The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association awarded most influential book of the decade honors to Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism (Duke University Press).

UH Mānoa Professor of Political Science Noenoe Silva’s book recounts the 1897 Kuʻe petitions, signed by 95 percent of the indigenous population, as evidence of Hawaiians’ active political resistance to annexation by the United States.

Silva drew on Hawaiian-language texts, primarily newspapers produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, demonstrating that print media was central to social communication, political organizing and the perpetuation of Hawaiian language and culture.

The book was selected in a vote on dozens of titles by the association membership, which includes more than 800 people from more than a dozen countries and scores of indigenous nations and peoples. It previously received the Baldridge prize for best book in history by a resident of Hawaiʻi.

Tags: Hawaii, Hawaiian, political science, publication, UH Manoa, Vol. 36 No. 3