The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is taking heat, unfairly, for the project currently topping its agenda: the Hawaiian nationhood drive.

After the disappointing outcome of the federal recognition bill in the U.S. Senate, OHA trustees took stock of the situation and rationally decided to invest the agency's energy and capital in something more productive than whining and finger-pointing.

There is nothing wrong with people organizing as a political entity. It happens every time an American community incorporates as a municipality within a state. That's just one example of one sovereign government organizing within another.

In the case of Native Hawaiians, critics fear this push as some kind of power grab. But the only power a Hawaiian government would have is whatever its constituents can give it: the power to speak for Native Hawaiians on how their resources should be used.

This is essentially the authority the state now vests in OHA, which manages the Native Hawaiian trust fund and funnels its money toward selected programs to help the beneficiaries. It also serves as one lead agency to speak on behalf of preserving Hawaiian cultural assets — treasured by all Hawai'i residents.

It would make much more sense to have that function performed by a political group actually elected by Hawaiians, not an agency of the multi-ethnic state of Hawai'i. The taxpayer ought to feel delighted that the new entity would be self-sufficient, using its own resources.

Many cynics doubt any state agency would engineer its own termination, but that's OHA's stated intent. Setting aside its somewhat checkered history, OHA's latest enterprise deserves a shot.