The US promised to return stolen lands to Native Hawaiians a century ago. Most are still waiting

A sign at the entrance of Lahaina, Maui, on 29 October 2023. Photograph: Akasha Rabut/The Guardian

On a one-acre farm at the foot of Maui’s dormant Haleakalā volcano, Kekoa Enomoto grows dragonfruit, pineapples, yuzu, avocado, kabocha squash and chilli peppers. She tends to a laying chicken, two honeybee hives and an aquaponics system that spawns Mexican oregano, lemongrass and tilapia.

As a beneficiary of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, a century-old program to return Native Hawaiians to their ancestral lands, Enomoto, 77, pays just $600 a month in mortgage fees for the farm and three-bedroom house where she’s lived for the past two decades. The average mortgage payment in Hawaii exceeds $2,500, the second-highest among all US states.