WASHINGTON, DC—Native Hawaiians have been told that they can't get federal recognition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On March 19, Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn to a House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs that the regulations apply only to groups in the “contiguous 48 states and Alaska.”

“We are not able to consider Native Hawaiians under our current regs,” Washburn told the House committee. “Our regs leave out Native Hawaiians.”

Up until this time, Native Hawaiians have been treated the same way as tribes in the continental U.S. But according to th...