Cite as: 528 U. S. 495 (2000)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Today the Court concludes that Hawaii's method of electing the trustees of OHA violates the Fifteenth Amendment. In reaching that conclusion, the Court has assumed that the programs administered by OHA are valid. That assumption is surely correct. In my judgment, however, the reasons supporting the legitimacy of OHA and its programs in general undermine the basis for the Court's decision holding its trustee election provision invalid. The OHA election provision violates neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Fifteenth.
That conclusion is in keeping with three overlapping principles. First, the Federal Government must be, and has been, afforded wide latitude in carrying out its obligations arising from the special relationship it has with the aboriginal peoples, a category that includes the native Hawaiians, whose lands are now a part of the territory of the United States. In addition, there exists in this case the State's own fiduciary responsibility—arising from its establishment of a public trust—for administering assets granted it by the Federal Government in part for the benefit of native Hawaiians. Finally, even if one were to ignore the more than two centuries of Indian law precedent and practice on which this case follows, there is simply no invidious discrimination present in this effort to see that indigenous peoples are compensated for past wrongs, and to preserve a distinct and vibrant culture that is as much a part of this Nation's heritage as any.
II
Throughout our Nation's history, this Court has recognized both the plenary power of Congress over the affairs of Native Americans 2 and the fiduciary character of the special
2 See, e. g., Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U. S. 520, 531, n. 6 (1998); United States v. Wheeler, 435 U. S. 313, 319 (1978); United States v. Antelope, 430 U. S. 641, 645 (1977); Morton v. Mancari, 417 U. S. 535, 551 (1974); Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U. S. 553, 564-565 (1903); United States v. Kagama, 118 U. S. 375 (1886).
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