Borneo in
Southeast Asia. Their numbers have declined more than
50 percent because of poaching and habitat loss. They also
have one of the slowest reproductive rates of all mammals.
Bockheim said the birth is “tremendously significant.”
Zoo keepers observed breeding behavior between Dara
and 14-year-old male Solaris last fall. Pregnancies
usually last about 245 days. She’s expected to have the
baby in mid-June or early July.
Couple sent to prison for distributing drugs
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) —
Federal prosecutors say a
New Hampshire couple has
been sentenced to prison
for participating in a
scheme to distribute more
than 5,000 packages of
misbranded prescription
drugs obtained from India.
Both 53-year-old John
Hayes and 50-year-old
Plabpleung Hayes of New
Ipswich pleaded guilty to
participating
in
a
conspiracy to distribute the
drugs,
which
weren’t
approved by the Food and
Drug Administration.
Hayes was sentenced to 2
1/2 years and his wife was
sentenced to a year and a
day. She faces possible
deportation to Thailand
afterward.
Prosecutors say they
conspired with others to
receive pill shipments from
India, many of which were
controlled substances. The
couple tried to have them
shipped to post office boxes.
A search warrant at their
home resulted in the
discovery of more than
100,000 pills.
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